Learner readiness for online learning: Scale development and student perceptions

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a multidimensional instrument for college students’ readiness for online learning. Through a confirmatory factor analysis, the Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) was validated in five dimensions: self-directed learning, motivation for learning, computer/Internet self-efficacy, learner control, and online communication self-efficacy. Research data gathered from 1051 college students in five online courses in Taiwan revealed that students’ levels of readiness were high in computer/Internet self-efficacy, motivation for learning, and online communication self-efficacy and were low in learner control and self-directed learning. This study found that gender made no statistical differences in the five OLRS dimensions, but that higher grade (junior and senior) students exhibited significantly greater readiness in the dimensions of self-directed learning, online communication self-efficacy, motivation for learning, and learner control than did lower grade (freshman and sophomore) students.     

The effect of moderator’s facilitative strategies on online synchronous discussions

Moderators play an important role within a computer supported collaborative learning environment, and thus facilitative strategies and communication technology are nowadays used to enhance students’ learning. This study proposed facilitative strategies as a guide for students’ learning, and explored the influence of these strategies on the students’ online synchronous discussion. A total of 331 senior high school students from eight computer classes in northern Taiwan were recruited to participate in this study. They were randomly assigned into an experimental condition, with the moderators’ facilitation to complete online learning tasks, and the control condition without moderators’ support. To fulfill the goal of the research, four strategies—helping students focus on the main topic, facilitating students’ making argumentation, giving students positive feedback, and helping students sustain threaded discussion—were adopted to facilitate the online synchronous discussion in the experimental condition. According to the results of the content analysis, four group discussion patterns were revealed, including collaboration, centralization, partial contribution, and non-interaction. The findings suggest that the moderator helped enhance the collaboration pattern and increase the online participation rate. In addition, it was found that the strategies of helping students focus on the main topic and giving students positive feedback were frequently employed.     

Gender and cultural differences in Internet use: A study of China and the UK

This study investigates differences in use of, and attitudes toward the Internet and computers generally for Chinese and British students, and gender differences in this cross-cultural context. Two hundred and twenty Chinese and 245 British students’ responses to a self-report survey questionnaire are discussed. Significant differences were found in Internet experience, attitudes, usage, and self-confidence between Chinese and British students. British students were more likely to use computers for study purposes than Chinese students, but Chinese students were more self-confident about their advanced computer skills. Significant gender differences were also found in both national groups. Men in both countries were more likely than women to use email or ‘chat’ rooms. Men played more computer games than women; Chinese men being the most active games players. Men in both countries were more self-confident about their computer skills than women, and were more likely to express the opinion that using computers was a male activity and skill than were women. Gender differences were higher in the British group than the Chinese group. The present study illustrates the continued significance of gender in students’ attitudes towards, and use of computers, within different cultural contexts.     

The influence of students and teachers characteristics on the efficacy of face-to-face and computer supported collaborative learning

In this paper we compared the efficacy of face-to-face and computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in increasing academic knowledge and professional competences. We also explored how students’ personality characteristics and learning strategies and teachers’ characteristics were associated with better learning outcomes in online or face-to-face contexts. One hundred and seventy students participated in 10 community psychology seminars, five online and five face-to-face. Academic and professional learning increased for participants in both settings. Tutors’ characteristics did not influence students’ learning. Students who performed better in online and in face-to-face contexts differed in some psychological variables and in their learning strategies. Overall results show that asynchronous collaborative learning online can increase professional competences normally learnt only in small face-to-face educational settings, and that CSCL can be used to provide innovative educational opportunities that fit particular needs of students with low anxiety, high problem solving efficacy, who have time management problems in their learning strategies.     

