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This brief study addresses the problem of measuring how much time is required for students to complete online activities. The absence of a teacher as timekeeper and mediator, as well as the general variation between course delivery structures makes it difficult to determine accurately how long digital assignments will take students to complete. Our solution is to identify and define a simple unit of measurement - the decision point - and to make suggestions about how that unit can help us plan our course content and activities.

Andrew Peterson, University of Oklahoma
Rob Reynolds, Xplana.com

Introduction

This brief study addresses the problem of measuring how much time is required for students to complete online activities. The absence of a teacher as timekeeper and mediator, as well as the general variation between course delivery structures makes it difficult to determine accurately how long digital assignments will take students to complete. Our solution is to identify and define a simple unit of measurement - the decision point - and to make suggestions about how that unit can help us plan our course content and activities.

Measuring Time

Four years ago we began working with faculty in an effort to help them take advantage of the digital possibilities of our department’s new computer laboratory. That initial stage of work was focused primarily on creating digital media. We worked with instructors to digitize tapes, create Web pages, and help convert language activities from print to various electronic formats. These digital materials were, in general, used as course supplements to traditional classroom teaching.

One of the initial questions posed by many instructors was how long it would take students to complete the digital counterparts to the old analog materials. They were accustomed to making assignments from a workbook or laboratory manual, and knew with relative certainty how long it took students to complete the respective assignments. As we fielded these questions, we became aware that there were indeed issues particular to assigning digital media and that it would be helpful to have guidelines.

Our initial solution, one wrought from the repetitive use of a narrow set of materials, was to simply measure the approximate time required to complete certain activities and exercises and to make those estimates available to the instructors. Over a period of several years, however, we began to realize that our initial measurements were only partly accurate. The actual learning purpose or context of the digital material was a critical variable when it came to estimating how much time was required to complete digital activities.

The importance of learning context became more apparent when we began combining digital assets for use in fully-online settings. Traditional classroom environments are “instructor-mediated” - the instructor serves as timekeeper (constantly available to adjust time) and mediator for student progress on activities and projects. In the traditional classroom, the Instructor is always present to alter instructions or modify the parameters of activities and assignments - and usually in real time. The online learning environment offers much less instructor mediation and when it does occur, it is typically asynchronous. Without the ever-present instructor as an experienced interpreter of the learning context for an activity, the student is dependent of the system itself to measure how long he/she should spend on a given section of the course.

In addition to the importance of the learning context for a digital activity, we also discovered that the course delivery structure was pivotal in determining how long activities would take students to complete (and what kind of activities might be appropriate). It makes a difference if a course falls into a one-to-many category as opposed to a many-to-many format.

As we reassessed our own goals and the benefits of measuring accurately how much time students required to complete assigned digital activities, we realized that it might be possible to come up with a system that would meet our immediate needs as well as assist us in structuring fully-online courses more effectively.

We began by looking at some of the differences between mediated and non-mediated course environments. In the classroom, change through mediation is fairly constant. Teachers and students often become bored with a structured tedium and make frequent, if not subtle, changes to their teaching or classroom template. Assigned activities are modified on the fly and changes are made in response to changes in the world. Without this constant mediator - a classroom teacher whom students actually see and talk to several times a week, and who can explain changes to them in a way that they can understand - there is less change and flexibility. While mediation often equates to change, we also recognized that there are different types of mediation that take place in the classroom. While, in a general sense, we can say that the teacher mediates all activities in the classroom, we know that this happens in different ways - through question-and-answer sessions, walking around and observing group work, or working through assignments with a class. All forms of mediation in the classroom alter the amount of time it takes students to work through the information and activities for a course.

Our realization was that, stripped of teacher mediation, learning becomes a series of decisions and choices that students make. Reading a chapter in a book, reviewing instructions, answering questions - these are all decision-making processes in which students interact with information and must decide what to do with it. In the classroom, the instructor often functions as a mediator that facilitates the decisions students must make. Outside of class, however, students are on their own. In online settings, where there is generally no mediation for the various decision points in learning, there is neither a mediator to explain the instructions differently nor a timekeeper to speed things along by giving the class permission to skip a section of an assignment.

The result is that the one constant in all learning is the decision point. By focusing our attention on those moments, we can arrive at some helpful conclusions for talking about time and digital activities.

Decision points

Decision points are those points/actions that must be crossed/taken in order for a student to proceed in the learning objectives of a course - regardless of the environment in which that learning takes place. Decision points are functional as a means for measuring time because they represent a stable value in every learning process, and because they can be weighted easily for mediated and non-mediated activities. If a teacher leads students through an activity in the classroom, there is a decision point but it is mediated and therefore requires less actual time from the individual student. Online, that student would have to complete all of the items of the activity without any assistance. Similarly, a student online may encounter an explanation decision point at which it is necessary to read for comprehension before proceeding to the next section or activity. In the classroom, such explanations are usually handled by the teacher and can be less or more time consuming because of the mediation. The decision point, and its subsequent value categories, however, can account for these differences.

It is important to note that, while the concept of the decision point is stable, we are really talking about a variety of decision point types that must be considered. The most basic type of decision point is what we call the simple decision point. This category includes explanatory information, such as lecture notes, introductions to courses, that students receive passively and require no immediate processing or action.

Mediated decision points are decision points that must be understood in order for students to progress further in a course or learning experience. They information here is structured to “assist” the student by walking him/her through a concept or assignment. In the classroom, this type of decision point is often in the form of a teacher presentation with follow-up questions. Online, instructors use multimedia to augment a decision point and often present the same information in multiple formats to make sure the material is understood.

