Thoughts on Wadsworth, Husman, Duggan and Pennington's "Online Mathematics Achievement: Effects of Learning Strategies and Self-Efficacy."

Hello readers! Today, in anticipation of our chat about online learning with Dr. Fitzroy Farquharson, we thought we'd turn your attention toward an article, which was written by the four authors listed in the title to this post and was published in the Journal of Developmental Education in 2007. It is telling that the authors—who published their article when online courses were more or less new—immediately recognized the heightened importance of study skills for online students. 

The article explores in-depth how self-efficacy and study strategies affect the success of online math students. Working on the premise that academics have studied these factors at length as they pertain to traditional classrooms, the authors argue that the online environment differs enough from that of the classroom to merit a study on the ways self-efficacy, study strategies, and other affective characteristics specifically affect distance learners. After making this argument, the authors present their own study, which followed 89 students who were enrolled in an online developmental math course. Results indicated that “four types of learning strategies—motivation, concentration, information processing, and self-testing—along with self-efficacy” predicted 42% of the variance in grade achievement."
 
While presenting this data, the authors argue that “the increased autonomy of an online or Web-based learning environment” makes motivation and self-efficacy particularly important to online students. They also point out that traditional study skills do not always work for online students. “Although students in online courses are implementing many of the same strategies as their counterparts in traditional classrooms,” they write, “there has been little evidence to show what strategies are most useful in this new environment and how some strategies may translate to a new learning environment.”
 
The authors conclude their study by stating that specific online and computer-based study strategies are needed for students taking online courses. To better the chances for success, these study strategies should be “imbedded within the course work,” so that students “can better use these powerful tools to improve their learning.” 

Dr. Nolting has made similar arguments over the past twenty years. It is absolutely vital that faculty integrate study skills directly into classrooms, online or otherwise. 

For more, see: Wadsworth, L.M., Husman, J., Duggan, M.A., and Pennington, M.N. “Online Mathematics Achievement: Effects of Learning Strategies and Self-Efficacy.” Journal of Developmental Education, Volume 30, Issue 3, Spring 2007. Pages 6-14.