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Syllabus
The information contained on this page is designed to give students a representative example of material covered in the course. Any information related to course assignments, dates, or course materials is illustrative only. For a definitive list of materials, please check the online catalog 3-4 weeks before the course start date.
ADTED 532 : Research & Evaluation in Distance Education (3): Study of previous, current, and needed research strategies, and issues concerning evaluation in distance education.
Please note: The sponsoring academic department will require either ADTED 470 or ADTED 531 to be taken as a prerequisite to this course.
Overview | Objectives | Materials | Technical Requirements | Course Requirements and Grading | Course Schedule | Academic Integrity | Policies
Overview
ADTED 532 is the third of the series of courses of the study of distance education offered in the Adult Education program. This course has the general purpose of helping students develop knowledge about the main areas of research, theories, and methods in distance education, as well as some of the challenges involved in conducting research and evaluation about distance education.
This course is 13 weeks in length; it is paced, meaning that there is an established start and end date. The Web-based nature of the course allows (and requires) considerable asynchronous interaction with other students. The course is divided into an introductory lesson and 12 content lesson; each lesson should take about 12 hours to complete.
For each lesson there are two assigned readings that form the basis for written assignments and discussion among students. These have been selected from the Handbook of Distance Education (2012), edited by the subject specialist for this course, Dr. Michael G. Moore. This course has been specifically designed in conjunction with the design and publication of that book. Each Lesson of the course will require study of the selected chapters in the Handbook. However, it is strongly recommended you look on the textbook as your starting point, not the finishing point for your reading. Often the most valuable part of a chapter in the Handbook is the list of references. The references are the key to your own exploration and thus to your own life as a researcher. You are particularly encouraged to try to locate doctoral dissertations, which reflect rigorously validated research methodology.
The twelve online lessons consist of short introductory notes to each of the readings. The topics to be covered in the course are as follows:
- Lesson 1: Historical Research
- Lesson 2: Theories and Cultural Change
- Lesson 3: Learning Environments
- Lesson 4: Learner Control and Collaboration
- Lesson 5: Learners and Learner Support
- Lesson 6: Design and Teaching
- Lesson 7: Policies, Administration, and Management
- Lesson 8: Organizational Issues
- Lesson 9: Quality and Evaluation
- Lesson 10: Research on Audiences and Contexts
- Lesson 11: Legal and Economic Issues
- Lesson 12: Globalization
Course Objectives
As a result of participating in the course, you should be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge about previous and ongoing research in distance education regarding:
- history, theory, and philosophy
- the characteristics of learners
- methods and techniques of course design and delivery
- institutional, local, and national policy
- administration and management
- different audiences and organizations
- economic and legal issues
- global and international issues
- Articulate understanding of questions requiring further research in each of the above areas.
- Show knowledge of the methods used in research as well as in program and institutional evaluation.
- Know and use the main sources of literature and electronic sources of information about distance education research and evaluation.
- Critically evaluate research publications.
Required Course Materials
Most World Campus courses require that students purchase materials (e.g., textbooks, specific software, etc.). To learn about how to order materials, please see the Course Materials page. You should check LionPATH approximately 3–4 weeks before the course begins for a list of required materials.
Using the Library
Many of the University Libraries resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the Libraries website, you can
- access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases;
- borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep—or even your desktop;
- get research help via email, chat, or phone using the Ask a Librarian service; and
- much more.
You must have an active Penn State Access Account to take full advantage of the Libraries' resources and service. The Off-Campus Users page has additional information about these free services.
Technical Requirements
| Operating System | Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS), supports most recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac operating systems. To determine if your operating system is supported, please review Canvas' computer specifications. |
|---|---|
| Browser | Canvas supports the last two versions of every major browser release. It is highly recommended that you update to the newest version of whatever browser you are using. Note: Cookies must be enabled, and pop-up blockers should be configured to permit new windows from Penn State websites. |
| Additional Canvas Requirements | For a list of software, hardware, and computer settings specifically required by the Canvas LMS, please review Canvas' computer specifications. |
| Additional Software | All Penn State students have access to Microsoft Office 365, including Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. |
| Hardware | Monitor: Monitor capable of at least 1024 x 768 resolution |
| Mobile Device (optional) | The Canvas mobile app is available for versions of iOS and Android. To determine if your device is capable of using the Canvas Mobile App, please review the Canvas Mobile App Requirements. |
Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ)
During the semester you will receive information for completing the Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ). Your participation is an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on your learning experience. Your feedback is important because it allows us to understand your experience in this course and make changes to improve the learning experiences of future students. Please monitor email and course communications for links and availability dates.
If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Service Desk.
For registration, advising, disability services, help with materials, exams, general problem solving, visit World Campus Student Services!
Course Requirements and Grading
Participation
Your participation grade is based on regular participation in discussion forums and on submission of your weekly reflective journal entries. Discussion forum assignments include article summaries that are based on both text and video. There will be self-evaluations at the course midway point and at the end of the semester. The instructor will have final responsibility for assigning points and will take the student evaluation into consideration.
