Adult learners in the workplace: online learning and communities of practice

Seven in‐employment postgraduate Master's level students in an e‐learning unit participated in this research, designed to identify tensions between participation in a community of learning that was part of their studies, and participation in the communities of practice that they were engaged in at their workplaces. It was hypothesised that participation in both these forms of community in their different contexts may enhance each other, or could potentially have a disrupting effect on each. The research employed an interviewing technique. The students' perceptions of the impact of participation in the one form of community on their participation in the other was mixed, with some suggesting that it was enhancing, and others suggesting the contrary, or that there was no impact. The findings indicate that the enhancing effect of participation in communities of learning relevant to a learner's workplace community of practice occur when the learning tasks are designed to enable negotiation of tasks and collaboration with learners who have similar workplace issues.     

Distance education plans: Course planning for online adult learners

TechTrends - There can be an untethered excitement connected with ever-expanding technologies and the vastness of educational opportunities that online learning generates. Yet, these new and...     

Distance education plans: Course planning for online adult learners

Summary There can be an untethered excitement connected with ever-expanding technologies and the vastness of educational opportunities that online learning generates. Yet, these new and exciting opportunities do not diminish the real-life concerns and issues that online professors face. Lack of planning often sets the stage for disastrous educational experiences. Problems with technology, the lack of professor guidance and the inability to build community, facilitate communication or humanize learning can sabotage educational efforts. Minimal or nonexistent evaluation can lead to a recycling of futile educational efforts in future online courses. Yet, you can circumvent these issues with proper planning-with the use of distance education plans     

The role of learners’ epistemic beliefs in an online Community of Inquiry

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model provides a lens to examine online learning through three elements: teaching presence (the design and facilitation of learning experiences), social presence (the extent to which learners project themselves as real people) and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct meaning through inquiry and reflection activities). While research to date has established the importance of these essential presences in online learning environments, recent research on the CoI model calls for the need to explore the role of learner characteristics. The current study responded to the call by examining the role of learners’ epistemic beliefs (EB) (ie, individuals’ fundamental beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing) in an online CoI. Multiple linear regressions analyses revealed that EB moderated the relationship between learners’ perceived teaching presence and cognitive presences. Future studies on CoI should take learners’ epistemic beliefs into consideration, especially in the case of low teaching presences. Theoretical and practical implications for designing and investigating online learning are discussed.     

Understanding our learners and developing reflective practice: Conducting action research with English language learners

This paper examines the ways in which action research projects can be used to socialize teachers to the teaching of English language learners (ELLs) as well as help these teachers develop reflective practice. Drawing on surveys, action research projects conduced with ELLs and reflection papers as data, the study explored the teachers' statements about the impact of the course work and the projects on their teaching and their beliefs about teaching ELLs. Students stated that they felt they had grown as teachers, were more reflective, and more confident about teaching in general, and teaching ELLs in particular.     

Pedagogical practices of NetNZ teachers for supporting online distance learners

A supportive online learning environment entails teachers using effective pedagogical practices to meet the needs of their students and developing a positive teacher–student relationship to foster learner motivation and engagement. This paper reports a study investigating how 32 secondary teachers in New Zealand taught their online distance classes and how they related to their students. These classes were administered by NetNZ, an online distance education community. An online survey conducted in 2016 found that NetNZ teachers used inquiry-based practices including flipped learning and knowledge-building pedagogies to support agency, autonomy, collaboration, and community development. They also used synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies to overcome barriers of relationship building in online settings. NetNZ was unique in delivering distance education in the New Zealand context in that it used a community approach to encourage a more active participation of its member schools and teachers in delivering distance courses to secondary students.     

Empirical manifestations of power among adult learners in online discussions

This study examined the nature of power manifestations in a specific online learning setting. The two online classes selected for this study were Master’s level courses in a professional school at a large state university in the United States. A total of 1340 postings were made in the two classes over the span of the semester. To test the research question, frequency analysis and the Mann-Whitney U test were conducted, using gender and race as the independent variables. The results of the study suggest the possibility that the online discussion environment attenuates the power of gender-based privilege and perhaps undercuts race privilege, even though there was an element of inequality based on power between the racial groups in an indication of power manifestations.     

学习者的文化因素对投入性在线学习的影响

权力距离指数(PDI)是一个重要的文化维度,指在特定学习情境中,学习者对老师和其他学习者权利地位的看法。本研究通过个案研究考察了权力距离指数(PDI)对学习者在线学习经验感受的影响。本研究目的在于为设计和改进能吸引多元文化背景的学生群体的投入性在线课程提供指导性原则。作者希望其研究成果能为在线学习的文化层面的研究和实践提供参考价值,并为有效的在线课程设计和在线情境中的文化定向教学的基础研究做出贡献。     

The Teenage Expertise Network (TEN): an online ethnographic approach

The take-up of digital technology by young people is a well-known phenomenon and has been subject to socio-cultural analysis in areas such as youth studies and cultural studies. The Teenage Expertise Network (TEN) research project investigates how teenagers develop technological expertise in techno-cultural contexts via the use of a purposefully designed, youth-friendly, online environment – significant in this current age of Internet-mediated learning and rapid technological development. The design of TEN follows principles of ethnographic research adapted to an online environment. This article discusses the design, objectives and outworkings of this new media object, highlighting the tensions associated with conducting online research. This article considers why and how we should reengineer online methodologies and the complexities associated therein. It discusses the classification of this method considering the literature surrounding online data collection methods and virtual ethnography.     

