Education Commons^™

Learning Experiences In An Online Learning Environment: A Reflection, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Learning By Design: Teachers And Students As Co-Creators Of Knowledge [Book Chapter], Nathan Balasubramanian, Brent Wilson

Brent Wilson

About this book: Numerous educational technology programs and strategies have been developed on all continents to ensure that technology is used effectively for the benefit of student learning and achievement. The impact of technology on learning and instruction is still not clear. This book addresses several concerns of educators who rub elbows with a new technology. The book offers global research-based data on educational technology. The book consists of nine independent blind peer-reviewed scientific articles written by thirteen authors, four from Europe and nine from the USA. The authors present diverse views on social technologies and integration of ICT (information …

Effects Of Learner-Instructor Relationship Building Strategies In Online Video Lessons, Yanghee Kim, Jeffrey Thyne

Yanghee Kim

Although research has demonstrated that an increased rapport between instructors and learners can positively relate with increased learning gains, perhaps mediated by the positive attitudes toward the course and self-efficacy beliefs in the coursework, little has been done to test what instructional strategies might increase this rapport in online video-based instruction. This study compared online video-based instruction that made use of relationship-building strategies with online video-based instruction that did not use those strategies. The two instructions were identical in every other way. The results showed that the attitudes of the college students were positively affected by the relationship building strategies …

Promoting And Evaluating Online Learner-Instructor Relationships, Yanghee Kim, R Burdo, T Chen

Yanghee Kim

Emotions that a learner brings to the learning context can influence engagement, self-regulation, and achievement. Recently, researchers have called for examination on the impact of learner emotions in online learning environments. This study examines how to incorporate learner/instructor relationship aspects in online instruction and promote affective relationships with the learners. Participants enrolled in a college statistics course took a weeklong video-based module covering Normal Distribution. Learner attitudes, learner self-efficacy, learner/instructor relationship, and learning gains were evaluated. The relationship building strategies were found to have positive impacts on learner attitudes and self-efficacy. The inclusion of the relationship building strategies, however, did …

Promoting And Evaluating Online Learner-Instructor Relationships, Yanghee Kim, R Burdo, T Chen

Yanghee Kim

Emotions that a learner brings to the learning context can influence engagement, self-regulation, and achievement. Recently, researchers have called for examination on the impact of learner emotions in online learning environments. This study examines how to incorporate learner/instructor relationship aspects in online instruction and promote affective relationships with the learners. Participants enrolled in a college statistics course took a weeklong video-based module covering Normal Distribution. Learner attitudes, learner self-efficacy, learner/instructor relationship, and learning gains were evaluated. The relationship building strategies were found to have positive impacts on learner attitudes and self-efficacy. The inclusion of the relationship building strategies, however, did …

Quality Learning With Technologies: Strategies For School Leaders To Address Challenges And Dilemmas, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

The integration of technologies into schools is often promoted as a way to improve the quality of students’ learning, and an approach that enables teachers to be more ‘learner focused’.

Virtual learning environments, such as learning management systems, mobile technologies, online games, simulations and virtual worlds, are seen to offer teachers the ability to personalise learning for students, and as a way to enable students to be in control of the pace of their own learning. Technologies are also seen to assist in the collection and analysis of data about students’ achievements. Integrating technologies into school programs however, is not …

The Effect Of The Visual Gender Of An Embodied Agent: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Yanghee Kim, A Guiz, A Silveryarg, M Haake, T Chen, N Kim

Yanghee Kim

This study explored if the visual gender representations (androgynous, male, or female) of an embodied agent would influence students’ perceptions of their agent and their attitudes toward the agent as their conversational partner. The study also explored if students’ gender and cultural background would interact with the agent’s visual gender to influence their perceptions and attitudes. Participants were 208 early-teen students sampled from US and South Korea. The results revealed that student gender was a significant factor for influencing students' perceptions and attitudes and that the students showed positive attitudes toward an androgynous agent more than toward a gendered agent …

Learning Designs: Bridging The Gap Between Theory And Practice, S. Bennett, S. Agostinho, Lori Lockyer, Lisa Kosta, J. Jones, R. Koper, Barry Harper

Professor Lori Lockyer

This paper summarises the work being conducted in an ongoing research agenda focused on exploring how the ‘learning design’ construct can be used to support university educators to create both pedagogically sound and interoperable e-learning experiences. The premise of this work is that a learning design can be used to support the pedagogical design process and the integration of international e-learning standards, such as learning object metadata and IMS-LD, enabling resources and tools to be technically interoperable across different standards-compliant systems. The paper presents the rationale guiding this research focus, describes the features of the research that is underway, and …

Can A Pedagogical Agent Help Reduce Mathematics Anxiety?, Q. Wei, Yanghee Kim

Yanghee Kim

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Teachers' Use Of Online Learning Resources To Design Classroom Activities, Mimi Recker, Andrew Walker, S. Giersch, X. Mao, B. Palmer, D. Johnson, Heather Leary, B. Robertshaw

Heather Leary, Ph.D.

