http://ejel.org EJEL News en © 2012, EJEL Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:39:35 +0000 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:39:35 +0000 EJEL EJEL EJEL RSS generator http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss This paper reports on the design and evaluation of a UK Universitys global eLearning MBA programme. The aims of the research were to investigate the learning experiences of the students on the course and to evaluate the effectiveness of the support syste m so as to improve the programme. The primary research method was a longitudinal semi-structured questionnaire survey, and data were collected from students taking the course during the years 2008 - 2010. Three rounds of survey were conducted, resulting i n 149 valid responses. The first round showed a fairly high level of student satisfaction with the programme, but also indicated areas that needed further improvement. The impacts of subsequent changes in the programme and the learning support system were investigated in the second and third rounds of the survey. Feedback from these has helped develop additional changes in the learning content and delivery approach of the programme. Overall, the findings helped improve the courses delivery approach, enri ched the courses content, enhanced its quality, and improved the satisfaction level of the students. It is hoped that these findings can provide useful insights to course managers and eLearning developers of other courses offered in a global context. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p1 Yongmei Bentley, Habte Selassie and Anjali Shegunshi http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p1 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 At Aalborg University (AAU) we are known to work with problem-based learning (PBL) in a particular way designated “The Aalborg PBL model”. In PBL the focus is on participant control, knowledge sharing, collaboration among participants, which makes it interesting to consider the integration of social media in the learning that takes place. In this article I would like to depart from the use of this pedagogical model, which integrates social media. The article will look at a learning design model, which could be a spring-board scaffolding teachers at AAU in their pedagogical approach to learning design when combining the PBL approach with social media or web 2.0 activities or/and technologies. With regard to the discussions about PBL, three important characteristics of PBL can be extracted; the problem, the work process, and the solution, which can be used to distinguish between various theoretical and practical constructions of PBL – regardless initially of whether it is collaborative or cooperative. The three dimensions can then be thought of as stretched between two ends of a continuum between teacher and participant control. These fundamental questions of ownership and control seem also to be more generally applicable in relation to wider debates about social media and learning. The learning design model is based on the collaborative eLearning design (CoED) method. The CoED-workshop methodology aims to support the design of targeted networked learning. The method scaffolds the design work of practitioners and has been developed and tried out in a number of different settings. Drawing on knowledge and theoretical concepts within the fields of design, systems development and collaborative learning, emphasis is on bringing focus and structure to the early stages of the design process. The method aims to develop design specifications and/or early prototypes within a few hours of starting work. In order to achieve one of the objectives of my PhD, I aim to further developing and elaborate on this method, which hopefully will lead to a pedagogical design method scaffolding teachers in their learning designs, taking into account the PBL approach and integration of social media and web 2.0 technologies. This article will be based on theoretical and methodological considerations within PBL, social media and web 2.0 technologies, together with learning designs trying to illustrate a pedagogical design model scaffolding teachers in their learning design when integrating social media and web 2.0 technologies into the PBL approach at AAU. The method has been tried out at the Faculty of Social Science, AAU during Spring 2011 and the article will present some of the preliminary findings in this. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p13 Lillian Buus http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p13 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 Our paper reports findings from a two-phase deployment of iPod Touch and iPad devices in a large, urban Canadian school board. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the infrastructure required to support handheld devices in classrooms; the opportunities and challenges teachers face as they begin to use handheld devices for teaching and learning; and the opportunities, challenges and temptations students face when gaining access to handheld devices and wireless networks in K – 12 schools. A mixed method approach was used: online survey, monthly professional development activities with teachers, collected samples of lesson plans and student work, and regular classroom observations. Phase 1 findings (exploring only the use of the iPod Touch devices) suggest participants (students, teachers, and IT support staff) preferred a range of devices for a variety of commonplace tasks. They indicated they would select the iPod Touch for recording voices / sounds, listening to podcasts, and playing games. They preferred a laptop for searching the Internet, creating media, and checking email, and they selected paper or traditional options for drawing, reading, and tracking work / maintaining an agenda. Sixty percent had never used the device prior to the project. Despite that surprising finding, 70% of respondents felt it took less than hour to become familiar with it. However, this question did not probe comfort levels with the syncing / charging, iTunes’ account management side of use, and herein lay a challenge. In order to use personal devices in school settings, the school / district needed to create a common iTUNEs account and dedicate a computer to sync, share, and organize applications (apps), content, and system settings. This common account formed a “digital commons” of sorts; a place where participants had to negotiate what apps to share and permissions and access protocols. Participation in the commons required an ongoing exploration of what digital citizenship meant in classrooms and how this impacted teacher’s work, parental responsibility and changes in disciplinary approaches for administrators. Year 1 of Phase 1 yielded a wealth of data. Specifically, the iPod Touch devices were well received and well used by the majority of participants in the elementary and junior high settings. The high school students and teachers were more critical, as both appeared to struggle to find educational uses for the devices. Further, high school students initially appeared to “resent” the intrusion of school issued personal devices. Phase 2 continued to work with the Phase 1 participants and added the deployment of the iPad devices in three additional schools. Probably the most interesting finding was the lack of familiarity of these devices by all the participants. We anticipated many would have owned similar devices and be proficient in their use – this was not the case. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p23 Susan Crichton, Karen Pegler and Duncan White http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p23 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 This study explores the effect of the artistic pedagogical technology (APT) called photovoice (PV) on interaction in the online post-secondary classroom. More specifically, this paper focuses on students’ perspectives regarding the effect of PV on student to student and student to instructor interactions in online courses. Artistic pedagogical technologies are teaching strategies based on the arts (Perry & Edwards. 2010). APTs use music, poetry, drama, photography, crafts or other visual media as the basis of teaching activities. Photovoice is the purposeful use of selected visual images and affiliated refection questions as an online teaching strategy. Social Development Theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and Janzen’s Quantum Perspective of Learning (Janzen, Perry & Edwards, 2011) provide the theoretical basis of the study. The convenience sample included 15 graduate students from the Faculty of Health Disciplines at an online university. Participants completed a 4 month master’s course in which PV was used. Data were collected after final course grades were official. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire based on an adaptation (with permission) of Rovai’s (2002) Classroom Cohesion Scale (CSS) and Richardson and Swan’s (2003) Social Presence Scale (SPS). A follow-up focus group with 6 of the original 15 participants was held. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. This paper focuses on findings from the quantitative data with supportive qualitative comments. Data analysis of the quantitative data takes the form of descriptive statistics. Data analysis of the qualitative data used NVivo software. In sum, the majority of respondents did find that PV had a positive influence on course interactions, but also on their sense of community, comfort in the educational milieu, and on how well they got to know themselves, other learners, and the instructor. Questions for further research are posed. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p32 Margaret Edwards, Beth Perry, Katherine Janzen, and Cynthia Menzies http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p32 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 In recent years, user stories have emerged in academia, as well as industry, as a notable approach for expressing user requirements of interactive software systems that are developed using agile methodologies. There are social aspects inherent to software development, in general, and user stories, in particular. This paper presents directions and means for incorporating the Social Web environment in user story education. In doing so, it proposes a methodology, SW4USE, for such integration. SW4USE consists of a user story process model, USPM, and Social Web technologies/applications that can contribute to the execution of the steps of USPM. A collection of scenarios of use, for both teachers in their classroom lectures and students in their team-based course projects, are presented, and potential learning outcomes are given. The ephemeral and essential challenges in the realization of SW4USE, particularly those related to quality, are highlighted. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p44 Terrill Fancott, Pankaj Kamthan and Nazlie Shahmir http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p44 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 This paper describes the design, implementation, evaluation and further refinement of an ELGG-based social networking site to support professional development activity, project group and special interest groups, and the discussion and sharing of educational experiences and resources across Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom. Beginning with a short overview of what online institutional communities might offer in sustaining good learning, teaching and assessment practice in-house, this paper then describes the rationale for and development of Edinburgh Napier Education Exchange (ENEE). The subsequent evaluation undertaken employed a mixed method approach involving online questionnaires and individual interviews with users of ENEE, and took place between January and April 2011. The evaluation had a twin focus on use and perceptions of ENEE in general, and how ENEE was beginning to be used to provide additional support opportunities for a diverse group of educators studying on Edinburgh Napier’s online distance learning MSc Blended and Online Education (MSc BOE). Overall the evaluation highlighted a range of ways in which ENEE was proving effective particularly in helping users to ‘keep abreast’ of educational practice across the institution, as well as in supporting small groups dedicated to specific purposes and activities. On the less positive side, the evaluation highlighted a number of issues and challenges around ease of use, engaging in ‘multiple spaces’, and achieving ‘critical mass’ in meaningful use. These findings pointed towards a number of enhancements that were implemented over summer and autumn 2011, and the nature of these recent post-evaluation changes to ENEE and the MSc BOE group space are detailed in this paper. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p60 Colin Gray and Keith Smyth http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p60 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 A mobile learning research project was conducted in Trinidad and Tobago to determine if mobile learning can assist high school students in learning mathematics. Several innovative techniques were used in this research to address the problem of high failur http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p76 Vani Kalloo and Permanand Mohan http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p76 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 This paper reports the progress of a pilot project exploring the integration of a collaborative virtual learning environment (Second Life) with the instruction of English courses at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. An educational partnership was developed with two TESOL teacher-training courses at Texas A&M University in the US. The project enrolled over 200 participants, with about half from each participating university. Coordination of online activities was done using the Moodle learning management system. A large non-traditional language learning facility was developed in the Second Life virtual environment in the style of a 1950's American diner on a private island, complete with Cadillac booths, traditional diner booths and tables, and outdoor campfire settings to facilitate conversational groupings. Both IM typed chat and VOIP voice interactions were explored inside the virtual environment. Student behavior observed during the study indicates the conditions which result in the most productive interactions, and also highlights several key problem areas which must be addressed before successful interactions can be achieved. This paper presents a process which has been developed and trialed, and the plans at Lingnan University to adopt it on a wider scale to support the development of language skills. