A new report on digital courseware adoption found that
54% of responding faculty members used it during the 2013-14 school year and
52% said they saw the potential impact it could have on learning. Time for
Class: Lessons for the Future of Digital Courseware in Higher Education, Part
1: Faculty Perspectives on Courseware also reported there were still barriers
to be addressed.
“I feel pressured to use online instruction in some way at our institution, but I believe it mostly requires an increase in labor for instructors,” one respondent wrote in the report. “I am not sure of the benefit it actually provides over traditional delivery in my area of teaching.”
The report described digital courseware as “curriculum delivered through purpose-built
software to support teaching and learning.” It is seen as a way to deliver
personalized instruction on a variety of technology-driven platforms and
improve student outcomes, according to an article in eCampus News.
The survey noted that 60% or respondents said they were
encouraged to use digital courseware in their class, but just 30% said they
were trained to use it effectively. Faculty members also saw costs to students,
the overall effectiveness of the programs; lack of alignment with instructional
design, reduced control over content, and resistance to the new instruction
methods as barriers to widespread adoption of digital courseware.
“Once you decide to use courseware, you are in for a
long but interesting ‘slog’ to learn a system, to create materials for class,
and to keep growing,” wrote another faculty respondent. “After 12 years and the
use of four different packages, I have yet to find a student who thinks it has
improved their education in ways other than decreasing the amount of time they
have to spend in the library.”
