Abstract:

This article explores how students assess an online course that is relatively inflexible, despite online learning being generally considered flexible in terms of both location and timing. The examined course, an online course in police leadership at the Norwegian Police University College (NPUC), was highly structured regarding when, where, and how to study. “Introduction to Police Leadership” is a 15-week online course with nine thematic modules. The thematic modules include podcasts, video lectures, curriculum readings and written assignments. Additionally, students have practical assignments in each module where they are required to observe and converse with police leaders in their workplace to learn from their experiences. Moreover, students are allocated into collaborative base groups of four for the entire course, where they give each other feedback on three written course assignments. It is not possible for a student to pass the course if they omit to write and give peer assessment on these assignments. Recognizing the significant risks of dropout and superficial learning in online studies, the investigated course was designed to include a solid structure and diverse learning activities. These were thought to foster a sense of collective responsibility, helping to keep students motivated and committed to completing the course. The aim was to encourage collective learning and maintain a strong connection to the practical aspects of police leadership even in a digital course format. The course was created by teachers with considerable technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge (known as the TPACK model), and a special focus was directed towards scaffolding the online learning process. The course was structured with a progression that ensured ongoing support from teachers throughout the entire online learning process. The result was an online course that was both temporally and geographically inflexible, at least compared to most online courses. The research question of the article is: How are the learning outcomes experienced in an online course that has a solid structure, diverse learning activities, and limited flexibility? Data on students' perceived learning outcomes were collected through a survey (n=110) conducted right before the course exam. The results showed that the students to a large extent perceived that they after completing the course had achieved the learning outcomes of the course, both concerning knowledge, skills, and general competencies. Moreover, the drop-out of the course was non-existent; all 110 students completed the exam and all but one passed the essay exam. Interestingly, the structure of the online course, together with the reading of syllabus literature and the three course assignments were regarded as the most important working methods for their own perceived learning outcomes. This demonstrates that in a digitally structured, scaffolded, and practice-oriented course format, traditional non-digital learning activities, such as reading syllabus literature and completing written assignments, surprisingly become the most important working methods related to the students own learning outcomes. Our results may suggest that the solid structure, diverse learning activities, and limited flexibility of the course were perceived to have a positive impact on their learning, rather than a negative one.

Keywords:

Online learning, digital course, flexibility, structure, diverse learning activities, police leadership, scaffolding, peer assessment.