The Proceedings of
International e-Learning Conference 2011 (IEC2011) “Empowering Human Capital Through Online Learning Technology”
January 13-14, 2011 IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani, Thailand
CONTENT Page
1. Conference Overview
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2. Conference Program
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3. Paper Abstracts (Keynote Speakers) Inventing the Future Through Digital Agenda and Other European Flagship Initiatives Mr. Markku Markkula
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The Future of e-Learning? Directions Professor Dr. Denise Kirkpatrick
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Human Capital in e-Economy: GTS-IC Model Professor Dr. Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
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Student Engagement in a Co-Sourced Learning Environment Ms. Joanne Kossuth
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Smart Innovation in Education and Learning Professor Dr. Dae Joon Hwang
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4. Paper Abstracts (Invited Speakers) Determinants of the Intentions to Use e-Learning: Some Research Evidence and an Initial Study Associate Professor Dr. Timothy Teo
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Mobility, Multimedia and Multitasking: The 3Ms of Mobile Technology in Education Assistant Professor Dr. Daniel Churchill
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The Evolution of Educational Technology in California: MERLOT to Desire 2 Learn Professor Dr. Howard Combs
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The Framework of Qualitative Evaluation in Online HRD of In-service Teachers Professor Dr. Yoshida Massami
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The e-Learning Support for Hong Kong CyberU Mr. David Chiu
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Discovering an Effective e-Learning Process Mr. Stephen Pinder
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5. Full Paper (Paper Presentation) Mobility and e-Learning Delivery Methods: Perspectives from Higher Education of Thailand (A1_1) Vorasuang Duangchinda YoungHwan Kim Kittima Mekhabunchakij
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The Role of Learner Characteristics in the Intention to Use e-Learning Technologies and in the Effective Use of the System (A1_2) Emna Ben Romdhane
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The Comparison of Student Expectations on e-Learning Courseware and Face-to-Face instruction in Fundamental Physics (A1_3) Phisit Suvarnaphaet
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Behavioral Aspects of Thai Students Toward Cell Phone Adoption in the Classroom (B1_1) Willard G. Van De Bogart
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Learning Management System Implementation Strategy and Student’s English Communication Enhancement: A Case Study of Mae Fah Luang University (B1_2) Songsan Udomsilp
85
Tuning Creativity Through eCartooning: A Successful Blended Learning Process (B1_3) Poonsri Vate-U-Lan
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eTutoring: e-Learning Essential for Academic Success Strategies (C1_1) Liticia J. Salter Victoria P. Krawczynski
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Social Capital and Student’s Online Learning Life (C1_2) Taweesak Sangkapreecha Pataraporn Sangkapreecha
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Open and Distance Education & e-Learning: A Strategy for Dynamics and Promotion of Higher Education (C1_3) Hassan Bassak
107
Empowering Teachers to Meet the Digital Native Learners (D1_1) Hanna Teräs Marjatta Myllylä Marko Teräs
113
Future Foreign Language Teachers and the Online Tools They Use to Learn about Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures (D1_2) Erdoğan Kartal Arda Arikan
119
Investigating Students’ Cognitive Engagement in e-Learning (D1_3) Nurbiha A. Shukor Jamalludin Harun Zaidatun Tasir
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The Challenge of Four-Status Model of e-Learning: Principles Toward a New Understanding for Healthcare Professionals (E1_1) Niruwan Turnbull Gary B. Wills Mary G. Gobbi
131
Redesign of the Knowledgebase Enhancing e-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction Using Best Practices (E1_2) Maturos Chongchaikit
137
Experience of e-Learning in Pakistan: Perceptions and Suggestions of Graduate Students (E1_3) Asaf Niwaz
143
Random Number Generation in Microsoft Excel for Enhancing the Teaching of Quantitative Research within an e-Learning Context (F1_1) Arthur Dryver Wasita Boonsathorn
151
A Development of Conceptual Framework for Blended Problem-Based Learning Model to Develop Students’ Ethics (F1_2) Saifon Sekkhunthod
155
Money Game for Tween Girls: A Game-Based Design to Support Financial Learning (A2_1) Wilawan Inchamnan
163
Accommodating User Preferences in Designing Computer Based Learning Interfaces (A2_2) Rana Al-Hajri Ahmed AL-Hunaiyyan
169
Specifications of an Intelligent Mediating Model for Collaborative e-Learning Courseware Systems (A2_3) Akanbi Caleb Olufisoye Adagunodo Rotimi Emmanuel
175
A Competitive Study towards Teaching Geography Based Technology among Educators (B2_1) Hamizul Hamid Merza Abbas
183
The Comparative Study of Learning Achievement in Thai Language between Hearing Impaired and Normal Students: Case Study of Thugmahamek School of the Deaf (B2_2) Nuttaya Iam-Khong Surachai Suksakulchai Wirat Poolek Juthamard Plubsawat
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Development of Success Indicators of e-Learning System for Higher Education Institutions in Thailand (B2_3) Kanokphon Chantanarungpak Jaitip Na Songkla
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The Development of Web-Based Instruction for Students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University (C2_1) Chanchai Yomdit Prachyanun Nilsook
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Development Research-Based Learning by Blogs in Graduate Students (C2_2) Jeuajan Wattakiecharoen
207
A Development of Blended Learning Model Using Research-Based Learning to Encourage the Scientific Mind for Undergraduate Students (C2_3) Narumon Rodniam Rujroad Kaewurai Wareerat Kaewurai
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Online Test System for Japanese Particles (D2_1) Soysuda Na Ranong
221
e-Learning in an EFL Academic Writing Class: An Online Forum Example (D2_2) Aranya Srijongjai
227
Design and Development of Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment to Enhance Analytical Thinking for Computer Education Learners (D2_3) Charuni Samat
231
States and e-Learning: The Problem of Using and Abusing VLE (E2_1) Seyed Reza Eftekhari
237
The Role of Internet and Satellite Channels in Cultural and Political Changes in Developing Countries: A Review of Research Findings (E2_2) Mohammad Rahim Eivazi
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The Role of the Confidence in Developing the Distance Education for Religious Courses in Iran (E2_3) Reza Mohebbi Majd Parviz Salmani
251
e-Learning in Nigerian Higher Education: The Perceived Role of Academic Libraries (F2_1) Bappah Magaji Abubakar
255
A Bibliometrics Study on e-Learning Literature of Nigeria (F2_2) Yahya Ibrahim Harande
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Political Benefits and Inconveniences of Electronic Government (F2_3) Yahya Fozi
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CONFERENCE OVERVIEW TITLE - International e-Learning Conference 2011 SHORT TITLE - IEC2011 ORGARNIZERS - Thailand Cyber University Project, Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education (Thailand) DATE - January 13-14, 2011 VENUE - Convention Center, Hall 9, IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani, Thailand CONFERENCE WEBSITE - http://www.thaicyberu.go.th/iec2011 PARTICIPANTS: - e-Learning decision makers, Government departments/agencies, Higher education institutions, Schools and Businesses in the e-Learning industry, Researchers, Students, and all who are interested in the topics from Thailand and overseas
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CONFERENCE INFORMATION The Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU), Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education (Thailand) has an aim to promote e-Learning by cooperating with national and international educational institutes. The TCU, recognizing the importance of e-Learning knowledge management to create comprehensive knowledge for educational personnel, has organized the International e-Learning Conference 2011 (IEC2011): “Empowering Human Capital Through Online Learning Technology”. The conference objective is to assemble knowledge on every aspect of e-Learning from Thai and international experts. Conference topics will include the quality and standard of learning management and evaluation, effective utilization and implementation of new technologies, understanding of new generation learners’ behavior, and cost-effective and sustainable learning management. The TCU will accumulate knowledge from the conference and produce the knowledge asset to be a reference for educators, researchers, faculty and students. AIMS 1. To be a stage for exchanging knowledge, innovative practices and experiences on e-Learning among Thai and international educators, researchers, faculty, and students. 2. To assemble knowledge on every aspect of e-Learning from Thai and international educators, researchers, and faculty and to create the e-Learning knowledge asset. 3. To expand e-Learning knowledge to educators, researchers, faculty, and students via website, journal, publication, etc. THEME Empowering Human Capital Through Online Learning Technology
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CONFERENCE PROGRAM Day 1: January 13, 2011 Main Session Venue: Grand Diamond Ballroom MC: Dr. Ra-shane Meesri Chulalongkorn University, Thailand 8.00 - 9.00
Registration
9.00 - 9.15
Welcome Address Dr. Sumate Yamnoon Secretary General, Office of the Higher Education Commission, Thailand
9.00 - 9.30
Opening Address Mr. Chaiyos Chirametakorn Deputy Minister of Education, Thailand
9.30 - 10.20
Keynote Speaker 1 Inventing the Future Through Digital Agenda and Other European Flagship Initiatives Mr. Markku Markkula EU Committee of the Regions & Aalto University, Finland
10.20 - 10.50
Refreshment break
10.50 - 11.30
Keynote Speaker 2 The Future of e-Learning? Directions Professor Dr. Denise Kirkpatrick The Open University, United Kingdom
11.30 - 12.20
Keynote Speaker 3 2 Human Capital in e-Economy: GTS-IC Model Professor Dr. Carol Yeh-Yun Lin National Chengchi University, Taiwan
12.20 - 13.30 Â
Lunch
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Day 1: Breakout Sessions Session A1: Paper presentation 1 Venue: Sapphire Room 1 Chairperson: Dr. Charuwan Kritpracha Prince of Songkla University, Thailand 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 1 Determinants of the Intentions to Use e-Learning: Some Research Evidence and an Initial Study Associate Professor Dr. Timothy Teo Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
14.30 - 15.00
Mobility and e-Learning Delivery Methods: Perspectives from Higher Education of Thailand Vorasuang Duangchinda Sripatum University, Thailand YoungHwan Kim Pusan National University, Republic of Korea Kittima Mekhabunchakij Sripatum University, Thailand
A1_1
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
The Role of Learner Characteristics in the Intention to Use e-Learning Technologies and in the Effective Use of the System Emna Ben Romdhane Business School of Tunis, Tunisia
A1_2
The Comparison of Student Expectations on e-Learning Courseware and Face-to-Face instruction in Fundamental Physics Phisit Suvarnaphaet Silpakorn University, Thailand
A1_3
16.00 - 16.30
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Session B1: Paper presentation 2 Venue: Sapphire Room 2 Chairperson: Assistant Professor Dr. Nattaya Keowmookdar Kasetsart University, Thailand 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 2 Mobility, Multimedia and Multitasking: The 3Ms of Mobile Technology in Education Assistant Professor Dr. Daniel Churchill The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
14.30 - 15.00
Behavioral Aspects of Thai Students Toward Cell Phone Adoption in the Classroom Willard G. Van De Bogart Bangkok University, Thailand
B1_1
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
Learning Management System Implementation Strategy and Student’s English Communication Enhancement: A Case Study of Mae Fah Luang University Songsan Udomsilp Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand
B1_2
Tuning Creativity Through eCartooning: A Successful Blended Learning Process Poonsri Vate-U-Lan Assumption University of Thailand, Thailand
B1_3
16.00 - 16.30
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Session C1: Paper presentation 3 Venue: Sapphire Room 3 Chairperson: Dr. Sukanya Nimanandh Chiangmai University, Thailand 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 3 The Evolution of Educational Technology in California: MERLOT to Desire 2 Learn Professor Dr. Howard Combs San Jose State University, United States
14.30 - 15.00
eTutoring: e-Learning Essential for Academic Success Strategies Liticia J. Salter Office of Academic Supplemental Instruction Services (The OASIS), Texas A&M University at Qatar, Qatar Victoria P. Krawczynski New Mexico State University, United States
C1_1
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
Social Capital and Student’s Online Learning Life Taweesak Sangkapreecha Pataraporn Sangkapreecha Bangkok University, Thailand
C1_2
Open and Distance Education & e-Learning: A Strategy for Dynamics and Promotion of Higher Education Hassan Bassak Payame Noor University, Iran
C1_3
16.00 - 16.30
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Session D1: Paper presentation 4 Venue: Sapphire Room 4 Chairperson: Assistant Professor Dr. Jintavee Khlaisang Chulalongkorn University, Thailand 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 4 The Framework of Qualitative Evaluation in Online HRD of In-service Teachers Professor Dr. Yoshida Massami Chiba University, Japan
14.30 - 15.00
Empowering Teachers to Meet the Digital Native Learners Hanna Teräs Marjatta Myllylä Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland Marko Teräs Digital_Alpaca, Finland D1_1
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
Future Foreign Language Teachers and the Online Tools They Use to Learn about Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures Erdoğan Kartal Uludağ University, Turkey Arda Arikan Children Research Center, Turkey
D1_2
Investigating Students’ Cognitive Engagement in e-Learning Nurbiha A. Shukor Jamalludin Harun Zaidatun Tasir Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia
D1_3
16.00 - 16.30
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Session E1: Paper presentation 5 Venue: Sapphire Room 5 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 5 The e-Learning Support for Hong Kong CyberU Mr. David Chiu The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
14.30 - 15.00
The Challenge of Four-Status Model of e-Learning: Principles Toward a New Understanding for Healthcare Professionals Niruwan Turnbull Gary B. Wills Mary G. Gobbi University of Southampton, United Kingdom
E1_1
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
Redesign of the Knowledgebase Enhancing e-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction Using Best Practices Maturos Chongchaikit Kasetsart University, Thailand
E1_2
Experience of e-Learning in Pakistan: Perceptions and Suggestions of Graduate Students Asaf Niwaz International Islamic University, Pakistan
E1_3
16.00 - 16.30
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Session F1: Paper presentation 6 Venue: Sapphire Room 6 13.30 -14.30
Invited Speaker 6 Discovering an Effective e-Learning Process Mr. Stephen Pinder Go-International Continuing Education Center (CEC), Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
14.30 - 15.00
Random Number Generation in Microsoft Excel for Enhancing the Teaching of Quantitative Research within an e-Learning Context Arthur Dryver Wasita Boonsathorn National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Thailand
15.00 - 15.30
Refreshment Break
15.30 - 16.00
A Development of Conceptual Framework for Blended Problem-Based Learning Model to Develop Students’ Ethics Saifon Sekkhunthod Rajanagarindra Rajabhat University, Thailand
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F1_1
F1_2
Day 2: January 14, 2011 Main Session Venue: Grand Diamond Ballroom MC: Dr. Ra-shane Meesri Chulalongkorn University, Thailand 8.00 - 9.30
Registration
9.30 - 10.20
Keynote Speaker 4 Student Engagement in a Co-Sourced Learning Environment Ms. Joanne Kossuth Olin College of Engineering United States
10.20 -10.50
Refreshment break
10.50 - 11.30
Keynote Speaker 5 Smart Innovation in Education and Learning Professor Dr. Dae Joon Hwang Sungkyunkwan University Republic of Korea
11.30 - 12.20
Keynote Speaker 6 Students, Our Customers, Do You Really Know Them? Mr. Lucifer Chu The Foundation of Fantasy Culture and Art Taiwan
12.20 - 13.30 Â
Lunch
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Day 2: Breakout Sessions Session A2: Paper presentation 1 Venue: Sapphire Room 1 Chairperson: Professor Dr. Howard Combs San Jose State University, United States 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
Money Game for Tween Girls: A Game-Based Design to Support Financial Learning Wilawan Inchamnan Queensland University of Technology, Australia
A2_1
Accommodating User Preferences in Designing Computer Based Learning Interfaces Rana Al-Hajri Higher Institute of Telecom and Navigation, PAAET, Kuwait Ahmed AL-Hunaiyyan College of Business Studies, PAAET, Kuwait
A2_2
Specifications of an Intelligent Mediating Model for Collaborative e-Learning Courseware Systems Akanbi Caleb Olufisoye Osun State University, Nigeria Adagunodo Rotimi Emmanuel Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
A2_3
Refreshment Break
11
Session B2: Paper presentation 2 Venue: Sapphire Room 2 Chairperson: Professor Dr. Yoshida Massami Chiba University, Japan 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
A Competitive Study towards Teaching Geography Based Technology among Educators Hamizul Hamid Merza Abbas Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
B2_1
The Comparative Study of Learning Achievement in Thai Language between Hearing Impaired and Normal Students: Case Study of Thugmahamek School of the Deaf Nuttaya Iam-Khong Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University Under The Royal Patronage, Thailand Surachai Suksakulchai King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thailand Wirat Poolek Juthamard Plubsawat Thugmahamek School of the Deaf, Thailand
B2_2
Development of Success Indicators of e-Learning System for Higher Education Institutions in Thailand Kanokphon Chantanarungpak Jaitip Na Songkla Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
B2_3
Refreshment Break
12
Session C2: Paper presentation 3 Venue: Sapphire Room 3 Chairperson: Associate Professor Dr. Timothy Teo Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
The Development of Web-Based Instruction for Students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University Chanchai Yomdit Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University, Thailand Prachyanun Nilsook King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand
C2_1
Development Research-Based Learning by Blogs in Graduate Students Jeuajan Wattakiecharoen Christian University, Thailand
C2_2
A Development of Blended Learning Model Using Research-Based Learning to Encourage the Scientific Mind for Undergraduate Students Narumon Rodniam Rujroad Kaewurai Wareerat Kaewurai Naraesuan University, Thailand
C2_3
Refreshment Break
13
Session D2: Paper presentation 4 Venue: Sapphire Room 4 Chairperson: Associate Professor Dr. Maturos Chongchaikit Kasetsart University, Thailand 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
Online Test System for Japanese Particles Soysuda Na Ranong Kasetsart University, Thailand
D2_1
e-Learning in an EFL Academic Writing Class: An Online Forum Example Aranya Srijongjai Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand
D2_2
Design and Development of Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment to Enhance Analytical Thinking for Computer Education Learners Charuni Samat Khonkaen University, Thailand
D2_3
Refreshment Break
14
Session E2: Paper presentation 5 Venue: Sapphire Room 5 Chairperson: Associate Professor Wisa Chattiwat Silpakorn University, Thailand 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
States and e-Learning: The Problem of Using and Abusing VLE Seyed Reza Eftekhari Islamic Azad University – Gonabad Branch, Iran
E2_1
The Role of Internet and Satellite Channels in Cultural and Political Changes in Developing Countries: A Review of Research Findings Mohammad Rahim Eivazi Imam Khomeini International University, Iran
E2_2
The Role of the Confidence in Developing the Distance Education for Religious Courses in Iran Reza Mohebbi Majd Payame Noor University, Iran Parviz Salmani Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation, Iran
E2_3
Refreshment Break
15
Session F2: Paper presentation 6 Venue: Sapphire Room 6 13.30 -14.00
14.00 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00
e-Learning in Nigerian Higher Education: The Perceived Role of Academic Libraries Bappah Magaji Abubakar Bayero University, Nigeria
F2_1
A Bibliometrics Study on e-Learning Literature of Nigeria Yahya Ibrahim Harande Bayero University, Nigeria
F2_2
Political Benefits and Inconveniences of Electronic Government Yahya Fozi Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
F2_3
Refreshment Break
16
IEC2010 PAPER ABSTRACTS Keynote Speakers
Inventing the Future Through Digital Agenda and Other European Flagship Initiatives Markku Markkula Member of the EU Committee of the Regions Aalto University, Finland markku.markkula@aalto.fi
The abstract describes the general frame for my presentation. Through powerpoints and oral presentation I will integrate this frame to some recent studies and practical ongoing implementation processes both on European and regional level. Digitalization and globalization have changed business processes rapidly. Now also public sector is facing the same need for rapid change. Traditional incremental changes are not enough anymore. The quality of society is largely determined by its capacity to generate genuine learning and working together and to produce new visionary knowledge. ICT is having far-reaching impacts on economic performance and the success of individual companies and other organizations, when it is combined with investment in competence development, organizational processes, innovation and new business creation. This means that our societies impose entirely new requirements on learning, work methods, work cultures, information validity, media literacy, etc. The presentation will review the conference theme by integrating three approaches: 1. EU 2020 Strategy, especially Digital Agenda for Europe and other flagship initiatives 2. Lifelong learning & e-learning 3. Strengthening e-skills for innovation The presentation will include a short review of some of the core guidelines of Europe 2020 Strategy creating the way towards: Growth based on knowledge and innovation, an inclusive high employment society, and greener growth, see www.ec.europa.eu/europe2020. The following seven flagship initiatives will have a major role in the implementation of the EU 2020 Strategy: 1. "Innovation Union" to improve framework conditions and access to finance for research and innovation so as to ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that create growth and jobs. 2. "Youth on the move" to enhance the performance of education systems and to facilitate the entry of young people to the labour market. 3. "A digital agenda for Europe" to speed up the roll-out of high-speed internet and reap the benefits of a digital single market for households and firms. 4. "Resource efficient Europe" to help decouple economic growth from the use of resources, support the shift towards a low carbon economy, increase the use of renewable energy sources, modernise the transport sector and promote energy efficiency. 5. "An industrial policy for the globalisation era" to improve the business environment, notably for SMEs, and to support the development of a strong and sustainable industrial base able to compete globally. 6. "An agenda for new skills and jobs" to modernise labour markets and empower people by developing their of skills throughout the lifecycle with a view to increase 19
labour participation and better match labour supply and demand, including through labour mobility. 7. "European platform against poverty" to ensure social and territorial cohesion such that the benefits of growth and jobs are widely shared and people experiencing poverty and social exclusion are enabled to live in dignity and take an active part in society. The target of Digital Agenda for Europe DAE is to create a flourishing digital economy by 2020. The planned actions of DAE are divided into the following seven pillars: - Digital Single Market, - Interoperability and Standards, - Trust and Security, - Very Fast Internet, - Research &Innovation, - Enhancing e-skills, - ICT for Social Challenges. The presentation will review the content and impact of DAE. Main goals of DAE include promoting accessibility and usability of public information and eServices. DAE should be the driver for full integration of ICT in education and training. Digital literacy, e-skills and ecompetencies require specific activities and effective learning settings for all. It is extremely important to stress that the implementation of the DAE cannot be separated from the development of lifelong learning and human capital and the measures needed to promote them. The key to success is how well and how widely across the EU work communities and the general public, i.e. individuals and different communities, can be encouraged to play an active role in creating a substantially more innovative and productive Europe. To implement DAE the European Commission envisages working for the reform of the research and innovation funds and the increase of support in the field of ICTs. Other actions involve the development of an efficient spectrum policy, the facilitation of the use of the EU's structural funds, the promotion of internet access and the provision of a stable legal framework that stimulates investments in an open and competitive high speed internet infrastructure. According to the Committee of the Regions implementing DAE requires a major Europe-wide change in mental attitude: willingness to work in a horizontal and multidisciplinary fashion, overcoming traditional boundaries, breaking silos and a mindset change towards collaboration. New generation innovation activities are more complex and international than before. The next wave of innovation activities will find its key challenges in societal innovations. Narrowly focused product- and technology-driven innovation has transformed into practical conceptualization of innovative processes, including new kind of services needed to reach the desired level. At the same time, the shift requires and also offers new prerequisites for leadership of innovation. New-generation innovations cannot anymore be based on the principle “go global�; instead they must be created within the international arenas, in the very collaborative global networks and global communities. To meet the requirements of the grand societal challenges the role of universities is crucial. The presentation will highlight some of the new developments by Aalto University as the forerunner of European university reform, especially Aalto Camp for Societal Innovation, see www.acsi.aalto.fi.
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The ongoing transformation of the education system means changes, even radical ones. It is no longer the role of school and university to provide a vast amount of information. Rather, the essence of education is learning to learn, i.e. helping people to improve their learning skills, thus enabling them to acquire and process information themselves. These challenges emphasize the importance of universities as producers of new knowledge and expertise. As academic institutions have learned to define and comprehend their third mission, many universities have repositioned themselves to better interact with and serve the surrounding society and to learn from the interactions. Scientific breakthroughs and innovations are ever more frequently results of multidisciplinary research cooperation, with one field of science studying and feeding the borders of another one. Multidisciplinary approaches are also reflecting in teaching to change both the mindset and practices to a learner-centric education system. The presentation will also highlight some of the major findings of the INSEAD eLab project focusing on European e-competence curricula development guidelines. The project was carried out in 2009-2010 on behalf of the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry.
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The Future of e-Learning? Directions Professor Denise Kirkpatrick, PhD. Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Quality The Open University, United Kingdom pvc-ltq@open.ac.uk
In this presentation I will identify those developments associated with e-learning that set new directions, create new possibilities and give every indication that they will make a difference. I will offer a snapshot of those technologies that appear most likely to be influential in the development of e-learning. The Horizon Report (2010) identified the following as most influential technologies: mobile computing; e-books and Open Education Resources; and these drivers of technology adoption: the changing role of Higher Education; learning wherever and whenever; the growth of the cloud and collaboration in learning. Gartner identifies similar top strategic technologies for 2010. We have seen a rapid explosion in these technologies and their application, associated with the rise of the internet, social networking, mobile applications and connectivity and the cloud. These technologies have already changed our language, our lives and our expectations. I will provide examples of the ways in which these are being used in university learning and teaching.
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Human Capital in e-Economy: GTS-IC2 Model Carol Yeh-Yun Lin, PhD Professor, Dept. of Business Administration National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan yehyunln@nccu.edu.tw
In an era when intangible assets become the source of competitiveness, national intellectual capital particularly human capital should be effectively and efficiently developed. In the past decade, information technology has been advanced to an extent that the world has become a global village with the form of e-economy. In other words, the technology or hard power is largely in place. What left to be enhanced is the value realization or soft power through human capital. With a longitudinal study of 14 years (1995-2008) covering 40 countries, this author has found several interesting phenomena that provide policy implications. For example, national intellectual capital and human capital are highly correlated with GDP per capita (ppp) for the 40 countries as a whole. Taking Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand as samples, number of computer (hard power) per 1000 people is highly correlated with national intellectual capital and GDP per capita (ppp); yet, number of internet users (soft power) per 1000 people is not that highly correlated with the above two indicators. That is, the transfer of soft power to national intellectual capital and GDP per capita (ppp) has room for improvement. These messages open an avenue for educators’ contemplation. Consequently, this author would like to propose the “GTS-IC2 Model” for enhancing human capital in the e-economy. GTS means Government, Teachers, and Students; the first IC means Innovative Collaboration and the second IC means Intellectual Capital. Government, teachers, and students are the three key elements for successful e-learning. Government should be the resources provider and performance evaluator; teachers are the contents providers and the transmitters, who need to work together with various kinds of specialists; and students need to have learning motivation, show learning performance, at the same with the attitude of appreciation. To achieve better learning performance, these three actors should collaborate with each other innovatively under today’s vibrant environment. With successful collaboration of GTS, the end result should be intellectual capital. In my coming speech, I will use some animated graphs to show how human capital and national intellectual correlated with GDP per capita (ppp) over the 14 years and the development patterns of some Asian countries. Keywords: e-economy, GDP per capita (ppp), human capital, intellectual capital
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Student Engagement in a Co-Sourced Learning Environment Joanne Kossuth, MS Vice President for Operations and Chief Information Officer Olin College of Engineering, United States Joanne.kossuth@olin.edu
This presentation addresses the topic of student engagement in a co-sourced learning environment. The first section addresses the issue of student engagement as it is currently defined and assessed through the NSSE surveys. It then seeks to define additional engagement strategies that are relevant within the academic environment. The next section addresses learning environments and types and the impact of these on student engagement. This is followed by a high level review of creative student behavior, technology use, content and tools. The author will present an example case of a future student learning environment that is personally defined, flexible, integrative and relevant. Finally, the author will ask the audience to help define the role of educators in this new paradigm and the adaptations that are needed to maintain relevancy in education. Keywords: Engagement, Learning, co-Sourced, Learning Environment, Assessment, Technology
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Smart Innovation in Education and Learning Dae Joon Hwang, Ph.D. Professor, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea djhwang@skku.edu
This seems exactly right time for us to remind smart use of technologies in education and learning in respect of outcomes and changes affected students, teachers, academic staffs, as well as education institutions. Smart innovation gets its recognition as a new paradigm focusing on life quality enhancement. In order that there are growing discussions and demands for what type of smart innovation contributes to education & learning and how it has been successfully achieved. The issues of substance in one’s interests are technological perspectives of ubiquitous devices: accessibility, portability, and One Source Multi Platforms. The impacts of smart technologies are not necessarily restricted to environmental renovation, but the one in human factors and institutions. In succession, flexible grained learning platform is introduced challenge divergence of learning platforms and cloud computing. Keywords: Smart education/learning, smart innovation, ubiquitous devices, e-Learning, mLearning, u-Learning, OER
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IEC2010 PAPER ABSTRACTS Invited Speakers
Determinants of the Intentions to Use e-Learning: Some Research Evidence and an Initial Study Timothy Teo, Ph.D. Associate Professor National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore timothy.teo@nie.edu.sg
Technology acceptance is defined as a user’s willingness to employ technology for the tasks it is designed to support. Over the years, acceptance researchers have become more interested in understanding the factors influencing the intention to use various technologies in different settings. From the literature, much research has been done to understand technology acceptance in the business contexts. This is understandable, given the close relationship between the appropriate uses of technology and profit margin. In most of the acceptance studies, researchers have sought to identify and understand the key drivers that shape users’ intention to use technology so as to influence the design and implementation process in ways to avoid or minimize resistance or rejection when users interact with technology. In elearning, users interact actively with technology to negotiate and achieve learning goals. This session will discuss the determinants of users’ intention to use e-learning. Specifically, some models and theories used in technology acceptance research and how these are applied to elearning will be discussed. Results of an initial meta-analytic structural equation modelling study will be presented. Keywords: determinants, e-learning, models, theories, user acceptance, meta-analytic structural equation modeling
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Mobility, Multimedia and Multitasking: The 3Ms of Mobile Technology in Education Daniel Churchill, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Head of the Division of Information and Technology Studies The University of Hong Kong dchurch@hku.hk
Emerging mobile technologies are becoming increasingly powerful in terms of their computer capabilities. These devices enable individuals to access digital media content and tools anytime and anywhere, and to engage in social networking and interaction. Most school and university students today own some kind of multimedia and Internet-enabled mobile device, such as a mobile phone. More recent introduction of Apple iPad has set up a context for new ways of “human-mobile technology” partnership. Apple predicts that by 2014 global needs for iPads will approach 400 millions per year. In addition to Apple, a number of other manufacturers are beginning to market or are planning to manufacture similar devices (e.g., the Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab, ASUS EEE Pad, Blackberry Play Pad, Lenovo LePad, Cisco Cius and HP Slate). Schools and universities around the world are begging to embrace these technologies, some even phasing out their existing computer laboratories replacing them with iPads. The presenter will examine issues and possibilities for educational applications of contemporary mobile technologies. Attention will be given to the three aspects, or the 3Ms: Mobility, Multimedia and Multitasking. Mobility will be examined in the context of changing information needs and expectations of today’s students. Also, attention will be given to “cloud computing” and the paradigm shift that it creates in the context of mobility. Multimedia will be examined in the context of increasing digital media capabilities and growing content base for mobile devices. Key forms of digital media content suitable for learning via mobile devices will be discussed, with emphasis on the interactive learning objects. Framework for design and effective learning applications of mobile digital media will be presented. Also, the presenter will outline some key issues for design of digital media for mobile devices. Finally, attention will be given to multitasking and examination of learning contexts for uses of mobile devices. The presentation will conclude by examining trends and transformation in learning technology design: from instructional design, learning design, collective design to contextual design paradigms. Keywords: Mobile learning, e-learning, digital media, learning objects
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The Evolution of Educational Technology in California: MERLOT to Desire 2 Learn Howard Combs, Ph.D. Professor of Marketing, San Jose State University, United States
Technology is revolutionizing and globalizing the delivery system for educational services. This has created new opportunities along with new challenges for educators. Two major examples of contemporary educational technology are the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (referred to as MERLOT) and Desire 2 Learn. Using practical examples along with videos of professors using this technology in several disciplines, this presentation will demonstrate how MERLOT and Desire 2 Learn are being applied at universities in California.
