Study of Self: The Self as Designer in Online Teacher Education

In this article we describe our engagement in self-study as part of an examination of design-based research for education. We focus on graduate-level online teacher education as an example of how self-study provided a means of examining deeply our teaching and our roles as teacher and designer in the learning environment. We posit that online learning environments are particularly well suited for self-study to enhance design perspectives because the interactions between teacher and students are informed by personal context and mediated by technological tools. The graduate students in our courses were teacher leaders in literacy or mathematics who were learning how to support professional development for other teachers. Throughout our self-study research we found ourselves drawing upon our previous design research experiences, which aided our ability to engage in self-study: We were part of the classroom system, focusing on our roles within the teaching and learning process as designers of the online learning environment. Three key design principles resulted from our self-study process: focusing on systems of learning and teaching, designing pedagogical tools and products, and using iterative processes. Engaging in self-study enhanced our understanding and implementation of synchronous online instruction, particularly regarding our use of technological tools to enhance student learning and support learning communities.     

Online Teacher Training in a Context of Forced Immobility: The Case of Gaza,Palestine

This article discusses an action research study that involved the design and delivery of an online training course for teachers of Arabic to speakers of other languages in the Gaza Strip (Palestine). Grounded in Freirean pedagogy, the course aimed to respond to the employment needs of university graduates by creating opportunities for online language teaching. The action research study explored the dynamics at play within the online educational environment, to evidence elements that challenged and/or facilitated effective collaboration between trainers and trainees. This article retraces and discusses the processes through which the course moved from didacticism to engaged critical pedagogy.     

高校网络课程跨校协作的实践探索——以《学习科学与技术》课程为个案

虽然网络教学已成为世界高等教育领域一个备受关注的前沿和热点问题,但高校网络课程的推广和有效应用仍然是仟重向道远.本论文基于<学习科学与技术--信息时代大学生学习能力培养>本科课程多年网络教学及跨校协作的实践探索,总结了高校网络课程跨校协作共建共享的方法、策略及主要问题和障碍,以期抛砖引玉,共同推进我国高校网络教学的健康、快速发展.     

Leadership in online learning in higher education: Why instructional designers for online learning should lead the way

With the increase in demand for online education at the university level has also come the “recognition that in order to be effective, such programs cannot simply be on‐line replicas of the instruction delivered in classrooms” (Reiser, 2001, p. 64). An environment of collaboration with a shared vision is needed to bring faculty expertise together with online learning design and technological expertise. This article addresses why and how instructional designers should lead the way.     

Designing databases as tools for higher-level learning: Insights from instructional systems design

This article reports on a naturalistic study of online and CD-ROM databases to identify design characteristics that are important to high school students' use of these information resources for higher-level learning as well as for information access and retrieval. Primary data collection techniques were interactive observations of 92 students and informal interviews with 54 students, 4 teachers, and the school library media specialist. The article presents an inventory of specific problems students experienced while using 7 CD-ROM and 18 online databases and discusses implications for database design based on the study results. By showing how the lens of instructional systems design can be applied to the study of a specific information technology, this article provides a new perspective on database design and suggests how electronic information resources can be designed to promote higher-level learning through enhancing students' opportunities to process, evaluate, and apply the information they retrieve from these resources.The paper on which this article was based received the 1993 AECT Special Research Award for qualitative research.     

“I ‘feel’ like I am at university even though I am online.” Exploring how students narrate their engagement with higher education institutions in an online learning environment

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies. The study explores what impacted upon students’ engagement in this environment and how different facets of their learning experience made a qualitative difference to how individuals enacted engagement. Drawing upon Sharon Pittaway’s engagement framework, the article seeks to foreground student voice as the learners define their engagement in learning, the strategies they employed to assist this process and how engagement was enacted at an individual level. The students’ reflections presented in this article can be used to inform teaching and learning strategies designed to improve engagement in the online environment within the higher education sector.     

The science/technology interaction: Implications for science literacy

Science literacy includes understanding technology. This raises questions about the role of technology in science education as well as in general education. To explore these questions, this article begins with a brief history of technology education as it relates to science education and discusses how new conceptions of science and technological literacy are moving beyond the dichotomies that formerly characterized the relationship between science and technology education. It describes how Benchmarks for Science Literacy, the National Science Education Standards, and the Standards for Technological Literacy have been making a case for introducing technology studies into general education. Examples of specific technological concepts fundamental for science literacy are provided. Using one example from the design of structures, the article examines how understanding about design (i. e., understanding constraints, trade‐offs, and failures) is relevant to science literacy. This example also raises teaching and learning issues, including the extent to which technology‐based activities can address scientific and technological concepts. The article also examines how research can provide guides for potential interactions between science and technology and concludes with reflections on the changes needed, such as the creation of curriculum models that establish fruitful interactions between science and technology education, for students to attain an understanding of technology. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 715–729, 2001     

