Jeffrey L. Bailie of Kaplan University recently published his study, “What Online Students Want Compared to What Institutions Expect.” What the study reveals is that students enrolled in an online course expect great things from their instructors, and the instructors are under pressure to live up to the standards set by these students.
It appears from the study results, which I will cover in part, that students actually expect more from an online instructor than a f2f instructor. In other words, it seems that the way the teacher remains “present” and “concerned” to their students, who are often separated from them by zip codes and even countries, in some cases, is to respond quickly to their students’ questions and assignments. Ironically, some of the students even expected online teachers to keep office hours. Many online teachers use virtual office hours for this reason, I suppose.
Some of the data sets that were most surprising to me included that students (63%) expect online instructors to grade even major assignments within one week, which is much sooner than these students would expect this assignment back in a traditional f2f course, at least from my college experience, anyway, not to mention that many online course have ridiculous numbers of enrolled students. Also, students expect instructors to access the online course every single day of the week (56%). Wow! Now I may be a demanding student, but I do not expect my teacher to live and breathe my course. I suppose we teachers really may be replaced by robots one day. At least, then, these unrealistic expectations can be met.
Here are a few other tidbits I found interesting:
- Students expect online instructors to initiate email contact with each individual student at least 1 day before the semester begins.
- Students expect online instructors to announce a new unit at least 1 day prior to its beginning.
- Students do not expect online instructors to include personal photos.
- Students anticipate that online instructors should return minor assignments within 3 days.
As Bailie notes, students appear to consider themselves consumers, as well they should since they are being targeted as the audience for a consumer-based marketing strategy for education. Put simply, teaching has increasingly become about satisfying the customer, especially online teaching since the students expect a much faster and efficient presentation of material, feedback, and response from instructors. Maybe schools should adopt Burger King’s “Have It Your Way” slogan.
In general, the results of this investigation support the belief that for online faculty to meet the expectations of their students, they must demonstrate a timely and dependable presence [sic] their online courses. They must also communicate often with students through consistent feedback, widely engage in and promote opportunities for discourse, and be responsive to occasions for contact. -Bailie
If online education puts more demands on teachers from a student’s perspective, or, rather, to satisfy students, then it is no wonder so many teachers hesitate to teach online. However, it appears that some simple communication with students could alleviate this concern. Perhaps the online teacher could set expectations for himself/herself at the beginning of the semester and then have a realistic potential of living up to the students’ expectations. Self-set goals are often components of a f2f classroom. For instance, I usually tell my students to give me as long to grade their minor assignments as I gave them to complete them, or sometimes I simply ask for a week, up front. That way, they know not to get irritated until at least that week is up! Even though I usually surpass my own goals for returning work and communications, at least my students have a reference point. It would seem reasonable that students would also understand such guidelines in an online environment. Wouldn’t it?
Work Cited
Bailie, Jeffrey. “What Online Students Want Compared to What Institutions Expect.” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration XVII: II (2014). University of West Georgia. Web. 7 July 2014.
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