ABSTRACT
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, journalism and mass communication (JMC) schools were increasingly integrating online educational delivery into their programming. The pandemic then forced instructors to transition all programming almost overnight to emergency remote teaching environments. This had an acute disruption on applied courses within JMC professions. As higher education pivots toward an uncertain future amidst a likely endemic COVID-19, JMC instructors will need access to evidence-supported pedagogy that can be contextualized across modalities. This five-round Delphi study featured a panel of 24 experienced online JMC educators, who co-constructed a framework of pedagogical practices and instructional design strategies for designing, delivering, supporting, and evaluating rigorous experiential learning activities in online environments. The resulting framework—called The EXCEL Online Framework—is comprised of 36 primary and 59 ancillary practices that JMC educators can contextualize to their online courses. Analysis revealed the primary practices aligned closely with principles of the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model. [ FROM AUTHOR]
ABSTRACT
Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions of higher education into emergency remote teaching, journalism and mass communication schools were seeing increased enrollment in online courses. The professional nature of education in journalism and mass communication fields can create challenges for instructors to provide rigorous experiential learning opportunities that prepare online students for industry employment. This Delphi study assembled a panel of journalism and mass communication educators with expertise in online teaching and learning to create a framework of pedagogical practices and instructional design strategies for experiential learning in online modalities. The panel reached consensus on 36 primary and 59 ancillary practices across four categories-course development, course delivery, instructional support, and evaluation. Analysis indicated the framework aligned with 15 of 17 Cognitive Apprenticeship Model principles, providing journalism and mass communication educators with contextualized practices grounded in learning theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)