Abstract
Online courses and programs have increased in enrollment across diverse demographics due to their accessibility and flexibility. Faculty roles currently include a commitment to meeting the learning needs of a diverse online classroom in order to positively impact student outcomes and retention. Engagement and retention are fostered when online communities support culturally relevant pedagogy that includes multimedia learning and assessment, choice, and interactive, guided dialoguing where students can express their personal cultural discourse and integrate their learning with their own cultural stance.
TopBackground
The purpose of this portion of the chapter is to have the reader further their understanding of the growth of online education at institutions of higher education in the United States. Distance learning in higher education can be traced back as far as 1892 when the University of Chicago as well as Pennsylvania State College both began offering correspondence courses through the mail (Dawson, 2017; Scott, 1999). Once the Internet was developed in the 1970s, distance education was transformed. Through the 1980s, Internet-based online courses and programs moved from being a research experiment to becoming globally available. The turn of the 21st Century has seen major universities adding online courses to curricula—and moving degree programs entirely online.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Inception: Undertaking or being at the beginning, start, or first stage of a specific thing.
Dissemination: The act of spreading or dispersing information, news, knowledge, opinions, and ideas to many people. Students receive disseminated information from instructors.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically—using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Inclusivity: Including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.
Distance Learning: A method of study that is conducted outside a physical classroom by some form of correspondence such as mail, radio, or the internet.
Empathy: Identification or experience with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another person.
Student Learning Outcomes: A student learning outcome in higher education is specific to the institutional objectives—and states what students are expected to learn in terms of knowledge, skills, and applied abilities and competencies.
Retention Rate: Retention rate is based on taking data on the number of first-time students admitted to a certain class, comparing it to the data on the number of students returning the next year, and then expressing it as a ratio or percentage.
Demographic: A statistical accounting of human population factors such as age, education, or income.
Hate Speech: Speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or group on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
Assessment: This is a general term that refers to the wide variety of methods and tools educators use to determine and document student academic readiness, learning progress, skill development milestones, and educational gaps.
Collaboration: The action of working with others to produce or create something.