********************************************************************= ***********

********************************************= ***********************************

Name: karyl kicenski

Email: = karyl.ki= censki@canyons.edu

Phone: 362 3714

Department: communication studies

Class: full-time<= o:p>

Title: Student Interaction Online: A Measure= of Retention & Success

Students: = 20

B1: Submit

ResearchQuestion:

The question I set out to answer with my project was: How much does student interaction = and involvement in an online course drive levels of student retention and/or success? I wanted to get a pi= cture of how much assignments that called for students= to interact with one another and the instructor, would eventually influence th= eir ability and motivation to do well in an online format. I did this research in two COMS 105 courses that are hybrid public speaking classes--that is, they meet five ti= mes over the course of the semester.

Summary:

The research project assigned six different writing assignment= s, four of which I repeated over the course of the semester. This gave me a to= tal of ten assignments. These assignments were as follows: = (1) Posting several potential speech topics for two different speech assignments (2) Responding to another student's potential topics with a set of criteria offered in course content (3) Posting to the course Discussion Board on the topic of speech apprehension (4) Responding to a student on h/er posting no= ting where applicable, commonalities between your levels of/experiences of anxie= ty over public speaking (5) Sending a fellow student a draft of an outline to = be used for two particular speech assignments and evaluating this outline on t= he basis of a set of criteria given in class content (6) Responding to a fellow student's speech delivery noting specific places where s/he excelled and co= uld improve. Each of these assign= ments were assigned as the semester progressed and called fo= r each of the major speech assignments to be turned in. At the close of the semester I gav= e each student a survey to which they responded anonymously. These questions comprised my asses= sment of the original research questions stated above. The survey questions used a scale = from one to four. 1: "Not at all" 2:&= nbsp; "Not very Much" 3: "Somewhat" 4: "Quite a bit." There were eleven closed ended questio= ns using this scale. These were as fol= lows:

"To what degree did posting your speech topics and getting peer feedback help you to learn in COMS 105?"=

"To what degree did responding to another student's speech topics help you to learn in COMS 105?"=

"To what degree did posting your outline and getting feed= back from one of your peers help you to learn in COMS 105?"

"To what degree did these postings encourage you to stay = in this course?"

"To what degree did evaluating another student's outline = help you to learn in COMS 105?"

"To what degree did posting and/or responding to a fellow student on the topic of anxiety have a postivie effect on you in this class?"

"To what degree did evaluating a fellow student's speech delivery help you to learn in COMS 105?"

"To what degree did the above encourage you to stay in th= is course?"

"To what degree did receiving feedback from a fellow stud= ent about your speech delivery help you to learn in COMS 105?"<= /span>

"To what degree did getting this feedback encourage you to stay in this course?"

"Did interacting with with other students in this class through evaluations, casual email, cnversations etc. have an effect on you staying in this clas?"

The open ended questions included asking students how they believed a professor could encourage students to remain in an online course; what element of COMS 105 helped them to learn the material the most; and whether the student planned on taking any more online courses in the future. Results of this survey apper below.

Modifications:

I really did not change anything from my original proposal.

Learn:

The results of my research, although not evidenced by a large number of student responses, indicate that generally, students learn a good deal by interacting with one another. But this interaction does not seem to be a particularly important fa= ctor in retention for the online COMS 105 course. The survey questions asking studen= ts the degree to which they learned as a function of evaluating other students' wo= rk received the highest ratings. For example, the questions with the highest percentage of answers from students indicating that the their learning was enhanced = all dealt with assignments in which they were asked to evaluate a fellow studen= t's work. A full 45% of students responding indicated that giving another student feedback on h/er topics for the informative and persuasive speeches helped them to learn in the class.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Similarly, 45% of the students ind= icated that evaluating another student's outline draft for particular speech assignments helped them to learn in COMS 105 "Quite a bit." A full 40% of all students respond= ing stated that evaluating another student's speech delivery helped them to lea= rn somewhat; and this percentage increased to 45% when students were able to respond with the answer “Quite a bit.” One other question received a high percentage of responses. Fort= y-five percent of all students reported that receiving feedback from a fellow stud= ent increased their learning in the course.

The questions, however, that tested the degree to which student interaction was= a factor in retention were not as definitive. In fact, each question that asked whether or not particular assignments had an effect on the student’s decision to stay in the course had the greatest diversity in answers. That is, each of those questions h= ad no clear majority in student response. I would argue, therefore, student retention is driven by greater complexity and individual context. My findings have caused me to add some of the interactive assignment= s I originated for this research permanently to my online COMS 105 course as a means to maximize learning. I= n this way, I hope to create more comprehension and greater student success in this particular course.