Assignment 8, Literature Review

Literature Review

Introduction:

This review examines the literature that has been published relating adult learning and andragogy, new media in online education and the idea of social presence and learning with new media. Studies have shown that online learning is better than traditional methods of learning. "The results revealed no significant differences in test scores, assignments, participation grades and final grades, although the online group's averages were slightly higher."(Neuhauser 2002, p. 99) Other professionals have expressed that online education is not as effective as traditional methods of learning and the integrity of the education might not be as valued. This review explores new media that is implemented in online education classes. The idea of social presence, methods of communicating with peers and the professor, and learning with new media will also be explored in this review.

Adult Learning and Andragogy:

The term andragogy means "adult learner" compared to the term pedagogy where the learners are children. Adult and children actually prefer to learn material in an online environment differently. Adult learners tend to need more time to digest new information given in an online class. The four R's for adult learners are responsibility, relevance, relatedness and rewards (Burge, 1988). Adult learners should feel a sense of responsibility for understanding the material in an online class and find the relevance and importantness of knowing and understanding the materials. The learners should be able to relate the material to past experiences or learning objectives for the course and the instructor should be able to provide the class with incentives or rewards that will benefit the learners.

The authors Luanne Fose and Martin Mehl are confident that adult learners can learn to use new technologies in their online classes. The students were introduced to podcasts by watching a podcast explaining the steps towards using a podcast and what exactly a podcast was. "This reduced the amount of campus staff required to support the pilot since, for the most part, students were able to prepare their computers for podcasting on their own without additional assistance."(Fose & Mehl, 2007) Therefore, adult learners are able to learn new technologies just as well as any students in online classes.

New Media in Online Education:

There are many different types of new media that are being used in online education. Podcasts, blogs, instant messaging, streaming video, streaming audio and wikis are just some of the many new innovative ways in which technology has helped students in online education. Berger studied the use of podcasts in online education. "The pilot study was designed specifically to assess student attitudes about podcasting, determine who benefits from podcasts, and evaluate which types of educational content provide the greatest benefit to the largest number of students."(Berger, 2007) Paul Lam and Carmel McNaught (2006) examined the benefits of using multimedia clips. Their student had students using multimedia clips to present material related to their projects. Their conclusions from this study showed the students were able to express their creativity, as well as improve their analytical skills.

Weller, Pegler and Mason (2005) examine the use of four innovative technologies incorporated in the design of an online course. The four technologies are blogging, instant messaging, audio conferencing and Harvard's Rotisserie system. Blogs were used to post information and to comment on other students' blog sites. Instant messaging was used between students to have a synchronous conversation with each other. Audio conferencing allows students to also have a synchronous conversation with each other, but the difficulty was trying to find a "good" time for everyone in the group to converse. Also, only one student could talk at a time. This leads to the Rotisserie system which incorporates a structured conferencing system that would decrease some of the previously mentioned problems. The Rotisserie is designed around a series of rounds where the students who signed up for a Rotisserie session would be sent an email letting them know to respond to a posting by a certain deadline. The students were asked to evaluate their experiences using the four technologies. The results revealed that instant messaging and audio conferencing were the most popular choices. It is also interesting to note that both of these technologies involve synchronous conversations to take place.

Social Presence and Learning with New Media:

There are many benefits from using new technologies to communicate in online class discussions. Stuart Glogoff (2005) examines how online discussions offer students the anonymity they may need so they can openly express their opinions relating to a topic. This anonymity also allows others the confidence to give more direct feedback over the Internet versus saying something face to face to another student (Glogoff, 2005). The communication tool that was implemented in this study was the blog. The students and professor found there were more communication and comments by using these blogs versus the traditional discussions that take place in a classroom.

Students can also benefit and increase their social presence by using instant messaging. Instant messaging can be used to increase the students' participation and engagement in discussions (Sparks & Mentz, 2006). Instant messaging can be helpful with assisting students with homework issues, clarifying assignments or even to hold virtual office hours for distance education students.

