Understanding Student Preferences to Help Inform Online Course Design Amy

Who We Are Amy Garbrick—Director, Learning Design; College of Information Sciences and Technology Dr. Vicki Williams—Assessment Manager; Teaching & Learning with Technology Ronda Reid—Instructional Designer; College of Information Sciences and Technology Jana Hitchcock—Instructional Designer; World Campus Amy - mention Andrea on core research team

Community of Support Thank you for support from WC, TLT, IST, EMS, and LA Image: https://pixabay.com/p-490607/?no_redirect Amy -- thanks especially to Terry at TLT and Kate at WC for support in funding for GAs to analyze the data, gift cards, travel to present at conferences.

Today’s Agenda Why Ask? SP16 Study: Online Learners’ Canvas Preferences Survey SP17 Study: Revised Course Design Pilot Questions and Discussion Amy -- this presentation is about study #2 and #3 on handout -- previously talked about #1 study but go to website to learn more

Why ask? Don’t we know best? We are the instructors. We are the designers. Don’t we know best? Why ask? Amy -- effort started with IST course template design and is wondering “we think this is best but what do students think?” http://3.bp.blogspot.com

Yes, but we all bring different perspectives Amy: Speak to why this is helpful to understand different perspectives? Image: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/5miz6c/user_experience_vs_design/?st=IXNE30LD&sh=aacf0a96

What do you (or would you) typically use as your Canvas course home page? For example Amy

1: Recent Activity 2: Course Syllabus 3: Branded Landing Page Amy: Show of hands; change to 1, 2, 3, 4; See--we all have different preferences 3: Branded Landing Page 4: Modules

Why understanding preferences is important Learn more about our students’ preferences & practices Build more intuitive designs that help remove unnecessary distraction from learning objectives Why understanding preferences is important Vicki: Transition from use to preference http://3.bp.blogspot.com

Learner Preferences Survey What are learner preferences for design decisions in Canvas? Particularly: Course home page Syllabus treatment Navigation Learner Preferences Survey Spring 2016 Vicki

The Basic Facts April 4 - May 21, 2016 IRB study Help of Dr. Jessica Kropczynski, College of IST Mix of screenshots, ratings, and open-ended text questions Canvas Home page preferences Syllabus page and components Navigation preferences and order Open questions regarding the perception of “community” Vicki

The Basic Facts Initial pilot to 50 students Finalized survey distributed to 4,900 World Campus students who took at least one SP16 Canvas course Response rate: slightly more than 10% Students who completed survey were entered into a drawing to win one of five $25 gift certificates to Amazon.com Vicki

Examples from Survey Vicki

Major finding One Word: EFFICIENCY Vicki http://www.sixsigmatrainingfree.com/uploads/2/1/7/9/21795380/efficiency.jpg

Findings: Efficiency Home Page Modules was the most preferred landing page Rated high for course engagement, helpfulness, and usefulness Nittany Lion welcome page was the least preferred But rated highest for attractiveness The most important things to see on home page are (1) due dates (2) the course outline (3) timely instructions Vicki

Findings: Efficiency Syllabus Brief text with Course Summary visible was most preferred Easy navigation and clean, short organized format More than 80% of the students said it is VERY important that the Course Summary be easy to find Want to print syllabus Navigation Preferred navigational order: (1) Assignments (2) Grades (3) Modules Vicki

So now what? Lather Rinse Repeat Ronda Image:http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/70/7081498e660ed4aaf45956e2c661892d9d00ce892ed233c244d798d1f8078ded.jpg

Revised Course Design: The Pilot Spring 2016 survey: students made decisions in isolation What would happen if we gave them all of their preferences in one course? Revised Course Design: The Pilot Spring 2017 http://www.sixsigmatrainingfree.com/uploads/2/1/7/9/21795380/efficiency.jpg RondaL SP16 was done in isolation--do things change at all when students have all of their preferences in a live course?

The Basic Facts February 14 - March 6, 2017 Students course had all three student preferences indicated in SP16. Surveyed students regarding their thoughts on their pilot course EMS, IST, Liberal Arts, and World Campus Pilot contains approximately +1,000 students 216 respondents to survey Survey participants will have a chance to win one of five $25 gift certificates to Amazon.com Ronda: Results so hot and fresh, I don’t even know them...but Vicki Williams does...

Examples from Survey Ronda: Like before...Screenshots and questions, but asked students to relate to information in their PILOT course. Mixed methods.

Preliminary info Vicki

SP2017 Assignments Announcements Modules Home Grades Syllabus Discussions Quizzes Files Pages People Conferences Spring 2017 Compared to the Spring 2016 results, the ranking of Navigation items changed slightly. The top three items remain Assignments, Modules, and Grades. Announcements increased in importance, while Syllabus moved down; but People, Pages, Files, and Conferences remain the least important items. Vicki

Results... Hope the information can be used to inform best practices of Canvas course design and set-up that could be used across Penn State Adopted best practices may lead to a more consistent course experience for students Reduce a learning curve for getting to know each course/layout Jana

So now what? With SP16 and preliminary SP17 information, College of IST will change course template for SU17 Pulling together more info to help inform best practices Jana

Future Questions and Explorations? What topics, concepts, and/or ideas do YOU think should be explored next? Future Questions and Explorations? Jana

Questions & Discussion (https://sites.psu.edu/uxcanvas/) Image: https://pixabay.com/p-490607/?no_redirect Jana