The impact of transactional distance dialogic interactions on student learning outcomes in online and blended environments

This study measured how student interactions (as captured by Transactional Distance dialogue (Moore, 1993)) in online and blended learning environments impacted student learning outcomes, as measured by student satisfaction and student grades. Dialogue was measured as student interactions with other students (student–student interaction), the technologies used (student–technology interaction), the instructors (student–teacher interaction), and the course contents (student–content interaction). In addition, moderating effects of media and modality of interactions and individual differences on student learning outcomes were also measured. Data was obtained from 342 online and blended students between 2010 and 2013. Findings indicate that student–content interaction had a larger effect on student learning outcomes than other forms of dialogue. Implications for educational policies that require teacher-presence (student–teacher) and student–student interactions in distance learning environments are also discussed.     

The impact of learning design on student behaviour,satisfaction and performance: A cross-institutional comparison across 151 modules

Pedagogically informed designs of learning are increasingly of interest to researchers in blended and online learning, as learning design is shown to have an impact on student behaviour and outcomes. Although learning design is widely studied, often these studies are individual courses or programmes and few empirical studies have connected learning designs of a substantial number of courses with learning behaviour. In this study we linked 151 modules and 111.256 students with students' behaviour (<400 million minutes of online behaviour), satisfaction and performance at the Open University UK using multiple regression models. Our findings strongly indicate the importance of learning design in predicting and understanding Virtual Learning Environment behaviour and performance of students in blended and online environments. In line with proponents of social learning theories, our primary predictor for academic retention was the time learners spent on communication activities, controlling for various institutional and disciplinary factors. Where possible, appropriate and well designed communication tasks that align with the learning objectives of the course may be a way forward to enhance academic retention.     

Students' perceptions of instructors' roles in blended and online learning environments: A comparative study

This study develops an instrument—the Online Instructor Role and Behavior Scale (OIRBS)—and uses it to examine students' perceptions of instructors' roles in blended and online learning environments. A total sample of 750 university students participated in this study. Through a confirmatory factor analysis, the OIRBS was validated in five constructs: course designer and organizer (CDO), discussion facilitator (DF), social supporter (SS), technology facilitator (TF), and assessment designer (AD). The results show that the five factor structures remained invariant across the blended learning and online learning. Both students in blended learning environments and students in online learning environments exhibited the greatest weight in the CDO dimension, followed by the TF and DF dimensions. In addition, students in the online learning environments scored higher in the DF dimension than did those in the blended learning environments.     

Enhancing students’ knowledge building through utilising social interactions in an online learning environment

ABSTRACT

In the new “open world” of information, educational systems should involve students in constructing new knowledge of value to a community out of fragmentary information. The already proposed Knowledge Building (KB) approaches typically support only a few general-purpose activities due to the constraints of the utilised web-based environments. To organise and facilitate students’ KB during course activities, this study incorporated services provided by DoosMooc social learning environment into a knowledge transformation model. This approach is completely adapted to an educational context and allows time for iterations, helping students to both contribute to social KB processes and take collective responsibility for improving their understanding of authentic problems. The features provided by the introduced environment support and assess students’ KB activities and facilitate processes of creating, representing, organising, and reviewing different types of knowledge artefacts. The results of a semester-long experiment indicate that the approach and the corresponding instructional design thereof could successfully organise students’ KB activities and facilitate the required interactions. This study reports the impacts of parameters such as learner expertise and quality of shared knowledge on the planned KB processes, and investigates the relationships between students' KB activities and learning achievements.     

A case study of online instructional collaborative discussion activities for problem-solving using situated scenarios: An examination of content and behavior cluster analysis

In some higher education courses that focus on case studies, teachers can provide situated scenarios (such as business bottlenecks and medical cases) and problem-solving discussion tasks for students to promote their cognitive skills. There is limited research on the content, performance, and behavioral patterns of teaching using online discussions and integrated situated scenarios. This case study empirically explored the learning process of adopting collaborative online instructional discussion activities for the purpose of problem-solving using situated scenarios in a higher education course. Thirty-two university students carried out problem-solving activities on case scenarios and problem-solving tasks assigned by the teacher on the discussion forum. Two forms of instructional activities were considered: 1) problem-solving in a given scenario and 2) problem-solving when learners play roles in a given scenario. The activities mentioned above were each implemented for a week.     