Collaborative activities enabled by GroupScribbles (GS): An exploratory study of learning effectiveness

This paper describes the findings of an exploratory cycle of a design-based research project and examines the learning effectiveness of collaborative activities that are supported by the GroupScribbles (GS) software technology in two Singapore primary science classrooms. The students had ten weeks of GS-based lessons in science, which were co-designed by teachers and researchers to teach the curriculum by tapping on collaborative work in small groups as well as in the whole class. The results show that the GS classes performed better than non-GS classes as measured by traditional assessments. With GS, students were found to have more opportunities to participate in class discussions, and were exposed to diversified ideas. Analysis of data collected in the classroom as well as data on students’ attitudes and perceptions indicate that GS facilitated students’ collaborative learning, and improved students’ epistemology and attitudes toward science learning.     

Designing an adaptive web-based learning system based on students’ cognitive styles identified online

This study developed an adaptive web-based learning system focusing on students’ cognitive styles. The system is composed of a student model and an adaptation model. It collected students’ browsing behaviors to update the student model for unobtrusively identifying student cognitive styles through a multi-layer feed-forward neural network (MLFF). The MLFF was adopted because of its ability on imprecise or incompletely understood data, ability to generalize and learn from specific examples, ability to be quickly updated with extra parameters, and speed in execution making them ideal for real time applications. The system then adaptively recommended learning content presented with a variety of content and interactive components through the adaptation model based on the student cognitive style identified in the student model. The adaptive web interfaces were designed by investigating the relationships between students’ cognitive styles and browsing patterns of content and interactive components. Training of the MLFF and an experiment were conducted to examine the accuracy of identifying students’ cognitive styles during browsing with the proposed MLFF and the impact of the proposed adaptive web-based system on students’ engagement in learning. The training results of the MLFF showed that the proposed system could identify students’ cognitive styles with high accuracy and the temporal effects should be considered while identifying students’ cognitive styles during browsing. Two factors, the acknowledgment of students’ cognitive styles while browsing and the existence of adaptive web interfaces, were used to assign three classes of college freshmen into three groups. The experimental results revealed that the proposed system could have significant impacts on temporal effects on students’ engagement in learning, not only for students with cognitive styles known before browsing, but also for students with cognitive styles identified during browsing. The results provide evidence of the effectiveness of the adaptive web-based learning system with students’ cognitive styles dynamically identified during browsing, thus validating the research purposes of this study.     

A distributed system for learning programming on-line

Several Web-based on-line judges or on-line programming trainers have been developed in order to allow students to train their programming skills. However, their pedagogical functionalities in the learning of programming have not been clearly defined. EduJudge is a project which aims to integrate the “UVA On-line Judge”, an existing on-line programming trainer with an important number of problems and users, into an effective educational environment consisting of the e-learning platform Moodle and the competitive learning tool QUESTOURnament. The result is the EduJudge system which allows teachers to apply different pedagogical approaches using a proven e-learning platform, makes problems easy to search through an effective search engine, and provides an automated evaluation of the solutions submitted to these problems. The final objective is to provide new learning strategies to motivate students and present programming as an easy and attractive challenge. EduJudge has been tried and tested in three algorithms and programming courses in three different Engineering degrees. The students’ motivation and satisfaction levels were analysed alongside the effects of the EduJudge system on students’ academic outcomes. Results indicate that both students and teachers found that among other multiple benefits the EduJudge system facilitates the learning process. Furthermore, the experiment also showed an improvement in students’ academic outcomes. It must be noted that the students’ level of satisfaction did not depend on their computer skills or their gender.     

An analysis of peer interaction patterns as discoursed by on-line small group problem-solving activity

Currently, numerous on-line discussion forums have been developed for educational purposes; therefore, a better understanding about peer student discussion or discourse interactions is quite important. Through gathering peer learning interactions on 57 college computer science students, who were randomly assigned into 14 small groups for solving programming problems, this study analyzed the content of their discourse interactions. First, it was revealed that the most frequent interactions were related to some questions or suggestions regarding how to effectively coordinate peer members. However, different features of peer interactions were found across different small groups. By time sequence analysis of peer interactions, it was found that issues and positions were proposed mostly in the initial and middle stages of the study, while the conflicts frequently occurred in the beginning stage. Finally, this study suggested five peer interaction patterns in terms of peer knowledge exchange, including centralized knowledge exchange, distributive knowledge exchange, group development impediment, ability impediment and partial knowledge exchange. A further analysis of students’ knowledge exchange patterns revealed that peer students’ background abilities played an important role on the ways of knowledge exchange involved in the on-line peer learning activity. Certain configurations of students’ background abilities tended to lead to a particular communication pattern. The implications derived from the findings for educational practice were also discussed. For example, the small groups with peer members of high achievement (or heterogeneous abilities) may not guarantee the success of group work. Many of them need teachers or moderators to scaffold the process of peer interactions and learning.     

