November 2006

What Influences Student Attitudes toward a Course?

The first and most obvious answer is the instructor. Much previous research establishes the powerful ways instructors influence how students respond to and in a course. But two researchers wondered if the instructor was the only factor influencing student attitudes. Drawing from work in their discipline, services marketing and management, they extrapolated seven factors that might be significant determinants of student attitudes. Using a complex statistical model, they tested the seven factors and found that four of them explained 77 percent of the variations in attitude toward the course: instructor, course topic, course execution, and the room (physical environment).

Using Information Mapping to Develop Online Courses

Norma Grassini-Komara, an instructional designer at Moraine Valley Community College, uses Information Mapping®—a three-step process that includes analyzing, organizing, and presenting content to help learners better understand complex information and to improve student satisfaction with the online learning experience.

Analyzing content
The process of mapping information begins with identifying content in terms of the following six categories:

Where Are the Boys?
By John N. McDaniel, PhD

Seasoned academic leaders of a certain vintage will remember wistfully that innocent paean to spring break, “Where the Boys Are,” crooned by Connie Francis, in those halcyon pre-protest early ’60s, when the ladies’ eyes would wander to the Florida coasts before they returned to the rigors of campus life. But that was then, and this is now. The beaches aren’t boyless, but the campuses increasingly are, and there are distressing defections to other venues of…

Take the Poll!

This month's question is, "Is your institution doing anything special to recruit male students? If so, what?"