Project Talkback (Witte, 2007) is another example of how technology can be used to increase and improve social presence in online learning. This research project implemented the use of blogs to increase students' interest in writing about various topics. While a student may not be interested in writing about a topic on paper, using blogs as a writing instrument increases their interest in the writing assignment and the students are able to write more creatively.

Online education will never be perfect, but over the last 10 years, the improvements have come a long way. New technologies have made communicating in online classes more effective and at the same time, easier for all students to learn to use, including adult learners. New technologies have increased and sparked the interest of children to want to learn how to use technology and to improve their education. With new technology tools being discovered and implemented every year, perhaps one day soon, online education will be the way classes are taught at all grade levels.

References

Berger, E. (October 2007). Podcasting in engineering education: A preliminary study of content, student attitudes, and impact. Innovate Journal of Online Education, 4, Retrieved October 14, 2007.

Burge, L. (1988). Beyond andragogy: Some explorations for distance learning design. Journal of Distance Education, 3(1), 5-23.

Fose, L. & Mehl, M. (May 2007). Plugging into students' digital DNA: Five myths prohibiting proper podcasting pedagogy in the new classroom domain. MERLOT Journal of Online Teaching and Education, 3(3).

Glogoff, S. (2005). Instructional blogging: Promoting interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. Innovate, 1(5), 1-6.

Lam, P. & McNaught, C. (2006). Design and evaluation of online courses containing media-enhanced learning materials. Educational Media International, 43(3), 199-218.

Neuhauser, C. (2002). Learning style and effectiveness of online and face to face instruction. American Journal of Distance Education, 16(2), 99-113.

Sparks, P. & Mentz, L. (2006). Electronic note passing: Enriching online learning with new communication tools. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2(4), 1-6.

Witte, S. (2007). That's online writing, not boring school writing: Writing with blogs and the talkback project. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51, 92-96.

Weller, M., Pegler, C., Mason, R. (2005). Use of innovative technologies on an e-learning course. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 61-71.

Assignment 7, Research Ideas

These are some potential research questions related to my article from Assignment 6.

• What is the effectiveness of using blogs as the only communication mechanism in an online class?
• What the advantages versus disadvantages of using the Harvard Rotisserie system as compared to audio conferencing?
• Which form of communication: blogging, audio conferencing, Rotisserie system or instant messaging increases students' retention in an online class?
• How effective is using instant messaging as a communication tool in an online class?
• Which method of communication do students feel is the most effective in an online class?
• Which method of communication do instructors/professors believe is the most effective and successful in an online class?

The Research Methodology:

These research questions could be examined and explored through both qualitative and quantitative research studies. These are some examples of research studies that could be explored.

For a quantitative research study, an online class could be offered using each of the four innovative technologies as the primary form of communication between students vs. students and also students vs. professor. At the end of the term, a common final exam could be given that covers topics that were discussed through dialogue using the technology as a communication tool. The results could be compared to see which method of technology communication seemed to get the dialogue and material through to the students the most effectively and clearly.

A survey could be implemented and distributed to an online class asking the students' opinion on the effectiveness of using the four technologies as a form of communication. A likert scale would be most helpful in a situation like this so that statistical measurements could be calculated for not just one class but over several years and the results could be calculated together. A similar survey could be created for professors who teach online classes that use the four types of communication technologies between the students in their classes.

A research study might also include using more than just one of these four innovative technologies for communications together in the same class at once. For example, the students might find it beneficial if instant messaging was combined with blogging as forms of communication in an online class. Many combinations could be explored and perhaps there isn't one situation that is best for everyone, but we should understand that everyone is a different type of learner; therefore, students will probably prefer different situations.

James

Assignment 6, Annotation

APA Citation:

Weller, M., Pegler, C., Mason, R. (2005). Use of innovative technologies on an e-learning course. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 61-71.