The interplay between cognitive and motivational variables in a supportive online learning system for secondary physical education

A path model was used to test the unique and interactive effects of cognitive and motivational variables when learning in a supportive online learning system, Collaborative Inquiry System (CIS). In this student-centered learning environment, students interact with computer simulations and are assisted by online scaffolds intended to help them learn complex scientific concepts. The present study also explored the relationships between students’ motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive strategy use and online performance. In total, 178 tenth-grade students participated in the study. The statistical analyses revealed that students’ learning goals and cognitive preferences predicted metacognitive strategy use and later influenced their performance. Prior knowledge is a predictor of neither metacognitive strategy use nor learning goals and need for cognition, but is nevertheless an important determinant of online performance. Discussions on how to accommodate the different needs of students with varying levels of prior knowledge, goal orientation, and cognitive preference in a supportive learning system are provided based on the results.     

A case study of computer gaming for math: Engaged learning from gameplay?

Employing mixed-method approach, this case study examined the in situ use of educational computer games in a summer math program to facilitate 4th and 5th graders’ cognitive math achievement, metacognitive awareness, and positive attitudes toward math learning. The results indicated that students developed more positive attitudes toward math learning through five-week computer math gaming, but there was no significant effect of computer gaming on students’ cognitive test performance or metacognitive awareness development. The in-field observation and students’ think-aloud protocol informed that not every computer math drill game would engage children in committed learning. The study findings have highlighted the value of situating learning activities within the game story, making games pleasantly challenging, scaffolding reflections, and designing suitable off-computer activities.     

Digital Game-Based Learning in high school Computer Science education: Impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation

The aim of this study was to assess the learning effectiveness and motivational appeal of a computer game for learning computer memory concepts, which was designed according to the curricular objectives and the subject matter of the Greek high school Computer Science (CS) curriculum, as compared to a similar application, encompassing identical learning objectives and content but lacking the gaming aspect. The study also investigated potential gender differences in the game’s learning effectiveness and motivational appeal. The sample was 88 students, who were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which used the gaming application (Group A, N = 47) and the other one the non-gaming one (Group B, N = 41). A Computer Memory Knowledge Test (CMKT) was used as the pretest and posttest. Students were also observed during the interventions. Furthermore, after the interventions, students’ views on the application they had used were elicited through a feedback questionnaire. Data analyses showed that the gaming approach was both more effective in promoting students’ knowledge of computer memory concepts and more motivational than the non-gaming approach. Despite boys’ greater involvement with, liking of and experience in computer gaming, and their greater initial computer memory knowledge, the learning gains that boys and girls achieved through the use of the game did not differ significantly, and the game was found to be equally motivational for boys and girls. The results suggest that within high school CS, educational computer games can be exploited as effective and motivational learning environments, regardless of students’ gender.     

