The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate Distance Education.

Abstract

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's initiatives on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOT&L) holds great promise for discussing the many complex pedagogical issues surrounding web-based education in general and undergraduate distance education in particular. Serious research on the meeting of SOT&L and undergraduate web-based education is minimal; initial literature reviews reveal that SOT&L has not been used as a context for researching student learning in distance education. Specifically, this research project, using the Carnegie framework, addresses the following issues: how students and instructors perceive, experience, reflect, and assess web-based education and their learning roles in it, in comparison to traditional onsite education.

Introduction

Teaching is the highest form of understanding. -- Aristotle

Over twenty years ago, prominent distance education theorist Michael Moore asked specifically, what do we know about helping distance learners learn? Research in the distance learning field has addressed this question to some extent, but continually high attrition rates suggest that distance learners are still straggling, for a variety of reasons. My concerns with web-based learning and instruction in particular stem from my research on the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning initiatives in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

While Ernest Boyer brought the idea of scholarly teaching to the fore over ten years ago, as he recognized a general diminution of the value of post-secondary level teaching, there has been little application of the principles of scholarly teaching and learning in relation to online or web-based education, which is gaining prominence and popularity in higher education, as the National Center for Education Statistics reveals. Throughout the 1990s, post-secondary institutions have continually grown to value research above and beyond teaching or service, despite the intimate ties that bind all three. Boyer asserts, "teaching is often viewed as a routine function, tacked on, something almost anyone can do" (1990, p. 23). And, unfortunately, this mentality is now seriously pervading online education. Through the scholarship of teaching and learning, we can begin to address and even answer the important questions surrounding teaching and learning in web-based environments.

It is worth quoting Boyer at length, as he identifies teaching as

   a dynamic endeavor involving all the analogies, metaphors, and images that
   build bridges between the teacher's understanding and the student's
   learning. Pedagogical procedures must be carefully planned, continuously
   examined, and relate directly to the subject taught.... Great teachers
   create a common ground of intellectual commitment. They stimulate active,
   not passive thinkers, with the capacity to go on learning.... Good teaching
   means that faculty, as scholars, are also learners. All too often, teachers
   transmit information that students are expected to memorize and then,
   perhaps, recall. While well-prepared lectures surely have a place,
   teaching, at its best, means not only transmitting knowledge, but
   transforming and extending it as well. (p. 23-24, emphasis original)

Since Boyer's work, others have built on the concept of the scholarship of teaching and made explicit the scholarship of learning as well. For instance, Cross and Steadman (1996, p. 2) require that

   students must be actively engaged in formulating their own learning
   questions and thinking critically about them [and] teachers must be
   actively engaged in formulating their own questions about learning and the
   impact of their teaching upon it.... Observing students in the act of
   learning, reflecting and discussing observations and data with teaching
   colleagues, and reading the literature on what is already known about
   learning is one way teachers can implement the scholarship of teaching.

And further, Ramsden (1992, p. 5) states: "The aim of teaching is simple: It is to make student learning possible," and Benjamin (nd) extends this: "The aim of scholarly teaching is also simple, it is to make transparent how we have made learning possible."

Moreover, scholarly teaching is typically understood through eight guiding principles:

1. A systematic inquiry into teaching and learning issues governed by appropriate disciplinary methodologies;

2. Active, critical reflection on strategies, techniques, and possibilities used in the teaching-learning dyad;

3. An application of results of reflection to practice;

4. Assessment of results;

5. Public communication and dissemination of reflection and results;

6. Self-reflection by teachers and students;

7. Peer review of strategies, techniques, possibilities, and assessments;

8. Demonstrable products in the forms of publications, student portfolios, or other resultant products from the inquiry and practice of scholarly teaching and learning.

