International Journal of Polytechnic Studies, Vol 1, No 1 (2011)

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Academic Delivery Systems

Gregory L. Wiles

Abstract


Nontraditional college students often experience difficulty coping with the traditional rigors of college class schedules, material, locations, and deadlines. There is a need to provide better customer service to our current and potential students by offering a choice of academic delivery methods. The flexibility realized by offering many courses in several formats is appealing to nontraditional and traditional students alike who realize the value in modernizing this aspect within the institutional system. These three delivery methods are online, hybrid, and traditional. The idea of offering online or hybrid classes is not new; however in one department at this institution the idea of offering the same class in numerous formats is of great benefit to the institution resulting in increased enrollment and for the students who can revel in the advantage of having choices never before offered. This article explores the effectiveness of offering multiple learning formats and the measured effect within a complex adaptive system involving learning paradigms, gap analysis, component interaction, participant roles, system archetypes, and data analysis. Measureable effects in this case study shows early promise. The final grades of 10-14traditional courses were measured among the same courses offered via hybrid and online. The data reveals consistent results indicate the effectiveness of the learning objectives is being met in the traditional, the hybrid, and the online settings.

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