Open Learning,Electronic Communications and Beginning Teachers

The largest post graduate initial teacher education course in the UK was introduced by the Open University in February 1994. The course is innovative in a number of ways: it is the first large scale distance taught pre‐service course in the UK; all students are loaned a computer for the duration of the course; and computer conferencing is used extensively for communication between students, part‐time tutors and the course team. In this paper the use of the computer conferencing element is described and evaluated, and ways in which electronic communications can be developed for this to be a truly effective medium for supporting the development of beginning teachers’ competence and confidence are discussed.     

Mastering course content and learner satisfaction in early childhood education: A comparison of regular classroom instruction with three variations of internet delivery*

Abstract

In the spring semester 2000, a Penn State course, ECE 479 (The Young Child's Play as Educative Process), was taught by the same instructor in four delivery formats. One group consisted of a regular classroom, held on campus. A second group, also on campus, was taught in a computer lab via the Internet; and there were opportunities for interaction with peers and the instructor. A third group took the course on the Internet as part of a local distance education group; hence, there were some limited opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction with peers and the instructor. The fourth group took the course on the Internet, as part of a statewide distance education group, where there were no opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction. Twenty students who enrolled in the course (5 per group) completed questionnaires and phone interviews. Information was gathered on professional backgrounds, computer experience, and initial level of content knowledge on the topic of the ECE Internet course. Sixteen students who completed the course were interviewed again to evaluate satisfaction with the course and to estimate learning outcomes. Across the four conditions general satisfaction was expressed with the content, activities, and course requirements and with the teacher. However, students in the three computer groups expressed dissatisfaction over technical problems (all four who did not complete the course came from these computer groups). Significant gains in content knowledge occurred for the classroom group, while the learning in the three Internet‐based instruction groups did not show the same gains. Concern was expressed related to the lack of face‐to‐face interaction, making the learning environment less desirable. Although Internet technology provides a great deal of promise, these results suggest that improvements are needed to make this delivery modality more effective for in‐service distance learning. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

     

Experiences With an Open Systems Computing Laboratory

Open Systems are computing systems which are based on industry standards and nonproprietary multivendor components. As an increasing number of computing installations move away from single‐vendor proprietary architectures to more and more open architectures, academic institutions are increasingly faced with the responsibility of appropriately introducing open systems concepts into the undergraduate curricula. Using funding from the National Science Foundation, an open systems computing laboratory was recently set up at the University of Michigan‐Dearborn. The laboratory is based on the three most popular computing platforms today in the PC to Workstation range; namely IBM/PC, Macintosh, and Sun/UNIX. Supporting equipment include a postcript printer, a Novell network, a tape mass storage, and appropriate software and interfaces. A three credit‐hour course titled Open Systems Computing was offered in Summer 1995 to computer science and computer engineering majors. The course utilized the laboratory fully. This paper describes the design and implementation of the laboratory. Initial experiences with the course and laboratory are also described. Student enthusiasm about the course and laboratory was much higher than anticipated. A side benefit of the course was the ability to introduce several contemporary computing‐related topics which would have otherwise been omitted from the curriculum.     

An Online Open Learning Campus?

Abstract

This article is based on a workshop held in NSW, Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Open Learning Information Network and the University of New England. The workshop envisaged possibilities of asynchronous course delivery through a low‐cost, community‐based, electronic network facility. We simulated the user interface for an Online Open University as it can be provided by Pegasus Networks, enabling distance education students to access lectures, interactive tutorials and a knowledge base. We report on an English freshman composition course ‘attended’ online by a Byron Bay student, and an informal journalism course conducted by the Extended Learning Network, Sydney. We show existing links between the NSW network ILANET and Pegasus Networks, and discuss further possibilities of library and database access for online students.     

Costing part‐time provision

This article examines the varied approaches which have been adopted to the costing of part‐time higher education, and considers the consequences of these alternative models both for the providers themselves and for national policy. Though the analysis concentrates on face‐to‐face provision in universities, polytechnics and colleges, a series of comparisons are made with the Open University. It is hoped that it will assist in understanding the likely impact of proposed changes in funding where such changes encounter established arrangements. This is especially so in the PCFC sector where a new methodology is proposed for 1990‐91. The research reported here forms part of a larger study supported by the CNAA and Middlesex Polytechnic and shortly to be published under the title: Other Routes. The authors are both members of the Centre for Community Studies at Middlesex Polytechnic.     

Evaluation of e‐learning outcomes: experience from an online psychotherapy education programme

SEPTIMUS is a one‐year Europe‐wide postgraduate theoretical course for psychotherapists and counsellors provided entirely via the Internet. It may be used as part of a training course, with face‐to‐face elements provided locally, or for continuing professional development. The course was developed at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with psychotherapy training institute partners in seven other European countries. Two studies involving 167 SEPTIMUS students and 60 comparable face‐to‐face students were undertaken. ? Study 1. Drop‐out rates for the SEPTIMUS programme were found to be low, and comparison between those dropping out and those completing did not highlight any significant factors linked to distance learning. However, students cited finance, distance from training centre, lack of practical experience, family commitments and the intensity of their working weeks as having been barriers to taking face‐to‐face learning courses in the past.