These principles are described in depth by Hutchings and Shulman (1999):

   The scholarship of teaching is characterized by being public, open to
   critique and evaluation, and in a form that others can build on.... It
   requires a kind of `going meta,' in which faculty frame and systematically
   investigate questions related to student learning, the conditions under
   which it occurs, what it looks like, how to deepen it, and so forth and do
   so with an eye not only to improve their own classroom but to advancing
   practice beyond it.

SOT&L and Web-based Education: A Novel Framework

I was afforded the opportunity to systematically study SOT&L and web-based education through a fellowship at the Center for Instructional Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee during the 2000-2001 year. The study site was a lower level, "Introduction to Information Science" course; student demographics and initial data were collected through a pre-assessment survey instrument, which I will mention momentarily. The research study began with a review of literature on hybrid and web-based education, undergraduate education in general, and SOT&L. My background in web-based education provided a solid groundwork from which to proceed, but I had never taught an undergraduate course using distance learning techniques. I had reservations about its appropriateness in a lower level undergraduate course, including lack of self-discipline, motivation, ability to articulate entirely through the written word on discussion forums and chat boards, among others. I was not concerned about technological preparedness, especially in the field of Information Studies, which is heavily technological in nature.

A goal of my current research is to open the discussion and encourage others to begin to think critically about the meeting of the scholarship of teaching and learning in web-based environments, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, yet this current research focused particularly on undergraduates. My research was guided by my contention that the pedagogical specificity of web-based education holds the potential to promote the aforementioned eight principles in a systematic fashion. The act of learning online and onsite must be studied in order to 1) understand how learners learn and 2) improve the pedagogical integrity of web-based education. The research questions guiding this study include:

* Does the lack of face to face interaction diminish the learning experiences for students, or are there distinct teaching and learning activities and strategies that can enhance the pedagogy?

* What do students and instructors need to do in the virtual classroom to enhance learning?

* To what learning activities can web-based education look in order to adopt strategies effective to learning but will these work in a virtual context?

Few significant studies are identified in the literature to date. Two similar studies are noteworthy: Daugherty, et al. (2000) describe their relationships to scholarly teaching through online learning at Georgia College and State University through a case study of four university faculty experiences while Kelly (2000), a Carnegie Scholar, describes his integration of hybrid education (a mix of online and traditional face-to-face) with the scholarly principles, comparing the use of hypertext to print-based equivalents in a history course. Kelly, as this research did, asked "How is the use of the Web transforming student learning?"

When we begin to systematically ask questions and reflect on student learning and instructor teaching, we must unfortunately face this reality: Instructors in higher education receive little if any actual preparation or training on teaching in traditional settings; moreover, instructors receive even less training for online teaching. Cahoon (1998, p. 74) is absolutely, yet unfortunately, correct when he notes that "educators are learning how to teach on the Internet as they go along." Characteristics of instructors in web environments vary, but could hold the potential to mesh with the principles of scholarly teaching and learning.

Research on characteristics requisite for successful online teaching and learning is now growing (See SNOW, nd, Raths, 1999; Sherry & Wilson, 1997; Pea, 1994). Of the new roles, Raths (1999) asserts that

   instructors who thrive in the new environment combine the skills of a
   traditional classroom teacher with those of a technical support
   representative--they engage students and spark their curiosity, and are
   also responsive, well-organized, courteous, patient, and flexible. (p. 32)

Further, the U.S. Congress (1989) describes the emerging role of the instructor:

   Although it is the technology that removes barriers and expands opportunity
   for learning, it is the teacher who teaches. In distance learning, teachers
   find that they are required to change their method of teaching and give
   more attention to advanced preparation, student interaction, visual
   materials, activities for independent study, and follow-up activities. (p.
   11)

Ultimately, instructors become more responsible for conducting and facilitating their online courses through revised delivery of materials. Faculty who have not changed their course lectures in ten years, for example, will have a difficult time responding to the many twists and turns online discussions take. Faculty are no longer the sole voice in a class, but instead, dictate a direction from which others decide what paths to take. For instance, students often see this newfound role and offer new perceptions on the student-teacher relationship: This student's description of her online course professor typifies the movement towards the instructor as a facilitator as opposed to the "sage on the stage" mentality: "He is a camp counselor--he takes us into the woods and leads us on a hike. He tells us a lot about what we see along the way--what to look for, how to look for it--and then he asks us to make our own observations using the tools he's given us" (Buchanan, 1999, p. 171). This description is noteworthy in understanding the changing pedagogical specificity of web-based teaching and learning.

