The Effects of Online Course Orientation Quiz on Student-Instructor Communication Practices
Abstract: One of the main components of an effective online teaching is communicating course expectations to students (Graham et al., 2001; Ludwig-Hartman & Dunlap, 2003; Mupinga, Nora, & Yaw, 2006; Brinkerhoff & Koroghlanian, 2007; Haley & Heise, 2008). However, simply providing information does not guarantee that students will review course expectations. As a result, students often ask questions that are already provided in the course syllabus, thus overwhelming their instructors with unnecessary emails and phone calls. One promising method to ensure that students review the course syllabus is a required successful completion of orientation quiz, based on the course syllabus, prior to being allowed to access any course assignments. Five online community college courses, for a total of 120 students, were chosen for this pilot study. Based on preliminary findings, the number of unnecessary contacts has been reduced by approximately 80% while the number of other contacts remained the same.