September 29th to October 2nd, 2015. Medellin, Colombia
Any Time – Any Place – Learning
The 2015 ICEM conference took place in the beautiful city of Medellin, Colombia and was hosted by our friends at the CEIPA business college from September 29th to October 2nd, 2015. As anticipated, our friends in Colombia created a wonderful environment for educators and students alike to come together and explore the themes that are shaping the world of educational media today.
The International Council for Educational Media would like to officially thank our members in Colombia for hosting such a wonderful event and exhibiting the hospitality and professionalism of the people of Medellin. It truly was a remarkable experience that will remain in the minds of those present for many years to come.
Abstracts:
Shane Asselstine, Peter Leong: Minecraft: Design a Zoo
Shane Asselstine, Peter Leong: Virtual Worlds in Elementary School & College Classrooms
Melinda S. Butler: Teacher Perceptions of Popular Culture Texts
Eva Dobozy: Does cultural responsiveness matter? simSchool adaptation case study
Ryu, Do-Hyung: M-learning Using Films: Intake through the Finger Tips
Robert G. Doyle: The State of MOOCing
Seo, Ji-Young : A Way to Learn Technical Vocabulary through Multimedia: Using TV Drama, NCIS
Eliana El-Khoury: Flipped classroom to promote learner-centered teaching in engineering classes
Dodie Niemeyer: Select Parent’s Understanding and Acceptance of the Learning Potential of Videogames
David Ray Squires: Augmented Reality Application & Classroom Development: New Technology and Media
Hengtao Tang: The Role of Instructors in a Hands-on MOOC
Jesús H Trespalacios: Using VoiceThread to Facilitate Asynchronous Communication: a Design Case
Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA.
Videogames in a variety of forms and formats are catching researchers and educators’ attentions for the plethora of ways in which they provide learners new routes to learning, something that we call leaning-in-motion. Videogames can produce robust and resilient learning experiences: they simulate the real world and immerse the player in it (Apperley, 2010). Additionally, open-ended games such as Grand Theft Auto Series offer players the opportunity to proceed at their own pace, to change the game tactics, and produce their own story/experience (Frasca, 2003). Many students in the twenty-first century students are born into technology, and to match these students’ desire and drive for digital media, making learning accessible through digital means is of utmost importance. Hence, shifting education towards using technology–namely videogames–could result in dynamic and life-long learning for the simulation and context for practice they provide (Gee, 2005, 2007). We have examined videogames for what makes them appealing as learning tools for writing skills and have determined that the most relevant factors to learning writing are built-in internal game features of simulation (Gee,2005), such as: linguistic, kinesthetic, sound, image, and video—which the player then reads or decodes to make meaning. This prospective study will aim at exploring the internal simulation/composing features of games; the linguistic, kinesthetic, sound, image, and video, and investigate how open-ended videogames can offer a model for informing educators on how to help students hone their composing skills– mainly pre-writing and planning ones.
Shane Asselstine, Peter Leong: Minecraft: Design a Zoo
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Minecraft, a first-person sandbox video game, is based in a virtual world modeled on the real world. In Minecraft, players can build and craft everyday objects using blocks. Gamers can also play this game just like other games – mining, fighting monsters, surviving, and gaining strength. Many educators have used the different features of Minecraft to teach different academic subjects (Short, 2012).
A fourth grade technology class at Momilani Elementary School on the island of Oahu in Hawaii focused on a project in which they were tasked to design a zoo in Minecraft. With a million-dollar budget, students were provided with a species list, a personnel list, a Minecraft building materials list, all of which were to be used to build on approximately five thousand square meters of land in Minecraft. Each zoo requires a minimum of eight species of animals, of which each animal must live in their respective habitat. This Minecraft learning unit was created to reinforce mathematics concepts ranging from area and perimeter, to costing and budget within an online collaborative virtual environment. Students worked in small groups of 3-5 students per group. The resources used included Google Docs to complete the group budget and the various purchase order forms for each of the zoo’s expenses. Based on the completed forms, the students applied their needs in order to build their zoo within budget. The completed zoo designs provided students with the opportunity to express creativity and character, making each zoo unique. At the conclusion of the project, students utilized a modified walk-about system in which they visit each other’s zoos and use Google Forms to evaluate their satisfaction as a customer.
In this experiences showroom session, we will demonstrate the Minecraft Design a Zoo class activity as well as showcase the final zoo designs created by these fourth grade students. Conference participants will learn about the process of designing the Minecraft Design a Zoo learning experience and the instructor’s reflections about the implementation as well as the effectiveness of this class activity.
References:
Short, D.B. (2012) Teaching Scientific Concepts using a Virtual World – Minecraft. Teaching Science, Vol. 58, No. 3, pp. 55-58.
Shane Asselstine, Peter Leong: Virtual Worlds in Elementary School & College Classrooms
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Virtual worlds provide unique opportunities for students to learn by literally constructing their knowledge in 3D representations such as objects, places, buildings, and interactive media. Twining (2009) contends that pedagogy in virtual worlds helps students be collaborative versus individualistic. This paper presents case studies of an elementary school class and a graduate college course designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore the use of virtual worlds, primarily Minecraft and Second Life, for teaching and learning.
First, a fifth grade technology class at Momilani Elementary School on the island of Oahu in Hawaii focused on a project in which they were tasked to design a themed roller coaster in Minecraft. Students worked together in groups of 3-5 and utilized Google Docs and Minecraft to learn about variables, hypothesis, and data collection. This allowed them to practice aspects of the scientific process with the goal of learning about physics in this safe virtual environment. Students applied the Engineering Design Process throughout this learning unit when creating experiments in Minecraft to test hypotheses regarding the in-game physics. Experiments covered variables such as height, distance, power, slope, and turns. In all there were three experiments, in which students were testing independent and dependent variables, while identifying important control variables. Throughout the process of experiments, students collaborated and continued to suggest improvements to the experiment designs that improved the collection of accurate data. For the final product, students created a roller coaster in which they applied and demonstrated their understanding of physics within Minecraft. Students were given freedom to be creative and expressive with the theme of their roller coasters. At the conclusion of the project, students utilized a modified walk-about system in which they visit each other’s roller coasters and use Google Forms to evaluate their satisfaction as a customer.
Additionally, a graduate educational technology elective course at the College of Education, University of Hawaii provided hands-on experiential learning and was designed to enable graduate students to design, develop, and evaluate instruction in Second Life. Students identified and analyzed emerging research, as well as tools, pedagogy, teaching environments, content resources, and assessments for virtual world teaching. In addition to leveraging Second Life as a distance learning delivery tool, the students researched the various ways that Second Life can be leveraged for instructional purposes, such as exploring other educational Second Life builds and evaluating the design of educational simulations in Second Life. The course covered basic fundamentals of building in Second Life with a focus on building simple educational objects as well as on how to promote interactivity in Second Life. The final course project was the creation of a virtual world instructional module by student teams. Working in self-selected three-person teams, students collaboratively designed, developed, and evaluated instruction in Second Life.
Instructors of these virtual world classes provide reflections about the implementation and on the effectiveness of the classes. Based on the findings, implications for the design of virtual world learning are provided.
References:
Twining, P. (2009). Exploring the educational potential of virtual worlds, Some reflections from the SPP.British Journal of Educational Technology, 40, 496-514.
Mt. San Jacinto College, USA
Access to a hands-on science education is essential for students who wish to become part of the 21st century economy. Physics and astronomy education is the gateway to practical engineering arts and 21st century technology, yet it is often de-emphasized, or ignored altogether because of the perceived difficulty and expense of teaching these subjects. In many schools, access to a quality science education is limited by the perceived need for high-tech materials, computers, and internet access; this is especially a problem in the areas of physics and astronomy education. This misplaced emphasis on high technology lessons leads to serious discrepancies in the quality of education for students who attend school in all but the most affluent areas of the world.
Can alternative emphasis on low-cost / low-tech science education be a means of promoting social justice an equal access to a quality science and mathematics education for students world-wide? To test this hypothesis, the author networked with two distinctly different groups of schools and educators: American schools that are underfunded in both rural and urban areas, and secondary school networks in Bangladesh which also suffer from lack of funding and equipment access.
The design of the project was to prepare low-cost / low-tech science lessons which can be implemented with found or recycled materials, and that did not require extensive expertise on the educator’s part. The lessons were then presented by the author in person, or videotaped for later presentation in Bangladesh. Instructions and lesson plans were also provided to the instructors who would implement them later.
Once the instructors were exposed to these science activities, they had the opportunity to consult with the author and ask questions either in person, or via a live web conference. The personal interaction with the master instructor allowed teachers to develop confidence in both the lessons and themselves preparatory to using the lessons in their own classrooms.
After training, the instructors then were able to prepare and present these lessons to their own local students and implement the low-cost / low-tech strategies in their own classrooms. The trained instructors were asked to evaluate the lessons for pedagogical effectiveness, scientific relevance, ease of use and cost effectiveness. Upon completing this initial program, the local instructors were then encouraged to share these materials with their colleagues. In the United States, this consisted of sharing materials through teaching conferences and internet contacts. In Bangladesh, the distribution of materials was promoted through local, community run science centers and local teachers colleges.
