Eric Fredericksen, Alexandra Pickett, Peter Shea
State University of New York
William Pelz
Herkimer County Community College
Karen Swan
University of Albany

Abstract:
The State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) is the on-line instructional program created for the 64 colleges and nearly 400,000 students of the SUNY. The foundation of the program is freedom from schedule and location constraints for our faculty and students. The primary goals are to bring SUNY's diverse and high-quality instructional programs within the reach of learners everywhere and to be the best provider of asynchronous instruction for learners in New York State and beyond.

We believe that these goals cannot be achieved unless learning effectiveness is given top priority. This paper will examine factors that have contributed to the high levels of learning and learner satisfaction that students have reported in the SLN. The analysis will be done on several levels. The first section will look at the SLN at a program-wide level and will provide information regarding the systemic implementation of our asynchronous learning environment.

The second section examines issues that contribute to learning effectiveness from a faculty-development and course-design perspective. This section will present the evolution of the four-stage faculty development process and a seven-step course design process that was developed by SLN and comment on lessons learned.

The third section presents results from the SLN Student Satisfaction Survey conducted in spring 1999. This section examines factors from a quantitative analysis that significantly contributes to perceived learning and student satisfaction in on-line asynchronous courses and offers recommendations for course and program design based on these factors.

The fourth section examines learning effectiveness at the level of individual institutions through examples from specific courses. This section will introduce the reader to local implementation of SLN courses at two colleges programs in the SUNY system, the Curriculum Design and Instructional Technology program at the University at Albany (UA) and the Internet Academy (IA) of Herkimer County Community College (HCCC). These case studies present and examine important evidence relevant to learning effectiveness from a single-institution and individual-faculty perspective.

With generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, combined with enthusiasm and resources from SUNY System Administration and participating campuses, the SLN has successfully met the challenges of the initial developmental phases that focused on proof of concept and expansion/scalability. The annual growth in courses, from eight in 1995-96 to 1000 in 1999-2000, and annual growth in enrollment, from 119 in 1995-1996 to over 10,000 in 1999-2000, illustrates that the project has far exceeded the original projections. The SLN started as a regional project in the Mid-Hudson Valley involving eight SUNY campuses. At that time, the development and delivery of asynchronous courses was a new activity for SUNY campuses and faculty. The first courses were offered in the 1995-1996 academic year.

Successful experiences led to an expanded vision and goals for the SLN and the scope and objectives of the project have grown substantially. Where we originally developed courses at the third- and fourth-year level, we are now offering courses at all undergraduate levels as well as the graduate level and 42 of our institutions are involved. Our initial developmental phase focused on proof of concept within the SUNY system. This was followed by a phase that focused on proof of scalability that achieved significant growth in course offerings and student enrollments. SUNY's efforts continue to evolve the SLN from a project status to a fully integrated, virtual learning component responsive to the needs of learners in the new millennium. Ultimately, the SLN will represent the entire SUNY through the creation of one virtual campus that will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day to students across the globe. The SLN primary mission is to bring SUNY's high quality instructional programs within reach of learners anywhere. Another objective has been to take an efficient approach in supporting the SUNY campuses. Rather than each campus reinventing the wheel, SLN has developed and implemented the appropriate operational services and support yielding both cost savings as well as the sharing of experience from one campus to another. SLN has traditionally assisted campuses to conduct individual course evaluations. Additionally, the SLN office conducted two program-level student surveys and one faculty survey during the 1998-99 academic year. The goal of the student surveys was to gauge the level of student satisfaction with SLN, perceived learning with SLN, and what factors contributed to those results. The results of this survey are presented in this paper.

Patricia Shapley
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract:
Chemistry 331 is an upper level organic chemistry course for students interested in health related careers with an enrollment of approximately 150 students per semester. It assumes that students have a basic knowledge of organic chemistry principles and concepts and it builds on this base with advanced concepts in organic synthesis, mechanism of reactions, and spectroscopy with a biological perspective. Three years ago we moved to an on-line format to better serve the needs of students with disparate backgrounds and to help them master the concepts and applications of organic chemistry at an advanced level. The course includes on-line lectures with embedded problems, computer-graded quizzes, and on-line discussion sections. The exams are in the standard format and are proctored on campus or in off campus testing centers. The format of the course increases flexibility for the students, increases interaction among students and between students and faculty, and improves student performance on examinations that require complex reasoning skills.