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The Framework of Qualitative Evaluation in Online HRD of In-service Teachers Yoshida, Masami, Ph.D. Professor Faculty of Education, Graduate School of Humanities and Science Chiba University, Japan yoshida-m@faculty.chiba-u.jp
ABSTRACT A credited blended training for in-service teachers was investigated to study suitable evaluation method. A course “Educational Methodology and Skills,” is intended to use information-technology media and to include novel educational methods that immediately improve school education. However, conventional positivism evaluation was not suitable to evaluate new ways of education. Then, qualitative evaluation method of forth generation was introduced, and action chart method of Milles and adequacy criteria of Guba were used for evaluation of final assignment. Through “overlap method,” positive scores of adequacy criteria were selected to use for measurement. As results, no overt relation was seen between achievement test and qualitative evaluation. However, a result of qualitative evaluation was unbiased to value professional development of teacher-students. Major Topics IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING, EVALUATION, QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS Sub-topics Criteria for Validity, Thick Description, Interpretive Approach, TRIZ Keywords In-service Training, Teacher License, e-Learning, Validity, Qualitative Research, Evaluation
1. Introduction The training seminar for teachers’ license is organized by the educational committee of the prefecture in Japan. Each course in the seminar is approved by the educational ministry in advance, and permitted to issue academic credit. The seminar is intended to give a chance to in-service teachers who work at public schools for up-grading their job adaptabilities. As this basis, there are versatile teachers’ licenses divided into types of schools (elementary, lowersecondary, upper-secondary, and special school), awarded in each subject area, and classified by three levels (regular 2: diploma level, regular 1: bachelor level, and special: M.Ed. level) in Japan. Re-organizing a schools with small sized classrooms and developing more personalized learning environment, it needs to expand additional licenses to in-service teachers as potential human resource of a school. The course is provided during summer holidays, and the faculty of education in a university is entrusted by the prefecture to dispatch authorized lecturers. Unfortunately, entire distance education method is not permitted by stipulations, and then all teacher-students are required to attend a classroom. The evaluation of a teacher-student is based on the objective-oriented evaluation, and no relative evaluation measure is used across courses. 32
During summer in 2010, the author was dispatched to instruct a course “Educational Methodology and Skills,” however this course is mandated to use information technology as a part. Then, the author arranged to operate lessons in a computer room, and use e-learning for content delivery and controlling learning activities as well. However, the author encountered incoherence that conventional objective-oriented evaluation was not fairly suitable to evaluate teacher-students learning under constructivist paradigm of education. Accordingly, study in this article argues effects of new way of absolute scale evaluation.
2. The Course Details The 38 teacher-students who had at least 12 years teaching experience in a public school were monitored in an online blended course named as “Educational Methodology and Skills,” and this course was positioned in Educational Technology field of Education area under teachers' license requirement subjects. The learning contents were consisted of a set of 13 items, that is, models of lesson, lesson styles, communication skills, force field analysis, behaviorist principle, instructional design under behaviorist, educational theory and views of learning, lesson under constructivist principle, educational method using media, educational media and learning environment, questioning skills, presentation skills, skills to collect information and using tools. So this course was processed by self-initiated learning, contents are ample and arranged into 15 sections that included 182 Web links across pages. Printed volume reached 94 pages in total (see sample in Figure 1).
Figure 1: Sample of E-learning This online course was designed to bridge services of other communities by Web links, and motivated teacher-students to activate potential resources. It was also intended them to engage expansive learning activity through net surfing, and to be tangible the boundary crossing and knotworking with other community (Engestrom & Sannino, 2010). Accordingly, there are merely 22 links to knowledge source such as Wikipedia that explains terms, and others are vital communication pages, such as technical news and SNS contents.
Figure 2: The Course “Educational Methodology and Skills” 33
Two fully days (9:20-16:40) were spent to learn this one credit course, and all lessons were processed in a computer room (see Figure 2). E-learning was used as prime method of learning and all lesson contents were accessed through online. An instructor (the author) provided facilitation and expansive instruction on request. Used LMS of e-learning is TCU-LMS, Japanese-language version.
3. Historical Changes of Evaluation Target Historical changes of evaluation in education have been varied according to social needs, prevailing educational orientation, and remarkable issue in education. First Generation: Period of Educational Measurement Early introduction of educational evaluation was measurement of competencies around 1900. It was called as first generation of evaluation (E. G. Guba & Lincoln, 1989), and determined potential skills of people were used to enforce conscription as well as used to arrange study groups in a school (see Figure 3). It also involved influence of Thorndike’s theory of learning (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2000), such as law of readiness. Various aptitude tests were developed and introduced into education as a name of educational measurement.
Figure 3: First Generation Second Generation: Period of Educational Evaluation Around 1930, enlargement of adult-students in secondary and tertiary education brought immediate need to evaluate effectiveness of school curricula and to reform education in order to adapt versatile students. Concerns of schools were moved from arrangement of students into levels to knowing changes of students and effects of lessons from continuous monitoring. Then, qualitative method was used in addition to quantitative method in evaluation, and it had influence of theory of John Dewey to analyze characteristic of each student. It was also important to disseminate nationwide educational evaluation to determine the effect of a school by active use of statistical methods to judge significance of evaluation. Thus, time series based and nationwide scale were characteristics of this educational evaluation movement.
Figure 4: Second Generation Third Generation: Objective Based Evaluation 34
After democracy was diffused in the world, objective of curriculum based evaluation was adopted from the end of 1960, and called as third generation. It implied accountability of educational institutes and led strong drive to use various educational materials and media (Stake, 1967). In addition to the objective based evaluation, formative evaluation and masterly learning were used to improve curriculum (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Third Generation Forth Generation: Responsive Constructivist Evaluation Guba & Lincoln (1989) postulated that scientific evaluation frequently has led managerialism, and proposed qualitative evaluation; naturalistic inquiries. In this forth generation, used constructivist paradigm differs from other knowledge paradigms commonly in use. And, it includes the scientific, the artistic, the religious, the legal, and others of similar broad sweep. Here, evaluation criteria were anti-preordinate, and determined through observation and discussion of stakeholders. The method is also used in action research, and paid more attention on validity than reliability to determine the adequacy of evaluation. Guba (1981) postulated that trustworthiness of qualitative inquiry could be established by addressing the following characteristics of evaluation: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Morse et al. (2008) adopted possible methods for the evaluation to ensure trustworthiness based on the idea of Guba & Lincoln (1981), that is negative cases, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement and persistent observation, audit trails and member checks.
Figure 6: Forth Generation Then, the method is totally differs from conventional positivism approach where situation and action in the study environment are aimed to define a rule that can be applied in other cases (Belk, Sherry Jr, & Wallendorf, 1988). In forth generation, evaluation should be done as interpretive discussions where situation and action are deploy in domain specific environment. That is the extremely inductive procedure. Positivism Approach:
Evaluation = Rule (situation, action) This aims to explain action and predict another situation. This uses deductive data analysis.
Interpretive Approach:
Evaluation = Interpretation (situation, action) This aims to interpret action and recognize specific situation. This uses inductive data analysis 35
Therefore, it is not appropriate to “mix and match” paradigms in conducting an evaluation, for example, utilizing both scientific and constructivist propositions within the same target.
4. Method Final assignment of the course was designed to ask proposals posted in a Web board as homework. Final Assignment “Describe your proposal that improves learning of your students to be more self-directed. Especially, explain the way how you intend to apply educational methodology and knowledge of technologies.” Purposive Sampling All descriptions of proposals were introduced into QSR Nvivo7, and processed qualitative data analysis. As essential investigators for the evaluation, an instructor and a coordinator (an educational supervisor of prefecture), who are responsive and adaptable to changing circumstances, holistic, having processional immediacy, sensibility, and ability for clarification and summarization, were in charge. The evaluation design had been developed through evaluation process of naturalistic inquiries, even though indicators of data were preordinated in conventional positivism. This method looks similar to moderation (Gipps, 1994), but it has more enhancements to use criteria of validity. Eventually, the study employed a completely crossed 7 x 4 treatment by seven action criteria and four adequacy criteria shown in below. Action Criteria All proposals were arranged into the table framework of the action chart that was postulated by Mills (2000), where the following elements are positioned. 1) Research question (findings) 2) Recommended action that targeted a given finding. 3) Who responsible for specific actions. (responsibility) 4) Who needs to be consulted or informed about the findings of the lesson and the associated actions? 5) Who will monitor or collect the effects of actions. 6) Dates when the actions and monitoring will occur. 7) Any resources and media that will be needed to carry out the action. Adequacy Criteria Each element of an action chart was reviewed based on Guba’s four criteria of the qualitative paradigm, and valued trustworthiness (Tobin & Begley, 2004). 1) Credibility (CR): roughly parallel to internal validity. It poses the questions of whether the explanation fits the description and whether the description is credible. It refers teacher’s ability to take into account all of the complexities. 2) Transferability (T): roughly parallel to external validity, Generalizability of explanation. This concern only case-to-case domain specific data transfer in a naturalistic qualitative study view. It is teachers’ beliefs that everything they propose is context bound. 3) Dependability (D): roughly parallel to reliability, Proposal is responsible for ensuring that the process of lesson is logical, traceable and clearly documented. 4) Confirmability (CO): roughly parallel to objectivity, Data and interpretations of the 36
proposals are not figments of the teacher-student’s imagination, but are clearly derived from the learned contents. Scoring Policy According to aims of the course organizer, educational committee of the prefecture, the author discussed with a coordinator to determine tangible scoring policy. TRIZ (Теория решения изобретательских задач), model-based technology for generating new ideas and solutions, and invention cards (see Figure 7) were used to determine the warrantable scoring policy (Altshuller & Altov, 1994). Three principles; No.2: taking out, No.5: merging, No.40 composite materials, from 40 principles of invention were used to reveal a solution.
Figure 7: TRIZ Cards
Then, we decided a way to count positive points in valid measures that were applied from lesson contents as long as negative points did not exceed positive points (see Table 1). If a negative point exceeds over a positive point, we valued the action chart one level below. Table 1: Scoring Policy Evaluation A B C D F
Positive Point 5 more 4 3 2 1 or less
Also, this guideline of evaluation was valid by comparison of scoring results during and after evaluation process (overlap method) and “audit trail” method by a Ph.D. student for interpretation.
5. Findings Descriptions in Nvivo were arranged into elements of an action chart (see Table 2). Here, context of a proposal is revealed. Table 2: Action Chart, Example of a Proposal Research Question 1.0 To change instruction from preparation base to responsive measures
Recommende d Action
Responsibilit y
Consulted or Informed
Monitor & Collect
Timeline Ongoing throughout lesson
37
Resources and Media
1.1 Induce self initiated question 1.2 Students' deep understanding
1.3 Proper recognition and expanding ideas 1.4 Suitable evaluation
1.1 Prepare materials that encourage motivation 1.2 Use open question
1.1 T, S (N: D)
observation
(N: D)
1.2 T
observation, intentions
1.3 Conduct discussion Sessions
1.3 S
observation, list of ideas
waiting cue, reasoningcreatingvaluing strategy (P: CR) KJ method, brain storming, fish bowl, and U-debate (P: CR, T, CO) waiting cue
1.4 Ask open 1.4 T, S observation, question and (N: CR, D) intentions value acquired concept (P: CR) T: teacher, S: student, (P: peer, PA: parent; didn’t appear in above chart) Adequacy criteria P: positive, N: negative, CR: credibility, T: transferability, D: dependability, CO: confirmability
Possible adequacy criteria were marked on elements. Then, positive (shown as blue) and negative (shown as red) adequacy criteria were assigned. For reference, scores of achievement test were compared (see Table 3). Table 3: Result of Evaluation Evaluation
Number
A B C D F
14 17 5 2 0
Mean Achievement Test Score 81.2 81.6 78.5 80.0 -
The mean of achievement test on the evaluation levels were not significantly different at the alpha =.05 level with one-way ANOVA procedures. Table 4: Average Score by Adequacy Criteria Evaluation\Criterion A B C D Mean
CR 1.9 1.6 1.2 1.0 1.6
T 1.2 1.1 1.0 0 0.71
D 1.2 1.0 1.0 0 0.66
CO 1.6 1.4 1.0 1.0 1.4
Table 4 shows calculation results of mean positive score by criterion. “Credibility” and “Confirmability” had higher score than “Transferability” and “Dependability.”
6. Discussion The study was designed to examine how qualitative evaluation would interpret the human resource development of teacher-students who attended online learning of complex educational information. Therein, investigators discussed about observed traits of proposals. Actually, vigorous learned things were appeared as their applied methods in proposals. Consequently, it was prominent that using e-learning and Web surfing enabled them to invoke potential information that could not be possible to overview in the traditional F2F lecture with limited knotworking. Obviously, 38
online learning can be changed by means of an expansive learning process in which lesson contents and information of other communities are used together for generating new idea. Thus, the corresponding new pattern of activity would break away from the constrains of the existing activity and embark on a journey across the uncharted terrain of the zone of proximal development (Engestrom, 2005). However, unfortunately, the author sometimes sensed insufficient descriptions. The most cases did not have lack of the knowledge of methods, but had insufficient context. For instance, certain lack of ; details explanation, situational suitability, cares about limitation of methodology, and involvement of other staff in the process, were seen in spite of their straightforward sentences. Nevertheless, this feeling is depicted by the keywords of adequacy criteria, such as. • Credibility: credible, structural corroboration, coherence, referential, member check, peer debriefing, prolonged participation, autodriving • Transferability: judgment, fittingness, suit, natural, identify, detailed descriptions of the context, well developed, descriptive, context-relevant • Dependability: audit trail, triangulation, reliable, logically, responsible, traceable, stability • Confirmability: objectively, real, practice reflexivity, learned Thus, used qualitative evaluation method was vigor for interpretation and easy to lead diagnostic opinions. In fact, almost all of the proposals were made in the situation of their peculiar classroom, but adequacy criteria have enabled to value their varied proposals.
Figure 8: Number of Paired Positive Criteria and Solidarity Rate Figure 8 showed summed number of how many plural criteria were marked together in one element of an action chart. If a teacher-students pay attention to the criteria discussed in this articles more, their descriptions are likely to be more adequate with four positive criteria. Nevertheless, this data showed that their plans were valid to show combined marking. If teacher-students had further chance of practical training for lesson planning with conceptual statements and thick description, such as Vee (e.g. Coffman & Riggs, 2006) or 7E (e.g. Gonen & Kocakaya, 2010) method, observed insufficiency would be improved. On the other hand, some studies criticized an issue of introducing varied interpretations appeared in evaluation by adequacy criteria (e.g. Matsuo, 2008). However, this assumption was not supported by this study, because the author did not encounter difficulties in marking.
7. References Altshuller, G., & Altov, H. (1994). And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared. Triz, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. Worcester, MA: Technical Innovation Center. Belk, R. W., Sherry Jr, J. F., & Wallendorf, M. (1988). A Naturalistic Inquiry into Buyer and Seller Behavior at a Swap Meet. Journal of Consumer Research, 14(4), 449-470. Coffman, M., & Riggs, L. (2006). The Virtual Vee Map: A Template for Internet Inquiry. 39
Retrieved 1, 36, from http://openedpractices.org/files/INquiry bio Eastern Mich.pdf Engestrom, Y. (2005). Developmental Work Research: Expanding Activity Theorie in Practice. Berlin: Lehmanns Media, LOB. de. Engestrom, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of Expansive Learning: Foundations, Findings and Future Challenges. Educational Research Review, 5(1), 1-24. Gipps, C. V. (1994). Beyond Testing: Towards a Theory of Educational Assessment. Oxon: Routledge. Gonen, S., & Kocakaya, S. (2010). A Physics Lesson Designed According to 7e Model with the Help of Instructional Technology (Lesson Plan). Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 11(1), 98-113. Guba, E. (1981). Criteria for Assessing the Trustworthiness of Naturalistic Inquiries. Educational Technology Research and Development, 29(2), 75-91. Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1981). Effective Evaluation: Improving the Usefulness of Evaluation Results through Responsive and Naturalistic Approaches. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1989). Forth Generation Education: Sage Publications. Hergenhahn, B. R., & Olson, M. H. (2000). Introduction to Theories of Learning (6th ed.). NJ: Prentice Hall. Matsuo, Y. (2008). The Methodological Problems and It's Solutions of Interpretative Approach in Marketing. Mita business review, 50(6), pp.239-262. Mills, G. E. (2000). Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher. NJ: Prentice-Hall. Morse, J. M., Barrett, M., Mayan, M., Olson, K., & Spiers, J. (2008). Verification Strategies for Establishing Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. International journal of Qualitative Methods, 1(2), 13. Stake, R. E. (1967). The Countenance of Educational Evaluation. Teachers College Record(68), 524. Tobin, G. A., & Begley, C. M. (2004). Methodological Rigour within a Qualitative Framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 48(4), 388-396.
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The e-Learning Support for Hong Kong CyberU David Chiu, B Sc, Dip Ed, MA, Ed S, FOVTA, MIEEE Associate Director Information Technology Services Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong itdavid@inet.polyu.edu.hk
The Hong Kong CyberU was established in 2000 as one of earliest cyber institutions in Asia Pacific region. It is the first cyber institution and still the only cyber institution in Hong Kong that offers fully accredited university degree up to Master level. The Hong Kong CyberU is managed by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The Information Technology Services Office is the central unit of PolyU providing eLearning services to all academic departments as well as Hong Kong CyberU. The experience of supporting eLearning activities of Hong Kong CyberU will be shared with the participants of this session. Many key issues and challenges will also be discussed. Major Topics ELEARNING SUPPORT FOR CYBERU Sub-topics History of Hong Kong CyberU Issues of Supporting CyberU Teachers and Students Quality Assurance of eLearning Keywords: blended Learning, cyberu, distance education, eLearning, online learning
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Discovering an Effective e-Learning Process 1
S. Pinder1 and T. Thammetar2 Go-International, Continuing Education Center (CEC), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (sjpclass@mail2steven.com) 2 Thailand Cyber University Project, Office of the Higher Education Commission, Bangkok, Thailand (kobthapanee@gmail.com) Creating a quality e-Learning production process is not easy, and it is too easy to make mistakes. At first, we made the content too difficult. We had failed to realise the need to give students a simple start until they became familiar with how the e-Learning modules worked. The message is try to imagine you are the user and how they will feel when they are studying the e-Learning modules. They need to be shown how to get started and how to navigate the modules. They need regular frequent feedback to know if they are understanding correctly what they are learning. Passive learning where the user just reads or listens is not effective. They will have forgotten within a day, because this is how our brain works. Students need active learning where the content interacts with the user and calls for frequent user responses. An effective content gives feedback to these responses quickly to guide the e-User. However too much focused study can be stressful for any student, so it is useful to intersperse some entertaining content like a quiz or game among the more formal e-Learning content.
ABSTRACT What is the effective way to produce eLearning which produces quality results? This paper is based on experience at the Thai Cyber University (TCU) of producing a course in ‘English for Tourism’ comprising 60 e-Learning modules. It is a practical, not a theoretical paper. It takes you through the stages of the process involved in producing an eLearning course. This process has proven effective for the production of e-Learning. The authors herewith share their experience and this process so that all involved in eLearning can benefit. Whilst this process is useful for all involved in producing e-Learning, it has been designed to help those teaching students about e-Learning and those students studying how to create eLearning themselves. Any academic wishing to use this model in their instruction please notify the authors by e-mail where it is used and include an acknowledgement to the source when they use it in teaching. Thank you.
2) Our Goals, Objectives and Limitations
1) Sharing what we have learnt at TCU about an effective e-Learning process
We wanted to take advantage of the latest advances in e-Learning, so we chose a third generation approach 42
incorporating the concepts of edutainment and interaction. We set out with the idea that every learning screen (some screens are for navigation) should involve the student in doing something with what they were learning. This is based on a very old anonymous saying, “What you hear or read you forget, what you see you remember, but what you do you know.” However, we had to work within a few constraints: 1. In many parts of developing countries the internet infrastructure does not support rapid downloading. This meant that our modules had to be small and efficient. 2. Many students did not have access to powerful computers, so we had to produce modules which would run smoothly on low specification computers. 3. We did not have any speech recognition software, (which is very expensive and waiting for someone to develop and share with the e-Learning community). 4. We had to work with a limited budget. 5. We had limited internal (within TCU) resources to produce the e-Learning products.
sharing our experience in creating an effective e-Learning process with the world. Back in 2OO8 we realized that it was not enough to say without doing. TCU was providing courses to help academics create e-Learning content. However, to achieve credibility we needed to be constantly doing it ourselves. Fortunately at that time the English Language Development Centre wanted some help create economically free e-Learning courses to help Thai employees do their job better. Both an author of this paper and the previous TCU director had experience with eLearning development at Chula-online produced by the Continuing Education Center of Chulalongkorn University and TCU had the technical expertise in e-Learning development, so it was decided to collaborate on an e-Learning course. Although, we had little budget we had the willpower to succeed. We could do nothing, but this was an unacceptable option, because there was no benefit for the e-Learning community and Thai society. Another option was to find a budget and resources to do it, even though commitment and support from above was weak. Fortunately until late 2010 the former ELDC (now no more) was able to help with some budget to make it happen. Therefore, now we have to struggle to achieve without support and commitment from above.
3) Our story – understanding the why’s When we presented some ideas from our work at the 2008 IEC(1) and the 2009 ALCOB(2) several academics approached us and asked us to share our e-Learning process with them and their students. They were keenly interested in the TCU’s e-Learning process as a practical and effective process model (as opposed to a theoretical model) which they and their students could use. Now we are
4) Overview of an effective e-Learning Process Content design Content development
Content building
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5.1 Concept At the concept stage, you have to think through what you are doing, what the eUser needs, and how you are going to provide it with what you have. Consistency in structure, navigation, arrangement and terms used is important. These are the points to consider: Think of what the user needs Think of what the user knows Each module has a common structure Each module has a theme template Look at which modules the e-User will have already completed Keep the topic flow from module to module logical
5) Elements of an effective e-Learning process The elements of an effective e-Learning process are: Concept Design Bi-lingualisation Scipting Program development Sound development Graphics development Assembly Quality control Integration
With teamwork
We will explain these in detail. 5.2 Design At the design stage, try to think how you can make the learning intuitive and enjoyable for the e-Users. Keep the eUser informed all the time if they seem to be understanding the content. Use good design principles for the screens – do not overload the e-User with too much text. These are the points to consider: Create the storyboard for the module. Keep a common theme and template throughout the module. Build in edutainment – some games in between blocks of learning Give rapid feedback, so the e-Users know if they are misunderstanding – maximum 5 screens of knowledge before feedback Optimum six bullet points per screen.
e-Learning process steps These are the steps in our effective e-Learning process:
d
Concept
D
Design
Bi-lingualisation
Bi-
Program development
Prog
Scripting
Pr
Sou
Graphics development
Post-process QC
Pre-process QC
Sound development
Assembly
S
5.3 Bi-lingualisation We are teaching a second language from a second language which is important for the student to accept that the second language is valid for communication.
Gra
Integration with LMS
Inte
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However, unlike in the classroom weaker students are able to ask a teacher. Therefore we build in optional first language support at a mouse click. It is important that this first language support is not automatic. It is only used if the student really needs it. These are the points to consider: Learning modules are teaching second language - English The second language – English is taught from the second language English First language – Thai support can be obtained with a mouse click, but is not automatic First language script – English translated to second language – Thai for dual sound recording
5.5 Pre-process QC After the scripts are ready they should be checked by another person familiar with e-Learning and the content area. They are looking at the content, the accuracy of translation, the clarity and lack of use of confusing terms. These are the points to consider: an independent external qualified person checks the scripts for: accuracy in translation any confusing terms clarity content 5.6 Program Development The guiding points are that the programs should be suitable for use in developing countries where internet infrastructure is weak. At first, we used another program, not ‘Flash’, but found the module sizes were too big for quick download and the functionality was less, so we changed to ‘Flash’ which had the functionality we needed, and after compilation produced reasonably sized modules. Since the development of game units, used more resources we recycled these as far as possible using different content. These are the points to consider:
5.4 Scripting It is important to produce second and first language scripts before development. The logistics of getting each speaker available when you want them and separate second and first language scripts for each speaker, means you are independent of availability logistics problems. Each script is independently recorded and then the sound engineer divides the files into chunks suitable for integration in other development steps. These are the points to consider: Scripts are developed for sound recording with different highlighting for each speaker Sound recording in a soundproof studio Recording in First Language – English Recording in Second Language – Thai Scripting creates the text to be embedded in the ‘Flash’ program.
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Programs should be small, so they can download in environments with weak internet infrastructure Programs are developed using ‘Flash’ Game sections of modules between chunks of learning will take more development time, so recycle game engines
addition to the coordinator the development team will need a ‘Flash’ programmer, a sound engineer, a graphics artist as well as an assembler. After assembly the overall functioning, navigation and timing of the module need to be checked and adjusted if necessary. These are the points to consider: The ‘Flash’ programmer, sound engineer and graphics artist have to work together as a team The assembler incorporates the graphics, the text and then the sound into the program. The assembler checks the functioning, navigation and timing of the ‘Flash’ program
5.7 Sound development The sound for each person is recorded separately in first and second language. Then the sound engineer splits the recorded file into sub-files or chunks which will later be linked to different texts in different screens of the e-Learning module. These are the points to consider: Record each person separately and splice together later. Record each language separately and splice together later. Split sound recordings into chunks to incorporate into the program according to the script 5.8 Graphics development It is important to create your own graphics in order to avoid copyright issues. However, it is often possible to reuse graphics from screen to screen and module to module with only little change which overall reduces the overhead of producing the graphics. To keep the download file sizes small and costs low we used cartoons and animation in preference to photographs and video content. Graphics need to attract the attention of students, so make them bright and colourful. These are the points to consider: Create your own graphics to avoid copyright issues Reuse graphics from module to module Use cartoons and animation not photos and video to keep the size small and costs low Make graphics bright and colourful
5.10 Post-process QC After the module is complete it needs to be checked before integrating into the Learning Management System (LMS). The first check is against the storyboard for content and continuity. Then the functionality of all components and particularly the navigation is checked. The sound linking needs to be carefully checked that the correct sound file is linked at each point. The interactive and feedback cycles with the e-User also need to be checked. These are the points to consider: The module is checked for content and continuity against the storyboard The module is checked for correct functionality of all components particularly navigation The sound linking is checked for correct synchronisation The e-User feedback loop is checked
5.9 Assembly Where as in our case several people are involved in production of e-Learning modules, teamwork is essential. In 46
support. However, because Thai society needs these free courses to help them do their jobs better we need to find a way forward for TCU to work without ELDC.
5.11 Integration into LMS The final step in the process is to integrate the e-Learning module with the other e-Learning modules in the virtual classroom for the subject. At last the eLearning module can be added to the LMS menu at the appropriate point. These are the points to consider: The ‘Flash’ Module is integrated into the virtual classroom according to the subject taught The precedent modules and postcedent modules are sequentially linked The module is added to the LMS menu
8) Recommendations In conclusion we have learnt that to produce effective e-Learning courses you need to follow a systematic process with pre and post quality control. While the development processes are parallel the creative processes are linear. Teamwork is essential to success and the use of progress checklists for control where you have the modules on the left and the process steps on the top and you write in achievement dates in the grid will be helpful to keep on track.
6) Achievements Between 2008-2009 TCU with the support and commitment from ELDC was able to complete all 60 modules of “English for Tourism” which is now hosted by TCU and freely available to all. From 2010 we have been working on an e-Learning course, ‘English for Office Workers”. When finished “English for Office Workers” will comprise 36 long modules for learning each with a complementary short review module to refresh the learning, which gives a total of 72 modules. This is still in progress, but the end date is uncertain, because with the closure of the ELDC the source of funding, support and commitment was lost.
References 1) IEC 2008 paper link 2) ALCOB 2009 paper link
7) Summary The “English for Tourism” project commenced in 2008 and took 2 years to complete with cooperation between TCU and ELDC and the creative input from a CEC designer. The “English for Office Workers” project started in 2010 and is still ongoing, although its future and end date are uncertain with the closure of ELDC for commitment, funding and 47
IEC2010 FULL PAPER Paper Presentation
Mobility and e-Learning Delivery Methods: Perspectives from Higher Education of Thailand V. Duangchinda1, Y. H. Kim2, and K. Mekhabunchakij3 1 Information Science Institute, Sripatum University, Bangkok, Thailand (vduangchinda@gmail.com) 2 Department of Education, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea (younghkim@pusan.ac.kr) 3 Information Science Institute, Sripatum University, Bangkok, Thailand (kittima.me@spu.ac.th)
Education, Thailand to be the main body of cooperative activities among Thai Universities to promote and support online distance education (e-Learning) in Thailand. Through collaborative efforts, TCU has partnered particularly with 9 leading Universities around Thailand to be TCU regional hub for effective operation. (Office of the Higher Education Commission: 2010; Thammetar, 2009).
ABSTRACT There are many ways of delivering e-Learning content. This paper studies the impact of applying Mobility into the 22 modes of Integrative Delivery Method (IDM) based on a group of lecturers around Thailand at Higher Education level. The findings reveal that most of the lecturers believe in the benefits of integration of Mobility into the delivery method. Gender, Age, and Experience of the lecturers strongly determine the application of the IDM in e-Learning.
Recently, TCU has been awarded Honorable Mentions for the 2009 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education as over 13,000 education professionals from 76 institutes have been trained (UNESCO, 2010).
Keywords e-Learning, Integrative Delivery Method, Mobility
This research quantitatively tests the findings of the previous study with lecturers at Higher Education level around Thailand, who have experience in e-Learning, either as an educator or as a learner.
1. INTRODUCTION This study extends a previous study based on Duangchinda, Kim, and Mekhabunchakij, (2010a and 2010b), which have primarily investigated the usage of Integrative Delivery Method (IDM) in e-Learning environment based upon the perspectives of all teachers in the e-Learning Professional Certificate Program (e-Pro), which is offered by Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU), Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Thailand.
1.1 The 22 Modes of Integrative Delivery Method Investigated The 22 modes of IDM as in Duangchinda, Kim, and Mekhabunchakij (2010b), which is a modification of Richardson, Jenkins, & Crickenberger (1994) are as follows: 1. Conference: Meetings of small or large group of people within same interest for formal presentations to the entire group. 2. Convention: Assembly of a large number of people with similar
Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU) was founded in 2005 by Office of The Higher Education Commission, Ministry of 51
3.
4.
5.
6. 7.
8.
9. 10.
11.
12.
13. 14.
15.
16. 17.