Computer games development and appreciative learning approach in enhancing students’ creative perception

Creativity is an important entity in developing human capital while computer games are the current generation’s contemporary tool. This study focused on the teaching of computer games development in order to enhance the creative perception of secondary school children. The study applied randomised subjects, with control group experimental design, which involved 69 Malaysian form one students, aged 13–14 year-old. Different pedagogical strategies were being investigated on the abilities to enhance students’ creative perception. Treatment group adopted appreciative learning approach, which was based on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) theory. Meanwhile, control group adopted self-paced learning, followed by do-it-yourself session. Previous studies indicated that although appreciative learning approach is still in its infancy development, the approach is gaining its momentum in educational settings as it focuses on strengthening a person’s capacities and potential. Students’ creative perception was assessed using Khatena-Torrance Creative Perception Inventory (KTCPI). It was found students in treatment group gained a mean score of 71.82, which was significantly higher at .05 level of significance compared to the mean score of 50.49 exhibited by the control group. Yet, both treatment and control groups showed significant increases in pre-to-post-test scores. Dimensions within KTCPI were further analysed in order to present a better picture of students’ creative perception. As a conclusion, different pedagogical strategy generated different level of creative perception enhancement.     

Developing a reciprocal teaching/learning system for college remedial reading instruction

In face-to-face instruction of Reciprocal Teaching (RT), students’ reading processes and dialogues with their peers are hardly observed. As a result, the teacher has few clues to identify students’ learning difficulties and provide further scaffoldings. To record students’ reading processes and enhance their comprehension, this study reports on the design of an online reciprocal teaching and learning system to support teachers and students in college remedial reading instruction. A sample of 129 under-prepared college students voluntarily signed up to participate in a remedial reading program. They were encouraged to use multiple strategies such as predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing, which were supported by the functionalities of dialogue box, chat room, discussion forum, and annotation tool in the system. In this study, it was observed that students employed the multiple strategies to enhance their reading comprehension, as revealed by the students’ reading processes recorded in the system. When encountering difficulties in using these multiple strategies, students expressed that they observed and learned from the teacher’s or their peers’ externalization of strategy usage. Students’ reading progress in the remedial instruction incorporating the RT system was also identified by the pre- and post-tests. This study suggests that there may be benefits for teachers in encouraging students to interact with others in order to clarify and discuss comprehension questions and constantly monitor and regulate their own reading.     

Exploring gender and gender pairing in the knowledge elaboration processes of students using computer-supported collaborative learning

The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of gender and gender pairing on students’ learning performances and knowledge elaboration processes in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). A sample of ninety-six secondary school students, participated in a two-week experiment. Students were randomly paired and asked to solve several moderately structured problems concerning Newtonian mechanics. Students’ pretest and posttest performances were analyzed to see whether students’ gender and the gender pairing (mixed or single-gender) were significant factors in their problem solving learning in CSCL. Students’ online interactions were also analyzed to unravel the dynamic process of individual knowledge elaboration. The multilevel analyses revealed that a divergent pattern of knowledge elaboration was a significant predictor for students’ learning achievement, and in mixed-gender dyads students’ knowledge elaboration processes were more inclined to diverge from each other. Moreover, females in single-gender dyads significantly outperformed females in mixed-gender dyads. But this was not the case for male students.     

Students’ perceptions of collaboration, self-regulated learning, and information seeking in the context of Internet-based learning and traditional learning

This study aims to investigate students’ perceptions of three aspects of learning - collaboration, self-regulated learning (SRL), and information seeking (IS) in both Internet-based and traditional face-to-face learning contexts. A multi-dimensional questionnaire was designed to evaluate each aspect in terms of perceived capability, experience, and interest. The analyses explore (1) potential differences of students’ perceptions between Internet-based and face-to-face learning environments and (2) potential differences in the three aspects in relation to learners’ attributes and the use of the Internet and enrollment in online courses. This study surveyed students in a higher education institute who had had experiences with Internet-based and face-to-face learning. The results showed that students perceived higher levels of collaboration (capability only), SRL (capability and experience) and IS (capability, interest, and experience) in Internet-based learning than in traditional learning environments. In terms of students’ education level, graduate students perceived higher levels of capabilities and interests in some of the aspects, than undergraduate students. In addition, for Internet-based learning, significant differences in collaboration and SRL were found derived from time spent on the Internet related to learning; and students’ perceptions of collaboration, SRL, and IS were all positively correlated to students’ online course-taking experience. Implications for online learning practices and instructor’s facilitation are discussed.     