In the global society, technology is evolving at such a pace that digital literacy is a growing issue to be addressed by all sectors, where development and sustainability are only possible with informed consumers’ and a good digital task force. As about 90% of European jobs require ICT skills, and yet there will be 900’000 unfilled ICT positions in the EU by 2020, it is crucial to invest in projects that enhance student’s digital literacy, to enable next generations to be more proactive when interacting with technologies, with the purpose to use it in a responsible and beneficial way for society.
In this scenario, coding, as the art of telling a computer how to perform complex tasks, is an emerging globally learning priority, representing one of the key competences that must be acquired by all young students in the scope of 21st Century Skills. However, much remains to be done, especially concerning the need to promote real initiatives that can support coding activities in schools.
In Portugal, programming (in the sense of computational thinking) is part of the ICT subject, which is compulsory in lower secondary education (7th and 8th grades) and in some professional driven classes in upper secondary education. The Junior Code Academy wants to offer an innovative and engaging training approach to coding involving 65 students aged 8-10 years old.
In the above context, the present proposal describes a qualitative pilot study involving three schools of Lisbon Municipality. The Junior Code Academy is a partnership between Code4All startup, the University of Aveiro and the Lisbon Municipality, that has the financial support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The project seeks to enhance learning and to identify concrete ways of how innovative pedagogic use of ICT can help, particularly to motivate students to be actively involved in learning, as well as to attract potential dropouts back to educational system. Furthermore, the project aims to provide students with the right set of tools and skills to meet the needs of tomorrow, implementing a learning strategy enhancing key competences, such as logical reasoning and problem solving, which further explores coding as a means to solve problems in other subjects such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic).
The design strategies will be presented and discussed as well as the data gathering techniques that are being used, i.e., students and teachers reflections about the implemented sessions, which take place once a week and have the duration of two hours. The main preliminary results emphasize that there is a high motivation and commitment of students towards programming, which potentially prevents early school dropout.
Sam Houston State University, North-West University, Mafikeng Campus
Growing ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity describe today’s classroom. According to Cooper, He, and Levin (2011), student diversity includes much more than ethnic and linguistic differences due to the changing demographics. Given an increase in student diversity, many teacher education programs in the United States and elsewhere create study abroad programs for pre-service teachers to develop cross-cultural competencies and global perspectives on their discipline (Dunn, Dotson, Cross, Kesner, & Lundahl, 2014; Palmer & Menard-Warwick, 2012). Students who report studying abroad find increased abilities to navigate unfamiliar cultures, improve foreign language skills, and articulate a critical perspective on the United States and other countries (Phillion, Malewski, Sharma, & Wang, 2009). It is well documented that culturally competent educators improve the success of diverse students at schools (Gay 2010; Kratzke & Bertolo, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Yet, studying overseas poses a challenge for many pre-service teachers. To address this issue, we ask: How can we ensure pre-service teachers who cannot study overseas develop global multicultural competencies like those who do study abroad? In an effort to provide pre-service teachers with an opportunity to develop cross-cultural competencies, we implement Schmidt’s (1999) ABC’s (Autobiography, Biography, and Cross-cultural Comparison) model of cultural understanding and communication in an online exchange between 20 pre-service teachers enrolled in a literacy methods course in a mid-size regional university in southeast Texas and 20 pre-service teachers enrolled in a literacy methods course in a mid-size rural university located in northwest South Africa. This qualitative study reports on a four week web-based intercultural learning project, where pre-service teachers from both universities experience the ABC’s project in an online “cooperative transatlantic intercultural learning…” environment (Finkbeiner & Knierim, 2006, p.213). Wilden (2006) describes the ABC’s Online as effective with respect to promoting cultural awareness and intercultural communication strategies, acquiring new perspectives on the Self and the Other, and further developing computer literacy in this digital literacies era. Electronic data sources for this study include using Google Hangouts, blogs, and Wordle to complete the ABC’s project and the completion of pre- and post-questionnaires by the pre-service teachers in the United States and South Africa. In the qualitative research tradition (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), these multiple data sets are triangulated to enhance the validity and reliability of the study (Hatch, 2002). Findings from this research corroborate the positive feedback provided by scholars who implemented the ABC’s Model in an online learning environment. Findings from this research also suggest that the online experience of studying abroad provides pre-service teachers with the intellectual and critical starting point for intercultural awareness of the educational, social, and political relationships between their lives and other cultures.
References:
Cooper, J.E., He, Y., & Levin, B. (2011). Developing critical cultural competence: A guide for 21st century educators. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA.
Finkbeiner, C. & Knierim, M. (2006). The ABC’s as a starting point and goal: The online intercultural exchange project (ICE). In Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt and Claudia Finkbeiner (Eds.), ABC’s of Cultural Understanding and Communication: National and International Adaptations (pp.213-244). Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing.
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kratzke, C. & Bertolo, M. (2013). Enhancing students’ cultural competence using cross-cultural experiential learning. Journal Of Cultural Diversity, 20(3), 107-111.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34, 159-165.
Lee, S. (2012). Knowing myself to know others: Preparing pre-service teachers for diversity through multicultural autobiography. Multicultural Education, 20(1), 38-41.
Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Palmer, D. K., & Menard-Warwick, J. (2012). Short-term study abroad for Texas Pre-service Teachers: On the Road from Empathy to Critical Awareness. Multicultural Education, 19(3), 17-26.
Dunn, A. H., Dotson, E. K., Cross, S. B., Kesner, J., & Lundahl, B. (2014). Reconsidering the local after a transformative global experience: A comparison of two study abroad programs for pre-service teachers. Action In Teacher Education, 36(4), 283-304.
Phillion, J., Malewski, E. L., Sharma, S., & Wang, Y. (2009). Reimagining the curriculum: Future teachers and study abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal Of Study Abroad, 18, 323-339.
Schmidt, P. (1999) Know thyself and understand others. Language Arts 76, 332-340.
Wilden, E. (2006). The ABC’s online: Using voice chats in a trans-national foreign language teacher exchange. In Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt and Claudia Finkbeiner (Eds.), ABC’s of Cultural Understanding and Communication: National and International Adaptations (pp.189-212). Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing.
Melinda S. Butler: Teacher Perceptions of Popular Culture Texts
Sam Houston State University
This presentation will center on the initial findings of my research relating to teacher perceptions and use of popular culture texts in classrooms, specifically in regards to teacher censoring or allowance of popular culture texts during Independent Reading (IR). In my years as a literacy coach, serving teachers and students in a Title I elementary school outside of Houston, Texas, I have noticed that many teachers make rules about what can and cannot be read during IR. Additionally, some teachers who have the great benefit of having abundant classroom libraries supplied by the school, take popular culture texts out of the library to keep students from reading them. My research will explore teacher perceptions about popular culture texts. Additionally, I intend to explore how students “take on” their teachers’ beliefs about the value of popular culture texts. Finally, my research will investigate how both teachers and students use their influence on other students to prevent them from reading their popular culture books of choice.
This presentation will present information about the theorists who are influential in shaping this research, a brief review of the literature (e.g., popular culture, independent reading, and reading engagement), and information about the selected methodology, choice of participants, and initial findings.
Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi, U.S.A.
Authentic eLearning involves learning information, concepts, and skills in real-world contexts (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2010). Courses that engage students in problem, project, and case-based learning apply situated learning theory and cognitive flexibility theory to ensure authentic, contextualized experiences (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989; Jonassen, 2004). We share a course development process and test a design for online case-based learning.
An interdisciplinary team of experts in Genomics, Philosophy, and Instructional Design formed to design, develop, implement, and evaluate an online Ethics in Genomics course as a MOOC. We applied design-based research methods (Richie & Klein, 2007) to determine a) the impact of online case-based instruction on students’ abilities to address ethical dilemmas in genomics, and b) what revisions were needed to improve instruction following each of three course iterations and deliveries. Data sources included online discussion grades, case-analysis grades, focus groups, and final course evaluations. We analyzed qualitative data using content analysis methods (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006) and summarized descriptive statistics of changes in students’ abilities to effectively analyze a case.
The finalized course is a MOOC of case-based instruction. The team designed the course in three phases. First, the course was delivered as a face-face course with expert guest-speakers who were recorded presenting. The instructors posted to the LMS the syllabus, cases for students to explore and address, and foundational materials. Cases for each module were designed according to Naumes and Naumes’ (2006) suggestions: approximately one single-spaced page; one or two objectives per case; narrative elements such as main character, events and reactions, problems, resolution, and ending with a question; ambiguity; and sufficient detail.
For the second course delivery, the instructors developed two course modules fully online with online videos of guest-lectures, discussions, assignments, and rubrics for case analyses. The third term the course was taught, instructors delivered the course fully online in eight modules: the first module oriented students to course topics and case-based learning by providing a sample case with corresponding rubric and assessment. Six subsequent modules contained essential questions, content background, videos of the expert guest-speakers, selected issues in depth, readings, discussions with rubrics, cases for analysis and associated rubrics, and support content including news stories, websites, commentaries and policy statements. An eighth module provided activities for synthesizing course content.