18.
interests, which may be more than one group at a time. Seminar: Meetings of group with specific subject led by a recognized body. Panel: Discussions within small group of knowledgeable members of exchange of ideas without formal presentation. Forum: Group discussion that allows members to participate during a period of time. Meeting: Group of people meet together for common purpose. Symposium: Assembly that small number of experts making short presentation to audiences. Colloquy: Gathering of experts to discuss in front of audiences who may ask questions until the issue is resolved. Dialogue: Discussion of 2 persons in front of audiences. Institute: Series of in-depth presentation for those who share common interest. Buzz group: Discussion between 5-8 persons for topic raised by larger group assembly. Discussion group: Informal gathering for discussing a topic of mutual concern. Brainstorming: A turn-based discussion. Audience reaction team: group of 3 selected members to respond to specific information. Listening team: A pre-presentation process where a few audiences are invited to preview the presentation and suggest how the presentation should be. Interview: Face to face meeting for exchanging facts. Teleconference: or more persons at different locations engaged in audio or video discussion through electronic means. Telephone conversation: Voice Communication between two people
19.
20. 21.
22.
who are at different places through electronic means. Computer network: Linkage of 3 or more computers connected for members to share ideas or exchange information. Satellite conferencing: Teleconferencing via cable or satellite. Personal visit: Face to face exchange of information at least 2 persons usually at the location of persons receiving the information. Office visit: Face to face exchange of information at least 2 persons usually at the location of persons providing the information.
2. Methodology This study receives permission from the Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU), Office of the Higher Education Commission; to survey their members who are lecturers at Higher Education level throughout Thailand. An electronic survey in the form of web-based questionnaire was sent by TCU to all registered members at Higher Education level, and to the nine TCU regional hub Universities around the country. Objective of the survey is to capture expert’s choices and opinions in relation to the Integrative Delivery Method (IDM), one of the three delivery methods in Extension Education, as defined by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service (Richardson, Jenkins, & Crickenberger, 1994). These delivery methods are comprehensive and have been tested in several studies including Adeoye, Adenle, and Adeyemo (2008); Crocoll (2001). The survey includes 4 parts of nonadaptive questions. The first set has 5 questions of demographic and general information. Part two asks if the responders have used each of the 22 IDM modes in traditional learning and in 52
years or less of experience as an educator in e-Learning. Composition of participants’ experience as an educator in e-Learning: • less than 1 year = 16.9%; 1 year = 11.%; 2 years = 16.9%; 3 years = 19.5%; 4 years = 5.93%; 5 years 5.08%; 6 years = 6.78%; 7 years 4.24%; 8 years 2.54%; 9 years 2.54%; 10 years = 1.69%; and over 10 years = 5.93%.
e-Learning environments; and how strong they believe in application of Mobility will enhance opportunity for education in each mode. Part three asks the participants to confirm findings of previous study (Duangchinda, Kim, and Mekhabunchakij, 2010b) by ranking 5 IDM modes that experts believe to benefit most from application of Mobility, which are: Discussion Group, Forum, Brainstorming, Conference, and Buzz group.
For their experience as a learner in eLearning: • less than 1 year = 36.449%; 1 year = 7.63%; 2 years = 13.56%; 3 years = 10.17%; 4 years = 4.24%; 5 years 12.71%; 6 years = 3.39%; 7 years 2.54%; 8 years 2.54%; 9 years 1.70%; 10 years = 1.70%; and over 10 years = 3.39%.
The final part gives definition of Social Media, and then asks if the current definition of each mode in IDM should be rectified to accommodate the Social Media or not and how. 3. Survey Results and Discussion 3.1 Demographic
Comparison of the responders’ experience in e-Learning is shown in the figure 1.
There were 118 persons taking part in the survey, including 60 female and 58 male. Age composition of the survey responders was: • Under 20 years old = 0%; 20 to 25 = 0.5%; 26 to 30 = 15.25%; 31 to 35 = 18.64%; 36 to 40 = 25.42%; 41 to 45 = 12.71%; 46 to 50 = 10.17%; 51 to 55 = 12,71%; 56 to 60 = 2.54%; and over 60 = 1.70%. The biggest age group is 36-40 years old (30 persons), 5 persons is above 55 years old, and no one is under 20 years of age. For the level of education: • 62% or 73 persons hold a Masters’ Degree; 25% or 29 persons hold a Bachelor’s Degree; and 13% or 16 persons hold a Doctorate. 3.2 Experience in e-Learning
Figure 1: Responders’ Experience in eLearning
Majority of participants (100 persons, 84.75%) have had 5 years or less of experience as a learner in e-Learning, while 90 persons (76.27%) have had 5 53
Computer Network (60.17%), Forum and Discussion Group (56.75 equally), and Meeting (51.69%).
3.3 Experience with IDM The responders were asked which IDM modes they have used in traditional learning and e-Learning mode. The result is shown in table 1.
IDM Modes
Experience in
Table 2 reveals several interesting facts. First, ranking of IDM modes that the responders have used in traditional education and e-Learning are not in the same order. Paring according to ranking would be (traditional education vs. e-learning): 1) Meeting vs. Computer Network 2) Computer Network vs. Forum & Discussion group 3) Seminar vs. Meeting 4) Discussion group & Brain Storming vs. Brain Storming 5) Forum vs. Seminar 6) Conference vs. Conference
% of Responders and their Experience Traditional e-Learning Education 9 8 9 8
1. Conference
52.54
47.46
38.14
61.86
2. Convention
39.83
60.17
24.58
75.42
3. Seminar
69.49
30.51
38.98
61.02
4. Panel
42.37
57.63
23.73
76.27
5. Forum
53.39
46.61
56.78
43.22
6. Meeting
72.88
27.12
51.69
48.31
7. Symposium
36.44
63.56
18.64
81.36
8. Colloquy
18.64
81.36
7.63
92.37
9. Dialogue
35.59
64.41
26.27
73.73
10. Institute
28.81
71.19
20.34
79.66
11. Buzz group
39.83
60.17
25.42
74.58
12. Discussion Group
68.64
31.36
56.78
43.22
13. Brainstorming
68.64
31.36
48.31
14. Audience reaction team
21.19
78.81
13.56
15. Listening team
33.90
66.10
22.88
77.12
16. Interview
48.31
51.69
31.36
68.64
17. Teleconferencing
25.42
74.58
16.10
83.90
18. Telephone conversation
37.29
62.71
19.49
51.69
IDM Modes that responders have used most
Traditional Education % have Rank used
% have used
Rank
86.44
1. Conference
52.54
6
38.14
6
14.4
3. Seminar
69.49
3
38.98
5
30.51
5. Forum
53.39
5
56.78
2*tie
-3.39
80.51
6. Meeting
72.88
1
51.69
3
21.19
12. Discussion Group 13. Brainstorming 19. Computer network
68.64
4*tie
56.78
2*tie
11.86
68.64
4*tie
48.31
4
20.33
72.03
2
60.17
1
11.86
19. Computer network
72.03
27.97
60.17
39.83
20. Satellite conferencing
19.49
80.51
11.86
88.14
21. Personal visit
46.61
53.39
26.27
73.73
22. Office visit
41.53
58.47
19.49
80.51
Note: - 9= Have used; 8 = Have not used - Dark cells represent number of respondents > 50%
e-Learning Gap
Table 2: Responders’ Experience with the Modes of IDM
Table 1: Responders’ Experience with 22 Modes of IDM
Gaps of the experience are also interesting. Experience in using Seminar has the widest gap of 30.51%, while Discussion group & Computer network have 11.86% of gap equally. Significantly, only Forum is the IDM mode that has been used more in e-Learning (gap of -3.39).
For traditional education, it can be seen that there are seven modes of IDM that more than 50% of the responders have used. These methods are: Meeting (72.88%), Computer Network (72.03%), Seminar (69.49%), Discussion Group and Brain Storming (68.64% equally), Forum (53.39%), and Conference (52.54%).
Previous study (Duangchinda, Kim, and Mekhabunchakij, 2010b) investigated that all teachers in the e-Learning Professional Program (e-Pro) of Thailand Cyber University Project primarily use five IDM modes for teaching in e-Learning, which is in contrast with the findings from this
For e-Learning, there are only four modes of IDM that more than 50% of the responders have used, which are: 54
Then, they were asked to what extent the application of Mobility according to the given definition will improve educational opportunity in each mode of IDM. To measure the level of significance, Likert Scale was used with 5 = High Significance, 4 = Significance, 3 = Average, 2 = Some Significance, and 1 = Low Significance.
study. Table 3 shows which IDM modes the e-Pro teachers have primarily used, and what the results from this study suggest. Discussion Group is the only common mode that both groups have primarily used, but the gap between the two groups is as high as 43.22. Primary IDM Modes that the e-Pro Teachers have used? Discussion group
% of the e-Pro teachers who have used the mode
% from 118 responders in this study
Gap
100
56.78
43.22
Brainstorming
86
48.31
37.69
Seminar
64
38.98
25.02
Telephone conversation
64
19.49
44.51
Conference
57
38.4
18.6
The ability for ones to access and participate in teaching and learning content while they are moving via wireless network, including when being on transportation medium such as on a bus, car, etc., or when they are walking. Hence, Mobility in this research focuses on practical use of portable devices such as mobile phones (including smartphones), PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and Portable media players such as MP3 and Mp4 players (including iPAD), while larger devices such as laptops or notebooks or tablet pcs are excluded for the Operational Definition of Mobility for this research. Figure 2: Definition of Mobility for this Study
Table 3: The Five Integrative e-Learning Delivery Method have been primarily used by TCU e-Pro teachers with Comparison Primary IDM Modes that the 118 responders have used? Computer network
% of the 118 responders who have used the mode
% from e-Pro teachers
Gap
60.17
36
24.17
Forum
56.78
43
13.78
Discussion Group
56.78
100
-43.22
Meeting
51.69
43
8.69
Brainstorming
48.31
86
IDM Modes
-37.69
Table 4: The Five Integrative e-Learning Delivery Method have been primarily used by the 118 Responders with Comparison In contrast, Table 4 reveals primary IDM modes that the 118 responders have primarily used. The results clearly show that experience of the responders and the e-Pro teachers are very different, especially for the Discussion group (gap = -43.22) and Brain Storming (gap = -37.69).
Level of Significance 5
4
3
2
19. Computer network
67
40
9
2
1 0
6. Meeting
42
49
18
8
1
17. Teleconferencing
42
49
20
5
2
13. Brainstorming
41
55
17
5
0
5. Forum
40
43
28
7
0
20. Satellite conferencing
40
41
23
8
6
Table 5: How Significance the Application of Mobility will Improve Educational Opportunities in e-Learning: Top Five most Significance IDM Modes Table 5 and Figure 3 have confirmed that 67 out of the 118 responders strongly believe in Computer Network will improve educational opportunities, while 9 persons rate it as average. This is the only IDM mode that the gap between High Significance and Average is as high as 58. Further investigation has revealed that most responders do support Mobility for
3.4 Mobility and IDM The responders were firstly given definition of Mobility (Joan, 2010); Sumati, 2009; Thiraroungchaisri, 2006; and Wikipedia, 2010) as shown in the Figure 2. 55
this IDM mode, while only 2 persons rated it as Some Significance. Once again, these findings are in contrast with what the e-Pro teachers believe. They rank the IDM modes in the following order: 1) Discussion group, 2) Forum & Brainstorming, 3) Conference, and 4) Buzz group.
Figure 4: Delivery Modes in order of significance for improving Educational Opportunities in e-Learning 3.6) Will we need to change definition of these delivery methods to accommodate definition of Social Media? The responders were given definition of Social Media as in Figure 5 (Duangchinda, Kim, and Mekhabunchakij, 2010a). Then they were asked if each definition of IDM modes should be modified to accommodate the current definitions, which have been defined since 2004 by Richardson, Jenkins, and Crickenberger (1994).
Figure 3: How Significance will the Application of Mobility Improve Educational Opportunities in e-Learning?: Five Most Significance IDM - High Significance VS. Average
Using portable computing devices (such as laptops, tablet PCs, PDAs, and smart phones) with wireless networks enables mobility and mobile learning, allowing teaching and learning to extend to spaces beyond the traditional classroom. Within the classroom, mobile learning gives instructors and learners increased flexibility and new opportunities for interaction. Mobile technologies support learning experiences that are collaborative, accessible, and integrated with the world beyond the classroom. Figure 5: Definition of m-Learning and Mobility from EDUCAUSE
3.5 Delivery Modes in order of significance for improving Educational Opportunities in e-Learning When the responders were asked to rank the five IDM modes that the e-Pro teachers believe will improve educational opportunities in e-Learning, both groups’ thinking are somehow similar. From Figure 4, if the only 1st rank bars are considered, the ranking that the responders believe will be exactly as what the e-Pro teachers believe.
The result is very conclusive; over 90% of the responders all approve current 56
definition of each IDM mode. For those who did not give direct approval, instead of suggesting new definition, they rather write supporting sentences for the current definition. Table 6 reveals the high approval score for each definition of IDM mode.
22 Modes of IDM
Gender – Application of Mobility to IDM Asymp. Value df Sig. (2-sided) Pearson 60.622(a) 42 0.031 Chi-Square • Gender is significantly associated with application of Mobility to IDM.
Percentage of Approval for Current Definition of each Mode of IDM (Highest to Lowest)
5. Forum
97.46
8. Colloquy
97.46
15. Listening team
97.46
10. Institute
96.61
11. Buzz group
96.61
21. Personal visit
96.61
22. Office visit
96.61
4. Panel
95.76
9. Dialogue
95.76
13. Brainstorming
95.76
14. Audience reaction team
95.76
17. Teleconferencing
95.76
19. Computer network
95.76
20. Satellite conferencing
95.76
12. Discussion Group
94.92
1. Conference
94.07
16. Interview
94.07
18. Telephone conversation
94.07
2. Convention
93.22
6. Meeting
93.22
7. Symposium
93.22
3. Seminar
91.53
Age – Application of Mobility to IDM Asymp. Value df Sig. (2-sided) Pearson 415.255(a) 336 .002 Chi-Square • Age is significantly associated with application of Mobility to IDM. Age – Approval of Current Definition of IDM Asymp. Value df Sig. (2-sided) Pearson 95.323(a) 72 .034 Chi-Square • Age is significantly associated with Approval of Current Definition of IDM. Experience in e-Learning as a Learner – Approval of Current Definition of IDM Asymp. Value df Sig. (2-sided) Pearson 164.073(a) 99 .000 Chi-Square • Experience in e-Learning as a Learner is significantly associated with Approval of Current Definition of IDM.
Table 6: Percentage of Approval of Current Definition for each Mode of IDM without having to change to Accommodate Definition of Social Media 4) Correlation Analysis
Experience in e-Learning as an Educator – Approval of Current Definition of IDM Asymp. Value df Sig. (2-sided) Pearson 195.084(a) 99 .000 Chi-Square • Experience in e-Learning as an Educator is significantly associated
To find out correlation between variables in this study, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) has been used. The significance level of a = .05 is applied to test all the hypotheses in this study. Five sets of correlated variables with significant association have been identified as follows.
57
who do not have experience in e-Learning; or to e-Learning executives of Universities around Thailand; to find a best practice e-Learning delivery model suitable for all or specific groups.
with Approval of Current Definition of IDM. The findings suggest that experience of the responders either as an educator or a learner in e-Learning definitely determine the approval of current definition of IDM without having to add elements of Social Media into it.
REFERENCES Adeoye, B. F., Adenle, S. O., and Adeyemo, S. A., (2008), "Framework for Choosing Teaching and Learning Delivery Methods in Nigerian Universities", European Journal of Scientific Research, vol.20 No.1 (2008), pp.134-140.
Age is a variable that strongly determines the approval of current definition of IDM. Age as well as Gender strongly influence a decision for the application of Mobility into IDM modes.
Crocoll, C. E., (2001), “Inspiring Volunteer Development: A Resource Book for Training Senior Volunteers in Intergenerational Programs”, National Service Fellow, Corporation for National Service, National Service Fellowship Program, USA.
5) Conclusion This study has provided useful indicators for application of e-Learning at Higher Education in Thailand. First, it lists a very comprehensive 22 modes of Integrative Delivery Method which may be applied for teaching and learning in both traditional class room and in e-Learning.
Duangchinda. V., Kim. Y.H., and Mekhabunchakij. K., (2010a), “Holistic Systemic Approach for the Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth of APEC Future Education: Higher Education: Policy, ICT & Systemic Change - Mobility and e-Learning Delivery Methods: Through the Perspectives of Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU)”, The 6th APEC Future Education Forum & The 8th International ALCoB Conference, pp. 131-142.
Comparing with previous study, the findings from 118 responders may not completely follow what the e-Pro teachers believe. Perhaps the e-Pro teachers do have very comprehensive experience with teaching and learning in e-Learning mode, as it is their duty to find out most effective ways for teaching and learning in e-Learning at Higher Education level, so they have to explore all possible modes. While Gender, Age, and Experience in e-Learning as an educator as well as a learner do determine level of significance in application of Mobility in e-Learning, most of the responders do also believe that current definition of IDM adequately cover Social Media aspects, and hence the current definition of the term is adequate .
Duangchinda. V., Kim. Y.H., and Mekhabunchakij. K., (2010b), “Mobility and e-Learning Delivery Methods: Through the Perspectives of Thailand Cyber University Project (TCU)”, AsiaPacific Cybereducation Journal, vol. 6., no. 1 (2010), pp. 30-49. Also available online at: http://acecjournal.org/2009/Journal_Data/ Vol6No1/6-1-3.pdf
Further investigations may include extending the study to wider population, such as measuring perception of lecturers
EDUCAUSE, (2010), “Definition of mLearning and Mobility”, from EDUCAUSE 58
Available Online at: http://www.educause.edu/ELI/LearningTec hnologies/MLearningandMobility/12397 Last accessed: November 9, 2010
on_initiative_receive_2009_unesco/back/9 195/cHash/86115cd643/ Last accessed: August 19, 2010. Wikipedia, (2010), “Mobile Computing”, Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_comp uting Last accessed: August 19, 2010.
Joan, K., L., (2010), "A mobile future for academic libraries", Reference Services Review, vol. 38, no. 2, 2010, pp. 205-213. Office of the Higher Education Commission, (2010), “2009 Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC): Annual Report”, pp. 173-175. Richardson, J. G., Jenkins, D. M., and Crickenberger R. G., (1994), “Program Delivery Methods in Extension Education”, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Available online at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/resources/educati on/sd6/ Last accessed: November 9, 2010 Sumati., S., (2009), "Career Development International", vol. 14, no. 2, 2009, p. 145, USA. Thiraroungchaisri, A., (2006), “Interview about definition of ubiquitous learning”, Bangkok, Thailand. Thailand Cyber University Project Date: May 22, 2006 Venue: Thailand Cyber University Project Length: 60 minutes. Thammetar T., (2009), “A case study of a Thailand Cyber University project”, Keynote Speech at e-Learning Asia Conference 2009 (eLAC 2009), Seoul, Republic of Korea. UNESCO, (2010), “2009 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education awarded” Available online at: http://www.unesco.org/en/education/dyna mic-content-singleview/news/rector_of_moscow_institute_of _open_education_and_the_jordan_educati 59
The Role of Learner Characteristics in the Intention to Use e-Learning Technologies and in the Effective Use of the System E. Ben Romdhane Department of Management and Information Systems, Business School, Tunis, Tunisia (emna.b.romdhane@gmail.com) the centrality of the learner in such devices. However, whatever the technology deployed if the learner does not accept the device, it is doomed to abandonment and failure. This issue of acceptance of e-learning technology by learners has attracted many researchers in information systems. However, we noted that only few research have investigated the influence of individual characteristics of learners on the acceptance of e-learning technology by adopting a longitudinal approach. These studies are even rarer when it comes to rely on objective data reflecting actual use of learners. We propose in this paper to consider these aspects that have been neglected in previous research on acceptance of e-learning technology by the learners.
ABSTRACT In this article we have tried to understand the influence of learner characteristics on the formation of the intention to use e-learning technology and on the effective use of the system. First, it turned out that the intention of the learners to use the system is not the best way to predict new behaviors associated with e-learning. Then we noticed that computer self-efficacy only affects the learner’s intention of use while the previous experience of the learner in the use of Internet tools has effective impact on the system. Finally, thanks to the database of the platform online we have found that educational level has a negative influence on the acceptance of e-learning technology by the learners.
The aim of this paper is to understand how individual characteristics can play a role in the formation of learners' intentions to use the e-learning and the effective use of it. We have structured this paper into two parts. The first presents the literature review which led us to develop the conceptual model of this research. The second presents the methodology adopted to test the model in question, the data analysis and discussion of results.
Keywords E-learning, intention, use, learner characteristics, longitudinal study, objective data.
1) INTRODUCTION In recent years, a lot of ink has been spilled over e-learning. Indeed, in an environment marked, firstly, by increased needs for training, secondly, by limited human and financial means, e-learning is seen as a serious solution to take in consideration to overcome the shortcomings of the teaching-face. This mode of learning, based on information and communication technology (ICT), has been approached by many streams of research that raised questions of various kinds but all agree on
2) THE LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1) Acceptance of e-learning technology by the learners In this research, we mobilize behavioral intention and utilization behavior to apprehend acceptance of e-learning technologies by learners.
61
behavioral control reflecting the existence of real or perceived internal and external elements that can make the adoption of behavior easier or rather more difficult.
2.1.1. The use of the technology In the theoretical perspective of the individual acceptance of technology (Davis, 1989), the use of technology is understood as a behavior determined by a certain number of individuals and contextual factors. Components commonly used to evaluate the acceptance of a technology are the volume and diversity of use. The volume of usage reflects the frequency of use (Compeau et al., 1999), the number of tasks supported by technology and time of use (Igbaria, 1993). The diversity of use refers to the number of functionalities used and the tasks for which they are used (Dahab, 2001).
According to Taylor and Todd (1995), formation of intention is a necessary precursor to induce future use. A unified model of acceptance and use of technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003) imply a direct relationship between behavioral intention and actual behavior of individuals. Indeed, several studies (Stoel and Lee, 2003; Limayem and Hirt, 2003) have shown that the intention to use e-learning technology by learners influence positively and significantly on the effective use of the system.
Limayem et al. (1997) suggest having access as much as possible to measures reflecting the effective use of technology through automated registrations system. Indeed, these authors found that in the case of subjective measures, based on respondents' statements, there is an overestimation of the use of the system.
Few studies, such as Dishaw and Strong (1999), find no significant relationship between the intention to use and the use of the system. In this research, we rely on the links established by psychosocial theories and technology acceptance model to assume that the intention to use predicted the actual use of e-learning technologies by learners. Indeed, we believe that more learners intend to use e-learning technologies they use it more effectively. Therefore we state the following hypothesis: H1 (a): There is a positive relationship between intention to use and volume of use of e-learning system by learners. H1 (b): There is a positive relationship between intention to use and diversity of use of e-learning system by learners.
As part of our research, we chose to understand use of e-learning technology by learners across the two dimensions most commonly accepted in the literature, namely the volume and diversity of use. We also opted to combine objective measures derived from the tracking system access and subjective measures from learners. 2.1.2. The learner’s intentions of use According to Dimoka and Davis (2008), behavioral intention is conative elements related to a tendency to act based on specific brain bases. Intention seems to be the single most powerful predictor of behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). It is in turn determined by personal and social factors. The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985) involves a new determinant of behavioral intention namely perceived
2.2) Characteristics of the learner The exploratory study we conducted among 187 students enrolled in three Tunisian universities highlighted the importance of studying the influence of self-efficacy and previous experience of learners in the use of Internet on the acceptance of e-learning technologies.
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In the field of e-learning, Foucher and Prince (2003) show that students who decide to use the system have a sense selfefficacy higher than those who choose not to make use. As part of our research, we believe that computer self-efficacy is a significant determinant of the volume and diversity of the use of the e-learning technologies. Indeed, learners who believe themselves capable of using this technology will not be quickly discouraged by the difficulties and use it to achieve their goals. H2 (b): There is a positive relationship between the computer self-efficacy and the learner’s volume of use of e-learning system. H2 (c): There is a positive relationship between the computer self-efficacy and the learner’s diversity of use of e-learning system.
2.2.1. The computer self-efficacy In the field of information technology, Compeau and Higgins (1995) define the self-efficacy of the user as the perception of the individual's ability to use computers. According to Bandura (2003), self-efficacy beliefs are an essential factor that affects performance for both directly and indirectly through behavioral intention. This concept was introduced by Ajzen (2002) in the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985) as an exogenous variable which directly influences the intention of behavior. In the field of e-learning, many researchers (Grandon et al., 2005; Liaw, 2008) have raised the concept of self-efficacy in expressing confidence that a learner may have in his abilities to use the platforms for online learning. In this research, we believe, according to Ajzen (2002) and Bandura (2003), that the more the learner has the feeling of being able to use the platforms online the more his intention to use the system increases. Conversely, the more the learner finds he is unable to use the platform of learning the more his intention decreases. This leads us to make the following hypothesis: H2 (a): There is a positive relationship between the computer self-efficacy and the learner’s intention to use e-learning system. Besides its influence on intention, computer self-efficacy may also influence the use of e-learning. In fact, according to Bandura (2003) intention is not the only predictor of behavior and the transition from intention to action is far from automatic. Other elements such as self-efficiency can influence the behavior and override the best intentions. In this regard, results from Compeau and Higgins (1995) showed that the more self-efficacy regarding technology is wide the more the use is important. This led Compeau et al. (1999) to propose a model assuming a direct link between self-efficacy and use of technology.
2.2.2. The previous experience in the use of Internet technology According to Deltour (2004), previous experience in the use of Internet technology can be studied through two complementary dimensions: the use of computer tools in general and the use of Internet. Indeed, a general knowledge of computer tools is insufficient for the acceptance of Internet technologies (Dahab, 2001). In our research prior experience with Internet usage reflects the theoretical and practical knowledge of the Internet, particularly in terms of navigation on websites and use of communication and collaboration tools. The experience that each individual could develop is likely to influence his intention and behavior with a system. In the field of e-learning, the majority of previous studies have not examined the direct influence of the experience of learners with computer and Internet on the intention to use the e -learning technology but concentrated on its indirect influence through the beliefs of the learners. 63
In our research, we believe that experience with the use of Internet is a factor that promotes the acceptance of e-learning technologies. Learners have acquired, over time, experience by using Internet develop automation with web surfing and with the communication and collaboration tools are more likely to use the platforms online. We make therefore the following hypothesis: H3 (a): There is a positive relationship between the previous experience in the use of Internet and the learner’s intention to use e-learning system. The utilization behavior of individuals may also be influenced by their previous experiences. Like Limayem and Hirt (2003), we believe that the use of a platform for e-learning requires a familiarity with Internet otherwise the use can be curbed. Therefore, the following hypotheses are made about the effect of previous experience with the use of Internet on the volume and diversity of use of e-learning system. H3 (b): There is a positive relationship between the previous experience in the use of Internet and the learner’s volume of use of e-learning system. H3 (c): There is a positive relationship between the previous experience in the use of Internet and the learner’s diversity of use of e-learning system.
3) METHODOLOGY First, we did a demonstration of the platform Elearnology to learners. Once the demonstration ended, we immediately measured previous experience with Internet, computer self-efficacy and intention of the learners to use the system. Second (after 14 week), we measured a second time the individual characteristics of learners and the use of the system. 3.1) Measures Ti insure measurement reliability, we tried to choose items that had been validated in previous research. Table 1: Measures
3.2) Data analysis A principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was conducted for each scale (SPSS 15.0). For each of the dimensions identified by the CPA's internal consistency reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s Alpha. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with structural equation method (Amos 16.0) was conducted to test convergent and discriminant validity of scales. For the convergent validity we calculated the coefficient Rho whose value must be greater than 0.5. The use of the CPA and CFA has allowed us to validate the psychometric properties of the constructs. The main result is the decomposition of the dimension “diversity of use” in two factors, namely the passive and active use.
In the end, we propose the following conceptual model:
Figure 1: Conceptual model 1
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Table 2: Results of reliability and validity analysis
level increases the more intention to use and effective use of the system decrease. 4.2) Results of hypotheses testing Since we have opted for a longitudinal study, we tested two models of research by using structural equations. The first tests the influence of individual characteristics, measured before use, on the intention. It also tests the influence of intention on the use. The second model tests the influence of individual characteristics, measured after use, on the use of the system. Table 3: Results of model 1
Therefore, the hypotheses made in the conceptual model are reconsidered to take into account the validation phase. We propose to test the following hypotheses:
Table 4: Results of model 2 Figure 2: Revision of the conceptual model after the validation phase 4) The RESULTS 4.1) Results from the tracking system Statistics show that 190 of the 241 students who constituted our sample had the intention to use the platform by registering online. Furthermore, we noticed that students who had the intention to use the platform (n = 190), have not all used it because the number of the real users of the platform is 179 students. Through the data system we identified an interesting finding: the more the education 65
field of e-learning acceptance by learners can be advanced; First, it appeared that computer selfefficacy is decisive in the formation of the intention of the learner to use the e-learning system. Moreover, previous experience with Internet is more decisive in the active use of the platform. Second, it turned out that the intention to use is not the best way to predict new behaviors associated with the e-learning technologies. Indeed, other factors such as previous experience of the learner, can influence behavior and override the best intentions. Thirdly, we found that the more the educational level increases the more the learners’ intention to use the system and the use decrease. According to the results we obtained, targeted actions can be proposed before and after the establishment of an e-learning system. Thus, to develop the intention of learners to use the system, we must develop their self-efficacy in through training sessions for believing in their abilities to use such a device. In addition, to promote the effective use of the system we must focus when designing the platform to adopt an incremental approach. It would be appropriate to start with the classic functionalities and gradually add other more advanced, once the learner is familiar with the system. In addition, the direction must focus on communication activities to sensitize students to the benefits of such a device so they can develop an active and continuous utilization behavior. In the end, we believe that it is necessary to integrate e-learning as soon as possible before the learner becomes accustomed to traditional teaching practices that would result in rejection of the system. In this regard, future research could further analyze the influence of habit on the acceptance of e-learning technologies by learners.