? Study 2. SEPTIMUS students (e‐learners) were compared with students taking comparable attending (face‐to‐face) theoretical courses also being provided by partners in the project to psychotherapy trainees. Significant differences were found in distance from training institute and ability to visit training institute. SEPTIMUS students had higher levels of computer ownership, frequency of Internet use and IT skills than attenders; these factors when examined in Study 1 did not have an impact on the drop‐out rate of e‐learners.

e‐Learning can overcome barriers to traditional learning in psychotherapy, particularly distance from a training centre, without loss of student satisfaction or student performance. Factors sometimes thought to be obstacles to e‐learning, such as information technology skills, were not found to be significant barriers – although they may have affected recruitment. Certain aspects of e‐learning, such as the tendency to facilitate self‐disclosure, were found to be very beneficial, particularly in the context of psychotherapy programmes.     

Learning How to Learn in a Technology Course: A Case Study

There is a growing interest in helping students to become better learners, and this article describes how the team designing an Open University distance-learning course set out to create a course that would explicitly attempt to help students acquire the learning characteristics of mature and capable practitioners in the field. The article discusses how the course team went about this task in ways that turned out to be consistent with both experiential and constructivist perspectives of learning. It explains how the learning-to-learn goals of the course were explicitly articulated to students and how the course structure and the assessment policy sought to 'impel' students to acquire and deploy learning skills that would stand them in good stead after graduation. The article ends by reviewing the evidence, available from students' marked assignments and from surveys, of how well students actually did 'learn how to learn'.     

Roles and characteristics of television and some implications for distance learning

The Open University has a unique partnership with the BBC. The BBC produces television, radio and audio‐cassette material in conjunction with Open University academic and other course design staff. Producers are full members of course teams. The Government, through its grant to the University, pays the full cost of the BBC's services to the University. The BBC has set up a department (BBC/OUP) specifically to provide services to the Open University. In Autumn, 1981, a brand‐new, £5½ million purpose‐built studio complex became operational on the University campus, and is managed by the BBC on the University's behalf. Currently, over 1,500 Open University television programmes are transmitted each year on the BBC's national television networks.

The University funds a small research group to investigate the use of audio‐visual media in the University. The research group carries out studies of programme utilisation across the 140 different courses, to assist with the planning and allocation of production and transmission resources. It also carries out more detailed research into individual programmes and course strategies for using television. More recently, the research group has been paying particular actention to how students learn from television. This paper explores some recent theory, and research developments on the role and character of television, and its impact on learning in distance education.     

Changes in Initial Teacher Training Students’ Perceptions of the Effectiveness of School‐based Mentoring over Time

This article looks at mentoring in the Open University's Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course: a distance learning, competence‐based course of part‐time Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for primary and secondary students. It emphasises the importance of school‐based mentoring, and looks at changing student perceptions of mentoring over the duration of the course. Questionnaires and interviews are used to explore a range of issues about mentoring in ITT. The findings suggest that students become more discerning about, and more critical of, their mentors as the course proceeds. Some attempt is made to suggest how these attitudes can be improved. The mentors’ perceptions are compared with those of the students.     

Teaching Creativity Creatively

Abstract

A theory of creative thinking is presented as it related to the implementation of computer‐based instructional design. Methods used in a graduate‐level course at Johns Hopkins University for teaching creativity are described. An emphasis on process over product allows instructors to focus on problem‐solving strategies at all levels of development. Finally, the effects of the computer on the creative process are discussed and suggestions are made for avoiding the trap of technological obsolescence.     

ODS Network ‐ International School Networking

Abstract

The initiative ‘Offenes Deutsches Schul‐Netz’ (ODS) ‐ The Open German School Network ‐ sees itself as a joint cover for school networking in Germany. In this article, we give an insight into the very successful ideas on which ODS is based. Practically every computer‐mediated communication between schools in Germany and abroad is transmitted on the basis of agreements by the ODS with various servers. We describe, briefly, how we imagine networking between schools in future.     

Raising the bar: Encouraging high level thinking in online discussion forums

More universities are offering online instruction for students though we know little about effective online learning. Some have found online instruction increases student participation while others have reported that students prefer the traditional face‐to‐face format This study of gifted education graduate students follows the expectation that online students ought to have time to be more thoughtful with online course interactions as compared to the time‐constrained interactions in a face‐to‐face course. Researchers evaluated students’ thinking levels (as per Bloom's Taxonomy) in the online discussion forums required by a graduate course in gifted education. Results indicate there was no relationship between the level of the prompt and the level of the responses. Higher level prompts did not necessarily generate higher level responses. The research‐developed Rubric for Evaluation of Online Discussions can be used both as an instructional guide and as an evaluation rubric to assess the level of online discussions.     