Findings indicate that students were quite unsophisticated in their abilities to address ethical dilemmas prior to taking the course. However, in each course iteration, students’ case analyses improved on measures of writing quality, clarity of post, contribution to the learning community, knowledge and understanding of course content, and critical thinking, substantiating the theories of situated cognition and cognitive flexibility. Revisions necessary for distribution as a MOOC included restructuring modules to include scaffolding, transcribing videos with closed-captions for accessibility, and redesign of discussion forums to encourage substantive discussion rather than submission of essays. The fully online delivery revealed the necessity of frequent instructor announcements to scaffold case-based assignments leading to the conclusion that the course needs to be delivered by instructors with expertise in genomics ethics.
References:
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80-92.
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., Oliver, R. (2010). A guide to authentic e-learning. New York: Routledge.
Jonassen, D. H. (2004). Learning to solve problems: An instructional design guide. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Naumes, W. & Naumes, M. J. (2006). The art and craft of case writing. London: M. E. Sharpe.
Richey, R. C., & Klein, J. D. (2007). Design and development research. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Eva Dobozy: Does cultural responsiveness matter? simSchool adaptation case study
School of Education, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
This presentation reports on a study that was designed to better understand the potency of culturally responsive learning space design. The aim of the study was to determine if there is a need to adapt the current simSchool virtual learning environment developed for an American market place to suit the Australian teacher education (in-service and pre-service) context. Promoting the ‘enhancement-effect’ of technology-enhanced learning is possible only if the virtual learning environment provides an immersive learning experience. The findings from this case study with teacher educators and student teachers makes apparent that this is not possible, if the player characteristics (child bots) and learning space design (3D virtual world artwork) are too far removed from what can reasonably be expected in an Australian education context. The implications of this study are that learning designers and educators need to take notice of the importance of investing in the development of culturally responsive and context sensitive virtual learning space designs to equip teacher education graduates with intercultural interaction and communication competencies, not through a set curriculum program, but rather through pedagogical modelling.
Curtin University, Perth
Education is ever increasingly more demanding and many frameworks and models have been created to assist higher and teacher educators better integrate information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their teaching and learning offerings. The TPACK model introduced Mishra and Koehler in 2005 was an extension of Shulman’s (1986, 1987) work. TPACK, a “simple, yet powerful idea” (Thompson & Mishra, 2007, p. 38) was taken as the starting point for a case study research project, which aimed to explore teacher educators’ integration of technology into lesson planning and teaching. The findings report on the diversity of conceptions about how best to comply with the new realities of technology-enhanced initial teacher education. The findings make apparent how surprisingly difficult it is to arrive at a common understanding about technology-enhanced learning and teaching, but also how vital it is to engage in meaningful dialogue to help teacher educators sharpen their focus onto the synergy between pedagogy, curriculum and technology. The presentation concludes with some implications and recommendation for practice.
Ryu, Do-Hyung: M-learning Using Films: Intake through the Finger Tips
Kookmin University
Over the last couple of years, smartphones have changed the paradigms of communication, business, education, entertainment, and lifestyles – just about everything. At users’ fingertips, mobile devices and the plethora of mobile apps available in almost every domain have led to easy accessibility to the contents of world knowledge and culture. Smartphones have become the platform for people to meet and interact with the world. It’s quite natural therefore to use a smartphone as learning and teaching platform for the current digital-native generation learning English.
Still, the point to focus on in learning and teaching English is what to teach and what needs to be learnt; that is, what part of English is explicitly presented. This study focuses on word combinations and films. Word combinations are “ready-made chunks of unanalyzed language (Weinert, 1995)” and “formulaic sequences (Wray, 2002)” that play an important role in both first language acquisition and second language learning (Krashen & Scarcella, 1978) and are related to language development (Brown, 1973). Films are authentic media in which there are natural human communications, society, and culture, which are therefore full of word combinations, because films are not artificially made for education like textbooks.
Films are a passive and receptive media which people watch and can understand. Beyond this simple view, however, films can elicit deep feelings and emotions, such as excitement, anger, relaxation, love, anger. These can have a strong effect on our minds and feelings. Films can focus students’ concentration; they can increase understanding, create memorable visual images and unforgettable content. However film is a receptive media for viewing with its use limited to being a teaching tool that provides examples of language input visually to students.
To supplement this unidirectional film-media, and to make up for the contents of m-learning, this study proposes to marry films with the power of m-learning and therefore to demonstrate that the synergy between films and m-learning can transfer input into intake. Based on qualitative data from interviews and quantitative experimental data, it is suggested that combining M-learning with films can promote retention and effectively transfer input into intake.
Robert G. Doyle: The State of MOOCing
Harvard University
When Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) were first discussed a little less than ten years ago, they were controversial and few academicians agreed that they had value, were important to the future of higher education, or would survive. Then, a few years ago MOOCs became a major topic among universities and some predicted that face-to-face teaching in the near future will be offered at a declining number of institutions as MOOCs became a major source of secondary education and possibly the primary form for educators to maintain and advance their skills. The primary focus of this discussion will be the workings of HarvardX, its courses, and its expansion, but it will also include research on MOOCs and other MOOC programs outside of HarvardX and edX.
In 2012, MIT and Harvard collaborated on the founding of edX and each school provided $30 million in initial seed money. Professor Andrew Ho of HarvardX recently reported, “We explored 68 certificate-granting courses, 1.7 million participants, 10 million participant-hours, and 1.1 billion participant-logged events.” During its first two years, 1,300 new participants enrolled in a HarvardX or MITx course everyday. Today, there are nearly 30 Charter Member universities and an equal number of edX Member universities. EdX includes more than 400 courses ranging from arts and humanities to math and science and more than 400 faculty members. EdX has issued more than 100,000 certificates.
For decades, recordings of the greatest composers have been duplicated and shared throughout the world. The lectures of the most highly accomplished scholars, however, have been lost at the moment that they ended. MOOCs are not only capturing these moments in academia, they are making them available to millions of interested people.
Many detractors cite the low retention rate of MOOC students as cause to eliminate them. Comparing MOOCs with live classrooms and decrying the number of students who do not complete such courses as cause to no longer fund them is not relevant, when one considers the large number of students who had the previously unattainable experience of “attending” a class taught by a professor from thousands of miles away. Columbia University has researched MOOC attendance and labels them in a range from Browsers who do not participate, through Samplers, Auditors, Statement of Achievement Earners, and to SoA with Distinction who successfully complete all assignments. Curiously, Columbia found a significantly higher completion rate among students whose careers requires regular attendance in job-related courses, such as, those who assist in the medical field.
Recent findings by the Primary Research Group show that private institutions are more likely to offer MOOCs than public institutions and PhD-granting schools are significantly more likely to offer MOOCs than two-year and four-year schools. They also found that universities that charge the highest tuition rates are more involved with MOOCS than others and that universities with on-campus enrollments between 2,500 and 7,499 participated more that universities with smaller or larger enrollments.
This presentation will answer the question, Why do we MOOC?
Temasek Polytechnic
Temasek Polytechnic, an institution of higher learning in Singapore, provides post-secondary education to school leavers. It currently offers 51 diploma courses through its six schools, namely Applied Science, Business, Engineering, Design, Humanities and Social Science and Information Technology.
The Management of Enterprise is an elective subject available to all students. This 45 hour subject is taught over 15 weeks. The weekly schedule is an hour long lecture is followed by a two hour tutorial. As only course work is required, assessments are through class tests that focus on the theory, and oral presentations that focus on:
a) successful entrepreneurs (Assignment 1)
b) the marketing plan of successful companies (Assignment 2)
c) business plans (Final project)
The schedule is tight, with the “off campus learning” week reducing even more contact time. With classes as large as 30 students, there is not much class time to provide feedback on the presentations. There is only time for one or two questions from the fellow classmates” and a brief comment from the tutor on each presentation e.g. what worked. For their final project presentation, students in the audience who act as potential investors are to decide if they would fund the project based on an evaluation criteria.
Technology often can offer new ways in which enable learning to take place as well as excite the digital generation. In April 2014, Classroom Replay™ was explored as a means to provide new opportunities for review and feedback. Recorded student presentations were then edited by the tutor and uploaded on the LMS for students to view. The recordings did make some impact. The total number of views was 204 and 102 for assignments 1 and 2 respectively, with view for a single presentation as high as 40. While the study involved 20 participants, the LMS where the videos were uploaded was shared by a total of 50 students. This could have accounted for the high rate of views.
As a follow up to assignment 1, presenters were required to write a synopsis of their presentation and answer any related questions posted on the discussion board. The participants found the videos useful for improving their presentation skills and they found comments from their peers useful. However, they found it a little inconvenient to use the discussion board to follow up with the questions. For assignment 2, the tutor inserted minimal comments in the videos. They found the tagged comments by the tutor useful at times.
