Project Description and Course Overview

IBIS Report

Tara Lyons

January 30, 2013

Project Description and Course Overview

For the IBIS project in Fall 2012, I assessed how blended learning affects students’ perceptions of classroom community in ENL 258, Literary Studies. As M.G. Graff writes, "Classroom community may be referred to as the sense of trust and interaction between groups of learners."[1] In an online or blended environment, classroom community can be derived from learners shared knowledge of a particular subject.[2] Graff observes that students in the online environment who recognize membership in a community experience “feelings of cohesion”, which not only correlates with but is essential “for good [academic] performance” in a course.[3]My larger aim in this study was to address educators’ concerns about online learning in the humanities classroom where much of the learning occurs in interactive discussions and peer review exercises. My own concern was that by reducing face-to-face courses, students’ sense of cohesion might decrease. This, however, was not at all what the data suggests.

To foster a sense of classroom community in ENL 258, I asked students to participate in a variety of discussions (online and face-to-face), complete five peer reviews of their peers’ writing, and take quizzes on readings to stay current with course materials. Each of these assignments was designed to encourage students to stay on track with assignments and to learn from their peers, thereby constructing an environment of learners with shared knowledge and shared aims.

ENL 258 was divided into three units based on literary genre. During Weeks 1-5, the Poetry unit, all classes took place face-to-face. Students completed these assignments:

In-class discussions
2 quizzes
3 short writing exercises
1 peer review
1 formal essay (4 pages)

During Weeks 6-10, the Drama unit, five classes were held online, one class per week. Unit 2 consisted of these assignments

2 online discussion and many in-class discussions
2 online quizzes
2 short writing exercises
1 library tutorial
2 peer reviews
1 annotated bibliography
1 formal essay (4 pages) using three secondary peer-reviewed sources

Unit 3 on Fiction, Weeks 11-15, was blended, with two online classes. Students during Unit 3 completed these assignments:

1 paper/pencil quiz
1 short writing assignment
1 online discussion and many in-class discussions
2 online peer reviews
1 paper revision
1 formal essay (5 pages) using two secondary peer-reviewed sources

Data Collected

I administered four identical surveys to gauge students’ perceptions of classroom community in ENL 258. Each survey (see Figure 1) consisted of twenty statements that I adapted from the “Class Community Scale” published in the article “Development of an Instrument to Measure Classroom Community.”[4]

Students were asked to select the answer thatcame closest to indicating how they felt about the course: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. The four surveys were administered at different times during the semester to provide me with data on changes in students’ perceptions. Survey 1 was given on September 10th, the third day of class, and was intended to set a baseline for comparison. The second survey was administered on October 10th after completing the face-to-face Unit 1. The point of this survey was to establish yet another baseline for comparison based on students’ perception of community in the face-to-face classroom versus the blended one. The third survey was given on November 19th after completing the first blended unit, Unit 3, and the fourth survey was given on December 7th after students completed Unit 4 and the entire course.

Even though students earned 5 points for completing each survey, participation varied.

19 students completed Survey 1 (20 were enrolled)
17 students completed Survey 2 (20 were enrolled)
10 students completed Survey 3 (15 were enrolled)
13 students completed Survey 4 (15 were enrolled)

The data in Figure 2 shows the percentage of students’ responses to each statement on the surveys. The numbers in the tables represent the percentage of students who selected each answer. For example, for Question 1, 5 students (25.3%) Agreed with the statement, 13 students (68.4% ) were Neutral, and 1 student (5.3%) Disagreed.Because of the small sample size, the results are skewed at times.

Data Analysis

For the purposes of this report, I decided to focus on three questions from the survey to evaluate students’ perceptions of community: 1, 5, 12.

Question 1: I feel that students in this course care about each other.

The data from this question strongly suggests that blended learning can improve students’ sense of community. On the third day of class, only 26.4% of the class felt that other students in the course cared about them. By week 5 and after the face-to-face unit, that number increased to 64.7%. After the first blended unit (Unit 3), the number jumped to 80% and after Unit 4, 100% of the respondents felt that others cared about them in the class. While I cannot conclude that blending the course was the reason that students congealed in ENL 258, it surely did not decrease students’ sense of community. The numbers, in fact, from Survey 2 to 3 would suggest that it increased that sense, although students naturally may feel more cohesive after 15 weeks together.

Question 5: I do not feel a spirit of community in this course.

The data from this question likewise suggests that blended learning can improve students’ sense of community and does not hinder it. After Survey 1, students had a general sense of community in ENL 258. Nearly half the class, 47.3%, disagreed with the statement. At the end of the first face-to-face unit, 58.8% of respondents disagreed with the statement. After the first blended unit, this number jumped to 77.7% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with the statement. This number stayed about the same after the second blended unit, 77.7%. The 11% increase between Survey 1 and Survey 2 suggests that the face-to-face unit and likely just getting to know their fellow students helped create a spirit of community. The largest jump, however, occurs after the first blended unit; there was an 18.9% increase in the number of students disagreeing with the statement. This data again indicates that blending did not hamper students’ feelings of community but may have assisted in boosting that sense.

Question 12: I feel a spirit of community in most of my college courses.

I asked this question so that I could compare students’ sense of community in other courses with those in ENL 258. For Survey 1, only 15.8% of the class agreed that they felt “a spirit of community in most of my college courses.” 42.1% of the class was neutral, and 36.8% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. By the end of the course (Survey 4), a much higher percentage of students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement (38.5%), although 38.5% still did not feel a sense of community in most of their college course.

My conclusion here is that students entered ENL 258 feeling less connected in their overall courses than when they left, approximately 23% of the students felt more connected by the end. I use this number as a baseline. If there was more than a 23% change in feelings of community from Survey 1 to Survey 4 in ENL 258, my class was creating that sense more than other courses and perhaps the blending was partly responsible. According to Question 1, there was a 73.6% increase in feelings of community from Survey 1 to Survey 4, a drastic change in how students felt about others in the course. Question 5 illustrates a smaller increase, 30.4% from Survey 1 to Survey 4; however, compared with 23% for other courses, I suggest that the students in this section of ENL 258 felt an increase in their sense of community as the semester progressed. Considering that the blended units were scheduled from weeks 6-15, I feel quite certain that blended did not negatively impact students’ sense of community.

Peer/Mentor Experience

Anupama Arora and I e-mailed about my proposed project and discussed her project on implementing quizzes in English literature courses. She visited my class for a face-to-face observation during Unit 3 and administered a survey. More direct communication on both our parts would have improved the mentor/mentee experience.

Figure 1

Surveys

Directions: Below, you will see a series of statements concerning ENL 258. Read each statement carefully and circle the statement that comes closest to indicating how you feel about the course. You may use a pencil or pen. There are no correct or incorrect responses. If you neither agree nor disagree with a statement or are uncertain, choose Neutral.

Do not spend too much time on any one statement, but give the response that seems to describe how you feel. Please respond to all items.

1. I feel that students in this course care about each other.