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Impacts of college-level courses via Asynchronous Learning Networks: Some Preliminary Results

by Sloan-C Team

Author Information

Author(s):

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS)

Institution(s) or Organization(s) Where Research Occured:

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Volume and Issue Information

Volume:

1

Issue:

2

Month:

August

Year:

1997

New Jersey Institute of Technology has been delivering college courses via an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) system called the Virtual ClassroomTM for a decade, using various media mixes. Currently, two complete undergraduate degree programs are available via a mix of video plus Virtual Classroom, the B.A. in Information Systems and the B.S. in Computer Science. This paper presents preliminary findings about impacts on students, and touches on some issues and potential impacts for faculty, individual universities, and the structure of higher education. Overall ratings of courses by students who complete ALN based courses are equal or superior to those for traditional courses. Dropout or Incomplete outcomes are somewhat more prevalent, while grade distributions for those who complete tend to be similar to those for traditional courses. For both students and faculty, more startup time devoted to solving the "logistics" of ALN delivery seems to be required at the beginning of courses. ALN delivery is not just a "different" way of doing the same thing, however; it is likely to change the nature and structure of higher education.

Find related content with this links:

• Access
• Course Design
• Institutional Commitment
• Learning Resources
• Faculty Support
• Pedagogy
• Online Experience
• Program Access
• Learning Outcomes
• Technical Infrastructure
• Scalability
• Localness
• Faculty
• Four Year College
• Instructional Designers
• Administrators
• Collaborative Learning
• Volume 1:2 - August 1997
• ALN
• Collaborative learning
• Computer mediated communication
• computers and education
• Virtual Classroom