In this presentation, we share results of a study assessing (a) faculty perceptions of online courses for traditional undergraduates and (b) the process of on-boarding professors interested in teaching such courses. Attendees will consider how our faculty’s responses may compare to their own and brainstorm ways of overcoming obstacles.
Background
Online course offerings have the potential to increase a university’s reach and to offer students flexibility in scheduling. This promise of such a schedule is true even for undergraduates in traditional on-campus programs, who may benefit from the flexibility that taking a course or two online grants for work or family responsibilities. However, traditional undergraduates who take such courses are still in the minority. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics demonstrate that in Fall 2017, 24% of undergraduate students at public 4-year universities were mixing both face-to-face and distance learning, and only 10% of those at private, not-for-profit 4-year schools were (Gindler, Kelly-Reid, & Mann, 2019). (These percentages were recalculated from the data in Table 3 of the Gindler, Kelly-Reid, and Mann report, using the total number of undergraduates in the respective type of institution, rather than overall total number of students, as the denominator.)
Encouraging traditional, residential undergraduates to take some of their courses online with local faculty has several benefits. Given the increase in the cost of higher education overall, and the higher cost of a private university education in particular, regularly enrolling in such courses would allow for an adaptable schedule that increases the ability of students to take advantage of practical- and work-related opportunities. This, in turn, can help defray current educational costs and prepare the student for a better position after graduation. Moreover, this approach to online education provides such flexibility without the potential drawback of no in-person interaction. Although all coursework would be completed online, the faculty member remains accessible for in-person meetings. Similarly, students could meet face-to-face for group work and study sessions.
Both anecdotal experience and research suggest that faculty members’ skepticism is one of the main potential impediments to implementing online classes. A large, nation-wide survey (Allen, Seaman, Lederman, & Jaschik, 2012) demonstrated that on average, full-time faculty are more pessimistic about the quality of online instruction than administrators, and the majority (66%) of professors queried believed online learning outcomes to be inferior to those of face-to-face instruction. A major review of work on faculty perceptions of online education found faculty concerns being expressed in a variety of areas, ranging from worry about how online teaching would affect their tenure process to concerns over students cheating (Wingo, Ivankova, & Moss, 2017). It seems evident that a significant portion of university-level instructors have wide-ranging concerns about online education, which in turn has implications for how easy it is for administrators to recruit faculty to teach these courses.
To assist our on-campus students in taking advantage of local online offerings, in 2018 our private, church-related, non-profit university undertook an initiative to develop online sections of some of the more popular undergraduate courses. These sections are offered during the regular school year. Realizing that understanding the innovation readiness of our faculty was an important first step, we solicited professors’ input from the beginning. In fact, by the time of OLC Innovate 2020, we will have collected data from faculty over a 2.5-year span. In the proposed presentation, we will review the research we have conducted, facilitate a discussion with participants about how our faculty’s responses may compare to their own, and brainstorm ways of overcoming faculty-related obstacles to instituting such courses.
Our Context
Our presentation will be based on data collected at a private, denominationally-affiliated, Carnegie Master’s Large university located in a medium-sized city about an hour from a major metropolitan area in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. Traditional undergraduate enrollment runs about 2,800 per year. Undergraduate students are required to live either at home or on campus unless they are over 22 years of age. Approximately 125 full-time faculty teach in traditional undergraduate programs.
Data Collection and Results
We began in January 2018 with an online survey assessing full-time faculty perceptions of offering online classes for traditional undergraduates at our institution, most of whom live in campus housing. This survey yielded both quantitative (Likert-style ratings) and qualitative (short free response) data. In February 2018, we conducted a focus group with five faculty from various academic backgrounds on the same topic. We calculated descriptive statistics for all quantitative measures, and two of the presenters conducted a generic thematic analysis of all qualitative data.
Ninety-one faculty responded to the survey (approximately 73% return rate). All academic units were represented in the responses. Average ratings on survey items will be shared with participants at OLC Innovate, but there is not enough room to review them all here. Examples of possible faculty-related obstacles that were strongly endorsed by professors included doubting that students learn as much via distance learning as they do in the regular classroom and concern about losing skills relevant for classroom teaching if one teaches online. Perhaps unique to church-related universities is our finding that 11% of faculty actively disagreed with the statement that online education could provide opportunities for spiritual development, while 21% did not know whether to agree or not. Forty-one percent either agreed or could not decide if use of technology had negative spiritual consequences. Given the finding that those who had a negative view of the spiritual implications of technology were significantly more negative about online education in general, this issue at church-related schools may pose a unique faculty-related obstacle to offering online options for traditional undergraduates. Interestingly, however, professors from the school of religion, as well as the school of music, tended to give the most “progressive” answers about the promise of online education, whereas those from the school of education tended to express the most reservation.
The most common answers survey respondents offered in the open-ended question about their concerns included lack of face-to-face interaction, problems building community/relationships, integrity of assessments, and student disengagement. In our presentation, we will give example statements from these categories to illustrate in detail professors’ concerns.
The results of the focus group suggest the following main themes:
- The university’s values – especially an emphasis on building relationships – need to be the foundation of online education;
- There are many pedagogical concerns about online education, but we’re pretty confident those can be addressed;
- There are many practical concerns about online education, and we’re not as confident they can be addressed;
- Doing online education in a way that incarnates the university’s values takes a lot of passion, time, and hard work.
Our presentation will include statements made during the focus group supporting the identification of these themes. The focus group analysis suggests that concerns about resourcing online courses that are high-quality and allow for building relationships with students may be a major stumbling block for interested faculty, at least in contexts like ours.
Recruitment and training of faculty interested in designing and teaching such courses began in Spring 2018 and continues to the present. This Fall (2019), we will conduct an in-depth interview with the administrator charged with faculty recruitment and training, focusing on description and evaluation of these processes. We will also interview at least one faculty member who has produced and taught one of these courses, in order to understand his/her experience and evaluation of the process. The presenter will conduct a generic thematic analysis of these transcripts, and her results will be checked by the second author. Results of these analyses will also be shared in our session.
Structure of and Goals for Presentation
Participants attending this session will learn about a multidimensional approach to assessing faculty perceptions of offering online courses for traditional undergraduates. This includes a review of the results and an update on recruiting faculty for the program, which will be based on the interviews to be conducted in Fall 2019. The presentation of this information will last no more than 30 minutes.
After the presentation, participants will be given a few minutes for reflection. This reflection can be on anything related to the presentation that piqued their interest, but we will also provide some questions for those who wish to have a guided reflection experience. These questions include the following:
- How do your campus demographics differ from ours?
- What kind of online experiences do your traditional undergraduates have, and how do they compare to the kind of program we have described?
- Given what you know about your faculty, how might their responses to such a program compare to ours? What does this imply about possible faculty-related obstacles to encouraging traditional undergraduates to take locally-offered online classes?
- What might be some solutions to these obstacles?
Finally, the last 10 minutes of the session will be dedicated to participant questions and comments. We will let the audience determine the topics of discussion during this time, but if no topics are forthcoming, we plan a discussion of overcoming faculty-based barriers.
References cited in this proposal are available upon request.