Design lessons about participatory self-directed online learning in a graduate-level instructional technology course

This article reports on a case of participatory self-directed online learning within the context of a graduate-level instructional technology course. The course was about online learning environments and relied on both asynchronous and synchronous technologies. In this case, the instructor and students engaged in collaborative course design through one of the assignments where student teams and the instructor led one week’s worth of course activities and discussions. This article begins with a discussion of the literature on participatory self-directed online learning. Then, the article presents an overview of the course design, detailed discussion of the assignment that framed student participatory self-directed learning and two examples of student assignments. The framing question for organising this case was as follows: What lessons can a team of graduate students and the instructor learn about self-directed participatory online learning from a collaborative design project? The article ends with the overall lessons learned from the case and implications to future design of online activities.     

Applying the scholarship of teaching and learning: student perceptions,behaviours and success online and face-to-face

This study compares student perceptions, learning behaviours and success in online and face-to-face versions of a Principles of Microeconomics course. It follows a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach by using a cycle of empirical analysis, reflection and action to improve the learning experience for students. The online course design involves 58 interactive narrated online modules, interactive online quizzes and biweekly online meetings with the instructor via video and voice-over-IP technology. Findings indicate that schedule flexibility motivates students to choose the online course format. Students in both learning environments felt they had high-quality communication with the instructor, while online students indicated limited peer-to-peer communication. Online students report studying more at home than face-to-face students, but not enough to compensate for the time face-to-face students spend in class. Reflecting on the findings, the authors suggest actions to improve the online course experience.     

Teaching Research Methodology Through Active Learning

To complement traditional learning activities in a masters-level research methodology course, social work students worked on a formal research project which involved: designing the study, constructing measures, selecting a sampling strategy, collecting data, reducing and analyzing data, and finally interpreting and communicating the results. The final product was accepted in a respected, peer-reviewed journal. In the hopes of motivating social work educators to use active learning strategies when teaching research methods and to provide some pragmatic advice on how to do so, this article presents students' perceptions of involvement and lessons learned by the instructor. Through open- and closed-ended questions, students reported that involvement was meaningful, promoted understanding of research, strengthened relations among students, and made learning more exciting. Additionally, 41% of students reported that work on the project increased their interest in pursuing doctoral level work. Students also reported that engagement was time-consuming, stressful, and occasionally frustrating. Pragmatic suggestions about how to incorporate a formal research project with teaching are given based on experiences of the students and instructor.     

Promoting deep learning in a teacher education programme through self- and peer-assessment and feedback

The incorporation of self- and peer-assessment and feedback has significant potential as a pedagogical strategy to promote deep learning in project based coursework. This study examined the impact of a deeper approach to learning on pre-service teachers’ critical thinking and metacognitive skills. It also examined the impact on student learning outcomes within a project based module with a significant design element. Forty-seven students participated in the pilot of an online peer feedback system. Results suggest that the quality of students’ reflections through peer feedback and overall satisfaction with the module remained high despite students’ citing a preference for instructor feedback. The data also indicate that the incorporation of self- and peer-assessment and feedback resulted in higher quality learning outcomes and enhanced critical thinking skills.     

Towards a framework of interactions in a blended synchronous learning environment: what effects are there on students' social presence experience?

A synchronous blend of online learning and “face-to-face” teaching is becoming a feasible instructional approach in higher education with the advent of technology. Although this learning mode is not new in higher education, little research has been done to contextualise social presence experiences in which effects of interactions were explored for enhancing learning. A qualitative approach was adopted using the case study method to examine the instructor and students’ pedagogic interactions in the social presence of a blended synchronous learning environment. This paper reports an exploration of the blended learning with an online group of students at a remote site attending a computer-aided engineering drawing course synchronously with a face-to-face group taught by an instructor in a laboratory. The process of interaction was visually and verbally mediated by videoconference as if in an online face-to-face learning community. The findings show that the online and face-to-face groups had different social presence experiences in which interaction emerged. Emotional adaptation and practice is needed for the students and the instructor in such a complex environment. Based on the interaction patterns, a framework of interactions in the blended synchronous learning environment is conceptualised to inform course development and instructional design. Implications for further study are also discussed.     

Easy,collaborative and engaging – the use of cloud computing in the design of management classrooms

Background:?Cloud computing has recently received interest in information systems research and practice as a new way to organise information with the help of an increasingly ubiquitous computer infrastructure. However, the use of cloud computing in higher education institutions and business schools, as well as its potential to create novel learning environments remains an underresearched topic.

