This panel will share the results of a pilot large enrollment online general education literature course at Kennesaw State University, ENGL 2300: African American Literature. The 120 student course will be evaluated with regard to learning outcomes, other general education literature courses, large-size face to face courses, and student satisfaction.
A lot of misconceptions exist about large enrollment online courses. A popular reaction to the concept is that it is academic fraud; students cannot possibly achieve the desired learning outcomes in a large size online course because they cannot receive the necessary interaction and engagement required for retention, completion, and success. However, a look at the research into optimal class size reveals that we actually don’t know how much interaction or what kind of interaction in the traditional face to face course is necessary to support student retention, completion, and success. Additionally, research into the same aspect of online courses yields no clear results. This lack of information prompted faculty at Kennesaw State University to create learning communities to study best practices for large enrollment online general education courses. What immediately became clear is that large enrollment courses must be redesigned from traditional online courses so that they promote high levels of student engagement and interaction while also supporting a work/life balance for the instructor.
What prompted this project is that Kennesaw State University (in the metro Atlanta, Georgia area) has an enviable problem: it is growing by leaps and bounds. This exponential growth means the university is facing a crisis of available physical classroom space and instructors to teach the high demand, required courses. Students are frustrated with the resulting bottlenecks in our required general education courses that are delaying their progression toward graduation. In an attempt to increase RPG (retention, progression, graduation) rates and decrease student debt loads, Kennesaw State is implementing large enrollment online general education courses. The pilot in this effort is a 120 student online general education course, specifically, ENGL 2300: African American literature. It will be evaluated three ways: learning outcomes among students, learning outcomes among general education literature courses at Kennesaw State University, and student satisfaction. This panel will contains three principal actors in this innovation: an instructional designer who helped create and manage a MOOC, a skilled face to face instructor who teaches large enrollment face to face courses, and a skilled online instructor who teaches large enrollment online courses. This presentation will discuss the strategies, drawn from research, learning communities, MOOCs, face to face teaching, and online teaching, that were used to create the large enrollment online general education courses. The panel will share the results of the evaluations that were performed and the plans for improvement based on the results of the evaluations.
OUTCOMES
One of the concerns regarding large enrollment online classes is that they constitute academic fraud because students cannot possibly receive the needed engagement and attention that they require to achieve the intended learning outcomes. We hope that one of the outcomes of this session will be a healthy investigation and discussion of this topic with the audience. A second outcome will be the sharing of the data relating to the learning outcomes and student satisfaction collected in the pilot course through surveys and objective assessments. Finally, the panel will share what we feel are best practices for large enrollment online general education classes as determined by information gleaned from multiple sources, including research, learning communities, MOOCs, face to face teaching, and online teaching. Attendees will also receive access to open educational resources used in this and other courses in the project and the data from this project via PowerPoint.
DISCUSSION
Before the presentation, Kahoot will be used to determine the audience’s knowledge with regard to the latest research on large enrollment online courses (and we have prizes!). This activity is intended as an ice breaker for a pre-presentation discussion on ideas about large enrollment online courses. Possible topics to explore include whether or not attendees have tackled large enrollment online classes themselves, what were their own takeaways, and what does the audience suggest as best practices for large enrollment online courses. Lastly, after the presentation, the panel will again address the audience and request their ideas regarding what worked and what didn’t, and what are their conclusions regarding the information presented.