Review:

This article examines the use of four innovative technologies incorporated in the design of an online course, Learning in the Connected Economy offered by the Open University in the United Kingdom. The four technologies were blogging, instant messaging, audio conferencing and Harvard's Rotisserie system. There were no face to face meetings in this course. The content of this course was divided in 155 learning objects presented over four blocks. Each block used one of the four technologies to assist in delivering the content and information to the students and last approximately 2 months. The learning blocks applied text, audio content, animation, audio conferences and web casts to cover areas of learning in each block. Also, blogging, instant messaging and other collaborative tools were explored as well.

Web blogs are the fastest growing technology over the last few years. There are basically two types of blogs; the journal or a filter-style blog in which the blogger will post comments as well as links to other web based information. Blogging has been simplified do to easy to use tools such as Blogger.com, Radio Userland and MoveableType which allow users to post information from any location with Internet access. The three primary uses of educational blogging are 1) group blogs 2) academics keeping blogs and 3) students using blogs. The students in the online class were provided with instructions on how to set up a blog, with references on blogging, and then shown a variety of popular blogs so they could gain a sense of the type of writing style and commentary used in the blogging community. Then they were required to set up their own blogs and use them for posting and commentary on other students' blogs for several weeks.

Audio conferencing was the next technology to be explored. Audio conferencing was the most familiar of the technologies to the students. Many of the students have used some sort of audio conferencing in the past either at school or with work related projects. That is primarily because audio conferencing is building on telephone conferencing in which the students were familiar with. Audio conferencing is synchronous and should be used effectively in smaller groups. This made it difficult to communicate with students in different parts of the world who were in different time zones. Another issue is that only one student can talk at a time. A set of rules needed to be implemented to how the students would take turns talking so that everyone was not talking at once.

The Rotisserie system from Harvard University was also implemented as the third technology. Some of the problems from online discussions include lack of participation, unfocused discussion and resistance to participation. Therefore Harvard University designed a "Rotisserie" system. This is a structure conferencing system that would hopefully decrease some of the above mentioned problems with online discussions. The Rotisserie is designed around a series of rounds where the students who signed up for a Rotisserie session would be sent an email letting them know to respond to a posting by a certain deadline. They could post their reply before the deadline, but their responses would not be published until the deadline had past. In the next round, each student would be assigned another posting and a deadline to post a reply to their posting and so forth until all of the rounds were completed. This system has more structure and more control of the dialogue than previous online discussions.

The use of instant messaging is the last technology explored in this article. Instant messaging allows the users to have synchronous communication with each other. The discussions using instant messaging are less formal and more relaxed than any of the other uses of technologies. Instant messaging is very popular with teenagers, stating that 74% of online teenagers use some type of instant messaging in their online communication. The students in this online course were asked to install an Instant Messaging client, and then implement the instant messaging features by arranging for online discussions with other students in the class. The students were encourage to continue using their instant messaging throughout the remainder of the class so they could communicate with other students on their buddy list.

The students were asked to evaluate their experience using these four technologies with this online course. Several questions were asked of the students and their responses were transcribed. Only three students out of 55 made negative comments regarding the uses of any of the four technologies. The negative comments included finding the technologies frustrating and unreliable, technical difficulties and time consuming. All of the other comments were positive! The most popular technologies to be used were instant messaging and audio conferencing. The least popular were blogging and the Rotisserie system. Many of the students kept using the technologies even after the class was completed because they enjoyed using the technologies like instant messaging and audio conferencing.

Relevance:

This article examines the uses of four technologies in the teaching of an online course. Since all four technologies were not used at the same time, we can examine the positive and negative aspects of relating the material to the students using each of the technologies separately. The students in the class could experience using the four technologies, one at a time, and determine for themselves which technology they would prefer to use and the reasons why. This would allow the students to reflect directly on the tools of technology and compare and contrast the four technologies independently.