Coping with the Contradictions of Reflecting on Praxis: a Spanish case

Abstract

This paper offers some aspects and conclusions which form a part of a more extensive 2‐year case study carried out by a group of 11 teachers participating in an action‐research project at the University of Oviedo, Spain. The purpose is to analyse the professionalizing potential of action‐research in Higher Education. Professional development and growth are understood to be a pedagogical process through which teachers may increase, and enhance their ability for coping with the dilemmas and contradictions they face up to at work. In considering this conception, the objective is to analyse the specific contradictions of action‐research, as well as its possibilities, as a strategy for professional development of University teachers.     

Promoting retention and successful completion on Masters courses in education: a study comparing e‐tuition using asynchronous conferencing software with face‐to‐face tuition

This paper considers the influence of e‐tuition using an asynchronous written conferencing package, FirstClass, upon retention and success rates for Masters‐level courses in a distance learning programme as compared with similar courses that were supported in a traditional manner using face‐to‐face tuition. The paper investigates the common assumption that the use of e‐tuition might negatively influence both retention and success rates by studying data gathered on UK Open University Masters courses in education. These data have allowed direct comparisons between e‐tutored and face‐to‐face tutored courses to be made. The effect of linking assessment to participation in activities using FirstClass is also considered in this study. This research has revealed that e‐tutoring using FirstClass appears to have no significant positive or negative influence on either retention or success on such courses.     

Systematic and systemic approaches to reducing attrition rates in online higher education

Abstract

Prior to 1997, the Department of Instructional & Performance Technology (IPT) online program at Boise State University faced a high student dropout rate. The IPT turned to Keller's ARCS model, Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model, and Kirkpatrick's evaluation model throughout the processes of improving the motivational appeal of the online course for the first‐time adult learners and solving the attrition problem. In this article, the author describes a long‐term evaluation case study and explains how she systematically designed and implemented various instructional interventions to reduce attrition. She also presents the results of systemic evaluations.     

The impact of technology on the teaching and assessment of ‘systems’ diagrams in two online environmental management modules

Abstract

The context and tools used to create diagrams may hinder or help students in learning how to represent a situation and how to learn about diagramming and the situation at the same time. These equally provide opportunities and challenges to tutors in teaching, assessing and providing feedback on these diagrams, particularly for students studying at a distance. Two online undergraduate modules, dealing with environmental management at The Open University UK, require students to share diagrams with other students, to work collaboratively on diagrams in small groups and include diagrams in all assignments. This paper reports on students’ and tutors’ experiences of using diagrams before, during and outside involvement with both modules to better understand the main factors that influence their educational value, in particular the part that familiarity, experience and confidence in the techniques, the technologies and acts of sharing played in supporting learning or not.     

Office Workers,Factory Workers,Cashiers or Cooks: a North American perspective on vocational education reform at the secondary school level

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the issue of secondary school vocational education reform in North America from a critical‐feminist perspective by linking directly to challenges that women face in pink and blue collar jobs. In the first part of the paper we review the research literature on pink and blue collar jobs in the clerical, sales, service, and manufacturing sectors. We explore how occupational sex segregation, job value and job security shape the working contexts of female employees in these jobs. In the second part of the paper we turn our attention to the implications of these challenges for vocational education reform. We focus on how curricular contexts such as traditional and non‐traditional vocational curricula, secondary school‐workplace linkages, and nonvocational courses could be reformed to become more responsive to the workplace challenges that current and future female workers face in pink and blue collar Jobs.     

The World Wide Web,Computers and Teaching Literature

Abstract

Students in my on‐campus literature classes have made good use of a series of computer programs that I have created for text analysis. I offered a course via the World Wide Web that provided 14 of my programs to students throughout the world. My course taught those students how to use the programs, and as they completed the assignments, students not only learned to use software for literary analysis, but they also often gained new kinds of insights into the study of texts.     

Senior Design Project Course: A Case Study

The two‐quarter Senior Design Project course given in the Computer Science and Engineering Department of Auburn University gives undergraduate students a significant computer system development experience by working on a project from proposal to prototype. Heavy emphasis is placed on team‐ and project‐management principles, team presentations, the application of standard structured development methodologies, and the generation of formal deliverables after each project phase. Project ideas are canvassed from faculty, graduate students, local industry and community, and from the students themselves. We believe that the knowledge and experience acquired by students from working in a team on a substantial project gives them an insight and perspective that is unattainable through the standard lecture paradigm. The course has received enthusiastic endorsement from industry, accrediting boards, and participating students (albeit at the end of the course!).     

Computer self‐efficacy,academic self‐concept,and other predictors of satisfaction and future participation of adult distance learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a predictive model of satisfaction of adult learners in a Web‐based distance education course and their intent to participate in future Web‐based distance education courses. The factors examined were computer self‐efficacy, academic self‐concept, age, gender, academic status, years of computer use, frequency of computer use, computer training, Internet experience in a class, and participation in a workshop for a Web‐based course. Computer self‐efficacy was the only predictor variable that was statistically significant. There was a positive relationship between learners' satisfaction with their Web‐based distance education courses and their intent to participate in future Web‐based courses.