5) DISCUSSION The results obtained confirm the significant influence of the intention to use e-learning technologies on the volume of use, similarly to other studies (Limayem and Hirt, 2003; Stoel and Lee, 2003). However, this prediction attributed to the intention to use does not appear to have weight on the usage behavior of learners. We explained this by the fact that a learner can project himself into future use of a platform without deciding in advance of utilization behavior that he will adopt. We also believe that the intention to use cannot predict the new behavior that involves the use of e-learning. Our explanation contradicts that of Karahanna et al. (1999) who consider that the intention cannot predict the habitual behavioral. The results concerning the influence of self-efficacy may be due to the fact that it does not reflect the actual existence of skills but the perceptions that the individual may have of his abilities. It refers to the future and not the present or the past (Bandura, 1986). It can determine the intention of use but has no influence when the learner is confronted with his real skills and in direct contact with the system. In addition, the learner who has more experience with Internet has more knowledge and skills necessary to use actively the system. Experience in the use of the Internet does not play an important role on the passive use since it requires no specifics skills. One explanation for the lack of relationship between the volume of use and experience Internet tools is that intensive use may be due to a lack of experience of the student who is not comfortable with the system and spend time and energy to manipulate it and vice versa. 6) CONCLUSION This article allowed us to highlight three outcomes from which suggestions in the
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finals : Application de la messagerie électronique dans une organisation industrielle, Thèse de doctorat, Université des Sciences Sociale de Toulouse. Davis, F. D. (1989), Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly, 13(3), pp. 329-340. Deltour, F. (2004), Satisfaction, Acceptation, impacts: relier trios modalités pour évaluer les intranets auprès des utilisateurs, actes du 10ème congrès de l’AIM, Toulouse, 21-23 Septembre. Dimoka A., Davis, F. (2008), Where Does TAM Reside in the Brain? The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Technology Adoption, Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), France, December 12-15. Dishaw, M.T., Strong, D.M. (1999), Extending the Technology Acceptance Model with TaskTechnology Fit Constructs, Information and Management, 36(1), pp. 9-21. Fishbein, M., Ajzen, I. (1975), Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research, Addison-Wesley Publishing Compagny. Foucher, R., Prince, I. (2003), Motivation et apprentissage dans des dispositifs ouverts de formation, dans N. Delobbe, G. Karnas et C. Vandenberghe (dir.) Évaluation et développement des compétences au travail, Vol.1. psychologie du travail et des organisations, (p. 517-526). Presse de l’Université de Louvain. Grandon, E. E., Alshare, K., Kwun, O. (2005), Factors influencing student intention to adopt online classes: a cross-cultural study, Journal of
REFERENCES Ajzen, I. (1985), From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior», dans J. Kuhl et J. Beckman (dir.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior, (p. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer. Ajzen, I. (2002), Residual effects of past on later behaviour: Habituation and reasoned action perspectives, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6(2), pp.107-122. Bandura, A. (1986), Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A social Cognitive Theory, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Bandura, A. (2003), Auto-efficacité, le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle, Editions DeBoeck Universités, Paris. Brown, I. T. J. (2002), Individual and Technological Factors Affecting Perceived Ease of Use of Webbased Learning Technologies in Developing Country, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 9(5), pp. 1-15. Cheung, W., Chang, M. K., Lai, V.S. (2000), Prediction of Internet and World Wide Web usage at work: a test of an extended Triandis model, Decision Support Systems, 30, pp.83-100. Compeau, D., Higgins, C. A. (1995), Computer Self-Efficacy: Development of a Measure and Initial Test, MIS Quarterly, 19(2), Juin, pp. 189-211. Compeau, D., Higgins, C. A., Huff, S. (1999), Social cognitive theory and individual reactions to computing technology: A longitudinal study, MIS Quarterly, 23(2), pp. 145-158. Dahab, D. (2001), Les déterminants de l’acceptation des technologies de l’information et de la communication par les utilisateurs 67
Triandis, H.C. (1979), Values, Attitudes and Interpersonal Behaviour, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 195259. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G. B. (2003), User Acceptance of Information technology: Toward a Unified view, MIS Quarterly, 27(3), pp. 425-478.
Computing Sciences in Colleges, 20(4), pp. 46-56, April. Igbaria, M., (1993), Use Acceptance of Microcomputer Technology: An Empirical Test, OMEGA International Journal of Management Science, 2(1), pp. 7390. Karahanna, E., Straub, D. W., Chervany, N. L. (1999), Information Technology Adoption Accross Time: A CrossSectional Comparison of PreAdoption and Post-Adoption Beliefs, MIS Quarterly, 23(2), pp. 183-213. Limayem, M., Bergeron, F., Richard A. (1997), Utilisation des messageries électroniques: mesures objectives versus mesures subjectives, Système d’Information et Management, 2(1), mars. Limayem, M., Hirt, G. S. (2003), Force of Habit and Information Systems Usage: Theory and Initial Validation, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 4, pp. 65-97. Ndubisi, N. O. (2004), Factors influencing e-learning adoption intention: Examining the determinant structure of the decomposed theory of planned behaviour constructs, HERDSA Conference Proceedings. Ong, C. S., Lai, J. Y., Wang, Y. S. (2004), Factors affecting engineers’ acceptance of asynchronous elearning systems in high-tech companies, Information & Management, 41(6), pp. 795-804. Stoel, L., Lee, K. H. (2003), Modelling the effect of experience on student acceptance of Web-based courseware, Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 13(5), pp. 364-374. Taylor S., Todd P.A. (1995), Assessing IT Usage: The Role of Prior Experience, MIS Quarterly, 19(2), pp. 561-570.
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The Comparison of Student Expectations on e-Learning Courseware and face-to-face Instruction in Fundamental Physics P. Suvarnaphaet Faculty of Animal Sciences and Agricultural Technology, Silpakorn University, Petchaburi 76120, Thailand (phisit186@gmail.com) Group (PERG) as part of a project to study the attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of students that have an effect on what they learn in an introductory calculus-based physics course. Students are asked to agree or disagree on a five-point scale with 34 statements about how they see physics and how they think about their work in their physics course (Redish, Saul, and Steinberg, 1998). The expectations of the learners about the learning process and the making knowledge. The learners were senior students’ from the faculty of Nurse on learning Life Science Physics. The expectations were separate to “favorable experts’ responses” and “unfavorable experts’ responses”. The results showed that the students’ expectations in the six dimensions were 47.7%, 45.2%, 48.6%,46.5%, 41.0%, 45.0% respectively, and 45.0% of the total students’ responses were favorable (expert’s) responses(Kanjana Chanprasert, 2008). The expectations of the learner were the most important. The expectations were navigator for their learning behaviors (Kanjana Chanprasert, 2008). At Silpakorn University, the students from the faculty of Faculty of
ABSTRACT The Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) is a survey design to measure student attitudes on their beliefs and assumptions about learning physics. The MPEX survey has 5 levels of Likertscale that arrange from strongly disagree to strongly agree questionnaire. This research had used the MPEX survey for 42 students in Faculty of Animal Science and Agricultural Technology to investigate student expectations before starting Fundamental Physics course. We focused on student beliefs in e-Learning Courseware compared to face-to-face instruction in six issues. The six issues were expected about 1) learning physics 2) the structure of physics knowledge 3) the content of physics knowledge 4) the connection between physics and reality 5) the role of mathematics in learning physics 6) the kind of activities and work necessary to make sense out of physics. We reported results of a small gap expectation of students between the two pre-instructions and tendency of the instructional improvement for students in Fundamental physics at Silpakorn University.
Animal Sciences and Agricultural Technology
studied in Fundamental Physics. The aim of this study was to determine university students’ expectations and beliefs in a elearning fundamental physics course, how those expectations compare to that of students in face-to-face fundamental physics course.
Keywords Expectation, Fundamental Physics, the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) survey 1) INTRODUCTION
2) METHODOLOGY The Maryland Physics Expectation (MPEX) survey has been developed by the Maryland Physics Education Research
This is an exploratory study that investigates students’ expectations and 69
Table 1: Dimensions expectations
effort
math link
reality link
concepts
coherence
independence
beliefs about physics and physics learning. The research methods consisted of; 1. Sample: The study involved 42 freshmen students from the Faculty of Animal Science and Agricultural Technology were engaged in this study. 2. The modified MPEX: The researcher studies the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) and translated into Thai. But the items and the structures and context of the survey remained the same. The experts of language proofed and recommended the MPEX. The researcher edited the MPEX before using. The survey tools were the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX), as Likert-style (agree-disagree) questionnaires. Beginning of the semester scores were calculated for participating students. As described by Redish et al. (1998), the following clusters of learning physics are probed in the MPEX: (1) Independence. Students take responsibility for constructing their own understanding, rather than taking what is given by authorities (teacher, text) without evaluation. (2) Coherence. Students believe that physics needs to be considered as a connected and coherent framework, rather than a set of unrelated facts or ‘‘pieces.’’ (3) Concepts. Students stress understanding of the underlying ideas and concepts, rather than memorizing and using formulas. (4) Reality link. Students believe that ideas learned in physics are relevant and useful in a wide variety of real contexts, rather than having little or no relation to outside experiences. (5) Math link. Students consider mathematics as a convenient way of representing physical phenomena, rather than viewing physics and mathematics as having little or no relationship. (6) Effort. Students make the effort to use information available and try to make sense of it, rather than not attempting to use available information effectively.
of
student
Favorable
Unfavorable
To takes responsibility for constructing own understanding
To takes what is given by authorities (teacher, text) without evaluation
To believes To Believes physics 12, 15, physics needs to can be treated as 16, be considered as a unrelated facts or 21, 29 connected, "pieces" consistent framework To stresses To focuses on 4, 19, understanding of memorizing and 26, the underlying using formulas 27, 32 ideas and concepts To believes ideas To believes ideas 10, 18, learned in physics learned in physics 22, 25 are relevant and has little relation to useful in a wide experiences outside variety of real the classroom contexts To considers To views the 2, 6, 8, mathematics as a physics and the 16, 20 convenient way math as of representing independent with physical little relationship phenomena between them To makes the does not attempt to 3, 6, 7, effort to use use available 24, 31 information information available and tries effectively to make sense of it Source: Adapted from Redish et al. (1998)
3. Data Collection and Analyses: Data were collected via the application of the MPEX to 42 freshmen Animal Science and Agricultural Technology students of Silpakorn throughout the second semester of their university physics course. Following Redish et al. (1998), the results are presented by specifying the percentage of favorable versus unfavorable responses to items in six clusters. A ‘favorable’ response is defined as a response in agreement with the expert response and an ‘unfavorable’ response is defined as a response in disagreement with the expert response. For the analysis in this 70
MPEX Items 1, 8, 13, 14, 17, 27
physics course. The study has also compared expectations and beliefs of faceto-face and e-learning courseware group students. The overall scores of e-learning group students (Overall 43.3%) on the MPEX clusters less than face-to-face group students (Overall 46.4%) but the results suggest that e-learning courseware instruction was not at all different from face-to-face instruction in influencing students’ expectations and beliefs about physics and physics learning at Silpakorn University. We reported results of a small gap expectation of students between the two pre-instructions and tendency of the instructional improvement for students in Fundamental physics at Silpakorn University.
paper, following Redish et al. (1998), agree and strongly agree responses (4 and 5) were added together and disagree and strongly disagree responses (1 and 2) were added together while the responses for scale 3 were regarded as “neutral”. Data from the e-Learning Courseware instruction and face-to-face instruction were added to the analyses for comparison purposes. All students included in the reported data completed both the pre- instruction surveys. Result Student responses were analyzed through the 6 dimensions of the MPEX, which revealed the structure of their beliefs on learning physics (Table 2). Table 2: Percentages of favorable/unfavorable responses on overall and clusters of the MPEX survey at the beginning of the semester Face-to-face group student Ind. Coh. Con. Reality link Math link Effort Overall E-learning group student Ind. Coh. Con. Reality link Math link Effort Overall
Favorable 48.2 44.3 46.5 45.1 47.1 47.2 46.4
Unfavorable 13.1 11.2 10.2 17.5 14.2 13.2 13.2
Neutral 38.7 44.5 43.3 37.4 38.7 39.6 40.4
Favorable 45.3 43.2 42.1 43.1 44.1 42.0 43.3
Unfavorable 15.2 14.2 14.2 18.3 14.1 15.0 15.2
Neutral 39.5 42.6 43.7 38.6 41.8 43.0 41.5
REFERENCES Edward F. Redish, Jeffery M. Saul, and Richard N. Steinberg. (1992). Student Expectations in Introductory Physics. The American Journal of Physics, 66(3), 212-224. Kanjana Chanprasert. (2009). The expectations of students from the faculty of nurse on learning life science physics. Proceedings of the 34th Congress on Science and Technology of Thailand (Stt34).CD-ROM.
The results from this study revealed that overall the six dimensions, the favorable students’ expectations (elearning) were less than the favorable students ‘expectations (face-to-face). 3) CONCLUSTION The purpose of this study was to investigate university students’ expectations and beliefs in fundamental 71
Behavioral Aspects of Thai Students Toward Cell Phone Adoption in the Classroom Willard G. Van De Bogart Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand (willard.v@bu.ac.th)
but also with other cell phone functions such as games, social networks and the internet. In a sense the cell phone is information currency and is valued in the same manner as monetary currency. You can’t leave home without it.
ABSTRACT The preponderance of cell phones owned by students has prompted this study on how students would like to use their cell phones in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to determine student behaviors with cell phone use regarding EFL classroom activities. A questionnaire survey was given to two hundred Bangkok University EFL students in order to learn how the students were currently using their cell phones and how they would like to use them in the future. Both a quantitative and qualitative approach was taken and the two types of feedback were analyzed for a closer examination of the students’ behaviors. The overall results have suggested their preference for using cell phones for various activities. The benefits of this study could be utilized for designing future learning activities as well as cell phone usage in the EFL classroom.
The attention of the students within a classroom setting is now divided between listening to the teacher and monitoring their cell phones. Barring eliminating cell phones from the classroom this study was devised to learn the feasibility of adopting the cell phone as a language learning aid. A questionnaire was designed which surveyed what students do with their cell phones both in and out of the classroom as well as their attitudes and opinions in using the cell phone in the classroom. Many surveys have been conducted on student attitudes and behaviors using cell phones but one survey which is exhaustive in its execution was designed by Cristina H. Oelofse in the Department of Curriculum Studies at the University of Pretoria (Oelofse, 2008). Oelofse’s rationale is that if the cell phone does prove to be a viable educational tool then the learning process could be greatly enhanced.
Keywords EFL, Cell phone in Classroom, Cell phone Behavior
Therefore, the objectives in designing this questionnaire were to elicit answers from EFL students at Bangkok University which could be studied and later used to determine the efficacy of learning English if the cell phone became integrated into classroom exercises.
1) INTRODUCTION It’s safe to say that nearly all students in developed countries own a cell phone and the majority, if not all, bring their cell phones into the classroom or carry them on their person. The cell phone has become an indispensable device, so much so, that students have developed dependent behaviors with using their cell phones because they provide instant communication with not only their friends
2) LITERARY REVIEW Over the past two years the amount of papers devoted to Mobile Assisted 73
Looking farther afield to Hyejeon College in Korea, (Meurant, 2007) has developed a second language pedagogy for using cell phones. Meurant’s research showed how cell phones were relevant to task based learning and are suitable for classroom interactivity. According to Meurant the rapid pace of technological learning is impacting second language acquisition which is radically redefining the traditional concept of the classroom. As a result, Meurant’s literature review, with implications for second language pedagogy, found that cell phones can be useful as learning tools (Meurant, 2006). Meurant reviewed Keirnan and Aizawa’s work (Keirnan, 2004) with cell phones in task based learning with students in Japan and showed how the authors demonstrated that cell phones could be potentially useful as language tools. All the researchers reviewed by Meurant contributed activities to augment second langauge learning such as distributed SMS messages, both during and after class, paired and group tasks using cell phones to communicate with one another as well as feedback on lessons sent by students using email or SMS text messaging.
Language Learning (MALL) has escalated to the point that conducting a study of all of them would be impractical. (KukulskaHulme, 2009) of the Institute of Educational Technology in the UK states, “The use of mobile phones and other portable devices is beginning to have an impact on how learning takes place in many disciplines and contexts, including language learning. In a collaborative research effort conducted by John Pettit and Kukulska-Hulme (Pettit, 2007) this impact on learning with cell phones was expanded by Pettit who showed how there is also a trend leading to personal learning environments which students are creating on their own thus side stepping a dependence on learning only from in the classroom. This same concern of learning in and out of the classroom recently made headlines in the New York Times (Richtel, 2010) where students were developing personal projects using their digital devices outside the classroom. It was the effort of David Reilly, principle of Woodside High School, in Silicon Valley who says, “I am trying to get back their attention from their Blackberry’s”. Reilly is creating other ways for the students to connect back to the school with their mobile devices so a continuous exchange of learning will take place and students do not just leave school work for personal work. Pettit likewise points to these personal learning environments in the UK and suggests ways of taking advantage of these personal environments, as has David Reilly at Woodside High School in California, to integrate them back into a meaningful learning experience within the school. These new interactions with mobile technologies are creating everchanging learning environments. The weavings between spatial and temporal domains with mobile technologies, specifically the cell phone, will require an adjusted pedagogical framework to accommodate the students’ new learning tools.
The many research papers which exist in the literature show a marked increase in finding new ways to adopt the cell phone in the classroom. The European Network of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning most recently brought together forty researchers in mobile learning in a conference titled “Kaleidoscope” to discuss the implications of adopting cell phones as a learning tool (Sharples, 2006a). Important implications were discussed involving the ubiquitous nature of the cell phone in all sectors of society prompting the recognition of a society that is changing into a mobile society where learning is taking place at various locations and times to suit the interest and curiosity of the student. Sharples, who is the director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of 74
rather than personal learning environments which Pettit, in the UK, has pointed out.
Nottingham, UK, discussed the conflicts between personal and informal learning with traditional classroom instruction at a Kaleidoscope workshop. Sharples discovered that this conflict has been found to be the biggest issue when educators are confronted with how to integrate mobile technology in the classroom. Another presenter at the workshop, (Winters, 2009) offered several factors to be considered when designing a mobile learning activity: The learner and their personal relationships (peer groups, teacher, etc.), What is the learner learning (topic, relationship to prior experience, etc.)?, and Where and when are learners learning? The implications to answering these questions led to more understanding on how to design lessons in a distributed learning network which spans time and space. Other arguments in favor and against using cell phones in the classroom were also addressed. The results of this workshop were that these mobile technologies would eventually be absorbed into schools and universities, but their integration would take on a variety of forms and the issue of integrating online knowledge and classroom knowledge would create a tension between users and educators as well as how parents wanted their children exposed to knowledge outside the classroom (Sharples, 2006). Obviously, it behooves us to examine our own students to learn how they are adapting to mobile learning environments.
Mark Prensky, an internationally acclaimed game designer is also finding that students are inventing their own ways to use their cell phones to learn what it is they want to know (Prensky, 2005). Prensky defines young people as “Digital Natives” who have learned how to adopt these mini computers, as he calls cell phones, and use them as the primary means of communication. Prensky sees these “Digital Natives” adapting to the multiple uses of cell phone applications well beyond anything originally thought possible. Prensky asks the question as to whether these devices can provide the knowledge necessary to help students in their lives. Considering the integration of graphics, data bases, instant communication and shared information networks such as Facebook, these questions are likely to be less important than how we integrate the capacities of these mini computers (as the cell phone is called) into a learning environment. Continuing, (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009) asks the question if mobile learning changes language learning. The key answer that came out of this question is the fact that mobility and the change in location-based learning needs to be considered when developing lessons for language learning. What this means is extending the types of learning available to students inside as well as outside the classroom. The question as to whether mobile assisted language learning will change language learning is an ongoing concern of Kukulska- Hulme. What has been found, is that the design of the learning activity is predicated on close interaction, conversation, and decision-making between members of a group, which includes physical movement both inside and outside the classroom.
So, what we are witnessing is a rapid pace of technological innovation which in turn is drastically changing the concept of the traditional classroom. When the cell phone and other mobile technologies are introduced into the classroom the motivation to adapt to tasks generated by these devices is usually met with a high degree of interest. The caution which needs to be addressed, however, is that this motivation is channeled into doing exercises which complement course work
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knowledge of a foreign language (Fisher, 2009). However, the study did point out that more effort was needed in developing interactive design solutions with L2 vocabulary acquisition software that would include better problem solving solutions when incorporated into cell phones to understand new vocabulary if significant learning gains by the students were to occur.
One such researcher who draws on survey data, interviews, and focus groups to explore how personal mobile technology is changing the educational experience in educational systems is James E. Katz of Rutgers University (Katz, 2003). Katz’s shows that there has been a significant alteration in the routines students perform in the classroom. His research is based on the results of a cell phone study by (Fortunati, 2001).
Supporting this view of better interactive design is Todd Toler, Director of User Experience at John Wiley & Sons in New York, who also thinks that the more learning theories are incorporated into interactive designs using cell phones for classroom assignments, the more readily these mobile devices will become permanent adjuncts to a students learning environment. The need to develop personal information spaces by students can then be integrated with classroom assignments thus bridging the divide between student and teacher. (Toler, 2010)
The development of mobile phone games for language learning has been conducted by Richard Watson Todd at King Mongkut University of Technology in Bangkok. Todd developed a “Mobile Maze” software program which he says is a “communicative paradigm” because it gives students an action reading maze for use with mobile phones rather than a passive behavioral approach of just answering questions. These Mobile Mazes were adapted to “Mobile Phone Assisted Language Learning” (MPALL), as Todd refers to cell phone learning, by using words and pictures so students could travel through the story (Mobile Maze) making their decisions as they proceeded through the story. Todd was able to bring many language skills into play which created a motivating experience for reading and grammar comprehension skills (Todd, 2008).
These are only just a few task based activities and research efforts using cell phone technology and many more are being explored and implemented every day. From learning the many concerns of educators around the world with mobile assisted language learning, it, therefore, seemed appropriate to analyze Thai students. As a result, the 200 students surveyed at Bangkok University showed that practically all the students carry their cell phones to class, which in itself may not be unexpected, but further examination reveals behavior patterns and perceptions suggesting that the Thai students surveyed are ready to adopt the cell phone for class work similar to their European, Asian and American counterparts. When taking into account these few mentions of cell phone use from the literature, coupled with on-going research, it is encouraging to learn how second language acquisition can be improved using mobile devices. Whether Thai students at Bangkok University prefer to use their cell phones to learn English was one of the objectives of this current research.
A team of researchers from several universities teamed up with Sharp Laboratories of Europe to study vocabulary learning using the English Language Mobile (ELMO) system which was conducted on Sharp Smartphones. The ELMO system has developed interactivity including highlighting words to adapt to the readers level, and access to an Oxford dictionary. Test results indicated that pre-post mean scores had increased resulting in the conclusion that adaptive software linked to e-books running on mobile devices offered a means for students to improve their 76
motivating which ought to encourage English language teachers to look for applications within the classroom. The issue is how to impart the necessary lessons for students who are interested in second language acquisition. The implications for using mobile phones for language learning have prompted Todd to develop several activities in and out of the classroom. One such activity is one which Todd created that involved negotiated meaning between two people who used their cell phones to describe any object and then tried to draw the described object based on how it was explained over the cell phone. Self assessment of recorded activities was another activity Todd initiated which could be critiqued by detailed feedback on the student’s performance from the teacher by listening to the recording and commenting using the cell phone.
3) LEARNING THEORIES INTEGRATED WITH CELL PHONES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM The focus for the cell phone survey at Bangkok University was geared to EFL students. As more and more students are in need of communicating in a globalized world, learning a second language has become a priority. There are many learning theories which can be adopted for learning a second language. Using mobile technologies to analyze the effectiveness of learning a second language has been developed at Boise State University in the USA. BSU is exploring how the constructivist theory of learning can be integrated with mobile learning (Craig, 2009). Since the constructivist approach is one in which people build on their own experiences, and with more students developing their own personal world of information sharing, it is the view of the researchers at Boise State University that there is a need to demonstrate that mobile technology integration, along with the constructivist approach to learning, is a perfect match. Likewise, Sharples at the Learning Sciences Research Institute in the UK, along with a team of researchers, is also developing a framework for theorizing about mobile learning. Sharples’ team also found a match with cell phone learning and a social constructivist approach (Sharples, 2010). This team realizes that any theory of mobile learning must take account of the ubiquitous use of personal and shared technology. A convergence of personal mobile devices and learning languages is taking place with new applications being developed worldwide, and again (Kukulska-Hulme and Bull, 2009) are developing theory-based support for mobile language learning.
Consequently, as a result of seeing the majority of students at Bangkok University using cell phones, the decision was made to obtain a self perception profile from the EFL students using a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in order to learn how Thai students related to their cell phones and what they would like to use them for in an educational setting. The questionnaire was offered in both Thai and English to minimize any misunderstanding of the questions. The key aspect in conducting this self perception study with Thai students was to see how it would compare with the ongoing developments and results obtained by researchers and teachers in other universities around the world with their EFL students. Therefore, the intention in designing this survey was to get a broad look at how Thai students at Bangkok University perceived the use of their cell phone as well as their attitude for using it as a learning tool.
The motivational factors encouraging students to learn a second language have been indicated by (Todd, 2006) implying that mobile phones are intrinsically 77
The questionnaire was designed using both the Thai language and the English language to remove any doubt as to the meaning of the questions. The questions were reviewed prior to being administered by native speakers of Thai who hold doctorates in the field to determine any inconsistencies after translation into Thai.
4) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The goal of this investigation on student behaviors with their cell phones was to: 1. To examine how the students perceive their use of the cell phone. 2. To identify what the students do with their cell phones the most. 3. To investigate whether the students would like to use their cell phones to learn English. 4. To study the students attitudes in using the cell phone in the classroom.
6.2) Instrument construction: The questionnaire was used as an instrument to survey the students’ perceptions and preferences with using a cell phone consisting of three parts:
5) RESEARCH QUESTIONS Part I. Demographic data. Part IIa: Students’ self perception of cell phone use. Part IIb: Cell phone functions preferred by students. Part III. Students’ journal on using cell phones.
The research questions were designed to survey students’ behavior related to cell phone use to learn English. A series of questions in the form of statements as well as asking which functions were used the most were developed to address the questions. Accordingly, this researcher has addressed four main questions:
7) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Data analysis: The data analysis in this research used both the quantitative and qualitative method. Descriptive statistics was used to find means and standard deviation (SD) of students self perception for parts IIa and IIb. The Students’ journal, Part III, was analyzed based on student discourse reviewed by the researcher. Patterns in the students’ answers were clustered in order to make overall comments on the students’ remarks. The questionnaires were constructed and reviewed by three teachers in the Language Institute at Bangkok University. To ascertain the reliability of the questionnaire, the alpha reliability coefficient was calculated for the items, using the Likert scale. The alpha reliability score was .85.
1. What are the students’ perceptions of cell phone use? 2. What do the students do with their cell phones the most? 3. Do the students prefer to use their cell phones for learning English? 4. How would the students like to use their cell phone in the classroom? 6) METHODOLOGY 6.1) Subjects The subjects in this study were 1st year students in their 2nd semester, however, it was also open to other year students. Of the 200 students surveyed 46.3 percent were male and 53.5 percent were female. The ages ranged from 18 to 24 years of age. 52 percent had a C+ to B grade rating, and 38 percent were majoring in business English or business management with 10.5 percent in hotel and tourism
7.1) Part IIa: Students’ self perception of cell phone use.
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Statement I could not go anywhere without my cell phone. I think using my cell phone to call friends to help me with my lessons is important. I think sending homework to my teacher over the cell phone (SMS, email, internet) is a good idea. The cell phone is very useful when I have to do my homework alone. I think the cell phone can be used in class to help me understand what the teacher is saying. The cell phone is very helpful for searching information for my assignments. My English classroom would be more interesting if I could use my cell phone for learning. I think I can use my cell phone to help me learn English better.
Levels of agreement Mean S.D. Meaning 4.62 .621 High
4.02
1.06
High
3.99
1.05
High
3.71
1.05
High
3.58
1.07
High
3.54
1.02
High
3.52
3.35
1.07
.996
I would like it 3.25 1.11 if the teacher asked me to use my cell phone to learn English in class. Cell phones are 2.10 1.20 useful in preparing for tests. Figure 1.
Medium
Low
Scale: 1.0 – 2.49 = Low, 2.5 – 3.49 = Medium, 3.5 – 5.00 = High The results show that almost all the students carry a cell phone to class. What is very interesting is that besides the students wanting to talk to their friends they rate equally as high a want to send their assignments to the teacher. The students also admit the cell phone is useful when they are alone at home for doing their homework. When you compare these two results of wanting to communicate with the teacher and using the cell phone for homework the link between these two are currently non-existent with classroom lessons. Therefore, it is highly probable that the students would like to have some interaction with the teacher using the cell phone for their homework. Comments: I like sending my homework by email because it’s easier and faster for students and the teacher. / I think I can use my cell phone to help me learn English better because my cell phone can assist me in many ways. / It’s quick and easy. / My cell phone can save me time to work on anything. / It’s good to send files on the internet because it’s faster than going to my friend’s house.
High
It’s readily apparent that the students have already developed routines to use their cell phones for home work and indicate they would like to communicate with the teacher
Medium
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maintains ownership of the lesson and guidance with the instruction there is a very good chance that the students will access information on the cell phone related to the content in the lesson plan.
Another interesting observation is that the students are using the cell phone to try and understand what the teacher is saying in the classroom. If the student had some interaction with their lessons the answer as to whether the cell phone would better help them learn English may improve.
7.2) Part IIb: Cell phone functions preferred by students.
Comments: The cell phone can search anything on the internet in class to help me learn. / My cell phone helps me take dictation. / I don’t understand what the teacher is saying every time. / I use my cell phone in class because it has a dictionary. / I can search for information that’s easy and correct. These few comments are representative of all the comments from the students who responded positively with being able to use their cell phones to help them understand the information they were receiving from the teacher. This is positive feedback and one that should not be ignored. Figure 2. How do the students perceive using their cell phone to learn English better?
Scale: 1.0 – 2.49 = Low, 2.5 – 3.49 = Medium, 3.5 – 5.00 = High
Comments: I can get various types of information like vocabulary and sentences. / If you set the menu to English it helps a little bit. / I can find more examples on my cell phone. / It makes me learn and understand better. / If your intention is to learn English it’s helpful. / Yes I think it works in class. / I think so, because I set all my phones functions in English.
When analyzing what the students do with their cell phones it can be seen that the top two activities are listening and speaking. The next two are looking or taking pictures and the next two are connecting to the internet and text messaging. It is these activities that need to be looked at more closely when considering any lesson plan that would be given to the students requiring the use of a cell phone.
These kinds of comments are very typical. What it is showing is the cell phone is a very quick resource to help with understanding English. Whether it’s vocabulary, sentences, or clarifying what the teacher is saying, the majority of students depend on their cell phone for language assistance. So even though there may be residual feelings of loss of control in teaching, the reverse seems to be taking place. Students are using the cell phone to keep up with the teacher so if the teacher
Connecting to the internet and text messaging is very insightful. If a student is asked to locate something on the internet there is a chance they may enjoy text messaging to someone about the information they found. If a student enjoys looking at pictures it may be useful for the student to describe the picture using a list
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d. Motivation to participate in activities either in or out of the classroom.
of adjectives or identify the picture using a noun.. When you compare the results of students saying the cell phone is very useful in helping them with their assignments, and also see that they like to connect to the internet, it is only logical to assume that if they had an assignment that related to both these interests a positive result in learning might come about.
Comments such as: I like to search for information when I don’t understand something. / I feel comfortable with my cell phone, and if I don’t have it I don’t understand as well. These comments are indications that the students have already developed a dependence with their cell phones.
What we find as a result of this survey is a positive orientation to the cell phone on many levels, yet on a classroom level the students are not being asked to do any academic work with them. Therefore, it would prove very beneficial to develop classroom exercises with one group of students using the cell phone and another group of students using the traditional reading materials and compare the results.
Following are the students’ answers from clustering the comments around four of the highest frequencies of the negative responses on how cell phones could be beneficial in learning English. The reasons given show that cell phones detract the students from learning English and center around four major patterns: a. Interferes with an ability to concentrate. b. Prefer to use a talking dictionary or book. c. Can learn English better from a teacher. d. Lacks the capability to improve language skills.
7.3) Part III: Students’ journal on using cell phones. Question 1. a. Would you like to use your cell phone to learn English? Yes or no. The number of students who answered yes was 137 with 52 students answering no and 11 not answering. Following are the students’ answers from clustering the comments around four of the highest frequencies of the positive responses on how cell phones could be beneficial in learning English. The reasons given show that cell phones can help in learning English and center around four major patterns:
Comments such as: The cell phone interferes with my studying and I can’t concentrate. / I use my computer and talking dictionary more than my cell phone. / It bores me when I use my cell phone in class. These comments indicate that there is very little dependence on the cell phone for learning. Many of these students also felt the cell phones were too expensive and that they could learn more from a book.
a. Enhance their learning abilities using dictionaries and the internet. b. Enhance their language knowledge with text messaging, emails, and voice. c. Communicate with the teacher with emails or video.