The effect of simulation games on the learning of computational problem solving

Simulation games are now increasingly applied to many subject domains as they allow students to engage in discovery processes, and may facilitate a flow learning experience. However, the relationship between learning experiences and problem solving strategies in simulation games still remains unclear in the literature. This study, thus, analyzed the feedback and problem solving behaviors of 117 students in a simulation game, designed to assist them to learn computational problem solving. It was found that students when learning computational problem solving with the game were more likely to perceive a flow learning experience than in traditional lectures. The students’ intrinsic motivation was also enhanced when they learned with the simulation game. In particular, the results of the study found a close association between the students’ learning experience states and their problem solving strategies. The students who perceived a flow experience state frequently applied trial-and-error, learning-by-example, and analytical reasoning strategies to learn the computational problem solving skills. However, a certain portion of students who experienced states of boredom and anxiety did not demonstrate in-depth problem solving strategies. For instance, the students who felt anxious in the simulation game did not apply the learning-by-example strategy as frequently as those in the flow state. In addition, the students who felt bored in the simulation game only learned to solve the problem at a superficial level.     

A hybrid approach to promoting students’ web-based problem-solving competence and learning attitude

Fostering problem-solving abilities has long been recognized as an important issue in education; however, past studies have shown that it is difficult and challenging to find effective learning strategies or tools for improving students’ problem-solving abilities. To cope with this problem, in this study, a hybrid approach that integrates the cognitive apprenticeship model with the collaborative learning strategy is proposed for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. Students’ problem-solving performance is examined in such a hybrid learning context. Furthermore, past studies indicate that cognitive load could affect learners’ performance; thus, the influence of cognitive load on students’ problem-solving effectiveness with this new approach is investigated in depth. The experimental results show that middle- and low-achievement students in the experimental group gained significant benefits from the hybrid approach in comparison with those who learned with the traditional approach. Accordingly, a discussion of how to accommodate the needs of different learning ability groups is provided.     

Improving problem solving ability in mathematics by using a mathematical model: A computerized approach

The present study investigates the improvement of students’ mathematical performance by using a mathematical model through a computerized approach. We had developed an intervention program and 11 years students worked independently on a mathematical model in order to improve their self-representation in mathematics, to self-regulate their performance and consequently to improve their problem solving ability. The emphasis of using the specific model was on dividing the problem solving procedure into stages, the concentration on the students’ cognitive processes at each stage and the self-regulation of those cognitive processes in order to overcome cognitive obstacles. The use of the computer offered the opportunity to give students general comments, hints and feedback without the involvement of their teachers. Students had to communicate with a cartoon animation presenting a human being who faced difficulties and cognitive obstacles during problem solving procedure. Three tools were constructed for pre- and post-test (self-representation, mathematical performance and self-regulation). There were administered to 255 students (11 years old), who constituted the experimental and the control group. Results confirmed that providing students with the opportunity to self-reflect on their learning behavior when they encounter obstacles in problem solving is one possible way to enhance students’ self-regulation and consequently their mathematical performance.     

The effects of computer games on primary school students’ achievement and motivation in geography learning

The implementation of a computer game for learning about geography by primary school students is the focus of this article. Researchers designed and developed a three-dimensional educational computer game. Twenty four students in fourth and fifth grades in a private school in Ankara, Turkey learnt about world continents and countries through this game for three weeks. The effects of the game environment on students’ achievement and motivation and related implementation issues were examined through both quantitative and qualitative methods. An analysis of pre and post achievement tests showed that students made significant learning gains by participating in the game-based learning environment. When comparing their motivations while learning in the game-based learning environment and in their traditional school environment, it was found that students demonstrated statistically significant higher intrinsic motivations and statistically significant lower extrinsic motivations learning in the game-based environment. In addition, they had decreased focus on getting grades and they were more independent while participating in the game-based activities. These positive effects on learning and motivation, and the positive attitudes of students and teachers suggest that computer games can be used as an ICT tool in formal learning environments to support students in effective geography learning.