The 2022 QM Online Research Conference session entitled “Beyond Assumptions: putting Research into Practice to Document Quality Learning Experiences” was the second session from this conference that I watched. Dr. Andrea Schwegler is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M Central University. Schwegler has been in education for thirty years, starting in K-12. The session began by asking, “what are some concerning or questionable assumptions you’ve heard regarding what makes for quality learning?” Schwegler first started by addressing the assumption that “in person learning is the gold standard.” They shared information from the National Council for Online Education 2022 that “emergency remote instruction is not quality online learning” and a meta-analysis from the Department of Education 2010 and the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancement (DETA) that there is no significant difference (database). The second assumption addressed by Schwegler was that “our programs are rigorous because we admit only the most qualified applicants.” by sharing research from Sternberg 2014 and Schnee 2008 that “implementing rigor is complicated by the range of students’ abilities and backgrounds.” Schwegler then spoke about Meyer (2019) and research on instructional methods and how they are related to learning instead of “optimizing learning by matching instruction to each student’s learning style.” Another assumption addressed was that “my courses are rigorous because they are comparable to those I took” and shared research from Schwegler (2013) and Schnee (2008) and discrepancies between student and faculty perceptions of rigor. The next assumption was rigor based on student grade distribution, and Schwegler cited work by Schnee and others. Moving on to cognitive psychology and citing Smith & Vela 2001 and their meta-analysis, Schwegler spoke about how context affects learning. The research by Roediger & Karpicke (2006) on how testing improves memory (“the testing effect”) was reviewed along with work by Bjork and Bjork 2011 and “desirable difficulties.” Schwegler integrated research and published it in 2019 and explained that students must create and choose to learn. The model and context that Schwegler published in 2019 include real-world experiences. The discussions about what quality online learning and rigor entail were intriguing. I want to learn more about the article they published in 2019 and how we can maintain quality online educational experiences.