Question 2. How would you like to use your cell phone in the future?
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The researchers cited in the literature review, as well as in the learning theories applied to cell phones for second language acquisition, show a high degree of promise for adapting some aspects of mobile assisted language learning in the classroom. The motivation to use the cell phone to learn English definitely seems to be an interest of the students. It will take further research to determine which language skills can be benefited the most by their use in and out of the classroom. It is the goal of this researcher to explore those possibilities.
Again, following the students’ answers the comments were clustered around four of the highest frequencies of a particular response. a. The desire to communicate with the teacher with assignments, video conferencing, email, voice clips, or direct video calls. b. Software programs that would make learning English easier. c. Learn from home by downloading e-Learning lessons or interacting with the internet. d. Ability to search knowledge better, access to more applications to learn English, use it like a computer with WiFi.
This is just a preliminary survey to get a sense of what the Thai students are doing with their cell phones. When you compare these results with those of other researchers as well as taking into consideration the issues surrounding cell phone use in the classroom it is evident that these Thai students would not be adverse to using them to learn English. Mobile assisted language learning is an every growing discipline in tandem with technological innovation, which is constantly providing ways in which information can be accessed, managed as well as displayed to assist the student to become more engaged in the learning process. And most importantly the teacher will also have to adapt to these new digital learning aids and pedagogies to match the student’s willingness to use these devices in any way which benefits their curiosity. According to (Mounier, 2010) a real step towards the improvement of the quality of the teaching-learning process is to understand the science concerning the relationship between knowledge, the teacher and the student.
The comments expressed with this question seem to indicate the students are ready for more engagement with software to help them learn English better. Comments: I would like to listen to music or play games that would improve my language skills. / I want to find new search techniques to develop my learning skills. / I want to open the internet anywhere, anytime with Hi-speed access to search for data quickly. These answers indicate a level of student awareness on the capabilities of the technology and want to do more and do it more quickly. 8) CONCLUSION The most prominent result from this survey is students at Bangkok University would like to use their cell phone to learn English. Not only would they like to be taught how to learn new techniques to learn English with these new digital tools, but also use them to interact with the teacher or with each other in meaningful task based activities involving the use of cell phones.
9) ACKNOWLEDMENTS I am grateful to Bangkok University for its excellent resources. I also thank Asst. Prof. Dr. Chutima Thamraksa, Director of the Language Institute, for creating a supportive and informative environment 82
(First ed.). Bangkok: Silkworm Books. Oelofse, C. H. (2008). The Learner Profile of a Teenage Cell Phone User. Master of Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria. Retrieved from http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/availabl e/utd-07102009160407/unrestricted/ Pettit, J., Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2007). Going with the Grain:Mobile devices in practice. [Research]. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 23(1), 17-33. Prensky, M. (2005). What can you Learn from a cell phone? - Almost anything. [Academic]. Innovate, 1(5). Richtel, M. (2010, November 21, 2010). Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction, New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/2 1/technology/21brain.html Sharples, M. T., Josie; Vavoula, Giasemi. (2010). Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from Learning Sciences Research Institute, http://www.mlearn.org.za/CD/pape rs/Sharples%20Theory%20of%20Mobile.pdf Todd, R. W. (2006). Getting the Most out of Mobile Phones for Language Learning. Guidelines, 28(2), 40-43. Toler, T. (2010). Learning Theories for Interactive Designers #1-Situated Learning. Solid State UX. Retrieved from http://www.solidstateux.com/intera ction-design/learning-theories-thatinteraction-designers-shouldunderstand-1-situated-learning/
for academic research work. I also want to thank Assistant Professors Dr. Preawpan Pringprom and Dr. Sutilak Meeampol for their guidance and constructive advice in preparing this research and a special thanks to Freek de Groot, M.Ed TESOL Program Leader, Graduate School of Education, Faculty of Liberal arts, Asian University, Banglamung, Chonburi for technical editing. Thanks also to all the students for participating in this research, and every researcher and author whose article was used in this paper. REFERENCES Craig, T., Van Lorn, Michelle. (2009). Impact Constructivist Learning Theory and Mobile Technology Integration. [Academic]. Theories of Educational Technology, 12. Fisher, T., Pemberton, R., Sharples, M., Ogata, H., Uosaki, N., Edmonds, P., Hull, A.,Tschorn, P.,. (2009). Mobile learning of vocabulary from reading novels: a comparison of three modes. Paper presented at the 8th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2009), Orlando, Florida. Fortunati, L. (2001). The Mobile Phone: An identity on the move. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 5, 8598. Katz, J. E. (2003). Mobil Phones in Educational Settings. [Academic]. Education Week, 91-103. Keirnan, P. J., and K. Aizawa. (2004). Cell Phones in Task Based Learning, are cell phones useful language tools? ReCALL, 16(1), 71-84. Meurant, R. C. (2006). Cell Phones in the L2 Classroom: Thumbs up to SMS. [Review]. ICHIT-06 Proceedings, IEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, 1, 127-143. Mounier, A., Tangchuang, Phasina (2010). Education and Knowledge in Thailand: The quality controversy
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Learning Management System Implementation Strategy and Student’s English Communication Enhancement: A Case Study of Mae Fah Luang University S. Udomsilp School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chaing Rai, Thailand (songsan26730@yahoo.com) The effectiveness of employing LMS especially concerning using English as a medium of discussion was studied by the researcher . The same group of students in the class of Industrial Management and Business Modeling and Simulation in academic year 2005 for the first and the second semesters respectively was the subject to be studied. The result of the study showed that students felt relaxed and did the discussion among themselves in English extensively. They felt that LMS supported them mostly in writing and discussion more than when communicating face to face with teachers and among friends. It can be clearly seen , from the teachers’ perspectives ,that the discussion forum and the group work function in this LMS are the most frequently used functions that allow students to do the better communication especially in English.
ABSTRACT Since 2004, Learning Management System (LMS) has been introduced and implemented at Mae Fah Luang University. It was the first e-Learning platform to be used since the university establishment in 1998. The implementation process was carefully planned; the Educational Learning Resource Center has been the unit to operate daily and train all faculty staff and students throughout the university while the Information Technology Services Center has been in charge of the server for LMS and internet and intranet infrastructure. The staff who was initially the trainers to train faculty members to use the system are comprised of the researcher who have been teaching for a certain period of time and used to be the director of the Learning Resource Center during 2003-2006 and other educational technology staff. The faculty staff is the first and the most important group to be trained as an instructor to create module in that LMS, then followed by students but not necessary . Students generally are more familiar with and have more computer and internet literacy than teachers especially from the fields not related to information technology. User manual, online tutorial, e-mail of the supporting staff and telephone hotline have been provided and it is easy to access assistance when there are some problems related to the system and its use. The number of modules to be created on this LMS , and the number of teachers and students who are involved have been increasing.
Keywords English communication effectiveness, group discussion, group work, LMS implementation strategy
1) INTRODUCTION This paper will be divided into 2 parts. The first part is to present the general background of Learning Management System (LMS) deployed at Mae Fah Luang University and the strategy of its implementation in 2004. The second one is to high light the result of the study of how LMS can be effective in teaching and learning development especially in the aspect of student’s English communication. 85
university. 2) BACKGROUND 3.1) Management commitment
After operating for almost 5 years in 2004, Mae Fah Luang university has introduced e-Learning system by employing the learning Management Information System (LMS) called “Wizlearn”. This LMS was developed by the National University of Singapore. Wizlearn is compliant to major e-
support
and
There were 2 levels of management to support and commit on adopting LMS successfully implemented at Mah Fah Lung university. The first level manager was the highest level personnel of the organization ,That was the president followed by the vice president of the university during those period of time. The other was the operational level ones, they were the director of the Center for Information Technology Service and the director of Learning Resources and Educational Media Center.
learning standards such as SCORM and QTI. It is also built on a scalable architecture that supports web farms and database clusters that can support large numbers of concurrent users. Wizlearn can be used anywhere in the world as it has multi-language compliance.
3) IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
The Former had proven strongly both commitment and supporting e-Learning deploying in the university by encouraging and setting up the university’s policy of applying Information Technology for teaching and learning enhance. That leading to the successfully acquisitioning of hardware and the software LMS for that. The latter were the managers who were in charge of providing LMS for being ready into action and practice. They were the directors of both mentioned centers. The researcher was one of that directors , who was in charge of Learning Resources and Educational Media Center during those period of implementing of LMS. Its function were involved with users especially training aspect and routinely maintain this LMS. The other director , who was the director of the Center for Information Technology Service, who was in charge of the hardware side; the LMS server and network and internet and intranet. Both directors had highly commitment to the university’s policy and strategy concerning on e-Learning implementation. They were involved and participated of this LMS implementation strategy at the necessity and every stage of process as required.
The purpose of system implementation is to install the system and make everything, including users, ready for its operation System implementation includes hardware acquisition, software acquisition or development, user preparation hiring and training of personnel, site and data preparation , installation ,testing, start-up and user acceptance ( Stairs, 2007).Implementation needed a strategy and an activity in order to put new system to work smoothly. Implementation refers to all organizational activities working toward the adoption system. System Implementation generally benefits from high levels of user involvement and management support (Loudon, 2007) The strategy for implementing LMS at Mae Fah Luang university had been included all those list mentioned and adopted the ideas that the role of users of the system and management support and commitment were the most critical factors when the LMS was introduced in 2004. This article will highlight those factors of what the strategies were. The focus are on the issues of management support and commitment, site selection and user preparation as of the key success factors of LMS implement strategies at Mae Fah Luang 86
extensively. After training the technical staff as for being the team of LMS administrators, the second group of users needed to be trained was the faculty staff. They were trained how to utilize the system of the necessary functions especially function of module creation or course creation, lesson plan , class management , announcement, discussion forum, chat room and work bin etc. Faculty staff were the critical group of users needed to be trained as being the persons to delivery the course contents and to build up the gateway of the e-Learning system by using LMS as the platform. In order to facilitate faculty staff to make use of the LMS extensively, the Learning Resources and Educational Media Center provided assistance on media and learning material preparation such as providing a studio specializing for sound recording and providing the training of basic skills of learning material presentation. To make sure that the faculty staff training were successfully ,the person who was the key trainer had to be a teacher and understanding the pedagogy or having an experience of teaching.
3.2) Site selection Site selection is the strategy referred to where the new system was resided. This process needed to be carefully prepare and it was involved with many things such as room for server and other related equipments, furniture , temperature , electricity and networking. All those facilities would make it assure that LMS could be able to operate smoothly in daily basis. At Mae Fah Luang university, the Center for Information Technology Service was the unit to be agreed and assigned as the location for this LMS as the Center is normally in charge of Information Technology infrastructure for the whole university. 3.3) User and stakeholders preparation This process and strategy required the unit of agent in the university which is enable to work with people as the same as involving with teaching and learning areas . The Learning Resources and Educational Media Center which was in charge of being the central library of the university was agreed and assigned to be the unit to implement LMS to its users and its stakeholders.
For the students, who were the last group of people needed to be trained , the university did not need to worry much because they usually are the generation with information literacy and computer literacy. If their teachers did not utilize LMS , students would have no chance to work with LMS.
Users and stakeholders of LMS were identified by the center. They were classified into 3 groups of people involved with LMS , they were , firstly, the technical staff who were in charge of LMS software starting up , maintaining and users training which called administrator for the LMS . Secondly , they were the faculty staff as who were the teachers and lastly , students who would participate in particular course or module on that LMS.
Besides the training, user manual, online tutorial, e-mail of the team of supporting staff and telephone hotline had been provided and it is easy to access assistance when there are some problems related to the system and its use.
The activities in this process were quite important as they were concerned with training every group of users and stakeholders. It was carefully preparation process and practice in order to make sure that that LMS would be exploited
4) EFFECTIVENESS OF WIZLEARN
After the LMS “ Wizlearn� have been implanted for one year in 2005 , the author was the researcher to conduct the study of 87
teaching and learning effectiveness and development which was the case study of utilizing the LMS “Wizlearn” as an eLearning system.
5) CONCLUSION LMS “Wizlearn” has been implemented for almost seven years at Mae Fah Luang university. It still works well even the number of teachers and students using the system and the courses created on this LMS are increasing.. It can be said that the strategy for implementing the system is the first step that is essential and of great importance.
4.1) The samples and the methodology of study The students who enrolled the class of Industrial Management of the first semester and the class of Business Modeling and Simulation of the second semester, academic year 2005 were samples of study. They were comprised of 55 and 45 students respectively. Both classes are the same group of students.
REFERENCES Cross,J & Hamilton,I .(2002) .The DNA of eLearning . exerpt from Beyond eLearn. www.internettime.com. Loudon, K. & Loudon J. (2001). Management Information Systems :Manageing the Digital Firm ,tenth edition Pearson International .Singapore. Martin,A.& Rader H. (2003). Information and IT Literacy: Enabling Learning in the 21st Century. Facet Publishing:London Piskurich, G. (2003). Preparing Learners for e-Learning.Pfeiffer: San Francisco Stairs, R. & Reynolds G. (2010). Information Systems Chandrara, C. (2007). Cengage Learning: Canada.
The methodologies applied to the study include group interview, questionnaires and observation. The researcher employed Wizlearn to both classes especially the function of discussion forum which was extensively employed without any condition related to the scoring or grading. The discussion forum allowed students to give their own opinions responding to the topics which researcher initially issued or other students had contributed on the forum. The medium of language used in the discussion forum was English. It was obviously seen that all students participated extensively in writing in English in the discussion forum. When asked the questions whether LMS help and enhance their learning , all students agreed that LMS helped them better in studying especially when communicating with teachers and friends in English. The other functions of LMS that students also thought it was useful and enjoy most were the functions of announcement and work which allowed them to track what teacher posted and could be able to download teachers’ documents and handouts easily. From the teacher’s perspectives , the LMS allowed the students as a group working together in the function of project while the teacher can monitor what was going on within the group. 88
Tuning Creativity Through eCartooning: A Successful Blended Learning Process P. Vate-U-Lan, Ed.D. Assistant Program Director of Ph.D. in eLearning Methodology College of Internet Distance Education, Assumption University of Thailand (poonsri.vate@gmail.com) based digital cartooning, graduate students, ToonDoo, storytelling, web 2.0 technology
ABSTRACT
1) INTRODUCTION
This paper considers the issues of how to augment student creativity in the blended learning environment of Internet-based digital cartooning or eCartooning and, secondly, the eCartooning characteristics required in implementing such a learning project. The phrase, “Internet-based digital cartooning or eCartooning” refers to online applications which provide the scope for creating, developing, editing, sharing and distributing cartoon stories on the Internet. “ToonDoo” was selected as a pilot web application for this quasi experimental research because of its flexibility and potentiality. The population was all graduate students studying at a selected university in Bangkok, Thailand. The data collecting instruments were 1) an online creativity self-assessment 2) tutorials of eCartooning and 3) a survey of opinions about using eCartooning. The data were analyzed using means, percentiles and paired-samples t-tests. The findings were described both in qualitative and quantitative format. On comparing preand post-test scores of creativity, it was found that the creativity scores increased after using eCartooning for two months. The features of web 2.0 technology which were integrated with ToonDoo have significantly generated this form of blended learning.
Creativity is at the top level of thinking skills in the cognitive domain of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Chapman, 2009). It is crucial in teaching students for them to be able to create and innovate from existing knowledge. Blended learning is the most successful instruction method before educational institutions can provide the complete e-Learning package to be wholly delivered on the Internet. Blended learning is one of the best options for instruction which combines the advantages of Internet technology or e-Learning and the value of human interaction as in the traditional classroom (Brown, 2010). Cartoons are a common medium for communication. Not only do children prefer reading cartoons but also many adults prefer reading cartoons because they are easy to understand and normally include a great measure of humor. Cartoons can be an effective tool for university students to understand knowledge content, at least in some cultures. The definition of a cartoon in this research is limited to visual art, illustration or fine art but animated. In Korea, the strategy to increase the number of reading hours of people is to produce knowledge in the form that motivates them to read more. The cartoon is one of the successful tools to encourage people to digest more information (Vate-U-Lan, 2010). Cartooning is a higher option for practicing storytelling rather than verbally or through
Keywords Best practice, Blended learning, cartoon, creativity, ebook, eCartooning, Internet89
first part focuses on the blended learning method to tune or increase student’s creative thinking skill. The second part describes the characteristics of eCartooning which support blended learning.
text narration. However, the difficulty for individuals to produce cartoons is the restraint of actual drawing skills and the accompanying thinking skill to transform ideas into visual art. The “e” of eCartooning stands for ‘electronic’ which is to follow the theme and trend of the 21st century like email, eCommerce and e-Learning in particular. “e” also refers to the potential of the Internet, especially the cloud computing concept in web 2.0 technology which contains not only a readable and writable web site but also social networking (Wheeler, 2010). Internet-based digital cartooning or eCartooning in short is a browser-based application that provides functions to draw, create and paint cartoons through the Internet. There are many eCartooning applications available. “ToonDoo” by Jambav with the support of the Zoho Corporation has been purposively selected as the research instrument from a range of others. The superior features of ToonDoo are its flexibility, usability, capability to create a cartoon story and, above all, a business model that does not limit the creativity of users.
2.1) Creative Thinking Skill “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.” (Einstein, 1931) Imagination and creativity are at the core of divergent thinking skills which are very important for education (Robinson, 2010). The definition of creativity refers to the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating, and entertaining (Hardy (2010) as cited in Franken, 1994 p. 396). The verb “to create” means assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write, plan, produce, invent, devise, and make for example (Churches, 2008; Overbaugh & Schultz, 2010). Creativity can be measured by how many things or ideas that people can produce (Young, 2007). The process of learning, storytelling, and creating are similar in action to those are understand, memorize, originate and emotionally describe the information (Young, 2008). Thus, storytelling is a pathway to practice creativity.
With the tremendous potential of eCartooning in terms of to transfer knowledge via a new form using a storytelling strategy that should motivate university students’ creativity, the blended learning technique has been designed to be used in this research. The main objective of this research is to examine two main questions: 1) How to augment the creativity of students in the blended learning environment through eCartooning? And 2) what are the characteristics of eCartooning required in the implementation of this blended learning form?
Participants in this current research were presented with the new knowledge in a book written by Allen (2007) - Designing Successful E-Learning, Forget what you know about instructional design and do something interesting. Students were assigned to create new cartoon stories to deliver the contents of two chapters and
2) LITERATURE REVIEW The literature review is organized based around the two research questions. The 90
is a creative idea which merges the databases of cartoons, graphics, images, backgrounds, text and computer application, especially web 2.0 technology. eCartooning by ToonDoo is a special shortcut to create a cartoon story without needing the skill of cartoon drawing. The steps of working at ToonDoo are simple as working on browser-based applications or a simple computer. ToonDoo provides five services for free account: 1) ToonDoo Maker to create comics, 2) Book Maker to make a toonbook, 3) TraitR to make a character, 4) ImagineR to upload and edit images and 5) DoodleR to draw as a free hand. Figure 1 illustrates the services of ToonDoo which uses graphics to describe.
one article along with conducting the presentations. Storytelling caused students to have a deeper and better understanding of the assigned contents. Therefore, the new story is the combination of acts of accidentally or deliberately thinking. The creativity self-assessment tool is an online questionnaire in English constructed and designed by Creax (2010); it is a browser-based application. It opens freely to access through the Internet. The form contains 40 questions which take about 1015 minutes to complete. The form contains both a demographic information section and the creativity assessment section. The creativity self-assessment section includes different types of questions: 25 ten-scale matrix questions, five multiple option questions, three open-ended questions and one multiple choice item. The creativity level is measured across eight different indices: abstraction, connection, perspective, curiosity, boldness, paradox, complexity and persistence. Each personal score can be compared with the global average score of creativity level. For the Thai participants, all items were interpreted into Thai by the researcher. The Thai instructions were in parallel checked by an expert with fluency in both Thai and English. An example of a creativity selfassessment result is as follows:
Figure 2: ToonDoo free services
The full screen spacing of ToonDoo is very helpful when compared with other eCartooning applications since it presents most of the functions needed such as a graphics database in tab form, editing tools and a main menu. The great ranges of options of ToonDoo are not only easy to use but also generous or uncountable props which are always being updated. The important feature of ToonDoo for highlevel eCartooning is the flexibility of its international language. This is very crucial since most eCartooning does not offer this and it is a big barrier for users who need to
Figure 1: Example of creativity assessment
2.2) eCartooning eCartooning is not a totally new term but it 91
deliver story in other languages rather than English. A cartoon story created from ToonDoo can be presented in different modes such as an online flip book, a comic strip, an image, embedded code of shock wave flash (swf) on the web page, tweet on tweeter and post on facebook, for instant. A product from ToonDoo includes social networking and social media functions such as users sharing with their friends, voting and making comments.
3) RESEARCH METHOLOGY The research instruments employed for gathering data were 1) an online creativity self-assessment of Creax (2010) 2) tutorials of eCartooning and 3) a survey of opinions about using eCartooning. The population consisted of graduate students at a selected university in Bangkok, Thailand studying for their doctoral degree in Educational and Communications Technology. It consisted of two female students and two male students with as average age of about 35. All participants were working as educators or healthcare practitioners.
The participants were trained to create a cartoon story via ToonDoo in all aspects of its services. The researcher also created a cartoon story to deliver the contents of the subject as an example. All the materials produced by the researcher (see in Figure 3) of this particular subject were posted for sharing at the class web site. The social networking as web 2.0 technology strategy has been encouraged students to participate throughout the class for two months.
The participants were asked: 1) to complete a pre-test of creativity level, 2) to study ToonDoo for eCartooning 3) to present their eCartoon story 4) to participate when their colleagues made their presentations 5) to create cartoon stories by ToonDoo for final examination 6) to complete a post test of creativity level and 7) to answer the survey of opinions regarding eCartooning. The data were analyzed using means, percentiles and paired-samples t-tests. Regarding eCartooning, participants indicated strong agreement (4.5 out of 5 with a S.D. of 0.578) which suggests eCartooning by ToonDoo was an effective tool to construct a cartoon story. The average pre-test creativity level (59.04 out of the typical 62.44) was lower than the post test creativity level (66.29). A pairedsamples correlation of pre-test and post test were positive at 0.831 which means that the pre-test and post test score correlated at the high level and correlated at the same direction. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare the average score of creativity in pre-test and post test conditions. There was not a significant difference in the scores for pre-test (M=59.04, SD=12.26) and post test (M=66.29, SD=7.78) conditions; t(3)= -2.004, p =.139, mainly because of the
Figure 3: Example of cartoon story 92
limited of time for conducting research only two months. These results tentatively indicate creativity level increasing after practicing eCartooning.
4) DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Participants’ creative thinking level seems to have been tuned after practicing storytelling via eCartooning for two months. Students were very satisfied with the Internet technology as the form of blended learning with great assistance from ToonDoo. Thinking as a skill, as this current research shows, is a complex process as participants needed to transform their creative knowledge both through Internet literacy and academic knowledge, then to integrate it with state-of-art techniques for imaginative storytelling, together with much divergent thinking and deployment of humor to form a new cartoon story. The researcher believes the duration spend on actual practicing was the main driver towards the higher creative thinking level. The longer the duration of practice, the more creative thinking level increases.
From the observations, the participants expressed their views that the cartoon ensures the story is delivered smoothly in a presentable and memorable learning environment. Figure 4 shows examples of students’ cartoons created by ToonDoo. The students’ work demonstrated divergent thinking skills after practicing eCartooning, for example, they simulate an environment using cartoon characters which support the story and some students characterized themselves as a cartoon figure.
The finding supports the research objective since participants were satisfied with blended learning using eCartooning and with the growth in their creative thinking skill. Assignments using eCartooning to create a new story for education purposes is recommended for further research given the small number of students for this exploratory study. There are many subjects that should benefit from this blended learning method especially linguistics, arts and design. This eCartooning blended learning method could be very useful for dialogues in learning foreign languages such as English, Chinese and Japanese for example, since figures of cartoon can simulate an environment clearer for students. The only concern for future research using eCartooning or other Internet-based applications is appropriate contents, graphics and images for young students. Figure 4: Students’ cartoons by ToonDoo
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Technologies. Paper presented at the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2010). from http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckt eeth/extending-the-web-new-andemerging-learning-technologies Young, S. (2007, November 27). How to Boost Your Creative Output Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/life hack/how-to-boost-your-creativeoutput.html Young, S. (2008, January 3). What Storytellers Can Teach You About How to Learn Faster Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/life hack/what-storytellers-can-teachyou-about-how-to-learn-faster.html
REFERENCES Allen, M. (2007). Designing Successful ELearning. Sanfrancisco USA: John Wiley & Son. Brown, R. (2010). Blended learning: rich experiences from a rich picture Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://bigcoolblue.com/downloads/ bcbRWBBlendLearning.pdf Chapman, A. (2009). Bloom's taxonomy learning domains Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://www.businessballs.com/bloo mstaxonomyoflearningdomains.ht m Churches, A. (2008, April 1). Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://techlearning.com/article/8670 Creax (2010). Creativity Self-Assessment. leper, Belguim: Creax at http://www.creax.com/csa/. Einstein, A. (1931). Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms. from wikiquote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert _Einstein Hardy, D. (2010). What is creativity? Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/cr eativity/define.htm Overbaugh, R. C., & Schultz, L. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/ Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm Robinson, K. (Producer). (2010) RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms. Podcast retrieved from http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/rsaanimate-changing-educationparadigms. Vate-U-Lan, P. (2010). The Great Message Design Increase Children's Reading Hour (Thai). [Academic]. Educational and Communication Technology, 17(1), 65-81. Wheeler, S. (2010). eXtending the Web New and Emerging Learning 94
e-Tutoring: an e-Learning Essential for Academic Success Strategies L. Salter1 and V. Krawczynski2 Director – Senior Lecturer, Office of Academic and Supplemental Instruction Services, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar (liticia.salter@qatar.tamu.edu) 2 Graduate student, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA (vpk6885@nmsu.edu) 1
internationally renowned Qatar Foundation, a $200 billion dollar educational, medical, and charitable organization. In 2002, Her Highness invited Texas A&M University, a 100+ year-old university in the United States, to join Education City, a part of Qatar Foundation. Texas A&M accepted the invitation and admitted its first batch of 24 students in 2003.
ABSTRACT In 2002, Texas A&M University was invited to open a branch campus in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. Within the first four years, it became evident that academic success in the engineering programs being offered depended on English language acquisition and familiarity with digital technology. A new department, the Office of Academic Supplemental Instruction Services (OASIS) was formed to meet the increasing needs for tutorial services in core curriculum courses. e-Tutoring was researched as a service learning program and then developed as a pilot program to extend the tutorial capabilities of the center. The e-Tutors developed a highly effective approach to e-Tutoring using the social medium, Skype, and, by the end of the academic year, were responsible for 30% of the over 1,500 hours of writing tutoring.
The mandate from Qatar Foundation was ‘…to teach engineering degrees just as you do on the main campus in Texas.’ While that sounded simple enough, the actuality proved far more difficult – English language and computer technology skills were acutely deficient and US-trained professors’ teaching styles and content delivery methods were foreign to the Qatari students. After the initial few years of working with the Qatari and other expatriate students, academic success and student retention soon became focal points of the mission. As a result, in 2009, a new department, the Office of Academic Supplemental Instruction Services (OASIS), was created to meet the students’ need for tutorial services. We had learned that proficiency in English was the gateway to effective learning of the other core courses in the engineering curriculum and that without it academic success was proportionately less likely (Abel, 2002). Tutoring resource scarcity, as well as the over-arching need to familiarize students with e-Learning technology, drove our decision to pilot e-Tutoring as one of the OASIS centers of activity.
Keywords e-Learning, engineering, e-Tutoring, Middle East, OASIS, Qatar, Skype, social media, Texas A&M University, Tutoring. 1) INTRODUCTION The State of Qatar is a small peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf; one of seven members of the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) and an absolute monarchy ruled by HH Emir Hamad bin Khalifa AlThani. In 2002, The Emir’s wife and Royal Consort, HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Misned, is the founder of the now 95
current literature about tutoring online and reviewed all possible means of handling an online tutoring session, the use of common social media such as MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, etc. came up over and over again as the preferred way of student collaboration. This gave us pause. It made sense to stop trying to force the students to use something unfamiliar and complicated – we needed to meet them where they were already. Not at all unlike how we located our physical center – in the high traffic area near the library (Abel, 2002).
2) CONCEPT When we conceived the pilot program, we had an idea about what we wanted to accomplish, but knew very little about how to go about making it a reality. Before we narrowed our methods to those listed above, we evaluated several different means of online tutoring. The first option we tried was using the program, Centra, through our own IT infrastructure. While it looked like the obvious choice—having the backing and support of our IT department—it required, literally, four logins and dealing with a less than intuitive and slow program. After studying the program and trying it out in a tutoring context, we decided the students would quickly become frustrated and opt not to use the service. Second, we solicited proposals from vendors of outside tutoring services such as Smarthinking, AskOnline, and Tutor.com. After reviewing and participating in demos of these programs, we felt our students would not respond well to the impersonal approach of these companies. They certainly could provide the pedagogical expertise, but the context would be too foreign to our students. In the Middle East, knowing the person with whom one is dealing with is very important in building a trusting relationship. The tutors in these outside services, while knowledgeable, would not know who their professor was and that would make our students feel unsure whether they were getting good advice for his/her class. The outside services were also extremely expensive – upwards of $35,000 - $40,000 per year. That is when decided to look to our students to for the answers.
Developing what we envisioned, a constructive, personal e-Learning environment, proved challenging. After examining and rejecting the many possibilities that existed within the IT framework of the university, as well as outside services, we realized, based on the student feedback we had gathered, that keeping it simple, using social media, would make the online service more approachable to the tech-shy students. We hired a tutor in the United States due to the favorable time difference and began the experiment utilizing a no-cost, wellestablished, web-based application – Skype – something almost none of our students knew about at the time. The other social media such as MSN, presented several logistical problems – primarily that of recognition between the tutor and the tutee. Fortunately, our first online tutor (e-Tutor) was not only experienced in tutoring, but flexible and open to assisting in our experimentation. In the last half of the spring semester of 2009, we tried offering online tutoring for the first time in two different approaches: email submissions without live interaction, and through several different means of live interaction. It only took one month for us to realize the email submission alternative was not going to be satisfactory for any of us; the students were too careless with their submissions – submitting partial or rushed drafts – and they expected an ‘editing
While I was the director of the center, I also taught a technical writing class. To gather better information about how we should design the online program, I made it part of a service learning project for the class and assigned students to research the issue and prepare a recommendations report. Interestingly, after they researched 96
service’. These students, especially since the student body was comprised of 99% non-native English speakers, needed to be actively engaged and involved in the writing process with the tutors (Tan, Nabb, Aagard, & Kim, 2010).