A theoretical framework and model towards media-rich social presence design practices

Educators are seeing rapid developments in online instruction with regard to not only available technologies, but also in design and teaching practices. Developing and maintaining social presence in an online environment is paramount to the success of a learning environment. This article touches upon some historical perspectives of social presence and proposes a theoretical framework and design guide towards media-rich social presence practices for future research. The design guide in this article adds to the historically text-based social presence applications by posing media-rich, higher-level thinking questions based upon a grounded theoretical framework.     

Collaborative Development and Evaluation of an Online Nursing Course

Institutions of higher education acknowledge that online learning represents a growing segment of the modern learning environment, and most students have mastered basic computer skills. However, reluctance to engage in online learning remains among both faculty and students. This article presents a case study of three schools of nursing that collaboratively developed and implemented an online undergraduate-nursing course. The article discusses the challenges that were encountered by faculty and students. The faculty used the distance education literature to address these challenges related to technological, institutional, and pedagogical aspects of online learning, as well as the recruitment and retention of online learners. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. The paper concludes with suggestions to overcome the challenges of online learning, such that faculty and students receive the inherent rewards.     

Online Design Education: Meta‐Connective Pedagogy

Rapid technological advancement has changed the landscape of design education to be integrated with educational technology, and the worldwide COVID‐19 pandemic has further accelerated its transition to online education. Pedagogical engagement with online education is unavoidable to ensure that the transition is successful when the situation ends. Yet, many prior studies on online design education remain focused on technical and administrative uses of digital technologies. In this article, meta‐connective pedagogy is introduced to enable educators and researchers critically to engage with pedagogical concerns emerging from the connective nature of the digitally networked world. Meta‐connective pedagogy is to focus on we are always‐being‐connected and argue that authentic learning and teaching are determined by diverse forms of pre‐existing connectivity. This article consists of four parts. First, it is argued that studio‐based learning has developed a ‘resistant’ stance towards online education, which justifies the omission of understanding connective features from its discourses. Second, four up‐to‐date studies on online design education are critically reviewed in a comparative manner, as their views are split into technical and pedagogical aspects. Third, meta‐connective pedagogy is introduced to address why and how connectivity becomes an emerging pedagogical concern for online education. Fourth and last, a schematic form of meta‐connective design education is articulated, and new roles and responsibilities of educators are addressed. Overall, it is argued that the whole concept of design education is subverted towards connectivity that is inclusive of social components of traditional design studios in a more efficient way.     

Using blogs in qualitative educational research: an exploration of method

When compared with wider social research, qualitative educational research has been relatively slow to take up online research methods (ORMs). There is some very notable research in the area but, in general, ORMs have not achieved wide applicability in qualitative educational contexts apart from research that is inherently linked to the Internet, for example, research on educational technologies or students' online behaviour. This paper demonstrates how ORMs can be useful in qualitative research projects. It describes how on-going, reflective, qualitative data were collected using a popular, community-based online tool – blogs. The research project that utilized this approach aimed to trace how a group of international students in the United Kingdom responded to their new environment over six months. This article attempts to provide a new understanding on the use of blogs as a tool for data collection.     

The Infoshare Module: Using Collaborative Asynchronous Training to Improve Web Search Skills

Abstract

This article discusses the design, development, and implementation of a collaborative learning environment for online training ‘Infoshare on the Web’ It was designed to teach participants how to use and/or improve their use of Web search engines to access information on the Web. Participants collaborated in completing group tasks using asynchronous communication provided by Simon Fraser's Virtual‐U, a Web‐based environment that supports distance education, information sharing, and training. The module was delivered in four weeks, and participants found both advantages and limitations in the use of asynchronous environments for training.     

基于网络教学资源的自助式学习过程研究

基于网络教学资源的设计与应用的研究越来越受到人们的关注.本文在分析和总结国内外在该领域的研究成果的基础上,从基于网络资源的教与学过程出发,对网络教学资源与自助式学习理论,以及基于网络教学资源的自助学习过程进行了探讨,并提出了基于网络教学资源的自助式学习过程的设计内容和步骤,介绍了实施《网上英语时文阅读》课程的自助式学习案例.     

