Key Takeaways from the CETL Online Student Preferences Survey

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Last revised: 04/25/2024 by cah

Overview:

In late 2022, eCampus launched a survey to determine student preferences as related to online courses. The survey went out to all students who completed an eCampus online course, which includes both undergraduate (68%) and graduate (32%) students. The survey was sent to 7300 students and 665 responded (9%).

Background

The survey questions were developed around the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric, which is used to review the design of online courses developed with eCampus. The QM standards are focused around the following general areas:

  1. Course Overview and Introduction
  2. Learning Objectives
  3. Assessment and Measurement
  4. Instructional Materials
  5. Course Activities and Learner Interaction
  6. Course Technology
  7. Learner Support
  8. Accessibility and Usability

The full list of survey questions contains 48 questions.

Summary of Survey Results

CETL Online Student Preferences Survey Results: 84% prefer captioned videos; 16% use a screen reader; 70% prefer videos less than 12 minutes; 87% find rubrics helpful in assignment completion; 85% reports rubrics improve future submissions; 73% find a course orientation useful. Suggestions for future online courses include: more instructor interaction, ensure dates and links are updated, and increase the number of online courses.

Many of the best practices eCampus has in place were confirmed by the results, such as creating short videos with closed captioning, providing accessible materials, using rubrics, and offering a course orientation. Top feedback from students also aligned with best practices including requests for increased interaction with instructors, and to ensure dates and links are updated. Students would also like more online courses offered. In addition to the results noted in the infographic, students reported they like having objectives listed, resources are easy to find, courses have about the right number of clicks and right amount of scrolling, and the number of videos within courses are the correct amount. The full survey results can be reviewed in the Results Report.

Related Posts and Resources:

  1. Best Practices and Expectations for Online Teaching at UConn
  2. eCampus Accessibility Checklist and Guide
  3. Use Ally to Improve Accessibility of HuskyCT Content
  4. Creating & Managing Videos for Teaching and Learning
  5. Managing Your Online Course

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