Theme 4: Effectiveness of Delivery Mode

A comprehensive comparison betweenface-to-face learning, 100% online learning and blended/hybrid learning is a separate study which is not within the scope of this research. However through some of the questions in the questionnaires and interviews, the researcher was able to obtain views of stakeholders on this to a certain extent as described below. The comparison was focused on aspects of university support, performance of students, learning materials, tutor performance and preferences and student collaboration/interactions. Factors such as the discipline of the programme, purpose of the study (declarative, procedural, and strategic), nature and proportion of hands-on skills required had some impact on choosing a WBL approach. However, the majority of students favoured some face-to-face meetings indicating that a blended learning approach should be used wherever possible in order to enhance the understanding, collaboration, inclusiveness and ownership among the students.

Academics

The academics’ comments on this are quite insightful with their learning/teaching experience in both modes.

“I did my Masters Education with the OUUK in 2002 through postal

correspondences while working here. Some modules had regular regional day schools and summer schools which could be picked up according to your comfort which also depends

on where the tutor is based in. Communication happened through emails with tutors.” The arrangement of regional workshops could minimise the distance discrimination to a certain extent but it is not an easy task. The researcher observed back in 2005 how an online nursing degree was delivered in Manitoba, Canada with practical components being arranged at local hospitals whilst the theoretical content being delivered online which is quite similar to the NHS WBL model in the UK.

Another tutor commented “I’m taking a French Language learning course online

where materials have been uploaded in the eLP. The support I get from the tutor is excellent, helpful and the interactive elements make my learning enjoyable and ease the understanding. However, I feel that learning languages online is not 100% successful because I need to be able to listen to someone speaking which makes my understanding sharper than reading. I applied the learning from this course to my students.” Tutors’

online experience both as learners and tutors is an important factor that can benefit students immensely.

The below comment is in contrast to the view quoted by tutors about the quality of work from students. “In terms of results, WBL students’ work is work-related so the quality is high. They should get extra credit for managing the challenge, showing self- reliance, and demonstrating good time management skills. This can depend on culture,

country etc though. Some potential students have asked me whether the words ‘distance learning’ would appear on their certificate because it would give a lower value in their

home country. In certain countries it would not be accepted as a valid qualification.” The

recognition of distance WBL qualifications varies by discipline, context and country. “Due to lesser demand two of the previous distance u/g programmes I have been

tutoring had to stop so I’m not sure whether this is because of less recognition from the employers or something else. The general opinion isonline WBL is more suitable for p/g level mature students which could have been the reason for discontinuation of those u/g programmes. The acceptance and recognition would automatically be gained if and when the quality of delivery standards are assured and maintained.

A comment on additional time needed for online WBL teaching “Academic time is sometimes wasted having to spend on each distance student’s questions separately (due to their different learning contracts) unlike in the face-to-face situation where you can clarify

are progressing. Again the issue is staff time to follow up frequently with students” An

interesting comment which needs some careful treatment as there are two sides of the issue. The nature of online WBL is such that students’ individual online queries need to be attended on individual basis with the availability of 24X7 online email facilities today. On the other hand, if those queries are common, they could be answered to all students online to avoid the same query being popped up again from another student.

“When we go on holidays, we swap with colleagues and inform students in advance. Even for face-to-face students, they work all year doing dissertation in the summer so the problem exist for them as well but they try to front-load their work to get

over with it” The need of academics’ availability throughout the year is raised here on

distance mode but the swapping of duties is the only solution seems working.

“Online WBL suffers more than face-to-face on retention. Rather than drop-outs we have abstainers in WBL due to various problems like inability to cope up with academic requirements, financial and health related issues, laying-off from job, complicated lives with stress, children, family, being women etc. We try to be flexible within our limits for those students as a measure of easing out for the sake of retention of

students.” Statistics on student retention from various modes of learning are very difficult to obtain due to different status of student absenteeism so comparison between two modes on this issue is depending on qualitative feedback from academics/support staff who deal with it. Another staff commented saying dropouts are higher among first year FT u/gs than online WBL students!

There are some extra cost elements applying for online WBL students compared to face-to-face students “There could be an extra cost for online WBL students on printing because in face-to-face classes you may give printed course materials but this could be equal for both categories as university policy is changing to have learning materials on eLP even for face-to-face students. For library books online WBL students have the disadvantage of posting cost when they return the books.”