In order to increase the opportunity to provide feedback (synchronously and asynchronously), a solution was sought to provide instant, recordable, retrievable feedback. It allows learners to access classes in class and remotely, real time, anywhere and play back anytime, using any mobile device. PLAyCast (ParticipatoryLeArningweb-Cast), a next generation web cast platform, is currently developed in-house in Temasek Polytechnic. This Wireless Classroom is able to deliver lectures concurrently to F2F and online users, whether they are in-campus or out-of-campus. Multi-media and page-synchronization are supported, with options for multicast video- and tele- conference. It has the following features:
Lecturer’s shared Whiteboard (lecture-mode)
. Lecturer views all students’ Whiteboards & edits any student’s Whiteboard (interactive-mode)
. Lecturer’s Live Presentation on Slides
. Live Presentation includes: Audio/Video conferencing, Chat
. Built-in Notes-taking utility available on Lecturer’s/Students’ Whiteboards
. Students’ Homework submissions & Lecturer Files distribution (any digital formats)
This proof of concept study will be undertaken in the April 2015 semester with one Management of Enterprise class for the three oral presentations. For assignments 1 and 2, participants playing the audience role will ask questions, comment on interesting points live; presenters will have to respond when they view the playback. For the business plan, participants acting as crowd funders and angle investors will ask questions, comment on interesting points, disclose if and how much they would fund the venture live. The research questions are as follows:
- How will the participants respond to this technology?
- How will learning be influenced by live commentary, recorded playback and online response?
Data will be collected from the recordings in the system as well as interviews and observation.
Recently much has been made of the inability of technology to add any real capacity to improved student learning regardless of academic level. Many educational leaders will attest that while technology is increasing it’s reach in classrooms, it is only a small cadre of teachers actually utilizing technology to improve student learning. It is, therefore, critical to 21st Century educational leaders to address this issue. There are many already concerned about this situation:
“In general, teachers at many schools seem to view technology as a more valuable tool for themselves than for their students.” Kelly Shapley, Educational Researcher, Shapley Research Associates.
“The net effect”, says Leslie A. Wilson, the chief executive officer of the One-to-One Institute, a nonprofit based in Mason, Mich., that has consulted with hundreds of schools and districts across the country and world, “is that schools rarely realize the full promise of educational technology. There’s nothing transformative about every kid having an iPad unless you’re able to reach higher-order teaching and learning. If schools take all this technology, and use it like a textbook, or just have teachers show PowerPoint presentations or use drill-and-kill software, they might as well not even have it.”
“Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom. But a mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule.” Benjamin Herold, Education Week, “Why Ed Tech is not Transforming Teaching”
“The introduction of computers into schools was supposed to improve academic achievement and alter how teachers taught,” said Stanford University education professor Larry Cuban. “Neither has occurred.”
At the same time there are others, including Andy Hargreaves, the Brennan chair in education at Boston College, who suggests, change in K-12 education typically is “instant, short-term, the quick fix. As such, little attention is paid to long-term planning and even less to leadership succession or stability. The change agenda is the leadership agenda and from the very top, both are being mismanaged.”
The purpose of this presentation is to consider the leadership/management issues we must attend in improving this situation: 1. Developing a culture for student technology use, 2. Leadership Support, and 3. The sustainability of effort and effect.
Center for Futurism in Education, Ben-Gurion University Edusoft, Ltd.
Recent research indicates that blended learning is growing rapidly within all levels of education. Government officials around the world are giving blended learning a key role in their long-term educational strategy. President Obama has recently outlined an ambitious new agenda to combat rising college costs and make college affordable for American families through the implementation of MOOCs and blended courses. Despite the strategic role blended learning has at all levels of education, research suggests that there is a wide range of pedagogical challenges that can hinder the effective implementation of blended learning. The most pressing issues are: teachers’ lack of familiarity with blended learning methodologies, high dropout rates, and a lack of correlation between the technology- enhanced learning activity and the material taught in class. INACAP – a Chile-based network of universities – has been implementing blended EFL (English as a Foreign Language) courses since 2009. Using INACAP as a case study, the author explains how the three challenges associated with the implementation of blended learning can be overcome. INACAP blended courses provide two hours a week of face-to-face instruction combined with 2 hours of a week of computer-based instruction. To overcome the first challenge – lack of familiarity with blended learning methodologies – a cascade model of support was implemented to ensure smooth flow of information among supervisors, teachers and students. Further, INACAP teachers participated in on-site and video teleconference pedagogical seminars to familiarize them with best practices in blended and integrated teaching methodologies. To overcome the second challenge – high dropout rates – project data was regularly analyzed. At-risk students and potential dropouts were easily identified using data-analytics techniques. Once identified, immediate action was taken. To overcome the third challenge – lack of correlation – INACAP implemented an integrated blended course where the computer-based assignment mirrored textbook topics introduced in class. Using sophisticated customization and authoring tools, a customized, integrated course reflecting the textbook objectives was built. To measure the impact of the INACAP blended course on learning outcomes, an 11-week pilot was conducted. The pilot involved two groups: a pilot group using a computer-based language course integrated with a popular EFL textbook, and a control group using the same EFL textbook with no computer-based instruction. There were no differences in the courses in terms of objectives, instructors, institution, course length, course start date and end date. The only difference between the experimental group and the control group was that the former group was exposed to the conditions of the experiment (blended learning) and the latter was not. Both groups were pre-tested and post-tested. The pre- and post-assessment was an online test testing students’ English proficiency skills. The test was scored automatically by the computer program. t-tests for dependent and independent samples were applied to measure statistical differences within and between groups (differences between students’ scores on the pretest and on the posttest and differences between posttest means). In the experimental group, the mean score on the pretest was 61.47 (SD=13.74), and 71.87 (SD=10.12) on the posttest. The paired t-test results show a significance difference in students’ performance t(14)= -3.84, p < .05. In the control group, the mean score on the pretest was 60.9 (SD=12.16), and 61.98 (SD=11.06) on the posttest. The difference in students’ scores on the pretest and on the posttests within the traditional group was not statistically significant t(28)= -1.57, p > .05. The results of the paired t-tests suggest that the technology-enhanced model has positive impact on learning outcomes.
Seo, Ji-Young : A Way to Learn Technical Vocabulary through Multimedia: Using TV Drama, NCIS
Kookmin University
Teachers and learners all welcome the idea of using movies or TV dramas in the ESL/EFL classroom as English language learning material. No wonder they like the idea because movies or TV dramas have many practical expressions and bring enjoyment. However, when the idea is imported into the classroom, there can be disappointment if teachers do not know how to teach the practical expressions and learners feel bored from learning them; that is, the language matters. In essence they come full circle. In fact, to use movies or TV dramas as material means to memorize utterances from them. What is needed here is to theoretically prove why memorizing such utterances is necessary for better language learning. Myles, Hooper & Mitchell (1998) argued that formulaic sequences which learners memorize early in communication would be divided into parts (=chunks) and that such chunks would be used in order to generate new meaningful utterances. Then it is clear that memorizing movie or drama utterances and language development are deeply related. However the problem is that there is often a lot of difficult vocabulary (=technical vocabulary) in movies or TV dramas, especially TV dramas such as NCIS or Blacklist, which can leads to frustration and failure to learn the expressions. Ironically technical vocabulary is important for language acquisition. Lee (2014) researched this matter. Specifically speaking, Lee studied the possibility of adults’ learning language naturally in the same way that children learn their L1. His subject, a 21-year-old male, participated in the massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft for one and a half years. In the first stage of the game, the subject produced one-word utterances with only game terminology (=technical vocabulary), interacting with other game players. This was similar to L1 children’s one-word utterances. In the second stage of the game, the subject produced lengthy utterances including game terminology. In the third stage, the subject noticed ‘chunks’ in the lengthy utterances which he uttered. Finally the subject understood how to use chunks in different situations. Surprisingly he could generate new utterances without the help of game terminology. Lee’s experiment showed that technical vocabulary would be the beginning of language acquisition. In this respect, it is necessary to change learners’ perception about technical vocabulary to achieve successful language learning. However games and movies or TV dramas are fundamentally different. Game players actively participate when playing a game. To them, game vocabulary is an important point of entry. They learn game vocabulary incidentally and without the help of teachers. On the other hand, viewers of movies or TV dramas are not active while watching a show. They tend to ignore technical vocabulary at all. In this presentation, I would like to suggest a way to teach the technical vocabulary in NCIS. Firstly, the way to extract technical vocabulary in the drama scene will be presented followed by a short demonstration to teach technical vocabulary through Quizlet, an effective online learning tool.
References:
Lee, Y. J. (2014). Working hypothesis in second language development in natural settings: Twenty one year old adult’s second language development in the game play of World of Warcraft (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Penn State University. State College, PA.
Eliana El-Khoury: Flipped classroom to promote learner-centered teaching in engineering classes
The 21st century learners have different expectations. The 21st century learners expect to be involved and also expect the teaching to be tailored around their interests. The goal of this paper is to introduce a flipped classroom design taught in a community of inquiry setting for engineering classrooms in order to nurture a learner center teaching.
