Wake Tech works to improve success gap between seated, online classes | WRAL.com - Education
Online college courses offer convenience and flexibility, but they
also come with challenges. Wake Technical Community College looked at
some of its most popular classes in 2015 and noticed students were not
doing as well in the online classes as they were in the traditional
"seated" classes.
In 2015, 67 percent of students in traditional classes earned an "A",
"B" or "C" grade, while only 58 percent of students in online classes
earned the same grades.
One of the things we found out is students, even young students, who had
grown up as digital natives aren't as well prepared for taking online
classes as you may think," said Wake Tech Senior Vice President of
Effectiveness and Innovation Bryan Ryan.
Wake Tech wanted to find a way to get its students better preparation
for online courses, so the school developed an orientation program for
its students called EPIC (eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the
College). It is required for any student who wants to take an online
course at the school.
"It helps a lot," said Wake Tech student Ivette Acosta. "When you are
here for the first time, you don't know what is the website, what is
the blackboard. It guides you through everything."
EPIC also teaches the student about time management when taking an online class.
"Time management is huge. With online classes, it really falls on the
student to be responsible and be on top of all of those assignments,"
said student Luis Oliva.
"One of the reasons students were not successful in online classes
initially is it's hard to keep pace," said Rebecca Berry, associate
professor of history. "Creating learning objectives has helped. Creating
task lists so they know exactly what they should be doing and how long
that should take (should help).
"
Berry is one of the teachers that has helped develop "EPIC 30,"
which educates instructors about how to teach online. Like the student
program, EPIC 30 is a requirement for instructors who plan to teach
online at Wake Tech.
"We teach faculty how to communicate with students in an engaging way," she said.
Wake Tech is one of the only institutions in the country to require
training of its students and instructors before they participate in
online courses, and the program is showing positive results. The success
gap between traditional and online classes started at 9 percent. It is
now at 4 percent.
"You may use computers for a variety of different things, including
social networking, but attaching a document and sending it to your
faculty member or using the learning management system and all of the
intricacies of that may require a little more orientation," Ryan said.
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Source: WRAL.com
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