In addition, web-based education has been credited with the ability to change teacher and student roles, to move the onus of responsibility to students, with a greater level of personal and self-reflexive learning; moreover, Web-based education, the third wave of distance education in general, following the first wave of correspondence study then satellite or video delivery, potentially raises and enhances student learning, due to increased time spent within a course, the multiplicity of perspectives and knowledge shared among participants, and the ability to reflect before and after correspondence in an asynchronous mode.

Ongoing Research

This current paper reports on the project as it stands after one semester of systematic inquiry. The course began in September 2000 by introducing students to the research questions and encouraging them to think about their roles as learners, students, and contributors to both traditional learning environments and computer-mediated environments, through the Blackboard online course software. Students completed the pre and post-assessment surveys administered online on the first and last days of the semester, with the purpose of establishing a baseline and exploration of change for each student so I could begin to understand how the students understood themselves as learners at the outset and conclusions of the course, how they viewed teaching and learning, how they understood technology and its impact on teaching and learning. The surveys comprised one aspect of the data that would be used to encourage reflection in order to promote change in practice. The immediate reaction to the study was overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by class discussions and personal conversations with a number of students.

The second component of the study data came in the form of learning portfolios. Instead of quizzes or exams, students kept journals. The learning journals were developed in consult with Brookfield's "Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher" and questions included:

* At what moment in class this week did you feel the most engaged with what was happening?

* At what moment in class did you feel most distanced or disconnected from what was happening?

* What action or incident that the instructor or other student took in class did you find the most helpful?

* What action or incident that the instructor or other student took in class did you find the most confusing?

* What happened in class this week surprised you the most?

In addition to the learning portfolio, which "provides a complex and comprehensive view of student performance in context when the student is a participant in, rather than the object of assessment" (Paulson, et al., 1991, 60), student work consists of "information science reports," in which students prepare a weekly summary of a current or relevant news story from a source they identify and on which they reflect. This activity enables students to personalize a piece of information in a meaningful way. In my preliminary data analysis, students are using this activity to engage with the issues of information science with greater complexity and intensity. While I ask students to report on their summaries at the beginning of each class session, I have found that throughout the lectures and discussions, students are referring to their summaries in very sophisticated ways, demonstrating that they are making connections with the theoretical and the practical through a personal engagement. This activity replaces the midterm and final exam, in which I found students simply regurgitating answers provided in class, with little engagement and reflection.

Two focus group sessions were conducted late in the semester by an external reviewer comfortable with online courses, learning theory, and scholarly teaching.(1) The focus group data added to the research by allowing students another outlet through which they could discuss their learning and engagement and perspectives on online and traditional educative methods. The peer reviewer added a critical level of objectivity, as I did not attend the sessions.

Through the hybrid course approach, the goal of the research is to gather data comparing and contrasting learning and reflection on teaching and learning in both traditional and web-based environments. As of January 2001, data analysis is underway using NUDIST qualitative data analysis software and SPSS for the quantitative components. Future papers, including an upcoming issue of Academic Exchange Quarterly, will report on the impact of SOT&L and technology in general, as well more elaborate data analysis from this current project.