3) FIVE-POINT TECHNIQUE While we started the e-Tutoring program knowing very little about what would work, we soon realized that there were unique challenges that existed in the eLearning context. The first few weeks of eTutoring consisted of learning how to deal with everything from technical issues, to extremely introverted students, behavioral issues, and the obvious cultural differences between American e-Tutors and Middle Eastern students. The tutoring interaction had to be much more than a “you have Skype, I have Skype, let’s do tutoring.” We knew the students required a highlyindividualized approach, so we gradually designed a five-point tutoring technique that allowed for customized e-Tutoring, but simultaneously provided structure and protocol for dealing with the various issues that can arise, even in a single session.
By using Skype’s voice, video, and screensharing features, our e-Tutor was soon able to create an almost seamless, constructive online-learning environment. The program gained almost instant popularity – to the point that we hired an additional US-based e-Tutor in the first six months of the pilot program. However, there were many more challenges we had to overcome before we could call the program successful. In the summer of 2009, we were asked to work with a special group of students who would become our experimental control group. These 11 students, fresh high school graduates, had been identified as needing intense preparation the start of the fall semester. Their English skills were in the low intermediate category, and, because of extenuating circumstances, we had three weeks to attempt to bring their skills to a Band 6 IELTS level. We worked all day with these students and, as part of the language training, they were to work with our new online tutor several days per week in writing, reading, listening, and oral skills development. As Howard Margolis (2005) suggested in his article, we believe the work with the online tutor in the evening provided these learners an objective voice whose feedback was coordinated with the classroom content. It gave the tutees the opportunity to have private, one-on-one opportunities to repeat and reinforce challenging writing, listening, and speaking assignments. There was a measureable improvement in literacy acquisition that was observed by the tutors and teachers as well as the student. At the end of the three weeks, seven of the eleven students tested high enough on the IELTS and were accepted to the university.
3.1) Point One – Introductory email One of the first trials we faced was figuring out a way to find our students in cyber-space. At first, we mistakenly assumed that just as most Western, native English-speaking students are able to quickly understand new technologies, so would these students; however, the procedures for using new programs are not as obvious for them (Tan, Nabb, Aagard, & Kim, 2010). Because of this inaccuracy, there were several sessions that either started late or were missed altogether because the e-Tutors and the students did not know how they should go about finding each other. As being able to find each other easily was essential to our program’s success, we developed an email template to send to each student every time they made an appointment with an e-Tutor. The email outlined, step-by-step, how eTutoring sessions work, and what the student needed to do in order to be ready for their session. Everything the student needed to know about e-Tutoring was included, from how to download and set up 97
admission to the university. Because of this introductory period at the start of the session, the e-Tutor was able to avoid a common cultural problem that ESL students experience in online learning situations, such as the instructor lacking an understanding of how the student’s culture affects the way they learn (Tan, Nabb, Aagard, & Kim, 2010). The e-Tutor also had the opportunity to meet Sara while in Doha for a face-to-face visit, and they were amazed at the new confidence she exuded as a result, in part, of e-Tutoring.
a Skype account, to a checklist of what they needed to bring to the session. Following the development of this informative email, the e-Tutors saw immediate improvement in the process to begin an e-Tutoring session. After we closed the gap between the continents and were able to easily locate and get online with our students, the next challenge we faced was turning the empty virtual world into a friendly, studentcentered space where the “virtuality” of the e-Learning goes unnoticed, and students and e-Tutors interact very similarly to how they would in a face-to-face setting. The next three points enabled the e-Tutors to create unique, personal learning spaces that were aligned with traditional tutoring methods and that removed the students’ focus on the online aspect of the sessions.
3.3) Point Three – Have an understanding of problems that can arise during a session When we conquered the task of gaining the students’ trust in the online setting, we quickly moved on to the next test of our program: the actual tutoring. Much like in a “normal” classroom or tutoring session, we faced issues like distracted students and incomplete assignments, but we were also confronted with technological issues that forced the e-Tutors to transform themselves from teacher to IT guru. Our goal was to make the online aspect of the sessions seem transparent. Of course, we did not always succeed. As with any webbased interface, there were glitches. We promptly learned how to troubleshoot microphone and speaker problems, screensharing lags, and internet outages from 9,000 miles away, and we trained all of our e-Tutors in dealing with these types of problems. The biggest challenges during the e-Tutoring sessions, though, were the unsuspected difficulties for which we could not plan, just like in a traditional setting. We encountered students who had crying babies in the background that made concentration impossible, as well as those who seemed to have friends sitting by their side with whom they whispered during the session. We also met students who did not understand that our mission was to help them become better writers and students rather than to do or correct their work for
3.2) Point Two – Gradual start to session One of the first students to use our system, Sara, was a very young, very shy, very conservative Muslim student who, like most of the girls in that culture, covered her video camera, and was terrified of someone seeing her. She was required to meet with an e-Tutor as part of an intensive IELTS prep course she was a part of that was helping students gain the skills necessary for admission to the university. During her first session, it was apparent that she was extremely anxious about meeting a stranger in an unknown, online environment. Luckily, the e-Tutor realized this, and before plunging into the tutoring, the two spent a little time getting to know one another and began to form a trusting, tutor-tutee relationship, which, in turn, dramatically increased the student’s feeling of self-efficacy (Margolis, 2005). During this time, the tutor was on camera to allow the student to put a face with a voice. As the student continued to have e-Tutoring sessions, she gradually became more and more outgoing and eventually became a regular to e-Tutoring even after her 98
made numerous appointments per week, both online and onsite, to work on assignments for several of their classes. These students soon became known as the “disciples” of e-Tutoring within the circle of e-Tutors.
them. The distracted students prompted us to include a few guidelines in the aforementioned email that simply stated that cell phones should be off, they should be somewhere quiet because of the ability of microphones to pick up background noise, and they should be ready to focus on their assignment. We often ‘turned the table’ on the students by asking them to share their screens with us on occasion if we thought they were off-task. By engaging them in the tutoring process, and having them correct their own assignments, they were able to focus. In addition, we never turned students away for not having their assignments, but we did remind them of our mission, and then we helped them formulate a plan to get started on the task and told them what we would like to see in the next session. As all of our e-Tutors had a background in education, as well as advanced degrees, they were familiar with how to handle these situations in a traditional setting, so they just had to apply that knowledge and those methods to the online space.
3.5) Point Five – Follow-up The final step in the five-point process, follow-up, was the result of our desire to maintain a quality program. After each online or onsite session, students receive an automated email with a link to a survey that allows them to rate their tutoring experience and provide us with feedback in the form of anonymous comments. eTutors also periodically follow-up with students in the form of an email to remind them to keep using the online system in addition to their on-site tutoring sessions. 4) CONCLUSION As the students quickly embraced the introduced technology they could also use socially with their friends, they integrated the e-Tutoring naturally into their current tutoring routines because of the convenience it provided. The e-Tutoring program quickly became an integral part of the OASIS operations and gave students almost 24-hour access to tutors. At the end of the 2009-2010 academic year, eTutoring represented over 30% of all writing tutoring. It was thought that female students would be the predominant users of e-Tutoring because of the cultural constraints, but users were evenly split. Some users, notably older students, tended to use the e-Tutors almost exclusively. End-of-session evaluations submitted anonymously by students ranked e-Tutors equally to the best on-site tutors in terms of knowledge and empowerment. As the overall outcome, e-Tutoring fostered active, engaged, and consistent language skills development; further, for many students, it was a lifeline.
3.4) Point Four – Strong closing of session The last step during the e-Tutoring session is just as essential for traditional teachers and tutors as it was for our e-Tutors – the closing. At the end of each class, most teachers will naturally close by checking for understanding of the main topics and making sure that the students know what they are to have completed for the next class. The same holds true for e-Tutoring. Very rarely will a student need a single eTutoring session. Most times, they will need between two and five sessions for a single assignment. Because of this, our eTutors typically give the students “homework” for the next session. By helping the student form a plan of action for their assignments and pace their work, the student will produce better work and feel more successful overall. Many students liked this process so much; they 99
REFERENCES Abel, Charles F. (2002). Academic Success and the International Student: Research and Recommendations. New Directions For Higher Education. 117, 13-19. Liu, X, Liu, S, Lee, S, & Magjuka, R. (2010). Cultural differences in online learning: international student perceptions. Educational Technology & Society,13(3), 177188. Margolis, H. (2005). Increasing struggling learners’ self-efficacy: what tutors can do and say. Mentoring and Tutoring, 13(2), 221-238. Price, L, Richardson, J, & Jelfs, A. (2007). Face-to-face versus online tutoring support in distance education. Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 1-20. Tan, F, Nabb, L, Lee, A, & Kim, K. (2010). International ESL graduate student perceptions of online learning in the context of second language acquisition and culturally responsive facilitation. Adult Learning, 21(Win-Spr), 9-14. Wang, C, & Reeves, T. (2007). Synchronous online learning experiences: the perspectives of international students from Taiwan. Educational Media International, 44(4), 339-356.
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Social Capital and Student’s Online Learning Life T. Sangkapreecha1 and P. Sangkapreecha2 1 Department of Interior Design, Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand (taweesak.s@bu.ac.th) 2 Department of Broadcasting, Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand (pataraporn.s@bu.ac.th) plays a significant role in students’ online learning processes. The process of students’ online learning is not acquired by individual students working by themselves, rather this type of learning is assisted by the social relations set up through their social networks. Perhaps it is that the students’ individual learning is always embedded in social experiences or based on sharing and drawing on others. They live, learn and study through or with the assistance of their social networks.
ABSTRACT This study is about the intersection of two trends. One is the dramatic increase in internet use, a phenomenon that is affecting the way Thai people live, study and work in the digital age. The second trend is the emergence of studies using sociological theory as a useful approach to examine internet use. These studies have focused on how the internet enhances or diminishes social capital. This study is distinctive in that it draws on the framework of social network analysis and the concept of social capital. It explores the ways the students draw on their social networks to support their online learning processes.
This challenges the conventional view of online learning as a process occurring in an independent – self-directed learner, as well as raising questions about Thai educational plan advocates life-long learning within the framework of selfsufficiency. Online learning might also be better supported by exploiting new technologies to deliver an enhanced learning experience in teamwork and developing reciprocal relationships with other social actors.
Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative research methodology, this study examines the online learning practices of twenty-one Thai postgraduate students at Bangkok University over a 12-week period situating their online learning journey in the context of their private, academic and professional lives. It aims to highlight the relationships and the flow of information and knowledge within these social connections between students and the other key actors from whom students ask for help and assistance concerning their online learning.
Keywords Online Learning, Social Capital, Social Networks, Thai Postgraduate Students. 1) INTRODUCTION Researchers have emphasised that information literacy is important to student learning in higher education (Oakleaf, 2006). The majority of the literature in this field proposes a very simple definition of information literacy: it entails finding, evaluating, using, and subsequently
The argument with respect to the findings of this study is that, human and social capital do not exist in isolation from each other. By empowering human capital, social capital is a key actor that 101
people live, study and work in the digital age. The second trend is the emergence of studies using sociological theory as a useful approach to examine internet use. These studies have focused on how the internet enhances or diminishes social capital. Our study is distinctive in that it draws on the framework of social network analysis and the concept of social capital, exploring the ways the students draw on their social networks to support their online learning processes. We aim to highlight the relationships and the flow of information and knowledge within these social connections between students and the other key actors from whom students ask for help and assistance concerning their online learning.
communicating knowledge. An information literate person “must desire to know”, must “use analytical skills to formulate questions”, must “identify research methodologies”, and must “utilise critical skills” for evaluation (Lenox & Walker, 1993 p. 314). In addition, the student must be able to search, in increasingly complex and diverse ways, for answers to those questions (Breivik, 1998). Today, the definition of information literacy has expanded to include the ability to use, comprehend and interact with technology in a meaningful way. An underlying assumption of information literacy is that the student will be an independent, self-directed, that is, selfsufficient, learner. The concept of self-sufficiency is a new value in today’s Thai society; it is only recently that it has come to highly prize the autonomous, independent, self-sufficient individual. Thai universities have promoted the concept of students being in charge of their own learning–the independent – self-directed learner is lauded, replacing a previous value on rote learning. The Thai educational plan advocates life-long learning within the framework of self-sufficiency (Fry, 2002b). However, there is a paradox in this perspective. On the one hand, in Thailand citizens who are independent thinkers and independent learning actors are valued. On the other hand, Thais are taught and encouraged in teamwork and developing reciprocal relationships with other social actors (Fry, 2002a). In this sense, the learning practices students perform in this online society is not processed by individual students working by themselves, rather this type of learning is assisted by the social relations set up through their social networks.
2) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 2.1) Social Network Analysis Social network analysis has emerged as a key conceptual framework in modern sociology that seeks to explain social phenomena through a structural interpretation of human interaction (Barry Wellman, 1997). It focuses on the “patterns of relationships between actors” (Haythornthwaite, 1996 p. 323). Thus, social relationships and interactions among actors are the central focus of this type of study. Social network analysts can thus be said to be bringing a pre-existing framework to the analysis of participants’ relationships. Originally developed to examine tangible, economic relationships (B. Wellman, 1988), it has been adapted by information behaviour researchers such as Haythornthwaite (1996) to examine information exchange between people in a variety of contexts. Across social network studies, the actor has been variously defined as an individual person, groups, companies, or even countries. The relationship or tie is seen in terms of a flow of resources that can be “material” or
This study, therefore, is about the intersection of two trends. One is the dramatic increase in internet use, a phenomenon that is affecting the way Thai 102
“non-material”. The resources might include “social support”, “emotional support”, “companionship”, “information”, “expertise” (Stanley & Faust, 1999 p. 4).
3) METHODOLOGY We examined the online learning practices of twenty-one Thai postgraduate students at Bangkok University over a 12-week period situating their online learning journey in the context of their private, academic and professional lives. Undertaking this study, we did the focus group interviews as well as developed an online data capturing technique by mixing quantitative and qualitative approaches and integrated them with the Elgg – an open source social networking engine. It was a technique combining a modified Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) proxy with live chat and self-reporting to supplement the tracking data. As well, it included a realtime online monitoring and interacting engine to augment social interaction between the researchers and participants. Altogether, these design innovations enabled us to collect contextual information during observational studies and follow-up on interesting subject matters raised by participants.
2.2) Social Capital The concept of social capital is relevant to the subject matter of students’ social networks, connections, norms and social obligations. There have been many scholars who have attempted to define social capital. Bourdieu is credited with being the first contemporary scholar to provide a systematic analysis of social capital. According to Bourdieu (1986), social capital is defined as the “aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition and the profits which accrue from membership in a group are the basis of the solidarity which makes them possible” (248-249). In other words, social capital refers to social connections that provide access to resources.
4) RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Hooff et al.(2004) argue “next to financial capital, physical capital and human capital, social capital is a fourth form of capital available to an actor” (p. 165). Human capital relates to an individual’s skills, competencies; their “knowledge and capabilities to act on this knowledge and individual learning” (Huysman & Wulf, 2004 p. 5) in ways that “facilitates the creation of personal, social and economic well-being” (Keeley, 2007 p. 29). Social capital, on the other hand, exists within the “structure of relations among individual actors” and is “jointly owned” (Hooff et al., 2004 p. 165). The principal assumption underlying the concept of social capital is that the “relationship matters”. A “set of shared values” among the “membership of networks” is the central idea of this concept (Field, 2003 pp. 1-3).
The results showed that at least initially most of the students in our study seem to strive for self-sufficiency in their online learning efforts. As graduates, they know they should be able “do it” on their own without any help. Once the lecturers have assigned an assignment, no students reported that they had requested assistance from their social networks as an initial step in the online learning process. Rather, our students waited until their own online learning efforts proved fruitless. They, subsequently, sought assistance from other actors within their networks. The key social networks students drew on when seeking assistance are classmates, course professors, and work colleagues and experts.
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but is interspersed with negotiations and consultation with team members. This means students move back and forth between independent online searching and teamwork. Although Thai students tend to be culturally interdependent and submissive learners, in this context the student learning is not passive. We found that their friends, the closest social network of the students, do encourage a form of reciprocal studying beyond self-sufficiency. The students work collaboratively by requesting and receiving assistance from their friends as they go through the process of online learning.
4.1) Classmates: Student’s Tightest and Closest Networks Initially, students attempt to obtain the information they need for their assignments by carrying out their online learning tasks independently. It is when this approach turns out to be fruitless, when the students are stuck or at their wit’s end, that they seek assistance from those closest to themselves in their social network–friends — especially their classmates. These social actors function as the first and foremost option for the students in the network and it has not changed since before the inception of the World Wide Web. This is a bonding version of social capital, relating to each actor having strong ties with the other(s) (Putnam, 2000). We found that the students trust and know their friends will always do them a favour. In this sense “trust” is a form of shared social capital, indicating how information flows among students through their strongest ties– their classmates.
4.2) Course Professor: Brokers within Networks The course professor is found as a second social actor drawn on by students in doing their work. Students typically come to their professors and ask for help when they realise their friends can offer no insight to their questions. Students perceive their professors to be knowledgeable, interested in their assignment progress, sources for appropriate references, and as possessing texts, articles and useful materials which some are willing to lend to students. In Thai culture, University professors are seen as the best experts within a student’s social network (Mulder, 2000). They are acknowledged as valuable voices that can steer students to appropriate and quality resources. Our students note how discussions on their topic with their professors help to clarify their thinking or sharpen the focus for their online learning.
Group projects are frequently used in undergraduate and graduate classes. In the subjects in this Masters Degree students not only have to produce an individual paper, they also have a group assignment or exercise. Conventional wisdom holds that group projects provide benefits to students beyond what they would obtain working by themselves. We found that the benefit that students can obtain through collaborative work is social capital. The members of the group can benefit from each other’s social capital.
However, there are some students, who hesitate in requesting help from their course professors. In this case, the professor is viewed as a resource of “last resort”. They are seen as a person who encourages feeling of apprehension and misgiving. Since Thai society can be hierarchical, students at the bottom are ruled and dominated by the professors, at the top. Students perceive the course
Group projects are intended to provide opportunities for students to experience “complex”, “near-applied work experiences” and take on much larger projects involving the “details” and “complexities” that would be impossible for individual students to complete (McCorkle et al., 1999 p. 108). The online learning process takes place independently 104
and study, but one that does not draw on scholarship.
professor as an authoritative actor in their social network. Course professors are the people who control what type of assignments are to be given (exams, quizzes, labs, term papers), the weight each assignment is given as well as the topic or content, and the due dates of the assignments students need to submit. As a result, course professors thus can be seen as authoritative voices influencing and mastering the final judgment on a student’s study performance.
In addition to work colleagues, we found that the students reported approaching professional officers in the field of design to obtain information. Again, this act can be explained in terms of social capital and the network they have established as practitioners as well as students. Obtaining information from these officers demonstrates the importance of “weak ties” in providing new information from the disparate parts of the broad field of interior design in Bangkok and not just depending on knowledge that circulates in their immediate or close social network.
4.3) Work Colleagues and Experts: Outsiders Who Fill Gaps While classmates and course professors serve as key actors in the network that frames students’ information seeking behaviour, some students also seek assistance from individuals who can be seen as providing bridging and linking social capital. Students go beyond the University walls to tap into outsiders who are experts or a “in a position of power” in the field. They seek to draw on these two versions of social capital to help them to clarify ideas and/or to identify pertinent resources that might help them to meet their research needs. Accessing these actors can take place as part of the student’s everyday social life. For example, it is when one of our students notices the educational value of social networking amongst her work colleagues, that she adds another group of social actors from whom she can seek assistance. What she is noticing is a form of bridging social capital.
5) SUGGESTIONS With respect to the findings of this study, therefore, we argue human and social capital do not exist in isolation from each other. By empowering human capital, social capital is a key actor that plays a significant role in students’ online learning processes. The process of students’ online learning is not acquired by individual students working by themselves, rather this type of learning is assisted by the social relations set up through their social networks. Perhaps it is that the students’ individual learning is always embedded in social experiences or based on sharing and drawing on others. They live, learn and study through or with the assistance of their social networks.
This capacity to take advantage of a “social network” by connecting with collaborators who may have more information on a topic than the students do present a picture of students who are open to acknowledging the value of work colleagues as potential information sources for their study life. It also demonstrates the existing link between the students’ paid work and study that has a professional focus. This is productive in this case as it is a nice match between work
This challenges the conventional view of online learning as a process occurring in an independent – self-directed learner, as well as raising questions about Thai educational plan advocates life-long learning within the framework of self-sufficiency. Online learning might also be better supported by exploiting new technologies to deliver an enhanced learning experience in teamwork and developing reciprocal relationships with other social actors. 105
Keeley, B. (2007). Human Capital: How What You Know Can Shape Your Life. Danvers, MA: OECD: Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development. Lenox, M. F., & Walker, M. L. (1993). Information literacy in the educational process. The Educational Forum, 57(2), 312-324. McCorkle, D. E., Reardon, J., Alexander, J. F., Kling, N. D., Harris, R. C., & Iyer, R. V. (1999). Undergraduate Marketing Students, Group Projects, and Teamwork: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? Journal of Marketing Education, 21(2), 106-117. Mulder, N. (2000). Inside Thai Society: Religion, Everyday Life, Change. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. Oakleaf, M. J. (2006). Assessing Information Literacy Skills: A Rublic Approach. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Stanley, W., & Faust, K. (1999). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wellman, B. (1988). Social Structure: A Network Approach. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press. Wellman, B. (1997). Structural Analysis: From Method and Metaphor to Theory and Substance. In B. Wellman & S. D. Berkowitz (Eds.), Social structures: A Network Approach. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
REFERENCES Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press. Breivik, P. S. (1998). Student Learning in the Information Age. Phoenix, AZ: American Council on Education/Oryx Press. Field, J. (2003). Social Capital. London: Routledge. Fry, G. W. (2002a). The Evolution of Educational Reform in Thailand. Paper presented at the The Second International Forum on Education Reform: Key Factors in Effective Implementation. Fry, G. W. (2002b). Synthesis Report: From Crisis to Opportunity, The Challenges of Educational Reform in Thailand: The Office of the National Education Commission and the Asian Development Bank. Haythornthwaite, C. (1996). Social Network Analysis: An Approach and Set of Techniques for the Study of Information Exchange. Library and Information Science Research, 18(4), 323-342. Hooff, B. v. d., Ridder, J. d., & Aukema, E. (2004). Exploring the Eagerness to Share Knowledge: The Role of Social Capital and ICT in Knowledge Sharing. In M. Huysman & V. Wulf (Eds.), Social Capital and Information Technology (pp. 163-186). Cambridge; Massachusetts; London: The MIT Press. Huysman, M., & Wulf, V. (2004). Social Capital and Information Technology: Current Debates and Research. In M. Huysman & V. Wulf (Eds.), Social Capital and Information Technology (pp. 1-16). Cambridge; Massachusetts; London: The MIT Press. 106
Open and Distance Education & e-Learning: A Strategy for Dynamics and Promotion of higher Education H. Bassak Assistant Professor, Persian Language and Literature Dept.Payame Noor University(PNU),Iran (bassak@pnu.ac.ir) secondary to the undergraduate and graduate programs.
ABSTRACT In open education as an undeniable necessity of the third millennium, teaching different language and its significant effects on human life is a manifest reality The modern world more than anytime necessitates has been particularly and technology. This obligation has been particularly represented in the education methods .The new Millennium is the highly accelerated era of science, investigation and progression.
C- The extension of the scientific cultural and social level of the under developed regions by establishing the university centers of the open and distance education. D- Strengthening the feeling of selfreliance and intellectual independence among the university students by promotion of the self-study education besides the broadcast and virtual education.
It is obvious that a rapid, compressive and low cost development in the scientific fields call for a high system of education other than the traditional one. This important responsibility and task has been assigned to the open and distance education & E-learning, because time and space limitations are the most important obstacle of the development in the traditional high education.
Keywords: ODL, E-learning, higher Education, promoting learning, Qualitative Education, 1) INTRODUCTION Promoting Education is regarded as a particular factor in secondary and and higher education; the idea is even of greater significance in open or distant education owning to their unparalleled aspects.
In this paper, the author ties to explain the advantages of the open and distance university whit an emphasis on the open and distance university of Iran, but this approach doesn’t prevent him from his own critical and analytical review of the problem. Some of the most important advantages of this system are as follows: A- High reduction in the educational expenses and its impact on the reducing the rate of the immigration.
We ought to take the idea of promoting education in open or distant education into serious consideration, for omitting mandatory class attendance, offering selfstudy courses which terminates the student-teacher relationships are some big disadvantages especially in majors and universities which rely solely on books and are totally destitute of other teachinglearning aids and facilities.
B- The development of university majors and programs of studies post 107
We need to try to alleviate this disadvantage with regard to the factor of quantity and quality in education. Guiding assessing the students and their learning, monitoring pedagogical products, precision in syllabus design, providing appropriate learning material, and employing the new technology could improve the inadequacies and enables the students at open universities, the purpose of which are to overcome the time and place confinements, to keep up with the students at conventional universities. So as to achieve the desired quality at open universities the suggestions below might be of some help.
2) ECONOMICAL PROBLEMS IN PROMOTING EDUCATION Accomplishing a successful and promising open or distant education would be by far a lot more costly and expensive. On one hand, this has to do with the financial potential of the families and students, for the students who enjoy better financial power can afford to alleviate their educational shortcomings and inadequacies by attending private institute classes, not all the students can afford those, though. On the other hand, the long run investment of the state could furnish the open education with efficient facilities to progress and improve the insufficiencies, and this may give way to an educational reform, which contributes, to establishing the educational justice. Thus we see the direct relevance of quality education with the state funding and investment. Nonetheless the donation should not go overlooked.
We can consider properties of distance learning in three aspects: 1. Existence of an unlimited physical distance between teacher and student. 2. Unlimited time duration for education. 3. Existence of education for everyone with its special properties. Open and distance education, especially electronic learning has flourished vastly because it is inevitable to learn knowledge accompanied by daily works for the adaptability to many transitions in modern world.
Teaching aids and material, libraries, laboratories, high-tech media, satellite and state of the art electronic and digital equipments-such equipments are directly dependent on financial parameters. Lest, we forget that taking notice the efficient and practical use of these equipments in order to improve the quality education.
Nowadays social, familial and other unmentioned problems have not left enough time for man. Thus e-learning is a good way of education. Open instruction is a good way to benefit from it in free time, car, train‌.. Multi-media instruments as well as internet are among the suitable ways to benefit from.
3) MANAGING POLICIES PROMOTING EDUCATION
IN
Progress and development of every organization has got directly to do with their managing system. Appropriate and qualified management and practical and down to earth decision making to reach quality development and maintenance in open education cannot go overlooked.
The spreading profit of instructional instrument in education is a mysterious success for this method. This method has no place and geographical limitations and it can profit from images and sounds at any place and time to educate.
The managers who think of but quality and maintain the fact that an open university with fewer faculties which do not hasten in quantitative development too much has 108
3.3. The students select the direction and the progress of learning speed by themselves. Therefore there is no meaningless competition between weak and strong students. 3.4. There is no geographical limitation in e-learning since there are different courses with progressive universities and educational centers as e-learning where as these different courses in traditional education system did not exist due to some limitation. 3.5. It is easier and more economical to update instructional contents and materials in e-learning. But updating instructional contents and materials is hard and expensive in traditional education. 3.6. The students select instructional contents in which they are interested by elearning. They can also establish a new course period with selecting their interested courses.
better opportunities to enjoy world class quality education. In addition, the variety and distribution of majors and different degrees in every major from associate degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree to doctoral degree in different regions and schools should be in accordance with social, geographical, and cultural considerations and aspects and demands. Neglecting these parameters would leave negative impression on quality education. As long as the required academic and general facilities and conditions to establish a new major, it would be incorrect to attempt such action, or the shortcomings and deficits in the academic competence and performance of the students and graduates would be visibly apparent. The authorities and principles of the open universities ought to admit the fact that low-quality education for be at times destructively harmful for the pertinent society.
4) EVALUATION METHODS PROMOTING EDUCATION
E-learning has many advantages by contrast to traditional education. However, it has some defects that are visible in some countries such as: low spread of internet, no equality in access to necessary technologies in e-learning, no acceptance of e-learning system by managers and organizations due to their worries over the sudden, great and basic transitions and the negative outcomes in connection to instructional standards. These factors are important that should be taken into consideration.
IN
Reform in the research, teaching and evaluating methods would be a cornerstone in quality education. The prevalent trend in eliminating classes with mandatory attendance or even optional attendance and replacing them with what is known in Payam-e-Noor University as “self-study courses” which are being offered at the moment bring about some negative consequences. Some important functions of face-to-face education which totally and largely contribute to quality education would include guiding, motivating, encouraging the students, in addition to updating their knowledge and correcting their mistakes as well as improving their confidence. To top it off the teacher in face-to-face interaction may provide the students with their affective and mental needs, which this issue can be noted in two aspects. First, the experiences and opinions of the teacher could be of great use and assistance in
The other advantages in e-learning: 3.1. E-learning creates a kind of confidence for students that creates a sense of responsibility. 3.2. The time has an independent role in virtual instruction and students can communicate with their professors and their classmates confidently. Because the professors and teachers have enough and more time to answer and communicate with their students by virtual education. 109
The authorities and administrators, as their primary priorities, ought to plan realistic and long-term quality education programs. The public and the adherents of quality education in specific need to deem open universities as a considerable and potential for sending their donations in order to contribute to the social justice via establishing educational justice. Quality education should be taken as a primary goal to achieve by not only the faculty members but by all other clerical and administrative staff of the open universities. Supervising, cultural, and educational organization, Ministry of Education, Research, and Technology and Sanjesh Organization (Iran Measurement Organization) have to plan accurate and precise evaluation and assessment supervision on the performance and progress of directors, teachers and other staff of open universities so as to help the promotion of quality education. In the end, taking into account the significant need of analyzing the assessments, it is tremendously important to base our planning according the realities of the region and world class educational standards to promote the culture of quality education. We have got to admit the fact that by promoting open universities along with prioritizing quality over quantity, the two of them together, are potentially capable of promising the betterment, development, and flourishing the open education among other modes of education.
learning and research tasks for the students. Secondly, in face-to-face interaction there exists the possibility of mutual student-student interaction and exchanging knowledge and opinions in the same major or even among students of different majors. Despite the fact that in some majors by enhancing of the quality of teaching sources as well as further utilizing audio and visual programs to some degrees improve the limitations of self-study courses, most definitely in some other majors such as chemistry or biology among others a good portion of course requires the presence of both students and instructors in a laboratory or workshop. And in other majors such English translation or Farsi literature the presence of the instructor is indispensable for practical training and assessment. The trend of offering self-study courses in the field of humanities is growing faster, ignoring the fact that limiting and omitting oral tests and student-teacher relationships in such majors leave untreatable damages to the graduates’ proficiency. The inability of some Farsi literature graduates in a fluent reciting some literary texts might exemplify this problem feasibly. This is a serious traumatic problem since the majority of the students face main problems in academic writing and doing research. This problem appears to engage graduate studies, and this cannot be avoided unless by obligating class attendance, oral examinations, academic writing, and research papers so as to refrain from the decline in the standards of education.
E-learning is the most important aspect to develop information technology. Development of education is a necessary factor in the world and it is one of the best solutions for it. E-learning will affect different aspects of international and professional education as an educational revolution. We should know that by using this kind of learning we can use technological education. Also it is an information factor
5) CONCLUSION As most probably are aware of, quality education requires reforming and changing the viewpoints towards open education.
