Internet advantages like bypassing the time and space investment demanded by traditional classes have inspired UCF to step up the amount of online courses it offers to better serve students.
From the 2005 to 2008 academic years 244 new online-classes have been added, brining the total to 1, 073, according to figures provided by Joel Hartman, vice provost for Information Technologies and Resources at UCF.
"The overriding advantage for students [in online courses] is increased educational access with learning quality equivalent to all other modes of instruction," Hartman said.
Research provided by UCF's Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, written by Charles Dziuban, Patsy Moskal, Jay Brophy-Ellison, and Peter Shea, found student satisfaction with online courses is high because students consistently report this method of teaching accommodates their lifestyle. Most teachers report an online learning environment where students are active and faculty can become facilitators rather than information dispensers.
One place where UCF's expansion of online courses is evident is the Center for Online and Virtual Education.
Naomi Morris is the Florida Engineering Education Delivery System coordinator at UCF's engineering department. She is responsible for maintaining the technical systems that allow students of her department to access fully online and blended courses.
"There's been a real push in the engineering department toward online courses," Morris said. "Because we have to provide learning to the students."
Morris believes that if her department did not offer online courses the students in the courses she uploads would not be earning their degrees.
UCF digital media professor Daniel Novatnak has taught online classes for ITT Technical Institute and has recently taken a course to begin teaching online courses at UCF.
"The best part about teaching through online courses is that you have the ability to put a large amount of information in front of the student and permit them to respond to it in sections," Novatnak said.
Novatnak thinks that the way in which online courses present information benefits students who learn best by reading. In his ITT classes he answered student questions through e-mail but took extra effort to make himself available in voluntary office hours for students who needed to speak to him personally.
"The disadvantage is you don't get the student feedback to know whether or not they're getting the information as it's being presented," he said.
A common frustration among students and teachers participating in online courses is the communication delay created by e-mailing questions and answers. Teachers may take time to respond to questions, or their initial response may not completely answer the student's question.
"Our research at RITE (Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness) shows that students will assign an overall rating of excellence to a course when they view the instructor able to communicate ideas and information effectively and is willing to facilitate their learning," Hartman said. "This is true for all colleges and course modes."
Christele Joseph is a public administration major at UCF. She said she prefers online learning because it saves her the time and gas money she'd normally spend on her 30 minute commute from west Orlando to the university.
"I don't really need the face-to-face interaction with professors," she said. Joseph said she had to check her course Web site daily if not multiple times a day to keep track of her assignment's deadlines. For all of the advantages Joseph enjoys with online courses her dissatisfactions are consistent with RITE's findings.
"I don't like if the teacher is kind of vague with instructions," Joseph said. "The only technical problem is if WebCT is down, and I can't turn in an assignment I procrastinated on that's due."
Hartman said RITE's research also reveals that students report taking more responsibility for their own learning in online courses rather than sitting passively in class.
Students across the university often intend to continue learning online after their first experience with this method, Hartman said.
RITE's research also revealed a danger that students may view expediency and convenience as online learning's essential advantage over traditional courses while failing to consider the quality of their education.
Regardless of online learning's advantages and disadvantages students will be logging on to more virtual classrooms in the near future.
Researchers such as RITE at UCF have found no qualitative difference between face-to-face and online courses.
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