While much progress has been made on the technical design and development of digital libraries, much less is known about how and why education digital library content and associated tools can support and enhance the activities of educators in their professional work. This article elaborates a conceptual framework that characterizes teachers' practices when using online learning resources (called 'teaching as design'), and a professional development model aimed at increasing teachers' capacity for designing learning activities in the context of authentic practice. Findings from two workshop implementations showed positive impacts on teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and subsequent behaviours using online learning resources. …

Reinvigorating Educational Design For An Online World, Meg O'Reilly

Dr Meg O'Reilly

With changes to higher education being significantly impacted by the rapid pace of technological evolution in the new millennium, there is a need to find greater humanity in the course development process. As traditional mediators and creative collaborators in the process of course design, educational designers are well positioned to bring spirit and soul to their work with academic staff. This paper explores the need for reinvigorating teaching and learning relationships through creative, post-egoist meaningful approaches to educational design in times of enormous technological and workplace change.

Designing Successful Online Courses - Part 2, Kathleen P. King

Kathleen P King

Once again, our major goal is to provide faculty with consistent guidance through the many instructional decisions and design steps they need to pursue in this process. This process is a fantastic opportunity to craft a virtual learning space in which people can engaging in learning beyond the constraints of time and space.

“Am I Making Sense Here?”: What Blogging Reveals About Undergraduate Student Understanding, Trena M. Paulus, Rebecca Payne, Lisa Jahns

Trena M. Paulus

Educational researchers are interested in whether what is learned in the classroom is transferred to new situations. This qualitative case study explores how computer-mediated communication, specifically web logs (blogs), can extend learning and facilitate transfer of learned concepts. Participants blogged for seven weeks about concepts related to nutrition. Data included blog posts and comments and interviews. These data were analyzed inductively for emergent themes addressing our research questions. Four themes were identified: (a) concepts contextualized to participants' daily lives; (b) barriers to applying learned concepts; (c) sources of "expert" knowledge; and (d) unanswered questions revealing gaps in understanding. Implications for …

Creating Pedagogical Agents As Social Models In An Online Learning Environment Mathgirls, Yanghee Kim, B. Xu, A. Sharif

Yanghee Kim

This paper introduces the learning environment MathGirls for high school girls learning fundamentals of algebra. Grounded in social cognitive theories of learning, MathGirls utilizes pedagogical agents to create a girl-friendly virtual learning environment. The design constituents of pedagogical agents are reviewed. These constituents are likely to influence building agent/learner relations. The agent design and system architecture of the MathGirls environment are developed to integrate some of the design constituents. Empirical findings from MathGirls deployment in classrooms support the efficacy of the presence of pedagogical agents in shaping affective and cognitive characteristics of the learner. The paper concludes with the discussions …

Approaches To Case Analyses In Synchronous And Asynchronous Environments, Trena M. Paulus, Gina Phipps

Trena M. Paulus

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can be used to integrate time-intensive tasks, such as case study analyses, more easily into the teacher education curriculum. How students talk together online for learning purposes in CMC environments is an area that has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This paper extends findings from a previous study by comparing two groups of four preservice teachers analyzing cases in a synchronous and asynchronous environment. A case study and computer-mediated discourse analysis approach was taken to make sense of the discussion transcripts and participant reflections. Booth and Hulten’s (2003) taxonomy of learning contributions is used as an …

Distance Education In The Classroom: Lessons Learned, Sandie Waters

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

The Mean Reply Depth Algorithm: A Correlational Study Of Quantitative Versus Qualitative Measures Of Threaded Discourse, Sandie Waters

Sandie H Waters

In the world of online learning, instructors look for the keys that open the door to student learning, engagement, satisfaction, retention, and ability to transfer newly acquired knowledge to real-world situations. One of the most common communication tools in online courses is the threaded discussion. With a growing number of students participating in online education comes the potential for an increase in faculty load. The reviewed courses provided over 1500 threads for two sections of a graduate course at a Mountain Region University. The number of threads that are produced by a student accounts for countless hours of reading, processing, …

Mathgirls: Toward Developing Girls’ Positive Attitude And Self-Efficacy Through Pedagogical Agents, Yanghee Kim, Q Wei, B Xu, Y Ko, V Ilieva

Yanghee Kim

MathGirls is a pedagogical-agent-based environment designed for high-school girls learning introductory algebra. Since females are in general more interested in interactive computing and more positive about the social presence of pedagogical agents, the environment provides a girl-friendly social learning environment, where pedagogical agents encourage the girls to build constructive views of learning math. This study investigated the impact of agent presence on changes in the girls’ math attitude, their math self-efficacy, and their learning; on the girls’ choice of their agents; and, on their perceptions of agent affability. The results revealed that the girls with an agent developed a more …

Twenty Guidelines For Successful Threaded Discussions, Sandie Waters

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Ist Masters @ A Distance Program: Course Design And Development Process, Paul Alford, Sandie Waters, Semiral Oncu, Hasan Tuzan

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.