Next Steps

Meta-pedagogy a highly reflexive ongoing practice in which both instructors and students are actively engaged in questioning teaching and learning will enable both to improve the conditions and outcomes under which formal education occurs. While the Carnegie's initiative was originally focused on traditional education, its applicability for questioning, refining, and bettering web-based education holds tremendous promise. Distance education has long suffered "image problems," advertised in matchbooks and troubled by questionable efficacy and integrity. By raising the bar by which we evaluate teaching and learning in web-based environments through the principles of the scholarship of teaching and learning, this rapidly growing and increasingly popular form of educational delivery can excel in terms of pedagogical authenticity and trustworthiness. Sets of pre-assessments (Buchanan, 2000) for online instructors and students, coupled with a new dedication to active, reflexive teaching and learning through such models as Brookfield's, may change the ways online instruction is perceived and valued.

Much more research needs to be conducted and institutional support implemented in order to reach a level of systemic reform in web-based educational models. Universities must move beyond such mundane tenets as students can learn from the comforts of their homes, without traveling to participate in formal education otherwise inaccessible. While these certainly have contributed to the popularity of web-based education, they do not take us to a state of questioning its pedagogical efficacy in order to improve both teaching and learning. Moreover, universities have fallen into the same mindset Carnegie's research found ten years ago in traditional education, namely, anyone can teach online courses, and worse, the large two-hundred seat lectures halls can be more efficiently and economically conducted in online environments. Simply replacing traditional models of teaching and learning in online environments serves no one, especially our students, well.

Notes

Ms. Simone Conceicao-Runlee, Doctoral Candidate at the University of Wisconsin, and Instructional Design/Technology Consultant, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is acting as a peer reviewer throughout the project.

References

Benjamin, J. (nd). Communicating the scholarship of teaching. Available: http://www.epig.rmit.edu/au/dst/intro_module_2/index.stm Accessed July 2000.

Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Brookfield, S. (2000). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Presented at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 20 April.

Brookfield, S. (1990). The skillful teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Buchanan, E. (1999). Articulating a web-based pedagogy: a qualitative examination. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Buchanan, E. (2000). "Assessment Measures: Pre-tests for Successful Distance Teaching and Learning?" Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2(4). Available http://www.westga.edu/~distance/buchanan24.html

Cahoon, B. (1998). Adult learning and the Interact: Themes and things to come. In Cahoon, B. (Ed.)Adult learning and the Internet (pp. 71-76). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cross, K. & Steadman Harris, M. (1996). Classroom research: Implementing the scholarship of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Daugherty, M., Grub, A., Hirsch, J., & Gillis, H. L. (2000). The scholarship of web-based teaching. In Issues in Web-Based Pedagogy (Ed. Robert A. Cole). Westport: Greenwood Press.

Hutchings, P. & Shulman, L. (1999). The scholarship of teaching: New elaborations, new developments. Change (October), 10-16.

Kelly, T. (2000). For better or worse? The marriage of web and classroom. In P. Hutchings, Ed., Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Menlo Park: Carnegie Publications.

Paulson, F., Paulson, P., & Meyer, C. (1991). What makes a portfolio a portfolio? Educational Leadership 48(5), 60-63.

Pea, R. (1993). Practices of distributed intelligence and designs for education in distributed cognitions. In Salomon, G. (Ed.), Distributed Cognitions (pp. 47-87). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ramsden (1992). Learning to teach in higher education. London: Routledge.

Raths, D. (1999, June). Is anyone out there? Inside Technology Training, 32-34.

Schrum, L. & Luetkehans, L. (1997). A primer on distance education: Considerations for decision makers. Washington, DC: AECT.

Sherry, L. & Wilson, B. (1997). Transformative communication as a stimulus to Web innovations. In Khan, B. (Ed.) Web-Based Instruction. (pp. 67-73). Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications.

SNOW. (nd). Best practices in web-based instruction. Available: http://snow.utoronto.ca/best/crsreview.html U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1989). Linking for learning: A new course for education. Washington: GPO.

Elizabeth A. Buchanan, University of Wisconsin

Elizabeth Buchanan, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Information Policy Research at the School of Information Studies.