The purpose of the paper is to discuss a new framework for designing engineering classes. The 21st learners expect to be involved in the teaching process. They don’t wait for the instructor to be the knowledge holder but they expect to be involved in group project that manifest an understanding of their needs and a connection to their life.
This paper proposes to use the community of inquiry framework as introduced by Garrison, Anderson and Archer in order to design a flipped classroom to create learner-centered lessons. Not only does flipped classroom allow classroom time optimization and individualised students’ pace at following the lessons but it also promotes 21st century competencies needed for the job market. It is based on cooperative, collaborative and peer assisted learning, active learning, and problem based learning and it promotes competencies like collaboration and being proactive in solution finding. (Bishop, Lowel and al. ,2013). Relevant literature regarding the significance of such a program will be explored.
The significance of the paper: Professors who are teaching this generation, are inclined to design different type of lessons and to deliver it in an innovative way. Engineering professors are usually experts in their fields but they have little knowledge in theories of learning. therefore providing training to engineering faculty and developing an understanding and an implantation of a flipped classroom is imperative to the advancement of teaching development, and to the sharing of practices and designs and will consequently lead to the spread of learner-centered teaching.
First this paper briefly reviews history of lessons design in engineering classes. It elaborates on the expectations of students and the pervasive technological era that imposed new skills to be acquired. The 21st century changed the face of higher education. Universities have different expectations for their new professors. Students’ diversity, professors’ diversity and the pervasive use of technology in education is reshaping the teaching. Professors are no longer confined to their classrooms where they deliver knowledge and learners are no longer confined to their places of origins where they find a job and stay in their country of origin. Modern technology has created new opportunities to share knowledge and expertise across wider domains. Austin (2003) stated the rise of the information society, new technology and the increasing diversity of students as the main forces of change in the academic work in the near future. A new faculty member is expected to have, among others, 21st century competencies that allow him to design learner-centered lessons. Therefore, a professor is expected to connect in teaching and meet the expectation of the faculty, the university and the students.
Finally the paper outlines a framework for creating an effective design for creating learner-centered lessons. This design is an implementation of the flipped classroom model in a learner-centered environment.
Creating a flipped lesson with a learner-centered orientations is a design that will positively influence the lifelong teaching of engineering professors.
References:
Austin, A. E. (2003). Creating a bridge to the future: Preparing new faculty to face changing expectations in a shifting context. The Review of Higher Education, 26(2), 119-144.
Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013, June). The flipped classroom: A survey of the research. In ASEE National Conference Proceedings, Atlanta, GA.
Eszterhazy Karoly College, Eger, Hungary
While the presence of ICT devices is indispensable at schools, such equipment by itself is insufficient to guarantee effective learning and teaching. Moreover, if only infrastructure and devices are provided no major change can be expected in the delivery of the respective educational materials and the relevant methodology (Smeets, 2005). Consequently, appropriately planned and prepared further training schemes for in-service teachers (Galanouli, Murphy and Gardner 2004) along with the integration of the resulting experiences into teacher training and further training programs are necessary in order to keep pace with the challenges presented by the information society and the public education sphere.
From the 2008 academic year at the Demonstration School of the Eszterházy Károly College a comprehensive and special pedagogical and methodological experiment was designed for the promotion of the wide-ranging in-school application of ICT tools, including CMPC computers, eBooks and Tablets. The most unique aspects of this experimental effort preceded by a comprehensive research program involving a scientific determination of the ICT devices, age group, infrastructure, and respective methodology.
In our presentation we would like to show the findings and conclusions of the 7 years long research project.
Busan National University of Education
Learning English as a second language in South Korea is no longer learning an additional language; rather it is a status quo. Due to this phenomenon, language teachers and researchers have distributed much effort into creating a more meaningful language classroom for the students. Since that we all live in the digital era, using smartphones and tablets, it was natural to incorporate these digital gadgets into the language classroom.
Lewis (1993) proposed that noticing chunks of the target language enhances the learning experience. Students noticing the chunks of a second language, in this case English, could facilitate the learning experience. However, in order to teach the target language through chunks, the teacher needed to keep track of each student’s noticing pattern. Utilizing the “Kakaotalk” messenger app with the “QR reader” app helped the teacher to moderate the student’s chunk noticing pattern.
The presenter conducted a research using the popular Disney movie Toy Story 3. After watching a scene of Toy Story 3, students were asked to scan a QR code on the board. The QR code will lead to a survey asking which expressions (chunks) they remembered from the movie. The answers were generated into a spreadsheet where the presenter could observe all of their answers. Based on the noticed chunks, students were required to memorize the expressions and then reproduce the scene by recording their voices into the messenger app. They were then asked to send the file to the presenter, which later was shared with the whole class.
As a result, students were able to memorize the expressions in a more effective way, and enjoyed the activity overall. They were excited to use their smartphones as a learning tool in the classrooms where they could share their thoughts and participate in other language activities.
In this presentation, the presenter will share the data and the step-by-step procedure of the method and discuss the advantages of utilizing smartphone apps into English language learning classrooms.
Reference:
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach. Hove: Teacher Training Publications.
This is a research study conducted at a public university and it is at is initial stage of analysis. The purpose of the study is to find out how students of Basic English III from a BA program traced their learning path to foster their speaking and listening skills to become independent learners of their own teaching and learning processes for life.
This experience emerges from a need to orient students’ independent learning practices to improve their oral and audio performances in EFL. This research study is focused on describing and analyzing some weekly learning proposals created by students of third semester in which they supported their English speaking and listening performance on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), especially Web Generation 1.0 and 2.0.
Students were familiar with an experience from first semester which created both positive and negative impact in their own learning because they were faced to authentic material at all times when practicing their oral and written performance in EFL. At that time students did not follow a text book but they were expected to fulfill the requirements of a pre-intermediate user.
Research questions: how do students’ individual learning proposals support their speaking and listening skills?
How do students challenge themselves with new English speaking and listening goals to transform their daily practices in EFL including Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?
Research design: this is mainly a qualitative case study that describes particular phenomena around the use of web 1.0 and web 2.0 to strengthen English speaking and listening skills.
The initial stage began with an awareness session on general strategies to address when dealing with speaking and listening skills in EFL. The second stage dealt with students’ setting of goals and actions to carry out their autonomous study habits, (Ellis & Sinclair, 2005) by means of a weekly work plan which complemented their face face lessons at university: skill driven model ,Valiathan, (2002). The third stage emphasized on the analysis of data gathered through their weekly plans and some students’ reflections of self-assessment based on some principles from critical pedagogy.
This final stage revealed some preliminary findings on methods of practice and ICT sources to support face to face English lessons on the basis to transform some methodological aspects from actual practices in the EFL classroom.
Fort Hays State University, California State University, Fresno
In upcoming elections for the Los Angeles school board, a program designed to provide an iPad to every student has become a critical issue. L.A. Unified, the second largest district in the country, has experienced problems with start-up, planning, and intended use of tablets for learning (Blume, 2015). Beavis (2014) noted that tablets in the classroom can have transformational impact on learning, but also recognized the need for training and support for effective use to happen.
One essential component of this innovation is the providing of learning experiences on tablets for preservice teachers in teacher education programs. The introduction of this new technology cannot simply take the form of an additional assignment or module in an existing course, but rather needs to be the result of careful deliberations on essential questions of content and pedagogy. The framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) provides a space for these deliberations to occur (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Also, technology cannot be used as a substitution for existing instructional practices. Simply providing an electronic text without any examination of the new ways of interacting with text afforded by an e-reader is not transformational; merely a substitution for convenience or cost (Puentedura, 2013). For tablet technology to have an impact on the TPCK of preservice teachers, an evolution in the beliefs and practices of teacher educators must first occur (Geist, 2011).
The authors of this session are involved in using tablets in teacher education courses. We engaged in a study focused on these research questions:
1.What changes occurred to our pedagogical beliefs while we were engaged in a tablet-focused teacher education course?
2.What changes occurred to our instructional practices in the course?
3.What changes occurred to our curricular decisions in the course?
This inquiry took the form of a self-study, in which we considered our own experiences as instructors in the teacher education program as sources of data. Acknowledged by Zeichner (1999) as a form of research that could potentially transform teacher education, self-study is a mode of inquiry that includes the characteristics of openness, collaboration, and reframing (Barnes, 1998). We also accept the need for an approach that is committed to checking our interpretations with each other to increase the credibility of our conclusions (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001; Whitehead, 2004).
Our preliminary findings highlight the role shift of the instructor, from an identity of authority and expertise to one of struggle and uncertainty. Some of us acknowledged that we were inexperienced about many features of tablets, including specific discipline-specific apps and social media. In many cases, our students held more expertise than we did, reinforcing a culture of community. A pedagogical turn occurred to modeling learning through struggle and failure, often due to infrastructure issues, resulting in the emergence of the role of instructor as learner (Russell, 2002).
