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© 2022 Fischer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The importance of online learning in higher education settings is growing, not only in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, metrics to evaluate and increase the quality of online instruction are crucial for improving student learning. Whereas instructional quality is traditionally evaluated with course observations or student evaluations, course syllabi offer a novel approach to predict course quality even prior to the first day of classes. This study develops an online course design characteristics rubric for science course syllabi. Utilizing content analysis, inductive coding, and deductive coding, we established four broad high-quality course design categories: course organization, course objectives and alignment, interpersonal interactions, and technology. Additionally, this study exploratively applied the rubric on 11 online course syllabi (N = 635 students) and found that these design categories explained variation in student performance.

Details

Title
Salient syllabi: Examining design characteristics of science online courses in higher education
Author
Fischer, Christian  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; McPartlan, Peter; Gabe Avakian Orona; Yu, Renzhe; Xu, Di; Warschauer, Mark
First page
e0276839
Section
Research Article
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Nov 2022
Publisher
Public Library of Science
e-ISSN
19326203
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2731704617
Copyright
© 2022 Fischer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.