Although there are other technologies that could be used, these four were implemented one at at time. In another study, one might try using a combination of audio conferencing with blogging, or the Rotisserie system with instant messaging to see if maybe a mixture of two or more technologies might be beneficial to the students. Sometimes, too many technologies at once might be over bearing for the students, but other times it might benefit the students to have more than one option to use for communicating with other students in the class. Not all students are the same types of learners, just like all students do not all enjoy communicating with each other using the same methods of technology.

James Namekata
ETEC 543

Assignment 5, 3 Articles

Here are my 3 articles dealing with new media in Online Learning for this assignment:

ARTICLE 1

Haythornthwaite, C. (2006). Facilitating collaboration in online learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7-24.

http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v10n1/pdf/v10n1_2haythornthwaite.pdf


This article discusses more of the theory behind using media in online learning environments.




ARTICLE 2


Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), 14-26.


http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0450.pdf


This article discusses the advantages of using blogging in a distance education course.






ARTICLE 3


Weller, M., Pegler, C., Mason, R. (2005). Use of innovative technologies on an e-learning course. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 61-71.


http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W4X-4FPDRGW-1&_user=521812&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059573&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521812&md5=e361de76ecc9d15806b44a23909fe4dc#


This article deals with what has been studied and what has not been studied related to educational blogging.



James

Assignment 4, Lauer Chapters 5 and 6

1) Locate a quantitative study. Then provide the following:

a) Correct APA style Bibliographical reference and URL for the study.

Scruggs, T. E., Margo, M. A., Brigham, F. J, Sullivan, G. S. (1992). Effects of mnemonic reconstructions on the spatial learning of adolescents with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 15(3), 154-162.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0731-9487(199222)15%3A3%3C154%3AEOMROT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2

b) List and Explain the research method.

The research method is a true experimental research method. There was a control group that was given a map without any of the keywords or pictures to help describe the historic events. There were pictures included, but the pictures did not depict any descriptions to help the students remember the name of the event. There was an experimental group (mnemonic group) the students' maps were label the same as the control group, except they had pictures to help them remember the name of the historic event at that particular locations. They also were given key words to associate to the events, as an aid to help remember what occurred at that locations. The students were randomly selected to participate in either the control group or the mnemonic group. All other aspects were kept constant for the most part.

c) Explain the research method, any instruments and how they ere developed or chosen. Be sure to indicate the type of instrument (survey, interview, focus group etc.)

The research method was a true experimental design that assigned the participants to either the mnemonic group or the control group. The purpose of the study was to determine whether mnemonic keywords could enhance the learning of capabilities of students with learning disabilities. The mnemonic group would use pictures and keywords that sounded similar or related to the historic events that were described on the maps. The maps represented 18th century North American battles. The study was hoping to determine whether the mnemonic group scored better on the post test of remembering various historic events compared to the control groups. The instruments used for the study included a practice map and a corresponding test map of the same size. Of course the test map did not have the events labeled already. On the test map, there was spots for the various historic events in which the students were asked to label each one, then determine whether the British won the battle or the Americans won the battle.

d) List the research questions and the answers the study arrived at for those questions.

The research question that was asked in the article is "What effects will mnemonic (memory-enhancing) strategies have on the learning of students with learning disabilities? The answer to the questions is discussed at the end of the article. Once the students' response sheets were scored, it was clear that the mnemonic group outscored the control group. The mnemonic group scored a mean of 10.05 (SD=3.22) correct out of 14 questions; the control group scored a mean of 4.55 (SD=2.61). Therefore, clearly the mnemonic groups outperformed the control group and the answer to the research question is mnemonic strategies will help students with learning disabilities score better on exams.

e) Evaluate the effectiveness of the research design, methods and instrument(s) of this study.

The research design was done very well. In a true experimental study, the sample of students were fairly equal, selected randomly, and assigned to their groups randomly. The methods of the experiments were kept controlled and data was clear and organized. The instruments of the study were controlled to focus only on the independent variables. The dependent variables were kept fairly constant for this study.