Purpose:?To address the research gap, this paper investigates how the capabilities of cloud computing have fostered collaborative learning processes of students in the design of management classrooms. The research project has taken place in a three-year period and has covered five post-graduate knowledge management classes, which have been situated in the context of business education.

Research design and sources of evidence:?I have used an illustrative case study of five knowledge management classes as research design to explore and describe interconnections between methods of social constructionism and cloud computing properties which enhance collaborative learning experiences of students in the classroom. To develop a theoretical background for the case study, I first review literature on constructivist and experiential learning, new management profiles, and information systems. In the empirical part of the case study, I have observed the experimental blending of constructivist learning methods and the cloud computing platform Google Apps for Education in three post-graduate classes and two Executive Master of Business Administration classes on the topic of knowledge management. For the data collection, I have focused on collaboration processes to understand how students have used various cloud computing tools to work together, and how their usage has affected interaction and reflection in the observed courses.

Results:?Findings show that collaborative properties of cloud computing, when they are undergirded by methods of social constructionism, influence learning factors on cognitive, emotional, spatial and group levels and lead to substantial changes in teacher/student roles and behaviours. The ease-of-use, playfulness and immediacy of cloud platforms creates collaborative learning spaces and has the potential to foster lateral thinking and problem solving of students in the classroom.

Conclusions and contribution:?By illuminating mutual interrelations between learning factors, constructivist principles and cloud computing properties, the paper enriches the literature on the innovative use of information system technologies in universities and business schools. The paper provides, in addition, practice-oriented insights for pedagogical and methodological choices that undergird the capabilities of cloud platforms to foster collaborative learning processes of students in higher education institutions.     

A content analysis of student/instructor communication via computer conferencing

The focus of this study centers upon an analysis of instructor and student postings on the Electronic Forum (EF) during a one-semester undergraduate phonetics course. Sixty-one students were invited to participate in a class computer conferencing project to discuss questions about the course content and assignments, share ideas with others, and respond to comments made by their peers and the instructor. The content of each student's and instructor's posting was analyzed to determine the number and type of topics discussed. Students wrote about 340 topics in 143 postings; the instructor wrote 124 topics in 23 postings. These topics were placed in categories and analyzed with respect to the postings made during the first and second half semester. Four interactive communicative Category Clusters were identified. These Clusters show interaction trends between students and instructor and resulting accommodations made by both students and the instructor. The advantages of using an electronic forum to enhance student learning, to improve classroom activities, and to empower students to take more active roles in their learning, are discussed.     

为在线学习提供有效的反馈

在教与学的过程中,学生与教师都会提出反馈,也会收到反馈.课程应该提供不会让人感到威胁的环境,学生在其中能够向教师和其他学生充分地表达自己.学生需要得到针对他们工作和表现的、持续的、及时的反馈.提供有效的反馈有助于保证学生的需求得以满足,有助于保证他们能够开展高质量的学习.(Co-hen,2003:Thurmond 和 Wambach,2004)本文主要讨论的是对学生提供的反馈,而反馈本身也是对学习者的工作和活动的回应,帮助学习者更好地理解他所取得的进步,或帮助学习者改善他的学习或表现.反馈可以在教师和学生之间、学生与学生之间,也可以是学生对自身的长处或改进学习活动的某一方面进行的反思和评价.要使反馈真正有效,对学生提供的反馈应着重于缩小学生当前的表现与期望目标之间的差距.文中所提出的案例均来自于本人在线教学经历过的或访谈在线教师过程中了解到的.     

如何确保在线直播课程的教学成效?——以疫情期间在线直播课程的学习环境和学习内容设计为例

如何确保在线直播课程的教学成效,是当下在线教学亟待解决的问题。文章以师范生“中职课程设计与开发”课程为例,遵循学生中心、行动导向、工作过程导向和工作成果导向的基本理念,借鉴探究社区模型理论和学习环境设计相关理论,结合行动导向教学的要求,从学习环境(物理环境、心理环境)、学习内容(学习任务、学习活动)两方面展开在线直播课程设计,以提升学生的学习体验和学习参与度,确保在线直播课程的学习成效。文章的研究可为在线直播教学和混合学习的教学设计实践提供参考,并有助于推动教学改革。     

Exploring the effects of web-mediated socially-shared regulation of learning and experience-based learning on improving students’ learning

