Treffer: What Makes an Effective Online Course Experience?: Student Perceptions and Needs for Online Course Design Elements in the Context of Feedback and Collaborative Learning

Course structure is seen as a critical component of student success and engagement in online courses. On the other hand, the implementation of student collaboration and feedback mechanisms can be more ambiguous and complex to understand than in face-to-face learning environments. This study aims to explore preservice teachers' perceptions and needs of online course design elements in the context of feedback and collaborative learning. Instructional Technology course was selected to investigate the perceptions and needs of pre-service teachers towards online course structure. A total of 191 pre-service teachers participated in this study. A semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. Content analysis was conducted to analyze the qualitative responses to open-ended questions. The results of this study showed that the most important factors affecting students' perceptions in online courses were interactive learning tools, personalised feedback, knowledge sharing environments, practice activities, generative activities, tools to support communication skills and sociability, structures to reflect on meeting course expectations, accessible assessment criteria, feedback from instructors, and online course structure. Feedback was also a factor affecting students' collaborative work. The introduction and use of tools to monitor group work and support collaboration were considered important by the participants for in-group collaboration. In terms of presentation of content, preservice teachers in online courses valued summary and providing prior learning documents and materials explaining the steps of implementation". In addition, it was observed that verbal and guided feedback was frequently used in online courses.

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