Care practice #4: no routine interventions

This updated edition of Care Practice Paper #4 presents the evidence for risks of routinely intervening in normal physiologic labor and birth. The authors review evidence related to the routine use of restrictions on oral intake, intravenous lines, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, artificial rupture of membranes, pharmacologic augmentation of labor, epidural analgesia, and episiotomy. Medical indications for each intervention are listed. Women are encouraged to avoid routine interventions in labor unless interventions are medically indicated.     

Young learners: teachers' conceptualisation and practice of literacy in Australian preschool contexts

This paper examines how literacy is defined and enacted by teachers in early childhood programmes pointing to the differing ways views of early literacy impact practice. It is argued here that early literacy development during the years before school is dependent on children's experiences of having literacy activities modelled around them and the ways in which adults include them in their everyday literacy interactions. Early childhood teachers reveal differing understandings of early literacy during the years before formal school and this impacts their decisions concerning literacy activities and practice within their preschool rooms. Three early childhood teachers are presented here, through video clips and video-stimulated interviews around their literacy activities with preschool children. They demonstrate a range of practice which is shown to depend on their views of young children's literacy development. These vignettes have implications for further professional discussion and learning.     

Influence of MOOC learners discussion forum social interactions on online reviews of MOOC

Education and Information Technologies - Although some studies have explored massive open online courses (MOOCs) discussion forums and MOOC online reviews separately, studies of both aspects are...     

网络课程中学习支持的研究与实践

网络课程中的学习支持包括两个方面一是内置式支持,二是外围支持.前者内置于学习材料中,为学习过程提供支持;后者是网络教育环境的一部分,从技术层面上提供对网络学习环境的支持.基于"计算机应用基础"网络课程,从学习支持的两个方面进行了设计与实践,取得了不错的教学效果.     

身体写作的是与非

身体写作在上个世纪八十年代与其他西方各种后现代文艺思潮一起涌入中国,为中国的文学创作和文学批评注入了新鲜血液。它为90年代女性意识高扬的个人化写作提供了理论来源和实践基础,为中国当代女性主义创作的多样化,打下了良好的基础。     

Designing online learning communities of practice: A democratic perspective

This study addresses the problem of designing an appropriate learning space or architecture for distributed online courses using net-based communication technologies. We apply Wenger's criteria to explore, identify and discuss the design architectures of two online courses from two comparable online Master's programmes, developed and delivered in two different educational cultures, Ireland (MIC) and Denmark (OL). The investigation will take the shape of a discussion of the 'walls of the learning spaces' of the two courses, with reference to Wenger's criteria and values for an appropriate learning architecture. In an earlier evaluation study, both courses were deemed to be examples of online learning communities of practice, despite their geographical and cultural diversity in contexts of development. The findings of the present study confirm and document several significant design elements of the two courses, which are stressed in the design criteria suggested by Wenger as being vital for community building.     

Connecting online learners with diverse local practices: the design of effective common reference points for conversation

This mixed‐methods study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (video, theory, metaphor) as common reference points for conversations between online learners (student teachers). Individuals’ degree of detail‐focus was examined as a potentially interacting covariate and the outcome measure was learners’ level of tacit knowledge related to their practice (teaching). Analysis was conducted using hierarchical linear modeling and significant results were followed up with a qualitative theme analysis. An interaction between reference point type and detail‐focus was found, demonstrating a positive effect of detail‐focus within the metaphor condition. Unexpectedly, some participants interpreted the metaphors in ways other than those intended, leading to differences in the kinds of understandings developed. The study indicated that a conceptual frame is an important characteristic of a reference point that will be truly taken in common, and that metaphors need additional framing to be viable in this role. Implications for online learning conversation design are discussed.     

Distance guidance for lifelong learners in Hong Kong: development of an online programme preference assessment instrument

In order to build a knowledge‐based society and meet the needs of lifelong education, open learning opportunities are growing at exponential rates. While such growth is commendable, there appears to be a very strong demand for distance guidance services in open education programme selection. The purpose of this study was to develop the online self‐directed inventory, the Academic Programme Preference Instrument (APPI), for the lifelong learners in Hong Kong. The methods of questionnaire survey and standardized psychological measurement were employed. In this study, 2775 respondents were surveyed in order to identify and verify the inventory, using a multistage stratified cluster sampling technique. The inventory consists of 112 items under nine personal attribute types, namely: organizational; mechanical; scientific; sociological; mathematical; literary; musical; aesthetic; and social service. Eighty‐nine distance and continuing education professionals were invited to help to determine the most important personal attributes that a learner should possess in order to meet the minimum entry requirements of each of the 73 education programme categories that account for over 800 open education programmes in Hong Kong. The online APPI, in English and Chinese versions, has been linked to the homepage of the Hok Yau Club in Hong Kong for the public to use freely. As Hong Kong aims to foster lifelong learning in a knowledge‐based society, it is expected that the APPI can help lifelong learners to make wise open education programme selection and to enhance learners’ success in pursuing continuing education.