Assessing effectiveness of learning units under the teaching unit model in an undergraduate mathematics course

This paper reports on the findings of the evaluation of Learning Units (LU), a special type of Learning Object designed to help overcome the difficulties associated with learning Calculus concepts at undergraduate level. An Interactive Platform for Learning Calculus (PIAC) that serves as a container for the LU was created following a specific instructional design, namely, the Teaching Unit Model (TUM), which in turn, rules the platform's design, development and implementation. A general perspective on the development of the platform and its LU is presented, including the results of usability and functionality evaluations, which indicate that the platform and the LU comply with different functionality and usability criteria which are fundamental for their introduction into formal university courses. The platform was utilized in a higher education Calculus course, and its effects on different aspects of the learning process were studied. Two experimental groups and two control groups for a total of 102 students taking the Calculus course participated in the study. Results indicated an overall acceptance of using PIAC in class. Important evidence was obtained on the positive effects of using PIAC, not only influencing academic performance of students, but also in motivational aspects of the learning process. The grades obtained in all of academic activities by the groups using PIAC, compared with the control groups, provide solid evidence to the positive influence of the intervention of the technology under the TUM.     

Learning style analysis in adaptive GBL application to teach SQL

The benefits derived from delivering learning content in ways that match the student's learning style have been identified in classroom learning and eLearning. Although there is limited empirical evidence in adaptive Games-Based Learning (GBL), adaptivity has been identified to have the potential to improve learning effectiveness. This paper presents the results of a study to investigate the use of learning styles in GBL particularly in identifying the learning style in GBL including the learning style's fluctuation during the learning process. For the purposes of this study, a game with two game modes was developed: 1) non-adaptivity mode and 2) a mode that had an in-game adaptive system that dynamically and continuously adapted its contents according to the student's interactions in the game. In both modes, the interactions between the participants and the game were recorded in a database. The study was performed with 60 students in Higher Education. The results show that the learning style identified by using a learning style questionnaire is not always consistent with the learning style identified in the game. The results also show the learning style fluctuates during the learning process in GBL although there is a tendency for participants to choose the same learning style as the learning style identified outside the game in the first mission of the game. The number of mistakes committed by participants has been identified to have a strong correlation to the fluctuation. The results contribute to the body of empirical evidence in adaptive GBL particularly in identifying the learning style fluctuation in GBL and the paper provides recommendations on the use of adaptivity in GBL to accommodate this fluctuation.     

Enacting a technology-based science curriculum across a grade level: The journey of teachers' appropriation

Studying teacher enactment of an innovation helps us understand the process of effective spread of a curricular innovation to teachers who have differing levels of content readiness, pedagogical orientations, teaching competency, different student profiles, and professional development experiences. Towards this, we explore how different teachers in the same grade level appropriated a common science curriculum enabled by mobile technologies in their classrooms. The innovative science curriculum: Mobilized 5E (Engage–Explore–Explain–Elaborate–Evaluate) Science Curriculum was developed through an iterative cycle of design-based research. As curriculum designs were not self-sufficient by themselves, the enactments of the teachers differed in how they leveraged on students' artifacts, how they integrated the technology into the class, the ways in which they interacted with the students, and how they scaffolded students' activities in a mobile learning setting. In this study, the teachers' enactments of mobilized 5E lessons were observed, analyzed and compared, with the aim of exploring the differences of lesson enactment amongst them. The results showed that teachers' different pedagogical orientations affected their instructions, especially their ways of technology integration in the class, and their patterns of interactions with the students. Based on the exploration of the teacher enactment of the mobilized 5E curriculum, implications are drawn concerning the implementation of innovative curricula implementation and the supports for teacher professional development of such innovation with the ultimate purpose of sustaining and scaling.     

POLizied e-Learning using contract management

We present an innovative way to manage online learning by administering experiential learning activities during a semester-long, web-based course that is designed with the Project Oriented Learning methodology. A consulting-style guiding thread for in-class and remote workshops is implemented using a professionally relevant project contract that describes teamwork actions. Specific project goals and deliverables are negotiated and a workplan is asserted in an XML database. Performance by a team is measured according to cumulative success or failure in one or more milestones that lead to such goals. We present an inference mechanism that reveals the behavior of a team, in terms of compromise, competition, precision, self-motivation, or individualism on every milestone session. Such behavior becomes evidence used by the instructor to scaffold students, both individually and as groups. This research embraces both content and activity management.     

