Beyond the afterglow

Transfer of learning in an online “applications” course - preliminary results of a mixed methods study

Abstract

This exploratory study examines aspects of student experiences both during an online applications course in the University of British Columbia’s Master of Educational Technology (MET) programme, and subsequent to having completed the course in the realm of professional educational practice. Transfer of learning (Caffarella, 2002) related to specific learning activities, a learning community-centered/community of practice course structure, and the overall course design were examined. Broadly speaking, transfer of learning was significant for nearly all study participants; specific learning activities designed to foment this did so successfully for most participants. However, the community of practice aspect during the course (Lave and Wenger, 1991), whilst strong, was not as evident after the course ended. This paper represents a preliminary analysis of the findings from the quantitative (questionnaire) portion of a larger, mixed methods study.