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p90 Brant Knutzen and David Kennedy http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p90 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 As the demand for online learning environments grow in higher education, so does the need for systematic application of learning and educational theory to the design, development and delivery of assessment strategies within these environments. However, there is little guidance in the form of principled design frameworks that can assist the design practitioner in the development of online assessment strategies. From four cases, we have identified six design principles that represent the collective experience of our team of design practitioners in creating assessment strategies for online teaching and learning environments; (a) technology affordances, (b) alignment of objectives with assessment, (c) discipline-specific practices and approaches, (d) meaningful and timely feedback, (e) authenticity and transferability and (f) transparency of assessment criteria. We present in-situ qualitative case studies that articulate how these principles have informed our design practice in online assessment strategy development. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p107 Janet McCracken, Sunah Cho, Afsaneh Sharif, Brian Wilson and Jeff Miller http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p107 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 In teaching software engineering, it is often interesting to introduce real life scenarios for students to experience and to learn how to collect information from respective clients. The ideal arrangement is to have some real clients willing to spend time to provide their ideas of a target system through interviews. However, this arrangement cannot be scaled up as it demands too much resource. Starting from 2008, we have used Second Life (SL) to create a virtual company, named SVG Corporation, which has multiple departments so as to simulate the real-world business environment. The development of this fictitious company not only provides a new experience in requirement collection to students, but also lowers the working effort of our colleagues in acting as external business clients. Students can practice their communication and fact finding skills during visits in the departments and interviews with the virtual “staff”. The company has been used to support 2 subjects, Human Computer Interface and Foundations of Database Systems. The presence of SL acts as an online platform for students to access and acquire user requirements from staff (AI robots) of a virtual company, through a series of interviews, for system development. The roles of SL are twofold: to reduce the operational overheads in the project administration and to allow students to gain more hands-on experiences through working on a simulated real-life business cases. Hence, student could learn how to apply their knowledge and understand the software development process in the real business world. In this paper, we would like to report our experience and results of using SL in the software engineering student projects. Furthermore, the problems and the difficulties encountered during project period will be discussed for future enhancement. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p120 Vincent Ng and Zoe Tang http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p120 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 The essentialist view that new technological innovations (especially Social Media) disrupt higher education delivery ride on educators’ risk averse attitudes toward full scale adoption of unproven technologies. However, this unsubstantiated logic forecloses possibilities for embracing the constructive dimensions of disruptions, and grasping the tremendous academic potential of emerging technologies. Community of inquiry and virtual ethnography were adopted as theoretical and methodological lenses for exploring the productive pedagogical impacts of appropriating Social Media in an Information Systems course at a South African University. Lecturer-student and peer-based postings on Facebook were examined to understand the influence of Facebook adoption on student meaningful learning and pedagogical delivery. The findings suggest that Facebook constituted a collective “Third space” for student enactment of counter scripts, augmented traditional academic networking, fostered “safe” havens for student democratic expression, and afforded learning communities for student co-construction of knowledge. Shortfalls identified include challenges of developing quality academic discussions and fostering student engagement at epistemological and conceptual levels to ensure deep learning. The study recommends a multi-pronged strategy that foregrounds contingent relaxation of academic authority, on-task student behavior, strategic alignment of powerful collaborative technologies with pedagogical designs, and learning needs and styles of students. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p132 Patient Rambe http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p132 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000 Essays are a traditional component of the course requirements in many post-secondary courses. However, the practical and pedagogical disadvantages of essays are significant. These include the increasing ease with which essays can be plagiarized, the lack of peer involvement in the traditional essay submission and feedback process, the usual lack of meaningful instructor-student intellectual discourse in the essay development and feedback process, and the inability to include hyperlinks and non-text media in essays submitted on paper. It is suggested that as instructors make the transition from traditional to blended/online instruction, they consider jettisoning the traditional essay requirement and replace it with some form of “assignment essay/peer review” system such as the one described. Contemporary Learning Management Systems facilitate peer review and peer assessment approaches in ways that were not available in traditional offline education. This paper describes and discusses an online assignment system utilizing peer commentaries that addresses many of the shortcomings of these traditional essay requirement. The system is modeled after peer commentary academic journals such as Behavioral and Brain Sciences and Current Anthropology. This system has successfully been used as a substitute for the traditional essay requirement in a number of third year psychology course sections platformed on both Moodle and Blackboard. The advantages, challenges and practicalities of instituting, managing and grading such peer-reviewed assignments are outlined, and the benefits of the system in terms of student engagement, intellectual modeling, and learning community enhancement are discussed. The peer reviewed assignment system is discussed in the context of recent research indicating some advantages of blended learning approaches compared to traditional approaches. Criticisms of peer feedback approaches are examined, and instructors are encouraged to provide students with detailed instructions and criteria regarding the peer review process. It is hoped that the discussion will be particularly useful to instructors who are in the process of moving from traditional face-to-face course context to the blended/online education environment. http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p147 Martin Smith http://www.ejel.org/volume10/issue1/p147 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:01:01 +0000