Synchronous virtual classrooms: Student perceptions from an online and blended education course

Author

Parker, Michele A. ; Martin, Florence

Author_Institution

Watson Sch. of Educ., Univ. of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA

fYear

2010

Firstpage

93

Lastpage

100

Abstract

Virtual classrooms are online environments that enable students and instructors to interact as if they were face to face in a classroom. In this study, the researchers compared the perceptions of 57 undergraduate students who used the virtual classroom in a fully online and a blended education course. Students in the fully online course rated the virtual classroom features and characteristics higher than students in the blended course. There were statistically significant differences for 9 out of the 16 features that were investigated. Three of the four characteristics were statistically significant. Instructors can integrate this information in their course design and delivery to ensure that students benefit from a rewarding learning experience.

Keywords

computer aided instruction; distance learning; educational courses; interactive systems; student experiments; blended education course; learning experience; online education course; student perception; synchronous virtual classroom; Auditory displays; Digital audio players; Distance learning; Education courses; Educational institutions; Educational technology; TV; Teleconferencing; Video sharing; Virtual environment; e-learners; instructional design; technology; virtual classroom; virtual learning community;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Technology for Education (T4E), 2010 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Mumbai

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7362-5

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-7361-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/T4E.2010.5550054

Filename

5550054