Have You Seen My Student? Tying Instructional Practice to Student Mastery of Learning Objectives

Technology and Education have evolved as complementary partners in modern society, so much that learners are now able to learn online in formats that lead to verifiable credentials. These fields are ready and waiting for learners, but are learners ready and able to find success in the digital classroom?

Quality frameworks encourage instructors and course designers to include opportunities for the three types of engagement (student-content, student-student, student-instructor) when building online courses. Is there a relationship between instructional practice, in terms of the volume and type of engagefment opportunities offered that students take advantage of during the semester, and student mastery of learning objectives? Is bigger (more) better? Is one type of engagement more beneicial to students than others?

Learning Management Systems have evolved to allow instructors access to the data necessary to answer these questions. Many instructors are ready to use these tools, but are they able? While quality frameworks assist instructors with developing a supportive course, they do not address instructor interventions once the course begins. How should data on this topic be analyzed once it is extracted? Can this data help instructors to create just-in-time interventions for at-risk students? Does responsibility for the findings reach past the instructor?

This presentation will outline the plan for research into a potential relationship between instructional practice and student mastery of learning objectives. Conclusions regarding initial data collected over the summer 2018 and early fall 2018 terms will be shared. A short discussion on the responsible use of student data will be included.