Our self-study has important implications for teacher education faculty who seek to move beyond simple substitution of technology to a level of redefinition, enabling the creation of new learning experiences that were previously inconceivable (Puentedura, 2013).
References:
Barnes, D. (1998) Forward: Looking forward. The Castle concluding remarks at the conference . In ML Hamilton, S. With Pinnegar, T. Russell, J. Loughran, LaBoskey & V. (Eds.) Reconceptualizing teaching practice: Self-study in teacher education . (Pp ix-xiv.) London: Falmer Press.
. Bullough, RV, Jr., & Pinnegar, S. (2001) . Guidelines for quality in autobiographical forms of self-study research Educational Researcher, 30 (3): 13-21.
Beavis, G. (2015, March 14). An Apple for teacher. How tablets are changing education . Techradar Retrieved
Blume, H. (2015, May 13). In LA Unified races, there’s one issue Where Union charter schools and teachers agree. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me -lausd-election-20150513-story.html
Geist, E. (2011) The Game Changer: Using iPads teacher education classes in college. College Student Journal , 45 (4), 758.
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge. A framework for teacher knowledge The Teachers College Record , 108 (6), 1017-1054.
Puentedura, RR (2013) Paths to technology integration: MRSA & TPCK in context . Retrieved fromhttp://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2013/05/29/PathsToTechnologyIntegration.pdf
Russell, T. (2002). 3 teachers teaching. I teach How Is The Message In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education , 32.
Whitehead, J. (2004). What counts as evidence in self-studies of teacher education practices? In JJ Loughran, ML Hamilton, VK LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.). International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (Vol 2, pp 871-903.). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Zeichner, KM (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28 (9), 4-15.
Dodie Niemeyer: Select Parent’s Understanding and Acceptance of the Learning Potential of Videogames
Sam Houston State University
Parental involvement is a critical variable influencing student learning performance. Although the learning potential of videogames has been widely noted, parental acceptance of this idea should be more fully explored. In this study, I aimed to explore select parents’ perceptions of the learning potential of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) videogames. The research paradigms driving this study were radical constructivism and pragmatism. Data collected included semi-structured interviews, participant journals, and memo writing. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was employed to better understand the complex phenomenon of select parents’ understandings and perceptions of the learning potential of COTS videogames. Initial findings indicate that parents were more accepting of the idea of videogames being used as a reward rather than an instructional tool in their children’s classrooms. Additionally, parents do not fully understand what their children are doing when playing videogames and could benefit from instruction about participation in videogames and virtual worlds. This study provides educators and parents with insight into parental perceptions of videogames as learning opportunities so that they will understand how videogames may be used as a tool for classroom instruction in order to help students develop the skills necessary to be successful in their post-secondary lives.
References:
Abrams, S. S. (2009). A gaming frame of mind: Digital contexts and academic implications.
Educational Media International, 46, 335-347. doi:10.1080/09523980903387480
Bottino, R. M., & Ott, M. (2006). Mind games, reasoning skills, and the primary school curriculum. Learning, Media and Technology, 31, 359-375.
Bourgonjon, J., Valcke, M., Soetaert, R., de Wever, B., & Schellens, T. ( 2011). Parental acceptance of digital game-based learning. Computers & Education, 57, 1434-1444. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.12.012
Gee, J. P. (2007). What videogames have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave McMilliam.
Gerber, H. R., & Price, D. (2011). Twenty-first century adolescents, writing, and new media: Meeting the challenge with game controllers and laptops. English Journal, 101(2), 68-73.
Glasersfeld, E. V. (1996). Radical constructivism: A way of knowing and learning. London, England: Falmer Press.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Johnson, R. B., & Collins, K. M. T. (2009). A call for mixed analysis: A
philosophical framework for combining qualitative and quantitative. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 3, 114-139.
Prensky, M. (2007). Don’t bother me mom I’m learning. [Kindle version]. Retrieved from amazon.com
Smith, J.A. & Osborn, M. (2007). Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In J. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative Psychology (pp. 53-80). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Squire, K. (2012). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Steinkuehler, C., Compton-Lilly, C., & King, E. (2010). Reading in the context of online games. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences.
Suh, S., Kim, S., & Kim, N. (2010). Effectiveness of MMORPG-based instruction in elementary English education in Korea. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(5), 370-378.
Watson, W.R., Mong, C.J. & Harris, C. (2011). A case study of the in-class use of a video game
for teaching high school history. Computers & Education. 56(2), 466-474.
University of Texas at Brownsville
Categorizing, or arguably profiling, elearning students is becoming a common practice in the field [4]. Using a Web survey, an increasing number of learner characteristics and demographics can be studied in a form of data. Given this easy access to the collected data, researchers have attempted to take into account multiple profiling variables at once, instead of dealing with one variable at a time. This attempt makes the design of their study more sophisticated and more versatile. It also assists the researchers in finding hidden patterns of the learners and their behaviors [3]. Most importantly, their study results enable the top management team to make informed decisions. One major advantage of two-step cluster analysis is it allows researchers to consider both continuous/numerical and categorical/nominal variables at a time as other clustering techniques, such as K-Means Cluster and Hierarchical Cluster in SPSS, are limited respectively, as Şchiopu [2] pointed out.
In this phase of the investigation, we plan to (a) follow up on the recommendation for further research we stated in an earlier study on learner preference in types of elearning courses [1] and (b) explore plausible patterns (profiles) based on two learner characteristics/behaviors (i.e., perceived distance between social life and school life and perceived affinity for technology) and their relationship with choices of learning environments where students learn most. The secondary or archival data with a sample size of approximately 2,000 will be analyzed for the present survey research. The data were initially collected in collaboration with EDCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) in 2013.
The data were analyzed using two step cluster analysis in SPSS. Three viable learner groups/profiles were identified, High Distance High Affinity (HDHA), High Distance Low Affinity (HDLA), and Low Distance Average Affinity (LDAA).
This profiling was based on average Silhouette = .5, which is considered fair, with the ratio of largest cluster to smallest cluster at 2.26 (<3). Cluster sizes vary. Respectively, they are 47.1%, 20.9 and 32%, % (N=1700).
With a two-way contingency table analysis using crosstabs, we evaluated whether students in any of the three profiles perceive elearning more as a learning environment to learn most. We found there is a significant difference in the way students in three different profiles perceive elearning as the environment where they learn most, Pearson X² (2, N=1481) = 48.27, p < .001, Cramér’s V = .18. The proportions of students who perceived elearning is the environment that they learn most across three learner profile groups: HDHA, HDLA, and LDAA were .83, .66, and .85, respectively. Follow-up pairwise comparisons were conducted.
Preliminary results suggested that (a) the probability of a student in favor of elearning was 1.29 times more likely when the student was LDAA, as opposed to HDLA, and (b) the probability of a student in favor of elearning was 1.26 times more likely when the student was HDHA, as opposed to HDLA. Implications of the results will be discussed in the session.
This 20-minute session is to benefit university distance education management team and policy makers.
References:
Pan, C., Sivo, S., García, F., Goldsmith, C., & Cornell, R. A. (2014, October). Technology
and me–what do students think? Paper presented at the 64th International Council
for Educational Media (ICEM 2014) Conference, Eger, Hungary.
Şchiopu, D. (2010). Applying twostep cluster analysis for identifying bank customers’ profile. BULETINUL, 62(3), 66-75.
Shih, M.-Y., Jheng, J.-W., & Lai, L.-L. (2010). A two-step method for clustering mixed categorical and numeric data. Tamkang Journal of Science and Engineering, 13(1), 11-19.
Yukselturk, E., & Top, E. (2013). Exploring the link among entry characteristics, participation behaviors and course outcomes of online learners: An examination of learner profile using cluster analysis. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(5), 716-728.
Sam Houston State University
The use of assistive technology (AT) to help students with diagnosed learning difficulties (LD) has been favorable to improve their literacy skills (Barden, 2014; Fitzgeral, Miller, Higgings, Pierce & Tandi, 2012; Lange, McPhillips, Mulhern, & Wylie 2006). Indeed, the implementation of AT tools in different educational settings have brought about positive outcomes and have also helped students overcome their LD such as dyslexia, lack of reading comprehension, and writing fluency, among others (Barden, 2014; Fitzgerald, Miller, Higgins, Pierce, & Tandy 2012; Ditacheron, 2010). Consequently, the implementation of AT may be beneficial for language learners (LL) who also have LD (Yakimchuk, 2010); so these technological tools can improve LL’s literacy skills development in the second language (L2). In this case, foreign/second language instructors can apply software and hardware in the distinct classrooms to increase students’ interest and awareness toward reading and writing in L2. (Marzban, 2011). Regarding the benefits that AT can bring to students who have LD, there is special interest to present information about this issue to language teachers. In this way, instructors can apply this educational alternative (AT) in their schoolrooms to help their pupils become competent in the target language and provide an effective and equitable teaching process to students with LD.
