How well do you know your audience? We surveyed undergraduate students in a traditional text-based online materials science course to find out their preferences for content delivery. Hear about our process for gathering and implementing student suggestions for redesigning the course to be fully video-based.
There are a wide variety of approaches to online course design in higher education. Many courses designed by the Dutton e-Education Institute at Penn State University are primarily text-based delivery.
During Fall 2016 and Spring 2017, we surveyed undergraduate students enrolled in an online text-based materials science course to determine their opinions regarding the presentation of course content. Many students reported in their feedback that they would prefer video-based instruction as an alternative to the text-based instruction that they received. This information generated our interest in modifying the course design.
There has been a good deal of research done on student preference regarding video-based instruction, but not a lot of research has been conducted on the efficacy of that mode of instruction. We set out to present the same course content in two different modes in order to examine the student grades and determine which delivery mode appears to be more efficacious. Specifically, we hope to determine whether and how student grades differ when the online course material is presented solely via videos and PowerPoint slides versus primarily text-based online course materials. We would also like to determine student preferences regarding content delivery, specifically whether video or text-based instruction is preferred.
We look forward to engaging in a dialogue with the audience to learn more about ways that other learning designers and instructors are taking into consideration student preferences for content delivery.
Participants who attend this session will:
- examine survey questions used to determine student preferences
- analyze student survey feedback
- view examples of the adapted course design
- discover the next steps for research and course design based on survey responses