LEARNER-VALUED INTERACTIONS: Research into Practice

Competitive higher education institutions strive to attract, enroll, and retain learners with online courses. Studies have revealed that online learners may select courses for access and convenience although, once enrolled, they value specific course features and conditions (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007). Online learners do not value all instructional features and conditions equally nor do all instructional features and conditions help them learn equally well. This paper suggests learner-valued online course features and conditions synthesized from studies in social presence (Wei, Chen, & Kinshuk, 2012), feedback (Espasa, & Meneses, 2010), and learner self-regulation (Ley & Young, 2001). A seminal study that identified learner-valued interactions (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007) when compared with findings from studies in social presence, performance feedback, and learner self-regulation frames online course design that transforms learner-valued features into effective instructional strategies. College and university online course design has to address effective learning strategies but also must address learner-valued course features given an increasingly competitive higher education market place. Higher education is a market place in which institutions compete for students, and academics study the phenomenon as evidenced by the Journal of Marketing in Higher Education. Marketing research findings reflect what most administrators acknowledge: Students are attracted to online courses for a number of reasons including convenience and course availability (Allen, & Seaman, 2010). Most educational organizations now offer online courses to increase enrollments, but must consider political, fiscal, or social forces in order to do so. In the competition for students, most institutions of higher education are offering more online courses and are converting many on-ground courses to online. Many on-ground courses can be adapted to online but it is only with care and attention to learner motivational and instructional requirements that an online course provides an appealing and effective educational experience. Effective online courses especially in highly competitive online programs encourage online course completion and retention. Therefore educators seeking to sustain or increase course and program enrollments are rightfully concerned with the online learner’s experience. Instructional effectiveness drives online course design but instructional appeal encourages course participation and successful completion. Online courses that engage students, encourage them to complete a course, and enable them to earn a passing grade, foster online course and program success. Instructional designers and faculty seeking to translate theory and research into practice have an overwhelming plethora of rich and varied of studies investigating a multitude of online course features and conditions. This extensive body of online studies and the theories begs the question, how to design online courses that encourage students to engage in effective learning activities? One answer considers what learners value and then compares these valued features and conditions strongly supported by the findings of online learning research. What online learners value drives the process but instructional effectiveness determines how to design and deliver effective learning support with learner-valued interactions. A seminal study describing what online learners value, surveyed one hundred and seventy online students from two universities and asked them to rank how much they valued 16 instructor activities (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007). The top five most-valued instructor interactions were 1) check email to assess learner needs, 2) posted discussion board, 3) provide examples, 4) provide timely feedback, and 5) respond to student inquiries. In sum, students valued timely, responsive, instructor interactions. Learner-valued instructor interactions signal to online students that an instructor is present, available, and helpful. Four of the five valued instructor interactions implicitly involve instructors communicating with students; the fifth, provide examples, could be presented through instructor