L. CARVER ET AL.
used “flat resources, in the form of static text documents” (p.
126). Beard and Harper (2002) also identified student concerns
based on the limited human interactions that are available in the
online environment. This might be an important concern with
graduate courses because they emphasize practitioner tasks that
require students to transfer skills and integrate content knowl-
edge into new situations. Particularly important to take into
con sider ation for graduate students, were Schwartzman’s (2007 )
findings that online learners often experience difficulty com-
prehending and applying information so just making the infor-
mation available does not necessarily result in a successful
educational course. Students need to know how to apply the
information in new situations.
Students’ perception of the characteristics of effective col-
lege instructors need also to be considered. Students viewed
instructors as effective when they provided opportunities for
multiple instructor and student interactions, they clearly and
accurately conveyed information, and they effectively used
time in the learning environment (Onweugbuzie et al., 2007).
Respondents indicated that they felt instructors were effective
when they were “student centered, expert, enthusiast, and ethi-
cal” (p. 151).
Goodwin and Miller (2013) examined preliminary data on
the effectiveness of flipping classroom instruction so that lec-
tures are recorded and posted online while instructional time is
used for “homework” assignments. These online lectures in-
cluded visual representations, graphics, videos, and photos
which could be accessed by the student when they chose to use
them, rather than spending instructional time on lecture materi-
als. The original version of the graduate online courses con-
tained lecture materials in a written format which were used as
a basis for the materials students needed to know to create the
homework assignments.
The researchers were interested in trying to flip the online
instruction so that students receive additional scaffolding for
the homework assignments. A Synchronous Interactive Online
Tool, Elluminate, was incorporated to address the research-
based principles for effective instruction that teachers were
attempting to incorporate into the flipped online classroom.
Sams and Bergmann (2013) indicated the importance of
teachers responding to students’ emotional and learning needs
as well addressing their individual learning styles. Beesley and
Apthrop (2010) found that feedback had a strong effect size
(0.73). The researchers wanted to determine if the addition of a
synchronous tool would provide opportunities for feedback and
correcting misperceptions. The researchers chose a synchro-
nous tool with recorded sessions to allow students to pace their
own learning to match their individual needs. According to
Hattie’s (2008) meta-analysis of 800 research studies, he found
that allowing students to pace their own learning had an effect
size of .88. In addition, providing students opportunities to
practice and apply skills with corrective teacher feedback was
four times more effective than homework assignments alone
(Beesley & Apthrop, 2010). Consequently the researchers de-
cided that the addition of a SIOI would address many of the
teaching and learning strategies.
Hirumi (2002) found that interactions that increased content
insights, provoked analysis, and deepened commitment result in
higher academic achievement and engagement. He found that
simply sharing personal observations; however, did not impact
achievement. Students’ performance and satisfaction increased
with more collaboration between students and between students
and instructors. Ho and Swan (2007) found that frequency,
manner, and quality of contributions online were positively
correlated to students’ grades. However, Wanstreet (2006)
found that research on online communication focused more on
the quantity of the interactions as opposed to the quality of the
interactions. So simply increasing the frequency of interactions
did not positively impact students’ achievement and engage-
ment.
Research Questions
This study was conducted to determine if the addition of a
SIOT would improve student and teacher satisfaction with
online courses. Two research questions guided the study.
1) How will the addition of a SOIT impact students’ percep-
tion of the effectiveness of their learning in an online course as
measured by change in end of course evaluations?
2) Will the way the SIOT is used within the online course
impact students’ perception of their learning?
Methodology
Over the past two years at a small, private, southern liberal
arts university, six graduate level courses taught by three dif-
ferent instructors were implemented in three ways: 1) totally
online with no synchronous component; 2) online using a SIOT
for office hours; and 3) online using a SIOT to provide practice
for completing homework assignments in addition to the online
component. At the completion of each course, the researchers
collected and analyzed data from university administered stu-
dent surveys. Student recorded their answer to the question
using a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. One corresponded with
strongly disagree, while five corresponded to strongly agree.
The section data from the questions relating to student learning
in the six courses with the three different instructors were re-
corded and then the mean for each question was calculated.
Data from three instructors were included in an attempt to cor-
rect for variability between instructors. The mean score for each
question is recorded in Tables 1 and 2. A confidence interval of
95% was used to determine if the differences between the
means were significant.
Results
The seven components of Student Perceptions of Learning
section of the survey were analyzed using a paired t-test com-
paring the means of classes with no SIOT and classes where
SIOT was used for office hours in addition to the online com-
ponent. Results of the total student learning averages did not
reveal a significant difference (p = 0.173) between students’
perception of their learning in those classes where a SIOT was
not used (M = 3.920; SD = 0.27) and those classes where a
SIOT was used for office hours (M = 4.098; SD = 0.28). Al-
though the means for the questions were higher with the SIOT
being used for office hours, the difference between the means
did not exceed the 95% confidence interval. The question ask-
ing students to evaluate their confidence related to the course
content was the only question where the means were signifi-
cantly different enough to reject the null hypothesis.
Next the data was analyzed to determine if the use of the
SIOT to flip the class instruction was more effective than using
it for office hours. The seven components of Student Percep-
tions of Learning were analyzed using a paired t-test comparing
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