Unit Assignments
Beginning in Lesson 4, three bi-weekly assignment questions will form the basis for short reports (500 to 750 words) from each student, to be uploaded for grading and posted to their designated group's online discussion forum on the last day of the week. In alternate weeks, you will participate in mandatory discussion of these reports with your group. The questions to guide your reports (and the subsequent discussions of them) are presented in the discussion area for the appropriate week.
Annotated Bibliography
Primary research articles are those written by the researchers who themselves conducted the study; contrast them with review articles, such as the chapters in the Handbook. References and annotations will be submitted to a Collaborations Word file (a class bibliography) in order to be accessible to other students.
An annotation consists of two elements: several sentences that summarize the content of the article and several sentences that evaluate the article in terms of its rigor, usefulness in the existing knowledge base, usefulness for certain audiences, and the like. Make sure your annotations include both summary and evaluative comments; do not use the abstract provided by the authors or research databases, since that is the work and intellectual property of someone else (and does not include evaluative comments anyway). Please insert your annotation in the appropriate alphabetical position in the class bibliography and include your initials in parentheses after the annotation so that the instructor can quickly see who has contributed.
At the end of the course, you will collect all of your personal submissions to the bibliography into a single document and submit it to the Annotated Bibliography assignment. This is not a separate assignment; you will use the same references and annotations that you contributed to the class bibliography throughout the semester. However, having all your annotations in a separate document will make it easier for the instructor to assess your contributions to the class bibliography. This is also an opportunity for you to make any refinements to your APA formatting and to the content of your annotations before being graded on the assignment.
Research and Evaluation Distance Education Symposium
In this course, we have designed a real-world scenario of submitting a proposal to an academic symposium. You will choose whether you want to work individually, as a group, or with a partner to develop a final project that you will share with the class through a discussion post. We have scaffolded assignments beginning in Lesson 3 to guide you in this process. Also, you will work in a group with those who have chosen the same area to explore; your group will serve as experts, using the lens of one of the following four areas to help you develop your final project and unit assignments:
- historical and theoretical foundations of distance education;
- teaching and learning in distance education;
- management, policy, and administration in distance education; or
- audiences and providers in distance education.
Educational research is the systematic investigation of a question or problem. Researchers engage in the process in order to better understand
- particular dimensions of teaching–learning theories,
- different educational contexts or populations,
- the effectiveness of particular practices,
- social or historical issues that influence education, and
- a host of other focus areas.
What a researcher decides to investigate depends on many factors: an individual educator’s professional goals and values, specific challenges they might be facing in their practice, or an investigation assigned by a supervisor, among others. The method chosen by the researcher—document analysis, experimental study, observational study, qualitative research (such as interviews)—depends on the researcher’s beliefs about the ability of a particular method to answer the research question, since different methods are more or less appropriate for different questions or problems. If you decided to conduct a research study about some aspect of distance education as a way to better understand and address a problem in your own practice, or for a master's thesis, or as a major report for your employer, what research question and method might you choose?
At the end of the course you will submit a final project on a distance education topic that you believe reflects an important research question, problem, or gap in current knowledge. Your final project should do the following things:
- explain why this topic is important enough to justify the time and resources necessary to examine it through research,
- suggest an appropriate research method for answering the question you identify (you will not actually be applying this method, just discussing why it would be a useful approach), and
- present your overall conclusions about the topic based on the research reports you reviewed. For example, was there agreement among researchers on the topic? Did you note a need for further research? For what populations or educators or in what practice contexts might the research you reviewed be relevant? You may make different or additional observations about the body of literature that you reviewed.
Your discussion should include a review of at least ten articles of recent research related to the topic, no more than three of which may duplicate your contributions to the annotated bibliography. For the purposes of this assignment, only those aspects of the articles you review that are relevant to the study you're proposing need to be included in your research proposal. For example, the author of one of the studies you review might state two goals for her research, only one of which is relevant to the study you want to conduct. In this case, your comments about this article wouldn't say anything about the irrelevant goal or findings related to that goal; you would only mention findings that connect to your focus. (This is somewhat different from the entries in an annotated bibliography, where you'd want to give a more complete—although brief—overview of what's covered in a particular article. However, this more limited approach keeps the focus on your research question and also keeps the length of the assignment more manageable.)
Your overall course grade will be based on
- your short reports (Assignments 1 through 3, a total of 30% of your final grade),
- your bibliography (10% of your final grade),
- participation in the class discussions (30% of your final grade), and
- your final paper (30% of your final grade).
In calculating the final grade for the course, scores for each item will be determined as outlined below. The maximum possible final score will be 100 points.
|
Assignment
|
% of Final Grade
|
Individual Point Value
|
Total Points Possible
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Short topical reports (Assignments 1–3; three postings) |
30%
|
10 points per report |
30 points
|
| Annotated Bibliography |
10%
|
points awarded at end of course
|
10 points
|
| Discussion participation (two evaluations) |
30%
|
15 for the first half
15 for the second half
|
30 points
|
| Final project, including Call for Proposal |
30% |
30 points
|
30 points
|
| TOTAL |
100%
|
-
|
100 points
|
In evaluating your work in this course, in general, credit will be given for the quality of research reports you identify, make sense of, discuss critically, and share with classmates. More details on evaluation criteria for written assignments and discussion postings are available on the Additional Resources page.