Sam Houston State University
Being able to read well is an essential skill to acquire in order to be successful in an academic setting, which is what most students attending an English for Academic Purposes course would like to achieve. In order to gain entrance to a university, these students must obtain an acceptable score on the IELTS or TOEFL. However, it had come to my attention that a large portion of my students have a tendency not to partake in much reading outside of class and also struggle with the reading and writing section on these standardized tests. To better help these students increase their reading abilities, an extensive reading program was created for three of my classes. As part of the program, the use of quizzing through Mreader and blogging via Edmodo were used as tools to motivate the students to engage in more extensive reading. Mreader is a website, hosted by the extensive reading foundation, that has created thousands of quizzes for graded readers for many publishing companies, and Edmodo is an educational collaboration website being used by teachers, students and parents. Both of these websites were explored to examine if they would be beneficial tools to motivate students and provide a way for teachers to monitor their students’ involvement in extensive reading. After experimenting with the websites, it is apparent that Mreader and Edmodo can aid teachers in getting students to partake in more reading outside of class.
Sam Houston State University
After taking a course on how videogames can be used to promote literacy, I decided to select a PlayStation videogame that could be used in conjunction with other activities in my English for Academic Purposes classes to help with their English language skills. After researching what type of games could be easily implemented into the classroom, Singstar, a game dealing with karaoke, seemed like a smart option. The second step consisted of coming up with a list of songs which were the most appropriate for the students. This process was extremely important since several of the videos and lyrics had inappropriate images or words. Furthermore, some of the songs were way too fast for the students to be able to sing along to. Finally, all three of my levels participated in the use of Singstar; however, it was used more in depth with my listening and speaking class. The class not only focused on participating in utilizing the game in the classroom but also were given the task of writing and presenting about the song and artist(s) of the song that they had chosen. In addition, they utilized a website, lyricstraining.com, to work on learning and practicing the lyrics of their song. At the end of the term, the students were given a questionnaire about their experience with SingStar and the results demonstrate that they found it to be a beneficial tool to improve their English language skills.
David Ray Squires: Augmented Reality Application & Classroom Development: New Technology and Media
University of Georgia
The focus of this paper is to shed light on the rapidly developing and innovative learning ideology that many educators and students, knowingly or not, use everyday. While some may think of mobile technology as being merely a cellular phone or “intelligent” device, the path that mobile learning is taking will soon, if not already, rapidly outpace many of its antiquated technological constraints (Shuler, Winters, & West, 2013). This paper seeks to investigate the paradigm shift that is changing our world to an anywhere- anytime learning space, and the broad and specific implications that novel tools offer to the field of education and learning. The structure of the rest of the paper will be based on a review of the literature that will be expanded to reflect and illustrate the existing axiology of mobile technology; novel augmented reality technology’s effects on learning and education; the theoretical perspective that new mobile tools can offer to education; and a data collection framework methodology using proposed questionnaires and statistical analysis.
References:
Shuler, C., Winters, N., & West, M. (2013). The Future of Mobile Learning. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1-44. Retrieved from Unesdoc
This study investigated the figured worlds of ten 4th graders related to literacy and videogames within a ten-week period during fall 2014. Participants, who were selected based on responses to a researcher-created survey, met in a book group setting once per week over the course of ten weeks. All participants self-reported that they played Minecraft. The book group members read two different books, both related to videogames. One book was directly related to the Minecraft videogame; the other book was related to videogaming but not connected with a particular videogame title or series. As part of book discussions during the ten weeks, students shared their out-of-school and in-school experiences with reading. This study followed a qualitative case study design (Yin, 2014). All book group meetings were audio recorded and transcribed. The researcher maintained a reflexive journal and also used member-checking and focus groups for triangulation. The focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. The research questions that guided this study focuse on tweens’ figured worlds related to the videogame text, the videogame-related text, in-school and out-of-school literacies, and the ways these figured worlds intersected and diverged. Themes that emerged from qualitative coding include connections, prior knowledge, in-school/out-of-school literacies, reading and videogame-behavior, perceptions of literacy and videogames, and videogame text versus videogame-related text. The study’s findings have the potential to positively impact classroom practices by providing information to teachers and administrators about students’ in-school and out-of-school literacy practices and emphasizing the importance of bridging the gap between these practices.
Hengtao Tang: The Role of Instructors in a Hands-on MOOC
The purpose of this study is to explore instructors’ role in a hands-on experience-based MOOC, Technology Applications in Education (TAE) on Canvas. With the development of new and emerging technologies, the values and beliefs underlying the teaching and learning process are being reconceived. Previously, Berge (1995) classified instructor’s roles as an e-moderator in four perspectives, including pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical. However, the fact that Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) gains wider acceptance in education promotes an increasing awareness of a changing facilitative role of MOOC instructors in a student-centered environment, resulted from a diversity of students’ population and a wide range of integrated technologies (Bali, 2014; Ferguson & Whitelock, 2014). In addition, the hands-on experience-based MOOC highlights students’ apprenticed practice with real-life projects so it requires new perspectives of instructor’s role besides the foundation that the existing literature constructs. This research project thus intends to propose a framework of instructors’ role in a hands-on experience-based MOOC through students’ perceptions so as to fill in the theoretical gap and also benefit professionals and academics investigating MOOC teaching and learning.
The theoretical lens to make sense of the data involves aspects of Berge’s (1995) classification of instructor’s role, Land, Hannafin, and Oliver’s (2012) student-centered learning environment, and Collins’ (2006) cognitive apprenticeship.
Berge (1995) classified instructor’s roles as an e-moderator in four perspectives, including pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical. Online instructors fulfill pedagogical roles through facilitating educational processes, such as fostering collaborative knowledge-building through interactive discussion and providing feedback, to improve students’ understanding of critical concepts, principles, and skills (Anderson & Dron, 2012; Berge, 1995; Bonk et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2004). Social roles endow online instructors the responsibility of weaving a cohesive learning community and developing students’ collective identity to support students’ cognitive learning processes (Anderson & Dron, 2012; Liu et al., 2004). Managerial roles embrace organizational, procedural, and administrative tasks associated with the learning environment such as coordinating assignments, managing online discussion forums, and handling overall course structure (Berge, 1995). Technical roles of online instructors become increasingly remarkable with more integration of advanced technology and frame teachers’ roles in providing learners a comfortable and supportive technology-enriched environment.
Heuer and King (2004) offer the metaphor of “the leader of a band” to underscore the need for instructors to adopt flexible roles in response to the needs of online learners. However, a diversity of students’ population who demonstrate various expertise and objectives register MOOC and contribute to the collective knowledge advancement with different expertise in different time zones. For example, MOOC instructor cannot reply promptly to posts from students who are not in the same time zone, which may extend the distance between students and instructors. Therefore, the changing demographics of students as well as integrated emerging technologies trigger a refinement of online instructor’s role (Easton, 2003), especially in the context of MOOC (Bali, 2014, Law, 2014).
Besides a more diverse student population and a more technology-enriched environment, MOOC highlights an open student-centered online environment (McAuley, Stewart, Siemens, & Cormier, 2010; Fasihuddin, et al., 2013; Jacoby, 2014). Student-centered learning environment entails four primary basic components, including context, tools, resources, and scaffolds (Land, Hannafin, & Oliver, 2012). Land et al. (2012) emphasize the centrality of students in sense-making and the essentiality of enabling scaffolded participation in authentic tasks and socio-cultural practices. Student-centered learning environment also clarifies the significance of prior and everyday experience in constructing meaning as well as an access to multiple perspectives and resources. MOOC provides students more autonomy in sense-making process and, meanwhile, expects instructors to accomplish roles of creating an authentic environment for scaffolding students’ participation and facilitating the collective knowledge-creation.
Concerning a hands-on experience-based MOOC, the TAE course designer expects to create a virtual collaborative laboratory which highlights cognitive apprenticeship. Cognitive apprenticeship addresses pedagogical concerns and intends to generate usable knowledge that can be applied in various settings (Collins, 2006). More insights of cognitive apprenticeship from MOOC instructor are expected to construct from the research.
Based on the theoretical framework, the research examined the following research questions:
- What are students’ perceptions of instructors’ roles in a hands-on MOOC?
- What is the framework like for MOOC instructors to fulfill their roles in a hands-on MOOC?
This research project applied phenomenological qualitative study to examine learners’ perceptions of instructors’ role in a hands-on MOOC, Technology Applications in Education. TAE is a MOOC operated on Canvas from August 2014 to September 2014 and intends to provide K-12 educators an authentic learning environment to acquire essential technological skills. To ensure the validity, triangulated data was collected through interviews with 8 students, online survey, and discussion posts in the course. All interviews are transcribed for data analysis and a follow-up interview will be scheduled to ensure the analysis reflects students’ real experience and perceptions.
The study employed general thematic analysis to process the data, initiating a process of open coding of the highlighted elements to identify patterns in the data set. General thematic analysis consists of five phases, including familiarizing yourself with your data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and finally producing the report (Braun & Clark, 2006). The research applies general thematic analysis because this approach does not require the research to adhere to any pre-existing theoretical framework (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Besides, general thematic analysis empowers the researcher flexibility of discovering themes and patterns based on personal understanding.