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to increase the number of professors in information technology and teach the basis of information technology to develop computer culture and internet. It is a scientific and ethical value that makes people share scientific and cultural aspects through universal education. It is important and valuable to use the most effective instruments and try to present and remember science and its impact on the growth and development of cultures worldwide.
phenomenon. International Journal of Life long education. 3-Horinls, R. (1988) Development Communication. New York and London: Longman. 4-Moore, M.G&G.Kearsley(1996) Distance Education: a Systems View. Belmont, Ca. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 5-McCann Benjamin, May, 2001, VIRTUAL CAMPUS Underlying Technologies and Model Development, university of Wollongong . 6-Perry, W and Milton Keynes. (1976) Open University., UK: Open University Press. 7-Stewart-smith,Y.C. (1994), “Bringing Quality to higher Education�, first national Conference on Quality in education,Dipoli,Espoo, Finland,1819May 1994.
REFERENCES 1-Bernard, R.M., de Rubalcava B. de Rojo,and St.Pierre.D(2000) Collaborative online distance learning 2-Brown,T.(1999). Challenging globalization as discourse and
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Empowering Teachers to Meet the Digital Native Learners H. Teräs1, M. Myllylä2 & M. Teräs3 1,2 Tampere University of Applied Sciences / School of Vocational Teacher Education (hanna.teras@tamk.fi) (marjatta.myllyla@tamk.fi) 3 Digital_Alpaca (marko@digitalalpaca.com) becomes global and the development of information technology takes place at a speed that has no match in history. Higher education graduates are facing a world of work completely different from the one previous generations have become familiar with. They are also required to have new types of skills in order to be successful in the evolving knowledge society working environment. Although these are perceived as characteristics of the generation of “digital natives”, they are hardly taken into consideration in formal education.
ABSTRACT This paper identifies and describes the challenges higher education is facing on the brink of the knowledge society, and presents one solution through a novel approach to teacher training through a learning program based on authentic, social media assisted learning. Many researchers see a gap between higher education and 21st century skills. Although these are the natural skills of digital native learners, they are not being supported in education.
The education sector has been blamed for lagging behind the development taking place outside the school doors. Even the use of information technology in education has not always yielded the desired outcomes; instead the new tools have been harnessed to serve traditional purposes. Industrial-era conceptions of teaching and learning have proven very hard to change.
It is important that teachers acquire the competences needed in 21st century knowledge work and are prepared to fruitfully work with their digital native learners. The School of Vocational Teacher Education at Tampere University of Applied Sciences introduces a novel approach to teacher training by applying the principles of 21st century skills in social media environments. This approach has yielded extremely promising results in a markedly short time.
The new generation of teachers is in a key role in building 21st century formal education. The School of Vocational Teacher Education at Tampere University of Applied Sciences has sought ways of helping pre-service and in-service vocational and higher education teachers to acquire 21st century skills themselves and step into the world of the digital native learners, and on the other hand supporting their professional growth by empowering them to find new perspectives to teaching and learning in the knowledge society. The novel approach involves collaborative social media assisted learning and promotion of networked expertise.
Keywords Social Media, Digital Natives, Teacher Education 1) INTRODUCTION The emergence of knowledge society has placed formal education with challenges of completely new nature. The significance of networks and collaboration is being emphasized, the working environment 113
with video games, Internet and other digital devices and services. Tapscott (2009) describes the distinctive features of digital natives in his wide-scale study. According to his research results, digital natives are, among other things, globally thinking and tolerant for diversity, they are natural collaborators, they appreciate freedom of choice and expression and they are innovative, looking for creative ways of collaborating, learning and working. (Tapscott 2009). They are accustomed to the participatory economy; instead of consumers of information they are cocreators of it (e.g. Shirky 2008).
2) KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY SKILLS REQUIREMENTS Graduating students need new types of skills in order to be successful in the knowledge society working environment. These are often referred to as “21st century skills”. For example, Trilling & Fadel (2009) see that these include e.g. critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and innovation, flexibility, adaptability, initiative, self-direction, social and crosscultural interaction and responsibility. Florida (2002) argues that the defining feature of economic life today is the rise of the human creativity. The “creative class expert” is required to think independently, apply standard approaches in unique ways to fit a new type of situation, exercise judgment and try out radically new solutions to complex problems (Florida 2002).
According to Tapscott (2009), strong evidence indicates that the organizations that embrace these new ways of working experience better performance, growth and success. This view is supported by many researchers. For example Stacey (2001) points out that in the era of knowledge intensive work, hierarchical, industrial age organization models are no longer effective and they are being replaced with networks in which decision-making and responsibility are decentralized and distributed. Collaboration is a necessary element for innovation.
A challenging aspect of such abstract skills, as Ruohotie (2002) mentions, is that they cannot be directly taught. Moreover, they are difficult to measure with traditional assessment methods. Ruohotie (2002) points out that 21st century skills can only be acquired when the learning environment supports their acquisition and rewards from it. Many writers see the problem in the present-day school system in this respect: it was originally developed to meet the needs of the industrial era and thus it is based on behavioral models that naturally lead to acquire the behavioral skills needed in the industrial society. (E.g. Herrington, Reeves & Oliver 2010, Solomon & Schrum 2007). However, both the working environment and the learners are now completely different.
In the light of the aforementioned, the 21st century skills described in the previous chapter seem to fit naturally in the skills profile of the digital natives. Interestingly though - as Ken Robinson (2001) points out - companies have increasing trouble in recruiting as the students lack these very skills. Sadly, formal education appears to be the missing link. The results of the 2009 Speak Up Survey (USA) published in March 2010 indicate an alarming trend: the students are increasingly aware of the gap between the school practices and the practices and skill requirements of the outside world. This is illustrated in the following:
3) DIGITAL NATIVE LEARNERS The term “digital natives” is often used to refer to the generation born from late 70s to late 90s. Digital natives, or the “net generation” have had access to computers since their childhood and they were grown
This “free-agent learner” student profile accurately depicts the way many of today’s students are approaching learning. For these students, the 114
schoolhouse, the teacher and the textbook no longer have an exclusive monopoly on knowledge, content or even the education process. These students are leveraging a wide range of learning resources, tools, applications, outside experts and each other to create a personalized learning experience that may or may not include what is happening in the classroom.
expected results. He believes that the lack of pedagogical skills rather than technical difficulties is a more elemental reason for this. Indeed, training offered to faculty is often restricted to technological advice. There is only limited support of online pedagogy, and wider discussion on the phenomena that are causing the changes in the working life is often completely absent. Mällinen (2008) has found out that in most cases the e-Learning courses created by higher education teachers end up being actually more traditional and behaviorist than their face-to-face instruction. She has noticed that teachers have great difficulties in adapting themselves to the new role of a facilitator rather than the “sage-on-stage educator” described by Tapscott (2009). Herrington et al. (2010) introduce two approaches to e-Learning: in the “learning from” approach, a message is first delivered in an electronic format, the students are required to familiarize themselves with it, after which they are required to response to indicate that the message has been understood and, finally, they are given feedback as to the adequacy of the response. On the other hand, in the “learning with” approach, technologies are given to the students as cognitive tools to use for representing and expressing what they know. (Herrington et al. 2010).
2009 Speak Up Survey However, not all students take initiative in transforming their learning the way described above. Teräs & Teräs (2010) have observed that students in higher education are often just as resistant to change in learning methods and environments as are many of their teachers. The initial results of their ongoing study suggest that by the time of higher education, many digital native learners have adopted the role of the passive learner who is unwilling to explore, test, try, innovate and collaborate, has no tolerance of uncertainty and is accustomed to rote learning, following instructions and memorizing facts rather than creating their own ways of working. These are findings based on students feedback collected in connection with an initiative where an expert from business life was invited to deliver a collaborative, social media assisted study module in 21st century professional development for the BBA students at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
Learning to do something in a new way is often harder than learning to do something for the first time, when there is no need to “learn away” from an established habit. The generation of digital natives is entering workforce, which means, of course, that many of them also become teachers. Could it not be argued then that the gap between education and working life will be bridged almost automatically over time as the new generation of teachers employs their 21st century mindset in their work? Unfortunately, a study by Torp (2009) suggests that this is not necessarily the case. Young teachers are often strongly
4) TEACHERS AS 21ST CENTURY KNOWLEDGE WORKERS Information technology, especially eLearning – often with the help of a virtual learning management system – is often presented as a key element in updating education to the 21st century. However, even the introduction of ICT has not brought the desired change into formal education. As Bates (2010) observes, the integration of ICT into higher education in North America and Europe has not been without problems; in many cases the investments made have not yielded the 115
influenced by their own experiences as learners, and the traditional conception of good teaching and learning that has been established over time prevails. There is a growing need for discussion and collaboration between preservice and inservice teachers with regard to understanding the 21st century working context and critically evaluating current teaching and assessment methods, instructional design and learning environments (Torp, 2009)
Myllylä, Mäkelä & Torp (2009) noticed, the creation of a sense of community and true dialogue was slow and challenging. During the academic year 2008-2009, some social media tools were introduced in the program alongside Moodle. This resulted in improved sense of presence and collaborative knowledge construction (Myllylä & Teräs 2010). In the 2010 implementation, Moodle is no longer used.
The aforementioned clearly indicates that the role of teacher education is essential in transforming formal education to meet the needs of the knowledge society. Therefore, the School of Vocational Teacher Education at Tampere University of Applied Sciences has sought a completely new approach to teacher education where the characteristics of digital native learners have been considered and accommodated for.
The program has only started in September 2010 but already the first months have indicated significant difference compared to the earlier implementations in Moodle. The impact of the approach on the acquisition of 21st century skills and accommodation to digital native learners' learning styles has been tracked by analyzing digital narratives produced by the students. The digital social narrative is a form of group reflection and selfevaluation and a part of the ongoing dialogic evaluation of the program. Teacher observations have also been consulted. The comments of the students and the teacher can be categorized using the characteristics of digital natives discussed in chapter 3 as a guideline.
6) RESULTS
5) SOCIAL MEDIA ASSISTED TEACHER EDUCATION A group of 20 teacher students of various subject specializations started their pedagogical qualification studies in fall term 2010 with the new program where the great majority of studies take place through social media. The pedagogical model used is authentic inquiry-based learning and the learning environment consists of Second Life, wikis, blogs, Twitter, Skype and a few face-to-face meeting days in a year. Assessment is ongoing and based on dialogue and reflection. There are no traditional exams. The 20 students are divided in smaller teams that work together throughout the studies. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator. The program lasts for two academic years.
6.1) Freedom of choice and expression According to Tapscott (2009), digital natives do not perceive the world in a linear way and they do not always start and finish in clearly defined spots. Similarly, the learning process in the teacher education program has not been clearly defined but the learners have the freedom to define the sequence of their actions. Instead of a set book list or well defined questions the teams have defined their own learning goals and research questions. The teams have had the freedom to choose their own tools; they have, for example, chosen the social media applications they wish to use for the digital narratives. The teams have appreciated this freedom greatly.
The program has earlier been offered through Moodle LMS, largely based on online discussions utilizing the Moodle discussion forum tool. However, as 116
material, start new discussion forums or change anything in the process. This results in a traditional, hierarchical classroom setting: expertise on stage, delivering a one-way message to the audience. The use of social media has changed this entirely. Instead of reading and memorizing materials distributed by the teacher, the learners have shared resources on Twitter, written blogs and created wikis. Social, participatory learning has promoted deep learning and transfer of learning. After only two months of studying, the students reported having learned and understood many new things regarding pedagogical theories, with support from the group and the evergrowing social network.
They report that the support from the teacher has prevented them from feeling astray; instead, there has been an atmosphere of openness and safety that has helped them set a meaningful, common goal to their learning, as well as claim ownership of their own learning and realize their own responsibility and freedom in it. 6.2.) Collaboration, global thinking and tolerance of diversity Social media assisted team learning leads to appreciation of collaboration and diversity. The students' narratives clearly indicate that the students have learned to think of themselves and their work as teachers from the perspective of a team. They see themselves as individuals, all taking a different learning path, but taking it together and learning from each other while their journey takes them towards deeper learning. Social media has broadened the students' conceptions of learning, teaching and networking. This is an aspect that has been strongly emphasized by the students. They also report having used Second Life as a gateway to the vast resources in the virtual world. Moreover, they have “calculated that during only a couple of months, the group of twenty teacher students has expanded to more than ten times the size of the group, thanks to social media�. This, they write, has brought depth to their learning and given them access to much more information.
7) CONCLUSIONS The world of work has changed irreversibly and graduating students are facing many new challenges. The so-called 21st century skills that are highly valued by the employers are natural characteristics of the generation of digital natives, but formal education is still largely based on conceptions and practices that do not support the development of these skills. The change is slow and sometimes difficult to implement as even the young teachers tend to use their own experiences with formal education as guidelines for their professional identity and working methods. Information technology is also often harnessed to serve traditional methods of teaching and learning. Teacher education plays a central role in transforming formal education to meet the needs of the knowledge society. The social media assisted teacher education program currently being piloted at Tampere University of Applied Sciences has already given promising results: the participants have been extremely motivated and they have developed 21st century skills characteristic for digital natives. Although it is still early to draw definite conclusions,
6.3) From consumers to creators One of the greatest differences of the social media assisted program, when compared to traditional approaches, is that social media tools do not have the teacher-centeredness and linear nature of the learning management systems. With learning management systems, the participants do not by default have the same privileges as the instructor. They cannot upload new 117
Robinson, K. (2001). Out of Our Minds: Learning To Be Creative. Chichester: Capstone.
the initial results suggest that the readiness of these future teachers to work fruitfully with their digital native learners has been improved. A more comprehensive study will be conducted as the program proceeds towards its end. The results gained will offer guidelines for future development of teacher education in the knowledge society.
Ruohotie, P. (2002). Oppiminen ja ammatillinen kasvu. [Learning and Professional Development] Juva: WSOY. Shirky, C. 2008. Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Penguin Pr.
REFERENCES Bates, T. (2010). The strategic management of e-learning in universities and colleges. Keynote presentation / World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education Volume 2010, Number 1
Solomon, G., Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. International Society for Technology in Education. Speak Up Survey 2009: As Schools Lose Relevancy, Students Take Charge of Their Own Learning. Released March 16, 2010.
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class (...and how it's transforming work, leisure, community & everyday life). New York: Basic books.
Stacey, R. 2001. Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation. Routledge, London and New York.
Herrington, J., Reeves, T.C & Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic E-learning. New York and London: Routledge.
Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw Hill.
Myllylä, M., Mäkelä, R. & Torp, H. (2009). Digitaaliset narratiivit ohjauksen haasteena opettajakoulutuksen verkkokeskusteluissa. In: Ihanainen P, Kalli P & Kiviniemi K (Eds.). Verkon varassa – opetuksen pedagoginen kehittäminen verkkoympäristöissä. Helsinki: OKKA
Teräs, H. & Teräs, M. (2010). 21st Century Professional Development - Bridging the Gap Between Higher Education and Working Life. World Conference on ELearning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education Volume 2010; 1.
Myllylä, M. & Teräs, H. (2010). Muuttunut opettajuus, sosiaalisen median mahdollisuudet ja tasapainoisen sosiaalisen kompetenssin rakentuminen. In: Ihanainen P et.al. (eds.) Sosiaalinen Media ja Verkostoituminen. Helsinki: OKKA.
Torp, H. (2009). The Changing Teacher and the Internet. In: Pentelenyi P (ed.). Master’s Level Opportunities and Technological Innovation in Vocational Teacher Education. Ligatura.
Mällinen, S. (2007). Conceptual Change Process of Polytechnic Teachers in Transition From Classrooms to Web-based Courses. Tampere: Tampereen yliopistopaino.
Trilling, B., Fadel, C. (2009). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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Future Foreign Language Teachers and the Online Tools They Use to Learn about Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures E. Kartal1 and A. Arikan2 1 Department of Foreign Language Teaching, UludaÄ&#x; University, Bursa, Turkey (erdogankartal@hotmail.com) 2 Children Research Center, Ankara, Turkey (ardaari@gmail.com) literary texts and add on to their blogs some parts of their reading, searching, and viewing habits while opening up some spaces for others to comment on. Gorak (1994) for instance, asks students to compare and contrast their responses based on their literary readings with the images taken from contemporary media. Similarly, Arikan (2009a) asks future teachers of English make entries on an online newsgroup they have created and found that students enjoyed working with this medium in their literature classes. Arikan further asks students to prepare posters or blogs to reflect on their literary reading along with the images literature students find interesting and related to the texts read (Arikan, 2009b). As these examples show, literature teaching with the Internet technology has become both a matter of content as well as it is a matter of pedagogy (Franco and Arikan, 2010).
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to understand prospective foreign language teachers’ knowledge and habits of learning about literatures and cultures online. As a descriptive statistical study, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed online to randomly selected prospective teachers of foreign languages (n=60) to understand their use of online materials and tools they use to learn about target cultures and literatures. Results show that social networking, online music, and e-mails are the leading tools the participants use while podcasts and blogs are the least used ones. Keywords Culture, Foreign, ICT, Language, Literature, Online tool
There are numerous and often clashing views about the importance and place of literature in foreign language teacher education programs although there is paucity of empirical research to support many of those views (Maley, 2001). While some argue that literature should not be a major component of such teacher education programs, others argue that there is benefit in future teachers’ involvement in literature. Either case, it can be claimed that teaching literature has inevitably changed with the Internet. From a historical perspective, Web 1.0 tools such as e-mails, forums, chat programs and video conferencing made interaction between the Internet users possible although they made little impact on high
1) INTRODUCTION Owing to the fact that the Internet has changed almost aspects of life, changes in how literature is read have also changed with this technology. The Internet, first of all, has changed the ways people read literature since we now have online literary texts available for us to read. Second, different from its predecessors, the Internet offers audio materials, texts, and visuals all of which makes multicanality, interactivity possible (Kartal, 2009). This has resulted in, for example, individuals can now read their favorite literary texts online or listen to them while searching for some unknown lexis or concepts to make their reading easier, watch the film versions of their 119
quality and effective communication and active participation of their users. Following these tools, what is elsewhere called as “cooperative social software,” Web 2.0 tools became fashionable. Birdsall (2007) label Web 2.0 tools as being democratic tools that are respectful towards users’ personal choices for they are user-oriented and open to collaborative, interactive, participative interaction among many users all of which result in building communities of users in the online world. Amidst these changes, Söderberg (2001) compares the state of literature on the Internet with that of the printed literature as can be seen in Table 1.
• •
•
The fact that teachers are expected to teach literature with the help of online resources and tools pauses many questions among which teachers’ own level of readiness in the major concern for those who are educating future teachers since, first of all, we have to know to what extent do our students, namely, the future teachers, know and use the Internet with its various tools. Arikan’s (2008) review of literature has shown that web pages, wikis, blogs, podcasts, search engines, forums, news groups, e-mails, games, simulations, audio files, music, and videos, web-based software, and other Internet-based tools and environments are now accepted as educational tools that can be used in the teaching of foreign languages, literature and cultures.
Table 1: Comparison of digital and printed literature Digital Flexibility Interactivity Speed Advantages Authenticity Actuality Variety Interactivity Fit for youth Multicanality
Paper Stability Authority Reflection Disadvantages Cost effective Time saving Lack of structure Lack of control
Arikan’s (2005) study showed that course designers and curriculum makers must reconceptualize literature teaching curricula under the light of some recent theoretical constructs such as constructivism and emotional intelligence. Paiva and Arikan (2010) argue that the following points can be used by a literature instructor while designing and instructing literature through online tools: • • • •
•
Repeat the process until your lesson is plan done with the aspects Ask students to collaborate in tasks which make them use hypermedia applications Ask students to prepare a blog or project activity to summarize their learning by extending it to the online environments and tools.
Research shows that blogs, wikis, and podcasts are the most commonly used Web 2.0 tools that have built communities of interest and likeness. Although a study by (Usluel, Mazman and Arikan, 2009) within a similar locale in Turkey found that podcasts are the least popular tools used by the prospective English language teachers in contrast to wikis being the most popular, there are very few research studies interrogating future foreign language teachers’ online activities that are related to learning about foreign literatures and cultures. As Kartal and Arikan (2010) called for the necessity for future research with a focus on Internet-based learning environments in relation to literature learning and teaching, this present study tried to understand prospective foreign
Read and discuss the text (online or paper based) Introduce one aspect of the school of criticism Apply this aspect to the text Let the students discuss freely and in a reflective manner by referring to the aspect and the text often Introduce another aspect of the task and continue discussing 120
prospective students were in two different cities in Turkey, namely, Ankara and Bursa, and the data were collected in 20102011 school years’ Fall season.
teachers’ knowledge and habits of learning languages, literatures, and cultures online. This need stems from our joint research on and practice of literature with the help of online resources and tools. As we stated in 2010 in our article titled “A recommendation for a new Internet-based environment for studying literature,” we proposed a five-step lesson plan blending our traditional literature classroom with online resources, tools, and activities as follows: • Determining students’ use of the Internet and recommending new methods to expand their knowledge. • Online reading and listening of the literary text combined with online writing activities • Analysis of the text with the medium of blogs or e-mails • Online research on the author or the period • Evaluation and reflection as individual, pair or group work activity through blogs, newsgroups or e-mails.
The data used in the study was collected through a questionnaire which was developed by the researchers. No variables were asked to the participants in the questionnaire such as prospective teachers demographics because the aim of this descriptive study was to interrogate the participants’ online habits without making correlations. The first part of the questionnaire asked the participants to identify how often they use the online tools whose names are listed. There were 5 options ranging from “everyday”, “once or twice a week”, “once or twice a month”, “rarely” and “never.” In the second part of the questionnaire, the participants were given 8 possible reasons for choosing and using the above mentioned tools and they were given 3 options, namely, “very important”, “important” and “not important.”
In line with our call for a new sensitivity and application as stated above, in this study, try to determine the use of the Internet by our students on which we can recommend new methods of teaching and learning in the cyber space. We specifically aimed at finding answers to the following research questions: 1. Which online tools and how frequently do pre-service foreign language teachers know to develop their knowledge of culture and literature? 2. What are their reasons for not using some tools that can enable them to learn more about foreign language literatures and cultures?
In the analysis of the data, a popular statistical package was used to calculate the frequencies, percentages, and arithmetic means to bring a descriptive analysis of the results. 3) RESULTS Results of this study show the online tools pre-service foreign language teachers know and use. As the data suggest, it can be concluded that prospective teachers of foreign languages who are living in countries in which the target foreign language is not widely used need to be engaged in ICT activities more than their counterparts who live in any other location due to the fact that ICT is the only chance for them to use their language while attaining first-hand literary and cultural knowledge. In this presentation, after a robust review of the literature, the results of
2) METHODS Participants of this study were 60 students attending Turkish universities’ Faculties of Education where they receive education to be future foreign language teachers. These 121
this study are shared and sample traditional classroom-based and online activities are discussed as possibilities towards implementing newer e-learning activities aiming to develop future teachers’ knowledge of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures.
Participants’ reasons for using the tools that can enable them to learn more about foreign language literatures and cultures are given in Table 3. As can be seen in the Table, future teachers of foreign languages prefer online materials that are easy to use and free of charge. Thirdly, that the online materials must be fun is accepted as important.
Results gathered to answer the first research question, namely, which and how frequently do pre-service foreign language teachers use online tools to develop their knowledge of culture and literature. As can be seen in Table 2, social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are the leading tools future teachers of foreign languages use to learn more about foreign literatures and cultures followed by online music and e-mails.
Future teachers of foreign languages also prefer accessible tools followed by those online tools that are helpful to their own school work. Surprisingly, that the tools must be in their own native language and must be used by their friends receive the lowest arithmetic means. These results suggest that popularity of online tools among the users’ friendship circles is not important for these participants. In contrast, users want to have direct benefit from the tools used in terms of their development.
Participants’ reading of online texts has a mean of 3.70, suggesting a reasonably high amount of activity although it is still lower than the other tools they use as specified above. In contrast, podcasts and blogs are the least used tools they use while learning about literatures and cultures. These results suggest that although future foreign language teachers read online literary texts, when asked, they claim that they find social networking, music and e-mails more conducive to learning about the literatures and cultures they are studying at their universities.
Table 3: Reasons for using such tools N
M
SE
SD
Social networking
4,60
,117
,906
Forums
3,23
,141
1,095
Blogs
2,92
,155
1,197
Podcasts
2,03
,128
,991
3,53
,120
,929
Music
4,27
,098
,756
Wikis
3,07
,178
1,376
E-mails
4,03
,179
1,390
Texts
3,70
,174
1,344
Films
60
SE
SD
2,75
,061
,474
Being fun
2,63
,071
,551
Ease of accessing
2,23
,093
,722
2,45
,077
,594
1,47
,087
,676
1,82
,097
,748
2,67
,061
,475
2,25
,088
,680
Ease of accessibility Being in my native language Used by friends Being free of charge Being helpful to my classes
Table 2: Tools and frequency of use N
M
Ease of use
60
4) DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This study was a small scale study which focused on future foreign language teachers’ use of some select online tools. Despite the limitations of the instrument used and the small number of the participants, it has given numerical evidence in support of understanding the givens of the problems it posed upon which the solutions could be provided. In that sense, the study is important especially for those who aim to develop their teacher 122
Arikan, A. (2009a). Edebiyat Öğretiminde Görsel Araç Kullanımı: Kısa Öykü Öğrenimi, [Use of visuals in the teaching of short stories], Ondokuz Mayis University Journal of Education, 27, 1-16. Birdsall, W.F. (2007). Web 2.0 as a Social Movement. Webology, 4(2). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www.webology.ir/2007/v4n2/a 40.html Franco, P., & Arikan, A. (2010). Why is it worth teaching and learning literature online? Humanizing Language Teaching, 12(5). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/ oct10/sart01.htm Gorak, J. (1994). Teaching cultural criticism in Denver, Colorado. In Dianne F. Sadoff & William E. Cain (Eds.), Teaching contemporary theory to undergraduates. New York: The Modern Language Association of America. Kartal, E. (2009). Literature and Internet: From print to digital, views, thoughts and discussions. International Congress of Comparative Literature and The Teaching of Literature and Language: We speak the same culture (Abstract book, 40-41), April 29-May 1, 2009, Gazi Universtiy, Ankara. Kartal, E., & Arikan, A. (2010). A recommendation for a new Internet-based environment for studying literature. US-China Education Review, 7(7), 93-99. Maley, A. (2001). Literature in the language classroom. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.), Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (pp. 180-185). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
education curricula through using online resources and tools. Similar to the previous research in the same location (Usluel, Mazman and Arikan, 2009), it was found that podcasts are the least used tools the participants use while learning about literatures and cultures although their benefits for foreign language learners is of utmost importance because with the podcasts one can listen various lectures, poetry, and talks and with the help of the blogs one can read and write on what they are learning. Hence, it can be suggested that future teachers’ knowledge and use of podcasts and blogs should be articulated at teacher education programs. Hence, it is advised that future teachers should be acknowledged about podcasts as well as newer tools so that they gain benefit in using them. These results also suggest that popularity of online tools among users’ friendship circles is not important because users want to gain benefit from the tools used in terms of their development. Thus, benefits and challenges of using online tools must be articulated in teacher education programs and more research studies should focus on the relationship between literature and culture learning and foreign language teacher education.
REFERENCES Arikan, A. (2005). An evaluation of literature curriculum in Hacettepe University English language teaching department. Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 29, 40-49. Arikan, A. (2008). Using internet groups in the learning of literature. Hacettepe University The Journal of Education, 34, 19-26.
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SÜderberg, C. (2001). Technology and literature: Numerical and alphabetical: Forced or love marriage? Retrieved February 21, 2009, from http://www.linguatic. fba.uu.se/articles/fr/Numerique.doc. Usluel, Y. K., Mazman, S. G., & Arikan, A. (2009). Prospective teachers’ awareness of collaborative web 2.0 tools. The IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2009, 19 - 22 November 2009, Roma, Italy,
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Investigating Students’ Cognitive Engagement in e-Learning N. A. Shukor1, J. Harun2 and Z. Tasir3 Department of Educational Multimedia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (nurbiha@utm.my1, p-jamal@utm.my2, p-zaida@utm.my3) engagement particularly in face-to-face learning environment (Zhu et al., 2009; Helme & Clarke, 2001; Corno & Mandinach, 1983). The presented preliminary research attempted to understand students’ cognitive engagement in an asynchronous learning discussion by localizing the context to social knowledge construction.
ABSTRACT Research in e-Learning has been explored in multiple perspectives. Recent attention is towards the underlying processes that found to provide enormous information on students’ learning in online learning settings. This research explores the underlying processes of asynchronous discussion in e-Learning which is students’ cognitive engagement. Previous research found that students’ level of cognitive engagement remains at the level ‘sharing and comparing’ which is the lower level of cognitive engagement. Applying Van der Meijden’s coding scheme, this research views social knowledge construction as an indication of students’ cognitive engagement. By means of such approach, this research seeks for comprehensive understanding on students’ level of cognitive engagement in e-Learning’s asynchronous discussion.
2) BACKGROUND OF PROBLEM Zhu and his friends mentioned that it is important to clarify to what extent does the students’ are cognitively engaged in their learning task, as it will contribute to knowledge acquisition (Zhu et al, 2009). Studies found that, for some period, most of students’ online discourses are information-sharing statement which falls under the lower degree of cognitive engagement (Zhu, 2006; Schellens & Valcke, 2005; Schellens et al., 2008; Ma 2009). There is no empirical mark that higher order learning such as construction of new knowledge and critical analysis of peer interaction had taken place in their discussion (McLoughlin & Luca, 2000). Aspiring for the higher level of cognitive engagement relies very much on the proper planning of learning activities and facilitation during online discussion (Zhu, 2006). Richardson and Newby (2006) continues to explain that students’ cognitive engagement in online learning is important where; as the students gain experience in online learning, they appear to be more responsible for their own learning. It is explainable in the sense that students’ level of engagement will influence learning and their motivation (Mandinach & Corno, 1985). In fact, even though students are highly motivated, they are found not to be
Keywords Asynchronous discussion, cognitive engagement, e-Learning, social knowledge construction. 1) INTRODUCTION Researches in e-Learning have covered wide areas including learning in asynchronous discussion (Ma, 2009; Schellens et al., 2008; Zhu, 2006; Schellens & Valcke, 2005; Van der Meijden, 2005; Oriogun, 2003). However, the extent to which students’ are cognitively engaged in asynchronous discussion remained dubious. Previous researchers have been conducted to investigate students’ cognitive 125
reaching the deep cognitive engagement (Blumenfeld et al., 2006; Hanrahan, 1998). Guan and his friends (Guan et al., 2006) evaluated the quality of online discussion based on the order of postings, i.e., the sequences of messages posted by a participant. This method also seeks to answer the question of how the cognitive skills develop in online discussion. Guan et al (2006) infer that higher participation rate might be due to socializing factor and low participation rate is due to lack of students’ motivation to discuss. They found that the most used type of interactions is ‘direct response’ and the most frequent cognitive skills being possessed by the students are the ‘elementary clarification’. Most of the discussion scripts are irrelevant to the tested Physic subject, and only 11.49 percent reflects meta-cognitive skills (Guan et al., 2006). Subsequently, Schellens et al. (2008) found that students rarely reach higher level of knowledge construction. The metacognitive skills, i.e. planning the task and instructing other students , similar to findings by Cheung et al (2004) who reported that despite providing scaffolding, the graduate students tend to participate in ‘identifying problems’ rather than ‘discussing problems’. Zhu explains that cognitive engagement is not observable in online learning environment but can be understand from the richness of discussion messages (Zhu, 2006). Thus, for online learning context, Zhu (2006) clarifies cognitive engagement as:
students are found to show behaviours such as answering teacher’s questions, giving information, explaining procedures and reasoning, questions addressed to teacher, and reflective self-questioning (Helme & Clarke, 2001). These behaviours are also profound in students’ asynchronous discussion for social knowledge construction according to Van der Meijden (2005). Although behaviours in asynchronous are not observable, but they can be understood from the students’ responses and activities of seeking, seeking, interpreting, analyzing and summarizing information, critiquing and reasoning through various opinions and arguments, and making decisions (Zhu, 2006). Therefore, cognitive engagement in this research will view cognitive engagement from the perspective of students’ social knowledge construction. Hence, for the purpose of investigating students’ level of cognitive engagement in online learning, the following research question is addressed: What is the students’ level of social knowledge construction in asynchronous discussion? 3) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In the preliminary study research, students were given a case study to be discussed on the issue of ‘Portal versus Website; Content Management System versus Learning Management System’. Discussion is open to all the students of the section and participation was voluntarily. There is no time limit and the discussion is open until the end of the semester. This is set to better understand the students’ behaviors in an unconditional task; whether were they willing to exert an amount of mental effort and voluntarily contributing the ideas. A total of 38 messages were collected from the discussion board. All the messages are coded using the Van der Meijden’s coding scheme as in Table 1.
