Twelfth International Conference on e-Learning & Innovative Pedagogies

Abstract

Graduate programs are expeditiously reverting to new technologies to deliver traditional courses, with a preponderance of those “new” technologies being online course delivery. Many ongoing investigations are exploring whether these courses are being delivered with quality and yield the same cognitive outcomes as traditional face-to-face courses. Implicit in the mission or strategic intention of most programs is the expectation that their students enhance their critical thinking skills. Consequently, our investigation is to determine the degree to which participants in online graduate courses value critical thinking and the degree to which they are developing these skills. In this context, given the absence of a universally accepted definition, we adopt Ennis’ explanation of critical thinking as “reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do” (1987, p. 10). More specifically, we coalesce the seven definitions of critical thinking that Moore (2013) refined, into five domains: understanding, judgment, caution/skepticism, originality, and reflection/action. We are administering a 16-item instrument designed around these five domains, to graduate students taking online classes from a university in southeast Texas. The information gleaned from this investigation will advance our knowledge of the emphasis that graduate students in an online program place on critical thinking, and the degree to which this medium accommodates the acquisition of this skill. The impact is that, if necessary, we will be better able to adjust or design our pedagogical strategies to ensure that online graduate students can consume and generate information using a critical thinking framework.