Decision points + activities are instances in which a student must read instructions and then complete an assignment or quiz. Because of the accompanying activity, students generally take longer to process these decision points and spend more time reading through or listening to the introductory material.

The final type of decision point is the check point. A check point generally takes the form of a review activity or quiz. Check points are a bit of a paradox. From a teacher’s perspective they are often insignificant and shouldn’t take too much of the allotted class time (ten minutes for a simple quiz). For students, however, checkpoints are often more significant than other decision points in terms of grades and therefore take more of their time in preparation. This difference in perceptions is particularly important in online learning environments as the mediator and timekeeper is generally not present at the time the student is negotiating the particular decision point.

The essential difference between the identified decision points - simple, mediated, activity, and check point - is in the amount of time they require for a student to work through them. We have listed them in order both in terms of the amount of time required and in terms of the amount of freedom each represents to the student. Simple decision points, as passive information, allow students great flexibility in terms of when and if they work through the information. At the other end of the spectrum, check points allow students no freedom and they rake more time because of their importance in the grading scheme.

Putting Decision Points to Use

All of this is important when we determine the types of digital materials we want to assign and as we build fully-online frameworks for learning. Ultimately, we must consider each digital segment as a separate decision point and then evaluate the best combination of decision points that will maximize the student’s learning time most efficiently and effectively.

In our particular case, the use of digital materials in labs and online courses is limited primarily to beginning and intermediate language courses. This is important because the delivery structure in these courses is generally the same - many-to-many. Delivery structure is important because different decision points tend to be more or less effective depending on the delivery structure in which they are positioned.

Of the different possible class delivery structures - one-to-many, many-to-many, one-to-one, and combinations of the three - most language classes benefit more from a many-to-may approach as it provides a structure for aggressive group and individual interaction. It is also the delivery structure that provides the greatest selection and flexibility in terms of decision points.

In a many-to-many class delivery structure, the importance of the different decision point categories for digital assets and online courses breaks down in the following manner:

• Simple Decision Points - Low importance and low emphasis;
• Mediated Decision Points - High importance and high emphasis;
• Decision Points with Activities - High importance (used to broaden understanding) and high emphasis;
• Check Points - High importance and low emphasis.

Interestingly, the importance and emphasis we have assigned to the different decision-point types does not necessarily reflect the “institutional importance” attached to each one. The syllabus, for example, is a simple decision point. For institutions this has become a type of legal contract and, therefore, has great significance. For students, however, it is a passive piece of information (so passive it is often lost or discarded) useful only as a general reference tool but most often unnecessary because instructors always repeat important dates and assignments.

In our language courses, whether with stand-alone online assignments for traditional classes or with online courses, we see the greatest benefit being derived from activities and assignments that are either mediated decision points or decision points with activities. These types of assignments and activities require the student to “use” the target language actively but also provide a more comfortable structure in which to work. These two decision-point categories also mimic classroom interaction more closely than do simple decision points or check points.

Simple decision points have low importance and low emphasis in the digital world. Even when we try to place a high emphasis on them, students still consider them of low importance. As such, we want to limit their use to administrative and reference use. These decision points should always be viewed as passive information that the student may or may not consult on a needed basis. Simple decision points for a language course include -

• Syllabus
• Course Description
• Weekly Calendar
• Some Grammar points

Mediated decision points are the backbone of traditional and online language courses. These decision points require heavy emphasis in the planning and participation stages of the course. Mediated decision points represent activities that demand the involvement of the students with programs, instructors, or other students where their involvement shapes the outcome or progression of the course. Examples of mediated decision points may include -

• Interactive Vocabulary practice quizzes
• Grammar Exercises mediated by quizzes and understanding checkpoints
• Question Answer sessions
• Video Conferencing

These types of activities represent those where the student’s understanding of subject matter is expanded and solidified by follow-up information, exercises, questions or other feedback. A concrete example of a mediated decision point in a language course may include a short segment utilizing a specific grammar point, followed by a brief description of the grammar rule and practice exercises to test a student’s understanding. If the student were to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the materials based upon the practice exercises, additional materials would then be presented to solidify the understanding of the point in question.

Decision points with activities are slightly different than the mediated decision points discussed previously. These types of decision points attempt to broaden the students’ understanding of a subject or topic. A commonly used example of a decision point with activities would be a short cultural reading followed by a reading assignment asking the student to expound upon the materials presented in the reading and include thoughts and opinions on the subject matter. A group presentation or activity could also be utilized to solidify a reading concept or cultural topic and take the place of an individual writing assignment.

Finally we come to the decision point where students focus so much of their time and effort in the check point. Check points include items such as exams and quizzes. These types of exercises generally take up very little time in the primary planning and procedural portions of the course, yet they receive rather heavy emphasis in the overall determination of a student’s course performance. These decision points are very useful for instructors to determine the overall understanding of the materials presented. Instructors should use results from these decision points to provide further information or decision points covering areas where a weakness is demonstrated by a student or the class as a whole. The limitation of check points, as we mentioned above, is that students place more time emphasis on them than on other types of decision points. It is important, then, to minimize the number of check points in an online course or to reduce the stated emphasis placed on them.

As the demand for on-line courses continues to increase, so must our understanding of content delivery in the on-line environment. The key to success in delivering content in the on-line environment is ultimately tied to the ability to manage time, student expectations and learning outcomes. The methods to accomplish this are many, but through the use of distinctive managed decision points, an instructor will be able to manage the creation and progression of the on-line learning experience.