This issue explores a spectrum of effective design strategies that aim to enhance learner engagement and quality in distance education. The authors of the articles provide us with case studies from science education, healthcare, K-8 teacher development, accounting, and higher education – and include the incorporation of tutorial-style videos, virtual experiments, MOOC evaluations, and potentially transformative instructional approaches that could be used in diverse online learning environments.
In pursuit of effective design strategies, personalized and innovative approaches to online instruction are analyzed in a diverse range of studies in this issue. In Tutorial-Style Lecturing Video Instruction in an Online Biology Course: Responding to Evidence, authors Lu Ding, Kai Hung, and Hua Zheng provide readers with ideas of how strategic design using videos may improve learning outcomes in an online biology course. Authors Patricia A. Goedl, Ganesh B. Malla, and Mark G. Sanders explore the use of instructional videos and how they affect student performance in their article, Impact of Video Lectures on Students’ Performance and Analysis of Viewer Demographics in Online Courses. These two articles will provide readers with various approaches to course design that can improve student success.
Educational content that is informative and that can be adapted to students’ diverse needs is illustrated in the other studies as well. Ignacio Martinez Escobedo, Kathleen Doherty, and Claire Eccleston focus on instructional design quality in global health issues in Health Promotion MOOCs (hpMOOCs): A Dual Lens for Assessing Quality. Thinking about diverse needs also includes considering the prior knowledge that students bring to their courses, and in Exploring Supports to Enhance Learning from Online Virtual Experiments in Science, authors Lexi Elara and Kathryn S. McCarthy investigated the effectiveness of virtual experiments and found varied results based on multiple approaches. And finally, in Teaching K-8 English Learners Literacy and Academic Content: Educator Beliefs and Discursive Engagement in an Online Teacher Professional Development Course, Sarah B. Bausell, Marie Himes, and Hiller A. Spires explored ways in which, through professional development – educators’ beliefs can shift – and their pedagogical approaches may become more aligned to learners’ diverse needs.
Readers who participate in online and distance education – including instructional designers, educational technology developers, MOOC designers, and online educators (K-12 through Higher Ed) should find insights and will benefit from the takeaways that can be found in this issue. As a reader of this journal, you are likely aware that many people who find themselves in many of the above roles are not familiar with the decades of research that are available to them. We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues so that they can improve their own practices – and can pass along the benefits to their students.