Abstract
Chapter 1 shares the study that led to this book. PAUSE, as a framework, was tested in a mixed-methods study with faculty at a large online university over 16 weeks. The study included a pre-study workshop, bi-weekly surveys, and analysis of both the self-report data and the qualitative data received through the surveys throughout the entirety of the study. Results showed a significant difference in self-reported confidence with providing feedback that is meant to support students' persistence at an online university. Likewise, four qualitative themes emerged that provide support for online faculty who are providing feedback to university students.
I had a major breakthrough this week! A student emailed me after two weeks of my using the PAUSE method, and REALLY asked for thorough help, more examples of HOW she could do well, and more resources! I am SO excited to report this! -Faculty Participant
As a faculty member at a large online university, it is essential to understand how to support students and faculty for the common goal of persistence and retention. Without this goal, there is no university. However, how a team reaches that goal varies and is open to debate. One way to ensure faculty quality that supports students is to engage in a yearly instructional quality review (teaching evaluation). These yearly reviews make it possible to glean an understanding of a faculty’s capacity for engagement, presence, and feedback. The compilation of team reviews provides themes and understandings that can be converted to professional development and the creation of support for successful online teaching and learning.
Online university faculty, whether contingent/adjunct or full-time, are subject matter experts. This is important to consider as they have spent extensive time studying and researching in their fields. However, not all subject matter experts have been through pedagogy or andragogy teaching or preparatory programs meant to support students in a way that overcomes transactional distance to a positive degree progression. Since many online university programs are accelerated, providing specific and applicable feedback that is just-in-time can support a student's progression and overcome the transactional distance of online higher education. This provides an opportunity for lead faculty to support their team’s development, whether full-time or contingent/adjunct faculty, in providing feedback in a way that overcomes many challenges in online distance education.
This book comes from the understanding that not all online university subject matter experts have had training in andragogy or pedagogy (even online teaching) or have even gained a complete understanding of how transactional distance can impact students’ persistence and retention, which is absolutely crucial. Without this training and understanding, it is easy to make assumptions about the students who should be in our courses instead of learning about the students who have a virtual seat in our courses. Still, faculty are often open to learning new techniques that support their determination to support students with virtual seats in their courses.
Over the many years of engaging as an instructional quality review evaluator, one area that often eludes subject matter experts is providing feedback in academic writing. While we want all of our students to join our universities with quality writing backgrounds, this is not a given for several reasons. Subject matter experts now find themselves as writing teachers in addition to teaching subject matter.
Seeing this frustration among faculty, a dive into literature served two purposes. First, as a faculty developer, mentor, and coach, it was essential to ensure that the support provided to and for faculty was specific and research-based. Second, it was important to know what other faculty supports were being published. This is how the acronym PAUSE came to be. PAUSE is a culmination of literature and the result of a study with online adjunct faculty across one large online university. Overwhelmingly, faculty felt that this framework provided a tangible way to support students as they developed their academic writing across the content. Many faculty adopted it to ensure that their feedback helped students in an actionable manner in their discipline. Since this framework can be used across almost any discipline, the flexible nature of PAUSE is one way to ensure that our feedback is positive, applicable, understandable, specific, and encouraging regardless of the content area being studied.
TopResearch Questions
The appropriateness and applicability of PAUSE was tested through a mixed methods study with the following research questions:
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Will the acronym PAUSE increase faculty feedback to support students’ academic writing in online courses?
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Will the acronym PAUSE increase faculty growth in confidence in providing feedback on students’ writing?
From there, the following hypotheses were drafted:
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H1: The acronym PAUSE will increase faculty feedback to support students' academic writing in online courses.
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H2: The acronym PAUSE will increase faculty growth in confidence providing feedback on students’ writing.
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Null: The acronym PAUSE will have no impact on faculty feedback or growth in providing writing feedback in online courses.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Continuum for Capacity Building Framework: The framework used to position the broader study in the context of online higher education. This framework shows that through the combination of androgogy and pedagogy, while keeping in mind the building heutagogy of online students, faculty can narrow the transactional distance of online higher education.
PAUSE: A framework for giving feedback that reminds faculty to provide praise, and then applicable, understandable, specific, and encouraging feedback.
Mixed Method Study: Research that includes the collection and dissemination of both numerical information, as well as interview or narrative participant information.
Feedback: Summary information provided to students to help them understand their areas of strengths and opportunity with the skills and subskills needed to complete assignments or to be successful in the online university.
Online University: A university that offers the majority, if not all, of their courses online. This is particularly relevant to this study and book as all of the faculty were instructors at a large, 100% online, university.