The Office of Learning Technology coordinated another innovative lecture as part of the Teaching and Learning with Technology series(TLT). The Future of Technology-Enhanced Education: Opportunities and Challenges with Dr. Charles Dziuban was a thought provoking and humorous presentation about the latest results from a decade long evaluation of online learning at the University of Central Florida (UCF), the UCF project for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and how the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE) at UCF has established a culture of scholarship of teaching and learning.

Charles Dziuban is Director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where he has been a faculty member since 1970 teaching research design and statistics. His office has completed a decade long evaluation of online learning, thanks to the assistance of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This research has provided the framework for the implementation of technology-enhanced education at UCF.

Dr. Dziuban introduced his presentation by outlining how his university has had to evolve to accommodate online learning. As the third largest university in the United States, UCF had to incorporate online learning because it’s the only way to accommodate university growth without having to cap student enrolment. Because infrastructure growth is not an option, the university has heavily relied on online learning to account for student’s needs and course demands. This has been in the form of fully online distance courses as well as technology enhanced on campus courses. Because of this, Dr. Dziuban and his office have undertaken a decade long evaluation of online learning which has included dimensions on student success, satisfaction, and generational differences amongst students and staff.

In his study, Dr. Dziuban looked at campus wide student success rates, based on grades and withdrawal rates, and used the mode to track departmental trends. His results were mixed, as trends were dependent on individual colleges at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Dziuban reviewed predictors to determine what predicts success with online courses. These included age, class size, SAT, ethnicity, gender, generation, term and, surprisingly, he found that none are accurate or stable predictors.  Notably, class size was not a predictor for his study, which contradicts public opinion on educational environments. What he did announce as an accurate predictor of online student success was GPA. What makes a student smart online is being smart to begin with!

Another dimension Dr. Dziuban looked at was student satisfaction. He quotes, “there are 3 reasons students take online courses- convenience, convenience, and convenience!” Although this is a major factor in a student’s decision to participate in online courses and thus their satisfaction with it, there are other reasons to consider. These include reduced logistic demands (which Dr. Dziuban equated to finding a parking spot at UCF- they are in high demand!), increased learning flexibility, technology enhanced learning, and reduced opportunity cost for getting an education. These items all result in higher student satisfaction. Dr. Dziuban does highlight an interesting statistical curve that is present in online courses as well as blended courses (technology-enhanced courses). “Satisfaction curves for students in online courses are always very high once they get comfortable with the change in format, resulting in a curve that starts very low and increases as the course goes on.” There are also dimensions that can negatively influence a student’s satisfaction curve. Such influences include reduced face to face time, technology problems, reduced instructor assistance, sense of overwhelming, increased workload, and increased opportunity costs for education. These results can be useful for educators and administrators when designing an online course; problem solving for such negative influences can assist in avoiding the issue.

Through his research Dr. Dziuban has followed the generational trail of students and discovered the communication issues among age groups. There are four generations that he classifies as matures, generation x, baby boomers, and millennials. He draws upon expert opinions in this area while outlining the types.  An overview of these opinions and this ongoing debate of millenials can be found in the Oct 11, 2009 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Dr. Dziuban’s’ satisfaction curves reveal that millennial students are the least satisfied with educational tools and experiences. An interesting outcome showed millennials were the group least likely to prefer only web for teaching, instead showing a preference for blended or face to face modes of teaching.

An interesting topic Dr. Dziuban discussed was the level of ambivalence students of the millennium generation show. He has framed his research to include the theory of William A. Long which asserts that ambivalence brings out specific behaviour patterns. This is a relevant focus in the academic arena as it could provide a lens for how different types react to different teaching styles. Long’s theory includes four types with a varying degree of specific traits: aggressive independent, passive independent, aggressive dependent, passive dependent. Dr Dziuban defines aaggressive independent as high energy, action-oriented, not concerned with approval, speaks out freely, and gets into confrontational situations. Passive independents are low energy, not concerned with approval, prefer to work alone, and resist pressure from authority. Aggressive dependent types are characterized as high energy, action-oriented, concerned with approval, rarely express negative feelings, and perform at or above ability. Lastly, passive dependents are low energy, concerned with approval, highly sensitive to the feelings of others, and are very compliant. Drawing heavily on psychological personality processes and theory, Long’s behaviour traits include phobic, compulsive, impulsive, hysteric, and show in varying degrees in the listed types. Notably, Dr. Dziuban found that passive dependents were least satisfied with online learning and commented that they would never take distance courses again at the end of term evaluation.

Dr. Dziuban asserts that by understanding these types and their traits, faculty members can more effectively interact with students and easily categorize most students into them. Of course this is a classificatory system and comes with all the risks associated with such a system- biases, over simplifying, and generalizing, and needs to be used cautiously and in collaboration with other tools.

Dr. Dziuban concluded his presentation by inviting UBC to partake in a cooperative research program with UCF to continue the development of a culture of scholarship of teaching and learning. You can contact Dr. Dziuban at dziuban@mail.ucf.edu.