Using Instructional Media to Improve Student Learning Outcomes in an Online Toxicology Course - a Case Study
Over three million students are currently enrolled in fully online programs, and over six million are taking at least one course online as part of their online degree (Allen & Seaman, 2017). This proliferation of online education as an alternative to traditional classroom education makes salient the need for online instructors to continually improve student learning outcomes in online courses. For example, Weiser and Wilson (1999) noted that the development time/cost for online learning media can be up to five time more than the time/cost for traditional lectures.One of the major setbacks of online teaching is the challenging nature of student engagement and faculty-student interactions (Clark, 2009). Students are more likely to lose interest in online classes than in traditional classroom learning environments (Ward & Newlands, 1998; Sanders, 2006). Making online classes more interactive and captivating may help improve student engagement, which may lead to higher learning outcomes.
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