Reuven Aviv
Open University of Israel

Abstract:
Learning in an ALN mode is modeled by a set of educational processes. The group is modeled by an abstract entity that provides services to the learners via its group educational processes. The learners reciprocate by their corresponding educational processes. Following findings of the Social Interdependence Theory of Cooperative Learning, we conjecture that the ALN is Cooperative Learning enhanced by extended think time. If ALN is structured for effective cooperation then the group dynamics will regulate the high level reasoning and the interpersonal relationships of the learners towards their highest levels.

If this conjecture is found to be true, it identifies the maximization of reasoning and interpersonal relationships as one of the educational benefits of an ALN.

To test the conjecture, we developed a methodology for the evaluation of the performance profiles of the ALN educational processes. Performance profiles are calculated via content analysis of the information flows exchanged between the participants, and the results are tested for reproducibility. We use this methodology to analyze three weeks of asynchronous discussions embedded in an ALN course of the Open University of Israel (OUI). The results of this analysis indicate the plausibility of our conjecture.

Gregory Hislop
Drexel University

Abstract:
This paper discusses a completely on-line graduate professional degree program at Drexel University. The paper provides an overview of the on-line initiative, including background, program development, and a description of the on-line environment. Following this, the paper contains a discussion of results of the degree program and proposes some characterizations of on-line learners and of desirable instructor attributes.

Joseph Holland
University of Wisconsin-Stout

Abstract:
The University of Wisconsin-Stout Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, represents an effort to expand the boundaries of the traditional campus. The purpose of this project was to offer learning opportunities to both traditional students and industry professionals either on campus or away from the campus. The asynchronous method of delivery will allow learners to participate from any place at any time. This paper will review how the University of Wisconsin-Stout is using technology to remove learning barriers and provide students with learning options.

The focus of this paper is to provide a detailed explanation of the process the University of Wisconsin-Stout used to implement an Asynchronous Learning Network. It will describe the history and background of the project, design and development issues, results and proposed next steps for this campus.

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Nancy Coppola, Naomi Rotter, Murray Turoff
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Raquel Benbunan-Fich
Seton Hall University

Abstract:
Are there any differences in outcomes between traditional classroom-based university courses and courses delivered via ALN, which feature extensive on-line interaction among students? Under what conditions are ALN courses most effective? What can be done to improve the publishability of ALN evaluations, and counter the attacks of critics?

After providing background on the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Virtual Classroom (VC) projects, this paper describes three studies that address the issue of the importance of collaborative learning strategies to the success of ALN for students. A three-year longitudinal field study of 26 courses that are part of an undergraduate degree in Information Systems compared the process and outcomes of learning using an on-line anytime/anywhere environment to those for comparison sections taught in the traditional classroom. An embedded field experiment looked at the separate and joint effects of working on-line versus in the classroom and of working individually versus in groups. Semi-structured interviews with experienced ALN faculty probed their pedagogy and their perceptions of whether or not students learned, on the average, more, less, or about the same as in their traditional sections. The results support the premise that when students are actively involved in collaborative (group) learning on-line, the outcomes can be as good as or better than those for traditional classes, but when individuals are simply receiving posted material and sending back individual work, the results are poorer than in traditional classrooms.

John Sener
Northern Virginia Community College
Mary Liana Stover
University of Maryland University College

Abstract:
This paper describes eight ALN courses developed under various Sloan Foundation-funded degree program initiatives at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) Extended Learning Institute (ELI). These chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and information technology courses offer useful lessons about what makes ALN courses successful. The courses incorporated ALN into an independent study format to increase interaction among learning participants while maximizing learner convenience and flexibility; some courses also focused on both on-line and in-person collaboration. A wide variety of other course design and delivery strategies contributed to the courses' success. The results of this study indicate that ALN courses can be viable and successful for community college students and that ALN can succeed in a distance education program delivered in an independent study format to motivated learners. NVCC/ELI's experience also suggests that ALN works within a multiple media approach to course design and delivery; that faculty selection, support, and development are critical factors in assuring quality ALN courses; that a wide variety of best practices can result in successful ALN courses; and that the learning effectiveness of ALN courses will continue to improve as better tools, content, and support are developed.