Conjecture Mapping: An Approach to Systematic Educational Design Research

Design research is strongly associated with the learning sciences community, and in the 2 decades since its conception it has become broadly accepted. Yet within and without the learning sciences there remains confusion about how to do design research, with most scholarship on the approach describing what it is rather than how to do it. This article describes a technique for mapping conjectures through a learning environment design, distinguishing conjectures about how the design should function from theoretical conjectures that explain how that function produces intended outcomes.     

流媒体技术在《语文基本能力训练》网络课件中的应用

流媒体技术在网络课件中的应用使教学课件丰富了表现力。本介绍流媒体技术，并结合我们目前制作的网络课件，讨论了网络课件如何应用流媒体技术。     

A Technical/Strategic Paradigm for Online Executive Education

This article discusses the development and delivery of online courses for the executive education audience. The goal is to introduce a new framework, the technical/strategic paradigm, that will help educators to identify the pedagogical needs of disparate executive groups and adjust their online course development plans accordingly. We describe how four key elements of online courses (course structure, content‐based learning materials, assignments, and learning assessment) should be fashioned in a way that honors the technical or strategic focus of the learning environment. How the technical/strategic paradigm molds well with many different types of executive educational audiences and settings is illustrated. Course developers seeking advice on how to put these ideas into practice will find lists of resources and implementable recommendations. Ultimately, we argue that some of the pitfalls that faculty experience when transitioning from a traditional business school environment to an online executive education environment can be attributed to a misunderstanding of the degree to which students expect technical versus strategic content.     

Design Education Online: Learning Delivery and Evaluation

Online learning has been recognised as an effective pedagogical method and tool, and is broadly integrated into various types of teaching and learning strategies in higher education. In practice, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in higher education has become an integral strategy for quality education. The field of design education, however, has not been researched extensively in regard to online learning, delivery and evaluation. This article discusses design education from an online learning perspective. It proposes an integrated framework with three key components for online learning via VLE including an interactive delivery structure, communication channels and learning evaluation. Additionally, the article describes and evaluates how VLE sites for two design units were built based on an integrated framework and student learning experiences. The results indicate that online design education should be integrated with various educational values and functional features in a systematic manner, and requires designing learning evaluation protocols as part of learning activities and communicative forms within online‐based learning sites.     

Developing an ‘ethics for neuroscientists’ course: between emancipation,practicality, and postmodernity in educational action research

With the advances in neuroscience in the twenty-first century, there is an increased risk that this research could be used for non-peaceful purposes by state or non-state actors. The latter issue is generally referred to as the dual-use problem, which has created a heated debate among scientists and security experts about the duties and responsibilities of researchers where each side is reluctant to engage with the other in a cooperative manner. In order to break this stalemate, a project on how to improve ethics education for neuroscientists was carried out which led to the development of an open access, online 12-lecture module. This article discusses how the project followed an action research methodology. While theory proposes that action research can either deliver on a practical level or enable emancipation, the article will discuss how this research project managed to accomplish both. Furthermore, it draws on a critique of emancipation in the form of postmodern theory to discuss the emergence of power and its application.     

Cognitive attainment in online learning environments: matching cognitive and technological presence

To know whether students' achievements are the result of online interaction and not just a consequence of individual differences themselves, it seems essential to link the cognitive results to the students' online behavior (technological presence). In technological presence, interaction is based on the degree in which the online student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, other students, the teacher, and the context. Cognitive presence as a part of the interaction process of teaching and learning reflects the level of accomplishment in online learning environments (cognitive attainment). The purpose of this article is to show some evidence of the mutual influence of the students' technological behaviors and the students' cognitive factors in online learning environments – including teacher and instructional design factors. Two thousand one-hundred thirty written computer-mediated communications from 88 participants in four prototypical online learning activities have been analyzed for this purpose. The analysis shows the influence of technological presence on the quality of learning results of the online knowledge construction process. The conclusions point out the importance of considering technological presence as a new and complementary type of presence as it provides relevant information for instructional and technological design.     

Using email interviews in qualitative educational research: creating space to think and time to talk

The article explores how the Internet and email offer space for participants to think and make sense of their experiences in the qualitative research encounter. It draws on a research study that used email interviewing to generate online narratives to understand academic lives and identities through research encounters in virtual space. The article discusses how the asynchronous nature of email helps to facilitate this by allowing research participants to contribute to research in their space and according to their own preference in time, and engage in a process of reflection and interaction. However, it also argues for the construction of more collaborative approaches to research that acknowledge their right to use the temporal nature of space and time that email offers to construct, reflect upon, and learn from their stories of experience in their own manner, and not merely to the researcher’s agenda. It concludes by recognizing the importance of email as a research tool for capturing the complexity of social interaction online.