The application of online learning and educational technologies in higher education has changed teaching methods, the channels of delivering learning materials, and modes of communication between teachers and students. This study is aimed to improve learning effects and investigate, via quasi-experiments, the effects of web-mediated socially-shared regulation of learning (SSRL) and experience-based learning (ExBL) on improving students’ learning results. The experimental design in this study was a 2 (SSRL vs. non-SSRL)?×?2 (ExBL vs. non-ExBL) factorial pretest/post-test design. Four classes in a one-semester course titled “Applied Information Technology: Data Processing” at university level were chosen for this study. Based on the analysis carried out in this study, students who received the treatments of web-mediated SSRL and/or ExBL did not have significantly better computing skills in using Excel. The reasons for these insignificances and implications thereof are discussed in this paper. Nevertheless, students in the SSRL and non-ExBL class had significant increases in scores for their learning motivation at the end of semester compared with the beginning.     

The effect of online co-regulated learning in the implementation of team-based learning on improving students’ involvement

Many education institutions and teachers are recognizing and applying online learning and related educational technologies to help students achieve satisfactory learning performance. Due to the free entertainment on the Internet that may distract students’ attention from online courses and with the purpose of developing students’ teamwork abilities, the author in this study adopted team-based learning (TBL) and co-regulated learning (CRL) to develop students’ involvement in a blended computing course. The subjects in this study were 111 first-year students from three classes taking a compulsory course titled ‘Applied information technology: data processing’. The first group (G1, which received online TBL and CRL) and the second group (G2, which received online TBL only) were the experimental groups. The last group (CG), which received the traditional teaching method in a blended learning environment, served as the control group. The results in this study indicate that students who receive the online TBL have significantly higher involvement than those without. However, the online CRL does not contribute to better development of students’ involvement in the implementation of TBL. The insights for teachers who plan to adopt e-learning, and the reasons for the ineffectiveness of CRL, are discussed in this study.     

A study of teaching presence and student sense of learning community in fully online and web-enhanced college courses

This paper focuses on two components of a model for online teaching and learning—“teaching presence” and “community”. It is suggested that previous research points to the critical role that community plays in academic success and persistence in higher education. Through a review of recent literature it is proposed that teaching presence–viewed as the core roles of the online instructor–is a promising mechanism for developing learning community in online environments. This investigation presents a multi-institutional study of 1067 students across 32 different colleges that further substantiates this claim. An instrument to assess instructor teaching presence (“The Teaching Presence Scale”) is presented and validated. Factor and regression analysis indicate a significant link between students' sense of learning community and effective instructional design and “directed facilitation” on the part of course instructors, and highlights interesting differences between online and classroom environments. Alternative hypotheses regarding student demographics associated with variables such as age (the “net generation” effect) and gender are also examined. Despite recent assertions that younger students are or soon will be too sophisticated to “feel at home” in largely text-based asynchronous learning environments, no significant effects were found by demographic differences examined. Recommendations for online course design, pedagogy, and future research are included.     

在教师教育者中创建网上学习社区

网上授课在全球各教育机构尤其是开放和远程学习机构呈迅猛发展的态势。网上学习为远程学习者提供了大量的师生互动、生生互动的机会。他们分享感受,共同协作。通过学习者之间的交互学习,网上学习较独立学习能产生更好的学习效果。斯里兰卡开放大学教育系利用Moodle学习系统开设了“作为教育技术人员的教师教育者”网上课程。课程设计使用协作学习模式,为远程学习者提供了大量积极参与学习过程的机会。学习者借助学习资源和教师的引导完成学习和评估任务,通过讨论会的方式进行协作学习并共同分享感受。本文采用个案研究的方法,对设计者、教师以及学生在网上学习环境中共同加强社区构建所实施的具体策略和技术进行了调查,并进一步探索了社区建设对远程学习者即网上学习的初学者的影响。本文同时讨论了建构网上学习社区的发展进程并强调了设计者、教师和学习者在成功创建网上学习社区中所起的作用。     

Online learning: Is it meant for science courses?

The authors discuss a case study experience in conducting scientific courses such as Environmental Chemistry and Spectroscopy to different groups of undergraduates at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), using web-based learning environments to support conventional teaching/learning sessions. The authors discovered that by supplementing the learning online, students became more interested in their respective fields of study, and thus were able to participate in class discussions more freely. Online, a higher number of group activities can be organized to consolidate the learning of specific topics. The web-based learning environment also allows more interaction opportunities between peers and with the course instructor. Overall, the students reported they found that learning online made the course more interesting, and that the students were consciously aware that they learned more in the process. The paper also highlights the major benefits of conducting a course online from a course instructor's perspective.     

