Theoretical foundations for enhancing social connectedness in online learning environments

Group social structure provides a comfortable and predictable context for interaction in learning environments. Students in face‐to‐face learning environments process social information about others in order to assess traits, predict behaviors, and determine qualifications for assuming particular responsibilities within a group. In online learning environments, however, negotiating social information and maintaining social connectedness can pose challenges for participants. Nonverbal strategies one typically uses for enhancing communication and overcoming ambiguity – such as an approving smile or a questioning brow – must be approached differently while learning online where fewer sensory communication channels are typically available. We present the theoretical foundation for how social information processing and group structure theories may be combined to assist instructional designers in further examining the social system perceived by the online learner. We propose a framework for thinking more systematically about the development of group social structure in online learning environments.     

The foundations and assumptions of technology-enhanced student-centered learning environments

Direct instruction approaches, as well as the design processes that support them, have been criticized for failing to reflect contemporary research and theory in teaching, learning, and technology. Learning systems are needed that encourage divergent reasoning, problem solving, and critical thinking. Student-centered learning environments have been touted as a means to support such processes. With the emergence of technology, many barriers to implementing innovative alternatives may be overcome. The purposes of this paper are to review and critically analyze research and theory related to technology-enhanced student-centered learning environments and to identify their foundations and assumptions.     

Theoretical foundations for sound's use in multimedia instruction to enhance learning

Recent technological advances now make possible the full integration of sound in instructional software. Sounds may gain and focus learner attention, reduce distracting stimuli, and make learning more engaging. In addition, they may help learners condense, elaborate on, and organize details, highlighting inter connections among new pieces of information and making connections to preexisting knowledge. Thus, sound may hold great promise for moderating acquisition, processing, and retrieval “noise” in instructional software. Unfortunately, interface and instructional design guides almost completely ignore sound, and research suggests many promising instructional uses remain largely unexplored. This paper explores information-processing and communication theoretical foundations for sound's systematic use in the instructional communication system and proposes a framework for a program of research on instructional software's use of sound. MJ is assistant progressor in the Educational Technology program at Lehigh University, and Ward teaches instructional design and interface design and coordinates the Educational Technology program there.     

Understanding collaborative learning processes in new learning environments

Trying to understand the complexity of computer-mediated problem-based learning environments is not easy. Sociocultural theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding such environments because it emphasizes the socially situated nature of learning and the critical role of tools in mediating learning. To examine how different aspects of discourse relate to each other, as well as to the tools being used in the collaborative learning process, it is important to understand how collaborative knowledge building unfolds and how these processes are mediated. This requires going beyond coding individual speech acts. The use of Chronologically-Ordered Representations of Discourse and Tool-Related Activity (CORDTRA) diagrams is one way of achieving this understanding. We use this to study contrasting cases of more and less successful groups using the STELLAR learning environment. STELLAR is an integrated online PBL environment for preservice teachers, containing a learning sciences hypermedia, a library of videocases, and online personal and collaborative spaces. Our analyses suggest that an important locus of differences is how students use resources and engage in different kinds of metacognitive talk and knowledge transforming activities, sometimes to the group’s detriment. Frequency analyses provided an easily interpreted snapshot of each group’s activity. The CORDTRA analyses provide a more dynamic view that helps researchers and teachers better understand how collaborative learning unfolds. Such analyses have implications for understanding new learning environments as well as helping identify where interventions might be needed.     

Problem-based learning in formal and informal learning environments

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy in which students solve problems and reflect on their experiences. Different domains need different approaches in the design of PBL systems. Therefore, we present one case study in this article: A Java Programming PBL. The application is developed as an additional module for the Learning Management System (LMS). This way the LMS is extended by PBL functionality and the LMS learning resources can be used in PBL.     

Theoretical elastoplastic analysis for foundations with geosynthetic-encased columns

As a new technique in ground improvement, geosynthetic-encased columns (GECs) have promising applications in soft soil foundation. By assuming yielding occurs in the columns while the surrounding soil and the geosynthetic remain elastic, an elastoplastic analytical procedure for foundations improved by GECs is proposed. The radial stresses that the geosynthetic provides and the elastoplastic deformations of the foundation resting on a rigid base are derived. A comparison with finite element analysis shows that the proposed method is effective and can provide a reasonable prediction of a GEC??s deformation. Subsequent parametric analysis indicates that higher geosynthetic stiffness leads to better performance of the composite foundation. The optimum length of encasement is related to the load acting on the foundation and the permissible vertical and radial displacements of the column. Moreover, as the dilation angle of the column increases, the settlement decreases, especially under high loading. The influence of the encasement is more significant in soils with smaller elastic modulus.     

