HOW ONLINE FACULTY IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING PRODUCTIVITY

Abstract

Ten experienced online faculty were interviewed to elicit examples of how they improved student learning productivity in their online courses. The ten faculty represented nine different states, 13 different fields or disciplines, and all were tenured or tenure-track at master’s or doctoral level higher education institutions. Based on a thematic analysis of the examples given, improvement in student learning occurred by 1) increasing student access to content, 2) changing the role of faculty (which had two parts: increasing access to and changing faculty roles), 3) increasing interaction with students, 4) emphasizing student effort (including use of experiential learning, group work, learning to learn, and feedback), 5) connecting to the “real world,” and 6) focusing on time. These findings suggest that faculty can and do find ways to use different tools in different ways to improve student learning productivity.