Exploring the effects of online team-based learning and co-regulated learning on students' development of computing skills

As more and more educational institutions are providing online courses, it is necessary to design effective teaching methods integrated with technologies to benefit both teachers and students. The researcher in this study designed innovative online teaching methods of team-based learning (TBL) and co-regulated learning (CRL) to improve students' computing skills. The participants in this study were 124 undergraduates from three classes taking a compulsory course titled “Applied Information Technology: Data Processing.” There were three blended classes involved in this empirical study. The first group (EG1), which received the treatment of online TBL and CRL, and the second group (EG2), which received the treatment of online TBL only, were the experimental groups. The last group, which received the traditional teaching method, served as the control group. Before the experiment started, the author conducted a pretest to confirm that the differences of students' computing skills among the three groups were not significant at the beginning of the course. Based on the analysis of the post-test, the results indicate that students who received the intervention of online CRL had significantly better computing skills for using Excel by semester-end than those without. However, the intervention of online TBL did not contribute to better learning effects in this study. Based on the findings in this study, the author points out implications for teachers, schools, and educators, particularly for those responsible for courses focusing on solving ill-structured problems and those students who have typically received traditional didactic pedagogy for many years.     

E-assessment of online academic courses via students' activities and perceptions

The rapid growth of online courses in higher education has led to developments in the field of e-assessment. This paper presents a study, which examined the quality of online academic courses using a multidimensional assessment of students' activities and perceptions, using educational data mining and an online questionnaire. The assessment focused on four aspects: instructional, communication, course workload and overall learning experience. The course instructional model was found well-structured. The video lectures, assignments and materials designed for the online course were the most used and contributing learning resources. However, the number of students who entered the video lectures decreased as the course progressed. Low activity was found in the discussion forums. Students perceived the course workload as low. Overall, the learning experience was high and the students were highly satisfied. These findings provide insights that may assist in improving the quality of future online courses.     

Applying enterprise: active learning environments for business Higher National Diploma students

This article details an approach to teaching entrepreneurship to Higher National Diploma (HND) students that combines lecture-based and experiential learning processes to increase student learning, comprehension, and entrepreneurial skills. A UK university redesigned an entrepreneurship course to have students design and implement business plans for a pop-up shop and an event in the local community, while working closely with instructors and outside stakeholders. The lectures used in the lessons were designed to complement the enterprise activities and be immediately applied in group work settings. Data were collected from student reflections and analysed against instructor reflections to highlight both the success and challenges of this approach, as well as any areas of dissonance between student and instructor observations. While the benefits of active and experiential learning processes are highlighted in the literature, this article examines these teaching methods specifically in a HND context, an area in which research on the benefits of these teaching methods for developing entrepreneurial students and for developing students prepared for undergraduate education has been limited.     

The Effect of Content Delivery Style on Student Performance in Anatomy

The development of new technologies and ensuing pedagogical research has led many tertiary institutions to integrate and adopt online learning strategies. The authors of this study have incorporated online learning strategies into existing educational practices of a second year anatomy course, resulting in half of the course content delivered via face-to-face lectures, and half delivered online via tailored video vignettes, with accompanying worksheets and activities. The effect of the content delivery mode on student learning was analyzed by tailoring questions to content presented either face-to-face or online. Four practical tests were conducted across the semester with each consisting of four questions. Within each test, two questions were based on content delivered face-to-face, and two questions were based on content delivered online. Examination multiple choice questions were similarly divided and assessed. Findings indicate that student learning is consistent regardless of the mode of content delivery. However, student viewing habits had a significant impact on learning, with students who viewed videos multiple times achieving higher marks than those less engaged with the online content. Student comments also indicated that content delivery mode was not an influence on learning. Therefore student engagement, rather than the mode of content delivery, is a determinant of student learning and performance in human anatomy. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

A constructivist approach to online college learning

The key elements of online course design and pedagogy suggested by research as promoting effective learning are discussed through the lens of constructivist epistemology. Presentation of content, instructor–student and student–student interactions, individual and group activities, and student assessment are each addressed, in turn. The focus is on learning and recognition that, from time-to-time, all students are teachers as they bring diverse expertise, experiences, and worldviews to the task of learning. Reflection on past experiences, interaction with other members of the learning community, immediate instructor behavior, authentic group activities, and diverse assessment tasks with timely and detailed feedback are underscored.