The final grades of A, B, C, and D will be assigned as follows.
|
Letter Grade |
Percentage Range |
|---|---|
|
A
|
94%–100% |
|
A-
|
90%–94% |
|
B+
|
87%–90% |
|
B
|
84%–87% |
|
B-
|
80%–84% |
|
C+
|
77%–80% |
|
C
|
70%–77%
|
|
D
|
60%–70%
|
|
F
|
Less than 60% |
Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Graduate Courses for additional information about University grading policies.
Assignment Policies
Assignments and course discussions all have a due date for submission to the course instructor. These due dates are noted in the Course Schedule. Late assignments will, in most cases, be penalized unless you have made prior arrangements with the instructor. If you believe you may miss a deadline for submission, contact the instructor before the due date and time, not after. Deadlines will be defined as 11:59 p.m. (ET).
If you know you will be offline (for example, traveling) the day an assignment is due, please make sure to submit it early. If at any time you believe that you might be falling behind in the course, contact the instructor to discuss your situation. If you have an assignment completed by the deadline but are unable to submit it for technical reasons, contact the IT Service Desk then send it to the instructor by email to demonstrate that it was completed on time. However, you must submit the assignment once the submission space becomes available. No assignments can be accepted after 11:59 p.m. (ET) on the final day of class unless you have made prior arrangements with the instructor.
The majority of the assignments for this course will be submitted to Canvas Discussions or Assignments. For assignments, you will submit to drop boxes, and you are required to use Microsoft Word. For lengthy discussion forum posts, it is recommended that you draft your post using a word-processing program and then copy and paste the information into your forum posting (or email message). That way, you will have a copy saved on your computer should anything go wrong!
You will receive assignment grades and feedback privately via the assignment submission area.
Finally, please keep a copy of all your work. We cannot assume responsibility for lost items.
The schedule below outlines the topics we will be covering in this course, along with the associated time frames and assignments. Note that assignments are due based on North American Eastern Time (ET). This ensures that all students have the same deadlines regardless of where they live. All lesson assignments must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on the last day of the timeframe indicated below for the lesson.
In addition to the topics and assignments, the tables below list out the required readings for each lesson. Please note, these readings may be links, specific chapters from your text, and/or eReserves from the library. To access eReserves, click on the Library Resources link on the Canvas Navigation menu.
- Course begins:
- Course ends:
- Course length: 16 weeks
Note: All due dates reflect North American eastern time (ET).
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Note: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please go to the Graduation Information on the My Penn State Online Student Portal.
NOTE: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please see "Graduation" on the World Campus Student Policies website.
Academic Integrity
According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity , an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.
Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity ). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic outcomes, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes which may include ineligibility for Dean’s List, pass/fail elections, and grade forgiveness. Students may also face consequences from their home/major program and/or The Schreyer Honors College.
How Academic Integrity Violations Are Handled
World Campus students are expected to act with civility and
personal integrity; respect other students' dignity, rights, and
property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all
can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment
of academic integrity is requisite to respect for oneself and
others, as well as a civil community.
In cases where academic integrity is questioned, the Policy on Academic Integrity indicates that procedure requires an instructor to inform the student of the allegation. Procedures allow a student to accept or contest a charge. If a student chooses to contest a charge, the case will then be managed by the respective college or campus Academic Integrity Committee. If that committee recommends an administrative sanction (Formal Warning, Conduct Probation, Suspension, Expulsion), the claim will be referred to the Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response.
All Penn State colleges abide by this Penn State policy, but review procedures may vary by college when academic dishonesty is suspected. Information about Penn State's academic integrity policy and college review procedures is included in the information that students receive upon enrolling in a course. To obtain that information in advance of enrolling in a course, please contact us by going to the Contacts & Help page .
Course Policies
- Accommodating Disabilities
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has resources for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contacts for disability services at every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit the SDR website.
In order to apply for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability resources office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation based on the documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus's disability resources office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.
- Registration Status:
All students in "Registration Not Complete" status must resolve issues on or before the 10th day after classes begin. Students who do not complete registration by paying tuition and fees by this deadline will not be able to remain in nursing clinical courses. University policy on completing registration can be found at http://www.registrar.psu.edu/registration/completing_registration.cfm.
- Procedures for Resolution of Problems
For procedures pertaining to a range of concerns and disagreements involving graduate students and other members of the University community (e.g, faculty, staff, or undergraduate student), please see the Procedures for Resolution of Problems (Appendix II) website.
- Additional Course Policies
For information about additional policies regarding Penn State Access Accounts; credit by examination; course tuition, fees, and refund schedules; and drops and withdrawals, please see the World Campus Student Center website.
Disclaimer: Please note that the specifics of this Course Syllabus are subject to change, and you will be responsible for abiding by any such changes. Your instructor will notify you of any changes.