The study will provide a framework of instructors’ role in a hands-on MOOC from four perspectives in Berge’s (1995) framework. According to students’ experience and perception, the emerging framework will extend Berge’s (1995) to become more suitable for MOOC teaching and learning. The conclusion hopefully proposes a guideline for MOOC instructors of how to fulfill their roles in such an open, large-scale, and student-centered environment. The study will bridge the gap in current literature and also benefit professionals and academics investigating MOOC teaching and learning.
Jesús H Trespalacios: Using VoiceThread to Facilitate Asynchronous Communication: A Design Case
Boise State University
The difficulties of synchronous connection due to work, family and other commitments make asynchronous computer-mediated activities important alternatives to promote communication among students (Hrastinkski, 2008; Simonson et al., 2012). Besides text-based communication such as emails or discussion forums, web 2.0 tools offer other alternatives including audio and video to promote interactions among students. The purpose of this design case (Boling, 2010) is to describe (1) critical decisions made during the integration of a VoiceThread in a graduate online course to foster learning and community, and (2) situations in which instructional decisions did not work as planned, as well as a description of the subsequent revision of the VoiceThread integration. Specifically, this study addresses the following general research question: What can be learned from the use of VoiceThread to promote asynchronous communication in an online graduate course?
This design case used three sections of a graduate course entitled Instructional Design (ID) occurring during summer and fall 2014, and spring 2015. In the online graduate program of Educational Technology (Ed Tech), students are required to take this course as part of their plan of studies. In Fall 2013, a new textbook (Larson & Lockee, 2014) and a case-based textbook (Ertmer, Quinn & Glazewski, 2014) were required for the ID course. VoiceThread was integrated into the course to promote communication and interactions, facilitate introductions at the beginning of the semester, and as a method for an assigned group of students to present a summary of specific content materials before the weekly online discussions.
Summer and Fall 2014. VoiceThread was used as a forum to let students introduce themselves at the beginning of the course and to comment on at least three students with whom they had something in common. Additionally, VoiceThread was implemented as a tool to allow groups of three or four students design a presentation where they summarized and analyzed three case studies. These presentations were offered as an introduction to the content of the weekly asynchronous discussions. The only difference between summer (eight weeks long) and fall sessions (fourteen weeks long) was the time each group of students had to prepare the presentation and discussion questions.
Spring 2015. Based on the results from students’ course evaluations, two design revisions were made in the leading group presentations: (1) Students were asked to focus on the analyzing the cases without summarizing the case. (2) One of the two discussion questions was posted inside of the VoiceThread presentation so that students could use audio to respond. Data will be collected at the end of the semester (May 2015) in order to analyze students’ responses and to compare and analyze the effects of the design revisions.
Initial results showed that students perceived VoiceThread as an important tool for learning. During the presentation, results from spring 2015 will be discussed with the audience to reflect on the possibilities of VoiceThread and/or similar Web 2.0 tools to improve asynchronous communication in online learning environments.
References:
Boling, E. (2010). The need for design cases: Disseminating design knowledge. International Journal of Designs for Learning 1(1). http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ijdl/article/view/919/978
Ertmer, P. A., Quinn, J. & Glazewski, K. D. (2014a). The ID casebook: Case studies in instructional design(4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hrastinski, S. (2008). Asynchronous and synchronous e-learning. EDUCAUSE, 4, 51-55.
Larson, M. B., & Lockee, B. B. (2014). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design. New York, NY: Routledge.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Sam Houston State University
We have seen the number of international students increase in our 10 years as a doctoral program. We are interested in finding out the pros and cons of the online programs and the face–to-face programs. The dilemma is that more and more doctoral programs are going online from fully accredited institutions. How can we compete with those programs and maintain the integrity of our program? Do we want to compete?
In this presentation, we will discuss the competition of fully online programs versus face to face programs, including views of our own students as to their perceptions of each model. We are currently conducting surveys, interviews, a self-study and a comparative analysis to other programs.
Literature Review: Much research has been conducted on students’ perceptions of online versus face-to-face courses. Schwartzman (2007) found that students view online courses as more flexible. Students can take online courses at a time and location of their choice. Non-traditional students who are working are still able to take online courses, and many students perceive that having control of the pacing of their course can add to their success (Roblyer, 1999). Deimann and Bastiaens (2010) reported students’ beliefs that the less structured nature of an online course requires students to be self-motivated and can lead to procrastination.
According to Platt, Raile, and Yu (2014), “Face-to-face courses are perceived by students as offering higher levels of interaction, both with the instructor and with other students in the class, than online courses.” Students report viewing face-to-face courses as having more immediate responses and feedback from their instructors than online courses (An & Frick, 2006). Platt, Raile, and Yu (2014) further report that there has not been a significant difference in how students have perceived the amount of knowledge gained through online or face-to-face courses. The authors emphasize the need to listen to students’ voices and to survey them on their perceptions when planning curriculum involved in online courses. In order to make informed decisions about which courses to offer online, which to offer face-to-face, or whether to offer our entire doctoral program online, we are conducting a study involving our doctoral students’ perceptions of taking courses online versus taking them face-to-face.
Methodology: Our study will use qualitative methodology. We will collect data through survey and interview with the students in the Doctorate of Literacy program. In addition, we will do self-study of our doctoral program. We will do a comparative analysis through the literature.
Analysis: We will use constant comparative methodology for analysis, and we will constantly compare data from different sources as it is collected.
Results: Presenters will share results of the study, including quotes from the student interviews, survey results, and the results of the self-study.
Implications and further research: The implications will discuss ways to create future doctoral programs that speak to international students, as well as harness online components while maintaining the status of face-to-face programs.
References:
An, Y. J. & Frick, T. (2006). Student perceptions of asynchronous computer-mediated
communication in face-to-face courses. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, article 5. Doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00023.x
Deimann, M. & Bastiaens, T. (2010). The role of volition in distance education: An
exploration of its capacities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/778.
Platt, C.A., Raile, A. N. W., & Yu, N. (2014). Virtually the same?” Student perceptions
of the equivalence of online classes to face-to-face classes. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 10 (3), 489-503.
Roblyer, M. D. (1999). Is choice important in distance learning? A study of student
motives for taking Internet-based courses at the high school and community college levels. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32, 157-171.
Schwartzman, R. (2007). Refining the question: How can online instruction maximize opportunities for all students? Communication Education, 56, 112-117. Doi: 10.1080/03634520601009728.
Sam Houston State University
Information on designing effective instruction within online learning environments based upon data from 13+ years of implementing a fully online master’s degree in reading will be discussed. During the early years, studies that examined effective online instruction were few (Allen & Seaman, 2006). However, research in effective online instruction has burgeoned since we first implemented our program. We have witnessed a surge of studies on distance learning in digital environments that focus on improved instruction and student outcomes (Bailie, 2015; Crawford-Ferre,& Wiest, 2012; Joyner, Fuller, Holzweiss, Henderson & Young, 2014; Swan, 2010). Now with thirteen years of experience in delivering online instruction, and based upon theories and paradigms of effective online instruction, we examine where we were, where we are currently, and where we project online instruction is heading due to multiple new ubiquitous mobile and social technologies. This presentation draws upon varied data sources, such as interviews with faculty, student surveys, as well as archival artifacts, such as discussion boards and student work. The data were analyzed thematically to understand how faculty and students in the program perceive the experience of online teaching and learning, and how those understandings have shaped and changed, specifically, the presenters’ teaching and learning. We hope these presentations will inspire further conversation about effective online instruction and its place in the future of global education.The four presentations are focused on the following areas:
1. In the Beginning . The focus is on the process of developing curricula and initiating the initial coursework as well as discussions about what guided our decision making.
2. Down the Road and Across the World: Nurturing Our Online Community. The focus of this presentation is on the feedback received that allowed us to shape courses in ways that students found engaging and aided in their success. Specific attention will be paid to those students from other countries who were enrolled in the program.
3. It’s a Brave New World: The Future of Online Learning. This presentation discusses survey data from students that guided us in changes to the program that continue today.
4. Taking it International. And finally, we will conclude with thoughts of how this program can grow internationally and incorporate new literacies and understanding into our future considerations.
References:
Allen, I.E. & Seaman, J. (2006). Making the grade: Online education in the United States 2006. Needham, Ma: Sloan-C. retrieved May 13, 2015 from Sloan Consortium Publications website: http://222.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/survey06.asp.
Bailie, J.L. (2015). Online graduate instruction: What faculty consider reasonable in relation to what students expect. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 11(1), 42-53.
Crawford-Ferre, H.G. & Wiest, L.R. (2012). Effective online instruction in higher education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education. 13(1). 11-14.
Joyner, S.A., Fuller, M.B., Holzweiss, P.C., Henderson, S., & Young, R. (2014). The importance of student-instructor connections in graduate level online courses. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 10(3), 436-445.
Swan, K. (2010). Teaching and learning in post-industrial education. In Cleveland-Innes, M. & Garrison, D.R. Understanding Distance Learning in the 21st Century: Teaching and Learning in a New Era.