Foundations for Developing Leader

Article Summary

Grand Canyon University: Foundations for the Developing Leader

Nov. 17, 2015

Introduction:

This research study, “Read-only participants: a case for student communication in online classes,” (2007) was conducted because the following problems were noted in relationship to higher education online courses and the conventional classroom. The rates for success in online courses were lower than the rates of success within the conventional classroom. It had been frequently reported that these online programs were less successful than those delivered in a traditional classroom setting. Previous research conducted measured the success of student online drop-out rates which were higher in range from 20 to 50%. This factor correlated to 10 to 20% higher in drop-out rates for online courses than in comparison to contact courses. The research focused on answering the following two research questions:

(1) How did online participation relate to learning and successful course completion?

(2) How did participation influence the learning community?

The purpose of this writing is to summarize the research methodology, findings and the implications of this research study.

The Research Methodology:

The research study was conducted by establishing an 8 week online course for graduate students enrolled at the Masters level in computer-integrated education at the University of Pretoria. A diverse group of 22 students from the ages of 30 to approximately 50 from different regions of the country were enrolled. The researchers employed a mixed methodology approach to study how online activities such as student participation in discussion postings, group assignments, as well as their assimilation into the online learning community correlated to learning and successful completion of the course (Nagel, Blignaunt & Cronje, 2007).

The course mirrored a constructivist approach and employed both theoretical and practical applications culled from 8...