Learning Academic Self-regulation Strategies in an Online Nutrition Course

From CTLpedia

Maureen Zimmerman

3:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 11, 2006

LB 145 in the Elsner Library at MCC

Advances in technology have greatly impacted higher education allowing web-based courses to increase dramatically over the past ten years. This increase, however, is overshadowed by the inability of many students to complete the learning in this milieu. These advances in technology have challenged learners in all fields. Learners who are capable of adapting to technological changes and who engage in self-regulated learning may be those best prepared to meet future challenges. The purpose of this seminar is to describe a classroom-based research projected conducted in the fall of 2003 with sixty students enrolled in a web-based nutrition course aimed at teaching students how to become self-regulated learners while taking an online class. A body of literature about self-regulated learning exists and helped inform the data collection and analysis. The findings of this study suggest that more attention should be directed at developing hybrid courses for students who are not highly self-regulated. The impact on student learning will be that more students will learn self-regulatory behaviors during the face-to-face component of hybrid courses, and will then be able to engage in deep learning and thus be more likely to go on to successfully complete web-based courses. Anyone teaching online, hybrid, or face-to-face classes will benefit from understanding how academic self-regulation fosters student learning.

Maureen Zimmerman earned her undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Dietetics at Arizona State University, and her Master's Degree in Public Health from the University of Hawaii. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership, with a specialization in educational research, from Northern Arizona University. Maureen is a Registered Dietitian and has been a faculty member at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona since 1991. She has been involved in many aspects of college and district life including cooperative learning development, new faculty development, service learning leadership, distance learning and technology initiatives, Honors, Program Review, Kaleidoscope, Faculty Senate, the Maricopa Institute for Learning Fellowship, and the department chair of Design, Family and Consumer Sciences. She served as Acting Director of the Maricopa Center for Teaching and Learning of the Maricopa Community Colleges from January 2005 through June 2006. Currently she serves as the MCC Instructional Design Facilitator, assisting faculty with curriculum and program development.