Assessment and redesign of teaching "Theories & methods of alternative dispute resolution" online

This work is in response to a request by the co-directors, Tasha Souza PhD and Elizabeth Watson PhD, of the Institute for Study of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ISADR), to evaluate and possibly redesign their current, "Theories Methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution" course offered online. In order to accomplish this task of evaluation and redesigning of the "Theories Methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution" course, I synthesized current literature on the subject of online education and its affects on student learning outcomes, in conjunction with interviewing fourteen experts on the subject of online education and/or mediation training. Consequently, this work consists of two parts. Part one is the theoretical portion of this thesis/project, which primarily addresses whether internet-based courses have the same, or better, student learning outcomes as conventional "classroom" courses. Within this part, I also interviewed fourteen experts within the field of mediation and/or online education, followed by the analysis of the interviews. Part two is the practical application of this thesis/project, which consists of an assessment and subsequent redesign of the existing online course, "Theories Methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution" course offered through the Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ISADR) at Humboldt State University, based on the theoretical part of this work.