中职电子技术教法新探

电子技术，是一门职高课程中应用性相当强的学科，因此教学质量的高低对学生就业有很大的帮助。我根据自己教学实际，从师资素养、兴趣提升、方式技巧等方面作一些探讨。     

Using augmented reality to support a software editing course for college students

This study aimed to explore whether integrating augmented reality (AR) techniques could support a software editing course and to examine the different learning effects for students using online‐based and AR‐based blended learning strategies. The researcher adopted a comparative research approach with a total of 103 college students participating in the study. The experimental group (E.G.) learned with the AR‐based contents, while the control group (C.G.) learned with the online‐based support. The findings demonstrated the potential of AR techniques for supporting students' learning motivation and peer learning interaction, and the AR‐based contents could be used as scaffolding to better support blended learning strategies. The AR‐based learning interaction could also be a trigger arousing learners' interest in becoming active learners and the students presented great learning involvement after the AR‐based supports were removed, while the learners in the C.G. were passive once the supports had been removed. Moreover, it was found that (1) their lack of experience with AR interaction and applications, (2) the slow speed of the Internet in the school, (3) the affordances of each learner's mobile learning devices, (4) the screen size of the learning interface and (5) the overloading of the learning information from the AR contents and teacher lectures might be the reasons why the learners were still more used to the online‐based support. It was therefore concluded that when integrating AR applications into a course, technology educational researchers should take into careful consideration the target learning content design, the amount of information displayed on the mobile screen and the affordances of the learning equipment and classroom environment so as to achieve a suitable learning scenario.     

Students' online interactive patterns in augmented reality-based inquiry activities

Inquiry learning has been developing for years and many countries have incorporated inquiry learning into the scope of K-12 education. Educators have indicated the importance of engaging students in knowledge-sharing activities during the inquiry learning process. In this study, a location-based augmented reality (AR) environment with a five-step guiding mechanism is developed to guide students to share knowledge in inquiry learning activities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of promoting the knowledge sharing behaviors of students, an experiment has been conducted in an elementary school natural science course. The participants were 57 fourth-grade students from an elementary school in Northern Taiwan, divided into an experimental group of 28 students who learned with the AR-based approach and a control group of 29 students who learned with the conventional in-class mobile learning approach. The students' learning behaviors, including their movements in the real-world environment and interactions with peers, were recorded. Accordingly, the learning patterns and interactions of the two groups were analyzed via lag-sequential analysis and quantitative content analysis. It was found that, in comparison with the conventional inquiry-based mobile learning activity, the AR-based inquiry learning activity is able to engage the students in more interactions for knowledge construction. The findings of this study provide guidance for helping teachers develop effective strategies and learning designs for conducting inquiry-based learning activities.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of blended learning using the ARCS model

While the educational disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic underscores the importance of blended learning in higher education, research on the effectiveness of blended learning is still inconclusive. Drawing from the motivational design model of the ARCS (i.e., attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction), this study attempts to fill the gap to evaluate effectiveness of blended learning from a multi-dimensional perspective. Participants were randomly assigned into three experimental groups (i.e., face-to-face, pure online, and blended). A questionnaire survey was administered in each group after the trial courses. The data was analysed by using the one-way ANOVA with post hoc tests. The results showed that blended learning outperformed pure online learning in enhancing students' attention, confidence, and satisfaction perceptions. Additionally, blended learning had a higher level of satisfaction perception than face-to-face learning. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to provide an in-depth understanding of how blended learning motivated students during the learning process. Considering that blended learning may become a new normal in higher education after the Covid-19 pandemic, the findings of the present study provide evidences to support the effectiveness of the blended learning approach in addressing students' motivational needs.     

后疫情时代线上线下混合式学习的教学实践研究

在后疫情时代背景下,开展线上线下混合式学习已成为教育教学改革的必然趋势,其目的不是提高在线平台的利用率,也不是去开展争奇斗艳的教学活动,而是有效提升绝大部分学生学习的深度和广度。本文通过分析传统学习模式和线上线下混合式学习模式的优缺点,针对当下《图形图像制作》课程的教学现状,提出将线上学习和传统学习相结合,建构起线上线下混合式学习新模式,有利于改善混合式教学实施的效果。     

Integration of simulation into pre-laboratory chemical course: Computer cluster versus WebCT

Pre-laboratory activities have been known to improve students’ preparation before their practical work as they assist students to make available more working memory capacity for actual learning during the laboratory. The aim of this investigation was to compare two different teaching approaches which supported a pre-laboratory session by using the same simulation program. The investigation was conducted in two countries (Greece and UK). The Greek students attended the course in a computer cluster, where the teacher and the students had a face-to-face communication, while the English students participated in the on-line WebCT course, where there was an on-line asynchronous discussion. A crucial point which emerged from this investigation was that the simulation program in the two different pre-laboratory training sessions gave the same learning outcome; however, the learning characteristics and the teacher’s effort were different. Thus, the teacher could adopt both the two teaching approaches depending on the university facilities, the staff’s time and the students’ familiarity with virtual learning environments. However, in each case of students followed a different way (collaboration or/and independent learning) to obtain the similar learning outcome. In all cases after their pre-laboratory training session they entered the laboratory performing the experiments without any further instructions. Additionally, the teacher’s role was slight difference in the two teaching approaches. In the computer cluster, the teacher had a more active role guiding students to obtain the expected learning outcome through face-to-face discussion and interaction, whereas in the case of the virtual learning environment (WebCT), the teacher had a more of a facilitator role focused on posing questions to the students and collecting the resources promoting the independent learning.     