“In online supervision tutor could forget about the student unless there is a standard way of communicating/reminding frequently”. The researcher had his own experience being distant during the latter part of the PhD where weekly email

communications and monthly ‘Skype’ meetings with supervisors were set up by the

researcher himself.

All the comments above that relate to the disadvantages of online tutoring can be eliminated to a certain extent by using technology (see earlier ‘use of technology in

Academics, however, need to first assess whether their WBL programmes could be delivered online or not. They should also have an idea on the instructional design aspects of it as to how to incorporate technology and whether to deliver 100% online or use blended learning. Also their experience and inputs were extremely important to improve the quality of delivery “I was heavily involved in pioneering the design of the first ever distance WBL complete MSc programme of Northumbria University 14 years ago. Being the first DL programme and in the absence of the eLP, my role was not just developing quality open and distance learning materials but also to conceptualise in terms of pedagogy such as student support, library support, etc. and to push the university towards a DL culture”

“I am not 100% supportive of online WBLas I still see the importance of face-to- face contact. For some stand alone products, you won’t be able to get 100% result by doing it online. We believe that it should be blended especially in engineering discipline although technology could make most of the things happen as if they are being delivered face to face...I studied a CPD course at the Open University. Found it very useful, and enlightening how online learning can be exploited, making it interactive”

The following is an interesting but negative quote as one tutor commented “I haven’t been an online learner as I consider myself too old to be an online learner”.

Digital literacy and academics’ age should not be contradicting with each other and

academics at any age should be equally willing to learn technology and use it. It is not purely down to age as Cantor (1992) points out the adults have different barriers than children on their way to learning. Some of these potential barriers might include:

 many other responsibilities (families, careers, social commitments)

 lack of time

 lack of money

 lack of child care

 scheduling problems

 transportation problems

 insufficient confidence

 having to learn, if told by boss, but not interested or ready

Students

One side of the argument between u/g and p/g students from students’ point of

view is “I learnt how to learn, how to academically write, how to research and I would

have also needed colleagues around me in my fir st degree. When you are matured you know you are paying for it and you need to get it done but when you are young and if your

parents pay for you, there isn’t that responsibility who may not undergo the rigorous

process of maintaining standards of WBL therefore I don’t think WBL is suitable for

them.” The maturity of students is the key when considering the self-learning nature of WBL. Such considerations are also found in more general studies of management. Hersey and Blanchard (1988) in their work on organisational behaviour, draw attention to the importance of situational and contextual factors in determining appropriate styles of leadership, and in particular the readiness and maturity of the followers/subordinates for any specific task; readiness being seen to depend on ability (experience, education, understanding and role perception), and maturity being seen to depend on motivation (security, confidence, willingness and incentive).

“For face-to-face students bursaries are frequently available. Online WBL students

can also get bursaries but there are very few.” This could be an issue related to recognition and acceptance of online WBL which indirectly links when employers are not offering sponsorships.

Those students who have done their u/g studies in face-to-face mode had a clear idea as to how different are the two modes of delivery. “WBL is very challenging especially the time management. Dividing time between work, studies, official travel, meetings, family and social life. I have never had any DL in my life before which made it harder for me to cope-up with being away from the university. You have to be really organized yourself. All my previous studies were 90% exam based whereas this is 100%

assignment based. I’m still trying to get accustomed to email communication with tutors on

learning matters and still seeing benefits of face-to-face learning.”

“English being my second language I may not understand everything on a sheet of

paper so I need to talk to people.In face-to-face, you always get the opportunity to correct yourself when you meet up with someone but in online self-learning you don’t know whether you are on right path” This is another area of concern where face-to-face

explanations are often more effective than what is written on paper. The language barrier for non-English speakers is common but the point here is it is likely to have a greater effect in DL mode compared to face to face delivery.

According to the study conducted by Means et al (2010) which compared online and face-to-face learning, an average effect size of +0.20 (p < .001) standard deviations favoured the courses with an online component. This means that, on average, students in courses with an online component outperformed students in face-to-face courses by a small but statistically significant amount, after controlling other factors. Means et al are careful to say, however, that this finding almost certainly does not represent a pure effect of

technology, or of the delivery method used in the different courses. Instead, online courses were associated with other instructional conditions, such as increased learning time, different materials, and enhanced opportunities for collaboration, which are the likely mechanisms through which they achieved superior results.The above statement contradicts with what was found in the current study because WBL students did have less time for studies with their work, less opportunity for collaboration due to its distant nature, and some students’ unwillingness/inability to communicate with others due to various reasons. However, in the current study, students were able to use variety of different learning materials with multimedia features in some programmes whilst other programmes had only the curriculum outline.