2) Locate a qualitative study. Then provide the following:

a) Correct APA style Bibliographical reference and URL for the study.

Shaw, K. M. (1997). Remedial education as ideological battleground: Emerging remedial education policies in the community college. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19(3), 284-296.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-3737(199723)19%3A3%3C284%3AREAIBE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

b) List and Explain the research method.

The research method that is implemented is through observations and narrative descriptions. They were ethnographers with advanced training in education, sociology or anthropology. They performed observations and fieldwork approximating 500 hours of fieldwork per institution.

c) Explain the research method and how is was developed or chosen.

The ethnographers collected the data from many sources, which included:

1. formal and informal interviews of faculty, staff and students.
2. observations of students in formal and informal settings.
3. observations of faculty in formal and informal settings.
4. observations of staff and administrators in formal settings.
5. group settings, such as freshmen orientations cultural festivals and college events.
6. historical and archival documents.
7. accreditation reports.

d) List any research questions and the answers the study arrived at for those questions.

The research questions for this article would relate the mission of the community college as a post secondary institution and the remediation of its students. The main problem or concern is that many community colleges are changing their missions and goals from offering the first two years of transferable work to becoming an institution for remediation or basic skills.
The answer is the research examined three community colleges that have varying approaches to remedial education at their institutions. The three community college systems are Bootstrapper Community College, Nurturer Community College and Service Provider Community College. These three community colleges have different approaches towards their view of remedial education and they still serve as the highest success rates of transferability to 4 year institutions from their community colleges.

e) Evaluate the effectiveness of the research design, methods and instrument(s) of this study.

The effectiveness of the research design was detailed and clear. All dependent variables were kept as close to constant as would allow. The independent variables were compared through observations by a team of ethnographers who were trained in their fields. Every attempt to keep the dependent variables constant were taken into consideration. One consideration would be to perform the same study using more than just the three community colleges, but I understand that would invest more money and more time into the study, both of which I am sure is not expendable.


3) Describe a quantitative approach to answer the question: What is the effect of using only a podcast for content transmission on student learning in graduate classes?

A quantitative approach to research the effects of using only a podcast for content transmission in graduate level classes would be as follows. One would have to randomly select a sample of students from the same graduate level classes, approximately with the same level of background education and similar times for studying purposes. The treatment group would be given only podcast lectures for the content of the class information where the control group would be given a podcast, text, books and any traditional information that is usually given in a classroom environment. The research would study the effect or results on a standard final exam for example. The students in the treatment group would be compared with the students in the control group to see which group of students performed better on the final exam.


4) Describe a qualitative approach to answer the question: What are the effects of using podcasts for content transmission on student learning in graduate classes?

Observation and interviews might be a good way to study the effects of using podcasts for content transmission on student learning in graduate classes. One could always interview a student to see how they thought the learning process was increased or decreased due to the podcasts. We could examine students' dialogue with other students once they listened to the podcasts to see how much of the information was actually gained from the podcast. Observations on how well students present the material during a presentation might be another way to see how much information was gained from podcast lectures.

James

Assignment 3, Lauer Chapters 3 and 4

1) Explain the key differences between descriptive and experimental research.

Descriptive and experimental research are different in many ways. One obvious way is the research question. The descriptive research question is asking what, how or why something is happening. The experimental research question is asking if something will cause an effect.

Descriptive research uses three basic research designs. The first design collects data from people, settings, or organizations for the purpose of studying the findings. This is called simple descriptive research. The second design is called comparative descriptive research design. In this design, two or more groups of samples are compared and studied against each other for the purpose of research. The third design is called the correlational design. This design model searches for statistical correlations between two or more variables in the study.

There are two basic experimental research designs. The first is the true experimental design. The researcher varies the independent variables and studies the reaction of the dependent variable in the experiment. These are sometimes call the treatment and control groups. The sample in the treatment group will be issued some type of treatment and the control group will not receive any treatments at all. Then the two groups can be compared and contrasted.