Cognitive requirements for learning with open-ended learning environments

Open-ended learning environments (OELEs) use the capabilities of technology to provide students with opportunities to engage in authentic problem solving; generate, test, and revise hypotheses; explore and manipulate concepts; and reflect on what they know. By design, such environments require sophisticated levels of cognitive functioning. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze assumptions underlying learner-centered, technology-based environments in light of how well learners appear to meet the cognitive demands for engaging them. Implications for design include the following considerations: (a) direct learner attention to key variables and visual cues; (b) prompt and guide connections to prior knowledge; and (c) provide explicit scaffolding of metacognition and teaching-learning strategies.     

Interactive learning environments and games

Undergraduate psychometrics classes often use computer-intensive active learning projects. However, little research has examined active learning or computer-intensive projects in psychometrics courses. We describe two computer-intensive collaborative learning projects used to teach the design and evaluation of psychological tests. Course evaluations were significantly above the department average, and students perceived the projects as effective in meeting course objectives and improving computer skills. Grades on these projects were unrelated to self-reported computer background, suggesting that all students can succeed at computer-intensive projects when instructors provide adequate support and create a collaborative learning environment.     

Scaffolding in technology-enhanced learning environments

Scaffolding has proven an especially interesting and promising area for supporting teaching and learning practices. Particular interest has emerged in scaffolding student learning in technology-enhanced environments. In this paper, we discuss how scaffolding is implemented in technology-enhanced environments, provide an overview of scaffolding processes and techniques in various contexts, and then provide empirically based guidelines for designing scaffolding in technological environments. We examine current research to identify two primary design components, cognitive and interface, and suggest how scaffold design might be improved for more effective use by learners. We conclude by identifying practice and research implications.     

Designing electronic collaborative learning environments

Electronic collaborative learning environments for learning and working are in vogue. Designers design them according to their own constructivist interpretations of what collaborative learning is and what it should achieve. Educators employ them with different educational approaches and in diverse situations to achieve different ends. Students use them, sometimes very enthusiastically, but often in a perfunctory way. Finally, researchers study them and—as is usually the case when apples and oranges are compared—find no conclusive evidence as to whether or not they work, where they do or do not work, when they do or do not work and, most importantly, why, they do or do not work. This contribution presents an affordance framework for such collaborative learning environments; an interaction design procedure for designing, developing, and implementing them; and an educational affordance approach to the use of tasks in those environments. It also presents the results of three projects dealing with these three issues.     

Monitoring constructivist classroom learning environments

The incorporation of constructivist and critical theory perspectives on the farming of the classroom learning environment led to the development of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). CLES enables researchers and teacher-researchers to monitor constructivist teaching approaches and to address key restraints to the development of constructivist classroom climates. CLES assesses either student or teacher perceptions of Personal Relevance, Uncertainty, Student Negotiation, Shared Control, and Critical Voice. The p plausibility of the CLES was established in small-scale classroom-based qualitative studies and its statistical integrity and robustness were validated in large-scale studies conducted in the USA and Australia.     

Building learning communities: foundations for good practice

The School of Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham provided opportunities for the development of student learning communities and online resources within the neurological module of the BSc Physiotherapy degree programme. These learning communities were designed to facilitate peer and independent learning in core aspects underpinning clinical practice, thus laying the foundation for the development of effective clinical reasoning. This paper examines some of the problems that staff encountered, including the lessons that they learnt through the design, development, and implementation processes of the module, and the subsequent modifications that were made. Student experiences of this course are also included, as they provided staff with further insights into the ways in which these problems impacted upon their preparation for clinical practice and how the module might be improved for future cohorts. From an analysis of the problems that staff encountered and then sought to resolve, and of student experiences of the course, this paper identifies foundations for good practice in the development and delivery of innovative learning and teaching methods.