Means et al also explain about the factors that had no effect. The meta-analysis analyzed the influence of a large number of potential moderator variables and found that the main effect holds independent of the vast majority of these variables, including:

* Learner type (K-12, u/g, graduate/professional); * Subject matter (medical/health care, others);

* Type of knowledge tested (declarative, procedural, strategic); and

* Type of computer-mediated communication with peers and with instructor (asynchronous only versus asynchronous plus synchronous).

The findings of the current research however showed that significance exists between u/g and p/g students, among subject matter, and synchronous and asynchronous communications between tutors and students.

Factors that had an effect were statistically significant according to Means et al including:

* Blended learning: The authors separated purely OL from “blended” or “hybrid” conditions, or courses in which face-to-face instruction is enhanced or supplemented by online materials and/or activities. They then compared each of these separately to fully face-to-face conditions. Completely online instruction had an advantage of +0.05 (p = .46, not significant) standard deviations over purely face-to-face instruction, while the advantage of blended instruction over face-to-face was +0.35 (p < .001). Since the current study did not collect data from face-to-face students the above finding cannot be further proved/disproved but between blended and pure OL, many learners preferred the blended version as they miss the physical community feeling in pure OL.

* Curriculum and instructional methods: When students in the online condition were exposed to a different curriculum and/or instructional methods from students in the

face-to-face condition, the advantage of the online condition was +0.40 (p < .001); when these factors were equivalent across conditions, it was +0.13 (p < .05). This finding suggests that the positive effects of using online technology in education are enhanced when an instructor adapts curriculum and instructional approach to the use of technology. Adding more and more technology into teaching and learning was demanded by students many times in the interviews and academics also had their views as to why it cannot be done as per the expectations.

* Type of OL experience: Instructor-directed, expository learning had an effect size of +0.39 (p < .01); collaborative, interactive instruction, +0.25 (p < .001); independent, active OL, +0.05 (not significant). Similarly, it was observed that almost all programmes in the current study except for Engineering MSc had 100% tutor- directed OL which was not well accepted by some students who mentioned for example that online communications among students has not been very effective on the DB as it is tutor-centred and no

opportunity for students to create their own discussion thread without tutor’s intervening.

* Time on task: When students in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition, the advantage of the online condition was +0.45; otherwise it was +0.18. This difference approached the threshold of statistical significance (p = .06). Only doubt here is whether WBL students can spend more time on task than face-to-face students.

The researcher followed an e-learning course which spanned for about one year on online course design, development and delivery. Conducted from Manila in the Philippines, there were fifteen participants from various Asian countries. Throughout the course, the participants met online on a weekly basis through synchronous chats, asynchronous DBs, and emails and worked on individual projects using Moodle open source platform. However, the blended learning part was the most interesting and productive where the participants met twice in Manila once before the course began (Induction) and then to present the final project at the end of programme. Those physical meetings actually enhanced participants’ knowledge, bonding with peers and tutors, and sharing knowledge and experience of each other. Similar views were observed by students in the current study.

“I visited the university twice (once for the induction and then for the study school before the dissertation) which was a really useful thing to happen as we managed to introduce with each other in the batch as well as meet with our tutors and the programme leader.”

The geographical disperse seems the biggest bottleneck for blended learning. One of the solutions for the benefit of remote students who miss out the induction programme and pre-dissertation programme is to make it available as a live streaming/recorded video. As being practiced in some programmes, regional day school type of face-to-face components could facilitate the removal of the distance barrier to some extent but it could have an impact as standards could differ from tutor to tutor.

Support Services

The views of support services were mixed and they include view point of university as well as their own personal. “It will depend on the employers’ own experience. If he/she

is a campus based learner he/she would prefer face-to-face learners and so on. But I believe that anyone who has studied while working should be appreciated more than a face-to-face FT learner because it is a lot of work...WB Learners are passing out with knowledge plus experience as opposed to FT learners who have got only theoretical

knowledge.”

An important view point was mentioned however “I always believe that face-to-

face education is superior to DE but if I were to pick one from two modes, I wouldn’t consider the way they studied but the merits of the particular candidate.”

“Today’s students have much more things than before where you don’t feel like cut

off. I feel that toda y we are depending too much on technology where distance students have to sit and look at the computer all the time in that sense face-to-face learning is

nice.” This is an interesting comparison between two eras and advantages of today’s