Wingard: Web-enhanced courses

Robin G. Wingard (2004). Classroom teaching changes in Web-enhanced courses: A multi-Institutional Study. Educause Quarterly, 27(1). http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0414.pdf

I jotted down a few notes as I was reading this article.

1) Wingard found that the longer faculty taught, the more likely they were to be experienced Web users. She suggests that it is their experience with traditional instruction methods that enables them to be creative in their teaching. She fails to mention the structure of academia (i.e., tenure track) that may divert the attention of younger faculty members and force them to concentrate on endeavors that will count toward tenure. Perhaps the older, more experienced faculty, are well-beyond that point and have the ability to focus on other things, like using the web to enhance their course.

2) The faculty interview and survey responses produced different results. For example, the authors note that "on the survey, faculty reported less change in the classroom than they reported subsequently during the interviews" (p. 29). The authors suggest that the faculty had time to reflect on their survey responses and adjusted their interview responses accordingly. However, it may be that the faculty were telling the interviewer what they thought the interviewer wanted to hear. It is possible that the survey results were closer to the truth because the faculty didn't have to complete it in the presence of one of the researchers.

3) On page 34, Wingard emphasizes that the information presented in this article is based on faculty perceptions. She later mentions that it would be interesting to explore student perceptions of web enhancement efforts. Are there studies that compare faculty and student perceptions? I'm working in a research group on a project that is examining gender equity and IT education. One of the PIs has focused on mentoring and found that faculty indicate that they are mentoring students, but the students report that they are not being mentored. The ending section of the Wingard article reminded me of the mentoring study.