Asserting the Efficacy of Online Learning at Capella University

Michael Offerman, Christopher Tassava

apella University offers a different perspective on blended learning, one grounded in its status as a regionally accredited adult-serving university that delivers most of its instruction online. The literature on blended learning seems slanted to a perspective that face-to-face learning is preferable to stand-alone on­line learning, and it is often asserted in the literature that online is best used as a supplement to face-to-face learning. In this view, online learning is viewed pri­marily as a way to effectively deliver information and concepts and to free up time in the face-to-face classroom for more substantive discussion. Certainly online de­livery can be useful for this purpose. But Capella University questions the un­derlying rationale for this argument. Because we operate primarily online, we take an opposite perspective from that presented in much of the literature. Rather than asking when or how online might supplement face-to-face learning, we ask, " When is face-to-face interaction necessary in addition to online learning? " In ef­fect, Capella's pedagogical philosophy and practices turn face-to-face instruction into a supplement to the primary activity of delivering learning online.

This difference in perspectives is fundamental to our approach to blended learning and our pedagogy. In delivering higher education to a nationwide audi­ence of working adults, the use of face-to-face and even synchronous learning events potentially limits the student's participation. The fact that Capella deliv­ers learning online and views face-to-face as supplemental challenges us to identify

The Handbook of Blended Learning

learning that can only happen face-to-face. We have concluded that most, if not all, learning can occur online. From this perspective, the use of face-to-face is valu­able for social rather than pedagogical reasons. We use face-to-face in a blended delivery mode only for our graduate students and primarily in order to achieve social rather than pedagogical goals.

Perspectives from the Literature

A comprehensive understanding of blended learning, in all permutations from global perspectives to local designs, is still being developed by scholars, practi­tioners, and other experts in the academy, nonprofit organizations, and enterprises large and small. Over the remainder of this decade, a more robust body of the­ory and practice regarding blended learning will certainly evolve, in tandem with the continuing development of technologies (present and yet to be invented) that facilitate both computer-based and face-to-face learning.

Our review of the literature in academic and industry publications, from peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals to human resource trade magazines, would indicate that online learning within a blended learning model is largely now a methodology to transmit information to employees and students rather than a means to achieve a meaningful change in basic pedagogy. The picture of blended learning that emerges from the literature is of a technique that organizations use to disseminate new information.

This kind of blended learning is usually based on the interaction between a person and a computer: the human absorbs information delivered via the com­puter monitor. The blended part of this process is the activity of a live faculty-member in the face-to-face university classroom or a corporate trainer, who adds material that is not available in a digital or computerized form and engages the learner in discussion about the information. This approach is sometimes described as audio-over PowerPoint slide shows or similar presentation of information that is intended to free class time for discussion. Such a'view of learning is fine if you start from the assumption that discussion must occur in a face-to-face classroom. However, Capella agrees with others that effective discussion can and does also occur in the online " courseroom" and that online discussion results in the effec­tive acquisition by learners of the complex concepts and skills appropriate to higher education (Allen & Seaman, 2004). Furthermore, online discussion engages all learners in a process that of necessity is less faculty-centric and more appro­priate for adult learners.

A Different Perspective on Blended Learning

Blended Learning at Capella University

Capella seeks to address the specific needs of adult learners, who typically seek a high-quality learning experience above all but also often require highly flexible and convenient means to acquire new knowledge. Over the past decade or so, this has led many adults to choose online learning environments, which allow them to better balance the work, family, and community obligations that consume their time.

Since its founding in 1993, Capella University has expanded its degree of­ferings so that its five schools now offer a variety of higher education degrees, rang­ing from bachelor's to the doctorate (see Table 17.1). It is worth noting that during the first two to three years of the university's existence, courses were delivered in a directed study model that combined the British tutorial model with correspon­dence education methods (using postal mail and the telephone, not the Inter­net). Capella has always used a distance delivery model, and for most of our history that has been through online learning.

In all these areas except undergraduate studies, Capella has engaged in blended learning for more than a decade. From its inception, Capella has com­bined distance education methods with a limited number of face-to-face learning experiences. The latter take the form of residency requirements for learners such as those enrolled in the university's four doctoral programs and some of the mas­ter's programs, while the former are common to Capella learners in every degree level and in every school. All of Capella's learners complete the majority of their course work by Internet-based course delivery. In online courserooms, faculty instructors lead threaded discussions, which are predicated on thoughtful and dy­namic interaction between learners. Individual courses are quite small, usually around fifteen to twenty learners, to facilitate vigorous and meaningful discussion and the mastery by learners of specific course-level competencies and program-level outcomes.

TABLE 17.1. DEGREE OFFERINGS AT CAPELLA UNIVERSITY.