Prioritize redesign of late, back-to-back, and spanning Course Walls, where momentum recovery is least likely¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The authors recommend that when Course Walls are identified, designers prioritize the walls latest in the course. They argue students who pass one wall regain momentum only to hit the next with diminished momentum, and that "Late Course Walls are perhaps the worst situation for course providers, course designers, and students" because students give up after substantial course work. For spanning walls, they advise focusing on the group of lessons where the wall occurs, giving initial priority to the last few lessons.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Identification of Course Walls through graphing the Student Momentum Indicator on a lesson-by-lesson basis

Constraints¶

• The authors caution a course should not be redesigned for the sole purpose of reducing Course Walls, since making a course easy would eliminate walls at the cost of pedagogical and academic integrity

Target Learners¶

• instructional designers of university-level online courses

Target Learning Goals¶

• reducing dropout rates through targeted course revision

Affordances¶

• Course Walls Concept

Related Strategies¶

• Use Student Momentum graphing to target and prioritize course revisions within limited designer time and resources

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Steven S. Christensen & Jonathan S. Spackman. (2016). Dropout Rates, Student Momentum, and Course Walls: A New Tool for Distance Education Designers. Journal of Educators Online. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1150708