The second experimental research design is call the quasi-experimental design. With this design, the researcher does not randomly select a sample group. Instead, the researcher groups people based on a common characteristic that will affect the outcome if they were selected randomly.

2) Explain correlational research.

Correlational research is research that studies the statistical correlation between two or more variables. This type of research will vary depending on the number of variables in the study itself.

An example of a correlational research situation related to my field of mathematics is when researchers want to compare the three method or formats of offering Intermediate Algebra at the community college level. The problem with intermediate algebra is that community college students vary in age. Some students are fresh out of high school and just completed 4 years of high school mathematics. Other students haven't taken any classes at the college level in over 30 years and are returning back to school for an education.

The three formats Intermediate Algebra is currently offered are online, hybrid, and traditional formats. This would be considered a correlational research example because the researcher could issue a pre-test at the beginning of the semester to determine where the students place before they learn anything from instruction. Then the students would spend over 14 weeks while receiving instruction in their varying formats (online, hybrid or traditional). At the end of the semester, we would give the students a common final examination. Then the researcher could compare pre-test and common final exam to determine which method instruction showed the most improvement. This type of research could be useful when determining the number of each type of format of math classes to offer in future semesters.

3) Explain the key differences between quantitative and qualitative research.

The key differences between quantitative and qualitative research are in the data that is collected and how the data is compared or used. In quantitative research, the data that is collected are numerical values or measurements. These values can be used in mathematical calculations to find the mean, median or mode. However, in qualitative research, the data collected will be non-numeric. The data cannot be used to calculate the mean, median or mode. The data will be observations.

Also, qualitative research uses more case studies and ethnography to collect data rather than experimental techniques. Qualitative research usually is less controlled (without control group) than quantitative research.

An example of the two types of researches would be if I wanted to perform two studies at my school. For the quantitative research, I could compare the overall assessment scores of the students in one part level of math classes. Some classes would meet with an instructor once a week, twice a week, three times a week or five times during the week. I could compare the attrition rates in those classes versus the success of the students' learning in those classes by examining their scores on the common final exam. This would be an example of quantitative research.

For qualitative research, I could compare the teaching strategies of the instructors that teaches these classes that were described above. Do the instructors who teach through the course over five days a week have more time to answer homework questions in class or demonstrate more examples of problems than the instructors in the classes that meet only once a week have time for? What is the attention span of the students in the classes that meet for longer durations of time? Do they fall sleep after two hours? These examples are qualitative research projects.

4) What is action research?

Action research is the type of research that generally occurs in our mathematics department at my college. Action research first identifies what potentially could be an issue or problem area that the research should focus on. Data is then collected from a sample and discussed among the math faculty. We look at what we can do to hopefully lessen the problem or possibly eliminate the issues. Then a committee is developed to come up with a plan of action. This committee would design and develop the plan, and then implement the plan into action. Once comparable data can be collected, the committee will examine the data and compare the results to see if the action plan made improvements to the problem area. The committee will decide if the plan was successful, a little successful or a failure. If there are improvements that can be made to the plan, we will adjust the plan according to the results from the committee and implement a new testing sequence until the results are satisfactory.

The benefits of performing action research are many. For one, action research allows for reflection on the data that is collected. Discussion with committee members on the data that is collected is important and leads to better action plans most of the time. Strategies for improvement is a strong benefit of action research. The discussions that occur within committee members regarding strategies for improvement are usually more beneficial, especially when you have different perspectives. The only time that I have experienced that action research does not work well is when one persons demand that everything should go their way and their methods of improvement are the best and only way things should be done. Finally, collaborative action research has the benefit of engaging the administration and faculty to discuss teaching strategies of improvement for the benefit of all. Most of the time when faculty and administration can work together as a cohesive group, the end results are usually successful.

James