An application of adaptive games-based learning based on learning style to teach SQL

The fact that each student has a different way of learning and processing information has long been recognised by educationalists. In the classroom, the benefits derived from delivering learning content in ways that match the student's learning style have also been identified. As new modes of delivery of learning content such as computer-assisted learning systems (e.g. eLearning) have become increasingly popular, research into these has also identified the benefits of tailoring learning content to learning styles. However, in games-based learning (GBL), the adaptation based on learning style to enhance the educational experience has not been well researched. For the purpose of this research, a game with three game modes has been developed: 1) non-adaptivity mode; 2) a mode that customises the game according to the student's learning style identified by using a learning style questionnaire; and 3) a mode that has an in-game adaptive system that dynamically and continuously adapts its content according to the student's interactions in the game.This paper discusses the term adaptivity in a GBL context and presents the results of an experimental study investigating the differences in learning effectiveness of the different game modes compared to a paper-based learning. The study was performed with 120 Higher Education students learning the database language SQL (Structured Query Language). The results show that the game developed, regardless of mode, produced better learning outcomes than those who learned from a textbook while adaptive GBL was better in terms of allowing learners to complete the tasks faster than the other two game versions.     

Teacher support in computer-supported lab work: bridging the gap between lab experiments and students’ conceptual understanding

This paper reports on a study of teacher support in a setting where students engaged with computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in science. The empirical basis is an intervention study where secondary school students and their teacher performed a lab experiment in genetics supported by a digital learning environment. The analytical focus is on student-teacher interactions taking place in help-seeking settings during group-based activities where students analysed and reported their findings from the lab experiment. A combination of quantitative methods in the form of frequency counts of students’ help requests and detailed micro-analyses of student-teacher interactions are used. The findings are that the majority of challenges faced by students concerned conceptually oriented issues and procedural challenges in the sense of how to practically solve the assignments provided to them in the digital learning environment. Most importantly, the analyses of student-teacher interactions provide insight into the considerable amount of support that is needed from the teacher to bridge the conceptual gap between the lab experiment and the students’ understanding of the underlying scientific principles and procedures. The findings are discussed according to possible implications for the design of digital support tools and instruction.     

Embedded blended learning within an Algebra classroom: a multimedia capture experiment

This two‐group, pretest‐posttest, quasi‐experimental study compared secondary students' learning of Algebra II materials over a 4‐week period when identical instruction by the same teacher was delivered through either embedded blended learning (treatment group; n = 32) or a live‐lecture classroom (control group; n = 24). For both groups, instruction was delivered in a normal classroom setting. A math test and a student survey were used to measure students' learning of Algebra II and satisfaction with the instruction. Students in the treatment group showed significantly greater gains in Algebra II test scores and evaluated their learning experiences significantly more positively than did the control group. The great majority (80%) of students in the treatment group preferred the embedded blended learning over traditional live lectures for future learning of math. Students' responses to open‐ended survey questions suggested that students in the treatment group appreciated the: (a) ability to control the pace of instruction; (b) new role of the classroom teacher; (c) lack of distraction in the blended learning environment; and (d) accessibility of the embedded multimedia lessons outside the classroom. This study suggests that screen‐capture instructional technology can be used towards establishing a teacher‐based, embedded blended learning environment within a secondary algebraic classroom.     

学习分析支持下的教师区域研修平台的设计与实现

学习分析技术发展为教师研修平台构建提供了新的手段和方法。针对当前国内研修平台存在的研修流程控制及过程管理较弱、教师研修活动支持不足、研修活动的绩效分析支持度低等问题,引入学习分析技术,实现研修活动过程管控、教师研修活动支持和研修过程绩效评估等,设计并实现了一个学习分析技术支持下的教师区域研修平台。通过初步应用,平台能较好满足研修教师的协同教研、教学实践反思、研修绩效评价等需求,能提升区域研修工作效率,降低工作成本,实现教师研修的有效管理、实施、记录和评价。