“.. attention to related readings and effort in analyzing and synthesizing readings demonstrated in discussion messages. Cognitive engagement, as defined, involves seeking, interpreting, analyzing, and summarizing information; critiquing and reasoning through various opinions and arguments; and making decisions. ”
Research by Helme and Clarke (2001) has managed to identify several indicating behaviours of cognitive engagement from observation by classroom video-taping. In a small group interaction with teachers, 126
Table 1: Van der Meijden’s coding scheme
results in ‘enormous number of cases’. This research applies message as the unit of analysis as it resulted in a more manageable number of cases and the meaning of each messages can be clearly identified (Rourke et al., 2001).
Cognitive: Asking Questions CHV 1 Asking questions that do not require an explanation (facts or simple questions) *CHV 2 Asking questions that require an explanation (comprehension or elaboration) CHVER Verification or asking for agreement Cognitive: Giving Answers CHG 1 Answering without explanation *CHG 2 Answering with explanation (using arguments or by asking a counter-question) Cognitive: Giving Information CI 1 Giving information (an idea or thought) without elaboration *CI 2 Giving information (an idea or thought) with elaboration CIT Referring to earlier remark/information CIE Evaluating the content (summarizing/concluding) ACCEPTAccepting contribution of another participant without elaboration *ACCEPT+ Accepting contribution of another participant with elaboration NACCEPTNot accepting contribution of another participant without elaboration *NACCEPT+ Not accepting contribution of another participant with elaboration Affective A Positive, neutral, or negative emotional reaction to another participant or with regard to the task Regulative RV Planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the task or group process RINS Instructing: One participant instructs another participant Rest AND Non-task-related remarks, unfinished sentences, or interactions that do not fall into any other category GREE Greetings to indicate the presence or absence of a person Note: * indicates higher-level knowledge construction.
4) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The following is the result from the preliminary research study. 4.1) Students’ level of social knowledge construction in asynchronous discussion Results indicated that most of the students’ discussion evolved about the area of ‘answering without explanation’ that accumulates 18.42 percent of the overall total coded messages (see Table 2). Upon giving provoking questions, students prefer to give direct responses rather than giving opinions on the given issue (7.89 percent for CI 1). Most given answers are relatively being giving the complete name for the term ‘LMS’ and ‘CMS’. This is relevant to the behavior of the discussion being previously set as a voluntarily participation where Helme and Clarke (2001) asserted that the characteristics of the tasks can bring significant influence to cognitive engagement. Furthermore, asking comprehensive questions (CHV 2) are only dominated by the lecturer who moderated the discussion (CHV 2= 10.53 percent). It happened to be factual that the role of a moderator is crucial for initiating fruitful discussion where Shi (2010) indicated that students’ intellectual engagement is very much depended upon teacher’s number and quality of postings as well as students’ participation. These findings are also true for the research by Schellens and friends who indicated that students rarely reach the higher-level of knowledge construction due to insufficient guidance and support for online discussion (Schellens et al., 2008).
As stated by Rourke et al (2001), using sentence unit as the unit of analysis will 127
2.63 percent), and reflective selfquestioning (CHVER= 5.26 percent). The overall of students’ contribution at the higher-level remains considerably low (28.95 percent) compared to those obtained by Schellens et al., (2008) although a total of 65.79 percent of the coded messages are cognitive in nature.
A significant number for non-task related postings (AND= 15.79 percent) are also collected due to the fact that students used the discussion as a medium to communicate with their lecturer for issues related to assignments and grading. According to Stoney and Oliver (1999), the off task activities indicated that students have started to lose engagement with the program. This is also true for the current research as the non-task related postings are collected at the end of the discussion.
Table 3: Total percentages of the coded messages according to categories of social knowledge construction High-level elaborations Low –level elaborations Affective contributions Regulative contributions Non task related remarks Total
Table 2: Total percentages of the coded messages according to levels of social knowledge construction CHV 1 CHV 2 CHVER CHG 1 CHG 2 CI 1 CI 2 CIT CIE ACCEPTACCEPT+ NACCEPTNACCEPT+ A RV RINS AND GREE Total
N 1 4 2 7 1 3 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 6 0 38
Percentage, % 2.63 10.53 5.26 18.42 2.63 7.89 13.16 2.63 0 0 0 0 2.63 18.42 0 0 15.79 0 99.99
N
Percentage, %
11
28.95
14
36.84
7
18.42
0
0
6
15.79
38
100
5) LIMITATIONS A single coder codes the messages in the preliminary research study and issues of reliability are inevitable. However, findings from the research are useful to provide an overview of students’ cognitive engagement in the context of social knowledge construction.
However, there are students that managed to provide opinions along with explanation although some of the information is retrieved from the internet (CI 2 = 13.16 percent). Some of the explanations are also built upon students’ previous experiences with the topic. The overall findings support students’ behavior while interacting in small group with teachers as indicated by Helme and Clarke (2001). It is where the students answer teacher’s questions (CHG 1= 18.42 percent), giving information (CI 1= 7.89 percent), explaining procedures and reasoning (CHG 2= 2.63 percent), questions addressed to teachers (CHV 1=
6) CONCLUSION The preliminary research study is beneficial for providing empirical data that describes students’ cognitive engagement in a voluntarily open discussion. Given a specific task and goal, it would be interesting to observe how students react and provide responses particularly in an asynchronous learning discussion. REFERENCES Blumenfeld, C. P., Kempler, M. T., & Krajcik, S. J. (2006). Motivation and Cognitive Engagement in 128
Learning Environements. In Sawyer, R. K (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Learning Sciences, (pp 475-488). Cheung, S.W., Tan, C.S. & Hung, D. (2004). Investigating Problem Solving with Computer-supported Collaborative Learning. AARE International Education Research Conference. Corno, L., & Mandinach, E. B. (1983). The Role of Cognitive Engagement in Classroom Learning and Motivation. Educational Psychology. 18(2), 88-108. Guan, Y-H., Tsai, C-C., & Hwang, F-K. (2006). Content Analysis of Online Discussion on a Senior-HighSchool discussion forum of a virtual physic laboratory. Instructional Science, 34, 279-311. Hanrahan, M. (1998). The Effect of Learning environment Factors on Students’ Motivation and Learning. International Journal of Science Education, 20 (6), 737-753. Helme, S., & Clarke, D. (2001). Identifying Cognitive Engagement in the Mathematics Classroom. Mathematics Education Research Journal. 13(2), 133-153. Ma, W.W.A. (2009). Computer-supported Collaborative Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills: A Case Study of Textile Studies. Interdisciplinary Journal of Elearning and Learning Objects. 5, 145-167. Mandinach, E.B. & Corno, L. (1985). Cognitive engagement Variations among Students of Different Ability Level and Sex in a Computer Problem Solving Game. Sex Roles. 13(ž), McLoughlin, C. & Luca, J. (2000). Cognitive Engagement and Higher Order Thinking through Computer Conferencing: We Know Why but Do We Know How?. In A. Herrmann and M.M. Kulski (Eds),
Flexible Futures in Tertiary Teaching. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 2-4 February 2000. Perth: Curtin University of Technology. Oriogun, P. K. (2003). Towards understanding online learning levels of engagement using the SQUAD approach to CMC discourse. AJET 19, 19, 3, 371-387. Rourke, L., Anderson, T., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing social presence in screen text-based computer conferencing. Journal of Distance Education, 14 from http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol14.2/ro urke_et_al.html Schellens, T., Keer, V. H., Wever, D. B., Valcke, M. (2008). Student elaborations and knowledge construction in asynchronous discussion groups in secondary education. Proceedings of the 8th international conference on International conference for the learning sciences, 3, 413-415. Schellens, T. & Valcke, M. (2005). Collaborative Learning in asynchronous discussion groups: What about the impact on cognitive processing? Computers in Human Behaviour. 21, 957-975. Shi, S. (2010). Teacher Moderating and Student Engagement in Synchronous Computer Conferences. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6, 2, 431-445. Stoney, S. & Oliver, R. (1999). Can Higher Order Thinking and Cognitive Engagement be Enhanced with Multimedia? Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning. 1, 2, October 1999. Van der Meijden, H. (2005). Knowledge Construction through CSCL: Student Elaborations in synchronous, asynchronous, and three-dimensional learning 129
environments, Duiven: drukkerij Tamminga. Zhu, E. (2006). Interaction and cognitive engagement: An analysis of four asynchronous online discussions. Instructional Science, 34(6), 451480. Zhu, X., Chen, A., Ennis, C., Sun, H., Hopple, C., Bonello, M., Bae, M., & Kim, S. (2009). Situational Interest, Cognitive Engagement, and Achievement in Physical Education. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 221229.
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The Challenge of Four-Status Model of eLearning: Principles Toward a New Understanding for Healthcare Professionals N. Turnbull1, G. B. Wills2 and M. O. Gobbi3 1,2 School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK (nt08r@ecs.soton.ac.uk1, gbw@ecs.soton.ac.uk2) 3 School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK (M.O.Gobbi@soton.ac.uk3) Keywords eLearning, e-learning, eLearning model, Online Learning, Healthcare professionals, Technology Enhanced learning
ABSTRACT This paper presents the critical reviews of the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning for healthcare professionals. The impact of learning on healthcare professionals is explored; the focus is on healthcare professionals in rural Thailand. Literature suggests that there are four main topics related to the drivers and barriers in eLearning, they are: Infrastructure; Finance; Policies; and Culture (IF-PC). IF-PC model of barriers and drivers of eLearning is being adopted as a template for the design of all eLearning, to the exclusion of other ideas. Using a case study approach the research, completed in 2006, had two phases. A questionnaire was distributed to a group healthcare professional student to gain information with questions adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Phase 2 employed three strands of data collection: interviews, a group discussions, and observation were employed to help with the understanding of the problems in greater depth. Data was analysed using a form of pattern matching. An evaluation of the adoption of eLearning in Thailand is presented along with a discussion on the findings. It appears that alternative models of eLearning cannot be disregarded. This has interesting consequences for the implementation of eLearning especially in developing countries.
1. INTRODUCTION This paper reports on a pilot study of eLearning for healthcare professionals which delivering a part-time degree level course in Master of Public Health, introduced by Maha-Sarakham University, Thailand in 2006. The paper is structured in three parts. The first launches the motivation and the background for the eLearning courses for Master degree of Public Health, by showing the background of MSU eLearning (Maha-Sarakham University) and reviewing the professional imperatives to continue learning in healthcare. The second part illustrates the implementation of the research providing the results of two phase research; phase 1 was launched the questionnaires, following phase 2 were interviews, group discussion and observations which discusses along side with the problems. The final part discusses on the challenge of issues in experience implementation the eLearning for healthcare professionals for this case study. This also critiques the four main barriers and drivers of eLearning: Infrastructure, Finance, Policies and Culture (IF-PC). 2. BACKGROUND A growing concern among healthcare professionals is the need to continually update knowledge and skills in order to enhance clinical practice. In some cases, to maintain the professional requirements, eLearning in particular can help with 131
registered healthcare professionals who have to keep up-to-date with the knowledge base of their professions (Jadad and Delamothe, 2004). It is recognized that there are major concerns about recruitment and retention of staff within healthcare, and an increasing need for greater emphasis on valuing the existing workforce (Gill, 2007). At the same time, there is growing use of eLearning technologies, which can be linked to competencies via emerging eLearning standards (Hersh et al., 2006). Indeed, eLearning is an interesting method for hospital staff who works on shift patterns that cover seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it also enables the healthcare professionals to maintain core skills including the ability to use electronic libraries, critically appraise evidence for healthcare, and provide health information for service users. Rural communities in Thailand are dispersed over large areas with limited transport and technology infrastructure. For healthcare professionals from such rural communities it is very difficult to attend training courses at a University and to keep up to date with current healthcare practice. When a rural healthcare professional does attend training courses it usually involves much time and expense in travelling as well as depriving the community of healthcare support by that professional, and for some communities that will be the only support. One solution being adopted is to make use of eLearning facilities as used in other parts of the world. There are challenges in running and attending eLearning courses in rural communities with limited technology infrastructure. However, Maha-Sarakham University (MSU) has provided these courses. The Faculty of Public Health at Maha-Sarakham University Thailand has obtained its full faculty status under the motto “Learning at the Workplace and Lifelong Learning”. It has set its mission on the development of well-trained public health personnel and promotion of well being among the Northeast community in Thailand. By offering the courses for healthcare professionals in the Northeast part of Thailand, it will provide a means by which 132
they can engage with advanced knowledge and information which should help them to improve their professional competency. These initial experimentations with online provisions of learning materials and learning activities can be considered as a tentative step in the direction of learning object paradigm. The main aims of the MSU eLearning project is that students could access available materials repeatedly and opportunities to work beyond the basic requirement of the module, where online material supports this. Therefore, the cooperative between the University and the Ministry of Public Health has had started in 2004. The course was first established on two university campuses which were at Nakhorachasrima province and at the main campus, Maha Sarakham province. This was first introduced into a few modules which were: Health and Management, Applied Epidemiology, Public Health Research Methodology, Applied Statistics to Public Health Research and Public Health Policy. These modules offer the MSU courses through a blended eLearning mode the courses for students and how to manage the courses for the lecturers. 3. IMPLEMENTATIONS The study was a mixed method design employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches in two phases; phase 1 used a survey and phase 2 used indepth interviews, group discussions, and observations. 3.1 PHASE 1: THE SURVEY Phase 1 took place before the eLearning courses started. A questionnaire was distributed to a group of 30 healthcare professional students to gain information with questions adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1985) (see figure 1) to identify ‘what healthcare professionals perceive as useful in information technology’ and ‘what do they perceive as ease of use information technology’.
clear and stable, and Interacting with electronic information is often frustrating. 3.2 PHASE 2: THE QUALITATIVE METHOD In phase two a number of methods were used to investigate the understanding of the structure and factors that affected the attitudes of healthcare professionals when using electronic information and MSU eLearning within this environment. The following methods were used: interviews; group discussions; and observations. These were conducted while the healthcare professionals were studying in term time. 3.2.1 Interviews 23 healthcare professional students were committed to interviews, the questions were designed using four topics: Information wanted, Factor of Information within search-using, The Opinion of MSU eLearning courses, and the eLearning environment. The design of the questions examined each of the key components with regard to the environment for the healthcare professional within the MSU eLearning courses. The details of the results are as follows: 1) Information wanted: The results show 20 of 23 healthcare professionals use leaflets and documents from the Ministry of Public Health, and journals for non electronic information, and further electronic information they used search engines from the Internet such as Google, the website of Ministry of Public Health, and the Maha-Sarakham University’s website to finding the information. In addition, six healthcare professionals used e-mail to communicate with the others as daily. These also found healthcare professionals had difficult to find in searching or using information such as: 1) do not have time to search for information, 2) hard to find out some information which included; live too far from source; didn’t know how to search their topics; lack of data especially for
Figure 1: The Original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)(Davis, 1985)
With the Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (POU) survey section, it was found that electronic information such as eLearning was useful for the healthcare professional and also that information was easy to use. Interestingly, most results of PU are significant, having regarded to the expected results, such as: • ‘Using electronic information improves the quality of the work they do’, • ‘Using electronic information increases their job performance’, • ‘Electronic information supports critical aspects of their job’, • ‘Using electronic information increases their productivity’, • ‘Using electronic information enhances their effectiveness on the job’, • ‘Using electronic information gives them greater control over their work’, • ‘Using electronic information allows them to accomplish more work than would otherwise be possible’, • ‘overall, they found electronic information useful in their job’. The addition of the statistics test (t-test) (p<0.05) found four results significant to PEU, they include; Interacting with electronic information requires a lot of mental effort, they find electronic information cumbersome to use, the interaction with electronic information is 133
public health or some special topics e.g. Bird Flu; the books or journals are too expensive for them, 3) cannot access to the internet e.g. no computer, no landline, not many computers in their office, they have to wait their turn in a queue. 2) Factor of Information within searchusing: The results show 14 of 23 healthcare professionals need more time to use and understanding both non-electronic and electronic information. 3) The Opinion of MSU eLearning courses: Following this question healthcare professional gave their opinions which felt into two categories, i.e., 5 students had never been through the MSU eLearning course and, 18 students had gained some more information or knowledge from this courses. The opinion was shown by a sample respondent. Respondent C said: ‘I can't access the program, sometimes as it’s a bit slow to access, and my internet is very slow also’.
courses have no content at all, also some contents are not updated, and when we access some courses, we cannot find anything, also when we have a problem we cannot find anyone who can help us to resolve it there is no communication from the web-board or chat room’. 3.2.3 Observation This section presents some early observations concerning the Master Degree of Public Health. Specially focus on such as healthcare professional students, administration, tutors and lecturers, and the library. At the beginning of the eLearning courses, some healthcare professional students worry about new mode of learning, as learning from the internet was a new concept for them. There was also concern from students about being forced to use this mode of learning. However, some students were excited to learn the new technology, see it as an opportunity to broaden their skills. All the students received two days of training on how to use the MSU eLearning Module. Unfortunately, during the term time, healthcare professional students were prevented from using the MSU eLearning course because no lecturers participated with them online. They only accessed the online courses when they needed to print out the notes e.g. power point. In the initial implementation of eLearning courses, the administrator decided policies that gave the opportunity for healthcare professional to study by eLearning. Then met the designers and implemented changes in the eLearning courses on the Masters Public Health degree. The policies included funding for the lecturers to commit the courses into the MSU eLearning module, and to support on-line learning. This seems to create more opportunities for healthcare professional people, especially those living too far from the university campus, and who do not want to leave their work to attend the university. Unfortunately, this policy did not go well because of a change in the administration of the courses. Thus when a person (who supported this policy)
4) The eLearning environment: The results were found: a) Healthcare professional cannot access the internet; this includes having no computer to access, limited access, and no internet in their areas. b) The quality of the contents in the eLearning module added no new data, it was hard to download and the content could not be read (Blur). c) The chat room and web-board were not updated. 3.2.2 Group Discussion The one group discussion was under taken with three open topic questions: 1) the facilities for access to the internet; 2) the design and content in eLearning module; and 3) the communication of the courses e.g. chat room, web-board. The interesting comment from a healthcare professional student: Respondent D: ‘we are interested in this program which enables us to find out more information, but the problem is that some 134
changed, so did the funding policy towards the MSU eLearning courses. Additionally the cooperation with the university’s staff, such as tutors, lecturers, librarians were essential and fundamental to the discussion. The results illustrated that some lecturers did not seem to want to be online teachers; their opinions showed they were too busy to sit at the computer and too much time was needed to manage the courses. Teaching face-to-face seemed easier than being than online, and they needed IT training before starting online courses. A librarian suggested they needed specialist staff for managing the MSU eLearning courses, especially for the help-desk or web-master. However, these factors are different from what makes eLearning work anywhere else in the world, especially for developing countries such as Thailand. While there are still major difficulties to overcome and much work to be done, it is maintained that the results of this project provide strong evidence that eLearning can be a powerful approach for reaching particular healthcare professionals. The summary of main factors discusses of the results shows as follows: 1) Infrastructure variables: Problems with accessing to information technologies’ facilities: not many computers to support, not a lot subject material on-line (e.g. health sciences), not many internet accessing points, and Accessing the internet from telephone landline is an extremely slow connection. These will be impacted to perceive of the usefulness information that healthcare professionals need to update their knowledge. 2) Finance variables: Students live far from information sources such as accessing the Internet points which had cost to receive information (e.g. travels and cost for internet café), particularly the cost of time and human of implementation. 3) Policies variables: The observation results indicate that policies main concerns for the strategies on missions and visions to investment for
left, it seemed that nobody wanted to continue this policy, therefore, the program stopped. At the first start of the eLearning programme, five lecturers had been chosen to teach online because their subjects were compulsory for the courses. We then gave a training course for those lecturers, showing them how to manage their online courses. During the term time we spoke with some lecturers who were responsible for the course. Some of them did not seem to like to use the internet for teaching. They do not have time to discuss with students in the chat room or web-board room. They have many other classes to teach, too many other things to do. It was not only teaching, but also research, and so on. Thus, some topics in the eLearning course were taught in the traditional classroom. Furthermore, a librarian was asked to connect the library’s website for students when they were off the campus which means they can access online facilities such as journals, online books, and some documents in the digital library. Unfortunately, it seemed to be hard to manage. Therefore online healthcare professional students have to access to same as traditional students, they could not access information by the internet form out side university. The reason for this being there is not enough staffs to manage the library network, and most of them have insufficient knowledge to manipulate online supporting. 4. DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES From the questionnaires we found electronic information was useful for the healthcare professional and also that information was easy to use. However, they had problems with accessing the resources. This was also supported by the researcher’s observations revealed similar results as those from the questionnaires, interviews, and group discussions. Particularly, administrative’ policy changes affected the funding in the eLearning courses, for tutors and lecturers, and so on. It appeared that when the administrator 135
information technologies, for instant 1) having strategies for encouraging the teachers to have ambitions to develop eLearning courses, 2) having the policies with cooperation among teachers, staff and the others (e.g. library), and 3) Government have increasingly demanded and forcing the universities to engage in kind of planning and organisation in eLearning programme which is commonplace in business, but largely foreign to the collegial culture. 4) Culture variables: Although, the motivation shown the percentage of opinions on the MSU eLearning courses are mostly neither agree nor disagree all parts of the questions which will be carefulness within eLearning environment, especially, the people within eLearning system must have high selfefficacy and the appropriate behavioural skills such as taking responsibility for learning (e.g. policy makers, lecturers, students and staffs). However, life in conventional universities is related organisational cultures which often operating simultaneously. In academic cultures are mostly relevant with the collegial and managerial culture, this also dominates with the development and the negotiated.
eLearning will not be the only factor to change the focus of universities. Other forces are at work including changing governmental and professional requirements, economic development, and technological change, changing employment patterns and opportunities, and changing expectations of students. Although, the literature has presented many positive benefits and impacts on eLearning, none has addressed the impact in the four domains of the IF-PC model; Infrastructure, Finance, Policies, and Culture. Therefore, consideration of these is crucial, while these have been investigated separately; especially when implementing learning and teaching at a distance, they have not been assessed as a whole. This applies particularly to those who use technology, for instance healthcare professionals in developing countries such as Thailand who need to continue updating information for their patients. REFERENCES Davis, F. (1985) A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new enduser information systems: theory and results, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge. Gill, A. (2007) E-learning and professional development--never too old to learn. Br J Nurs, 16, 1084-8. Hersh, W., Bhupatriraju, R., Greene, P., Smothers, V. & Cohen, C. (2006b) Adopting e-learning standards in health care: competency-based learning in the medical informatics domain. American Medical Informatics Association, Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/article render.fcgi?artid=1839696 [Accessed 19 March 2009] Jadad, A. R. & Delamothe, T. (2004) What next for electronic communication and health care? BMJ, 328, 1143.
5. CONCLUSION E-learning is a rapidly developing area and is gaining increasingly importance in all sectors of education. Indeed, healthcare sector also included in this situation. Consequently, the result of a successful implementation of eLearning is one that engages all the stakeholders, especially the students and the lecturers. For this research, the drivers and barriers for eLearning are therefore listed in four domains: infrastructure, finance, policies, and culture, the model is called IF-PC. The IF-PC model is to ensure that the essential factors in each domain are made clear when planning and managing online learning and that the domains are connected to each other. Undoubtedly, 136
Redesign of the Knowledgebase Enhancing e-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction Using Best Practices M. Chongchaikit Department of Education, Faculty of Education, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand (maturos.c@ku.ac.th) then reviewed and redesigned according to these key concepts.
ABSTRACT TheKnowledgebase Enhancing E-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction was the redesign of the research result developed in 2008 by Somtawil, Nataya, Maturos (Educational Resources Enhancing eLearning on C&I)to enhance Master’s and PhD Degree e-Learning programs of C&I Section at Kasetsart University.There were 6 main menus for 6 disciplines: • Math Education • Science Education • Health &Physical Education • Vocational Education • Educational Technology • Education. Each main menu had 5 submenus: Articles, Research,Publication,Materials and Organi -zations. The other menus were “Getting Started, Infos Search and Contact Us”. The sample group,lecturers from 4 departments of the Faculty and the PhD students from C&ISection had good opinions towards the media in all aspects of the content and inter -face. The improvement was suggested on larger font sizes and the appropriate use of pictures. Most of them wanted to continue using this media while some also wanted to join the resources providing activities. This research tended to improve the interface, the collaboration and communication chan -nels in this media, making it a Knowledge base Enhancing E-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction. The Best Practices for the redesign were retrieved from the resources on Internet. They were as follows: Norman ’s keys and principles to good design; Edward R.Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”; the Web2.0 services and tools for the collaboration and communication among users. The interfaces elements of each web page were
Keywords design best practices, knowledge base, knowledgebase, e-Learning, curriculum and instruction 1) INTRODUCTION Why redesign into a knowledgebase? The progress of ICT has brought us into the era of knowledge-based society and economy. The digital age has redefined the nature of the information and transformed the educational resources. It redefined the nature of the resources and changed how the resources are used to support learning. The resources need no longer to be intact and self-contained but can be repurposed, accessed, modified, assembled and created anywhere online for each goals and needs. The educational implications have only begun to emerge as homes, schools, work -places and community become more and more resource-centered. The potential and challenges of resource-based learning:RBL are considerable, following by a period of restructuring of the relation between the teaching professions, the students and the resources. As innovations are integrated into the learning environment and become part of the learning culture, they are used in a way which had never been planned; it provides a mediating situation character-ized by the fact that students are actively engaged in seeking information from a range of resources to resolve problems individually or in collaboration with other students. Gibbs et al.(1994) describe RBL approaches as “incorporating both indepen -dent resource-based and classroom-based learning in varying degrees as‘hybrid’RBL 137
environments such as communities of practice or the use of social computing tools can be used for both knowledge creation and transfer…” (Wikipedia,2010;whatis.com,2010; BusinessDictionary,2010)
systems. The increasing use of electronic and online learning resources further transforms RBL into online supported RBL hybrid systems.This transformation high – lights the importance of such systems developing generic information and IT literacy skills which are in turn seen as key skill sets underlying lifelong learning. The resource-based approach puts the onus on students to take responsibility for their own learning. At the same time, it allows for increased flexibility in respect to when students learn,how they learn, how much time they spend on learning activities. The range of media available now through the use of technologies potentially caters more effectively for diverse abilities, learning styles and preference.” As2 types of knowledge base were actually defined, machine-readable and human readable knowledge bases, this research had opted for the latter which“are designed to allow people to retrieve and use the knowledge they contain. They are common -ly used to complement a help desk or for sharing information among employees within an organization. They might store troubleshooting information, articles, white papers, user manuals, knowledge tags, or answers to frequently asked questions. Typically, a search engine is used to locate information in the system, or users may browse through a classification scheme..A text-based system that can include groups of documents including hyperlinks between them is known as Hypertext Systems. Hypertext systems support the decision process by relieving the user of the large significant effort it takes to relate and remember things…" There are 3 different frameworks in KM dimensions for distinguishing between the tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. For the development of the knowledgebase, this research has selected the 3th proposed framework which “ distinguishes between exploratory creations of "new knowledge" vs. the transfer or the exploitation of "established knowledge" within a group, organization, or community. Collaborative
2. OBJECTIVE To improve the interfaces,the collaboration and the communication channels of the Educational Resources,making it the online Knowledgebase Enhancing E-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1) Sample Group •
•
Using the qualitative research approach, the quick usability test was done as a self-test by the researcher to evaluate the 1st redesign of the Knowledgebase. Small group of 3 users were purposively selected from 3 types of users: lecturer, student and general people.(Iterative Design: Jakob Nielsen, 2000; Jeff Sauro, 2010)
3.2) Tools 3.2.1Norman’s keys and principles to good design: Visibility – Feedback – Constraints Mapping - Consistency – Affordance 3.2.2 Edward R.Tufte’s: small multiple and sparkline 3.2.3 Usability Test for user interfaces: font and graphics 3.2.4 The Open Source Software MAMBO 3.2.5 Web2.0Services: Google Translator YouTube – Twitter 3.3) Procedures: 3.3.1 Searching for the Best Practices resources for the interface redesign of the online Educational Resources Enhancing E-Learning on Curriculum and Instruction (Somtawil, Nataya, Maturos, 2008) 138
3.3.2 Analyzing and making the synthesis of Norman’s keys and principles to good design, and Edward R.Tufte’s: small multiple and sparkline as follows: • Improving the flow control between the main menus and submenus, the submenus and each web page using Norman’s key concepts on visibility feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency and affordance • Improving the fonts and graphics using Edward R.Tufte’s methods on small multiple and sparkline. 3.3.3 Surveying and selecting the Web 2.0 tools and services for collaboration and communication channels of the Knowledge -base as follows: • Google Translator • Twitter 3.3.4 Creating the evaluation tool using the Usability Test; SUS (System Usability Scale) and Success Criteria.(Jeff Sauro, 2010; Oli Gardner, 2009) 3.3.5 Doing the self evaluation of the redesigned site using the 5 second test (Oli Gardner, 2009). 3.3.6 Correcting the errors and let the sample group evaluate the web using the SUS test. 3.3.7 Analyzing the data and correcting the errors again before disseminating the results on the Section’s Site.
Figure1 The redesigned homepage •
Twitter and the comment function of MAMBO were added as the collabora -tion and communication channels of this Knowledgebase.
Figure2 The communication channels •
The user evaluation using usability test revealed the satisfaction on every aspect of the interfaces except some graphics.
3) RESULTS 3.1) The Knowledgebase Enhancing ELearning on Curriculum & Instruction was the results of the redesign as follows: • The fonts and the graphics using in each web page were evaluated and improved. Some texts had been modified into image-texts to keep intact under any constraint.
Figure3 SUS: System Usability Scale
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4. DISCUSSION 4.1) The research findings confirmed the ideas of the “Iterative Design” proposed by Jakob Nielsen (2000) as follows: …You want to run multiple tests because the real goal of usability engineering is to improve the design and not just to document its weaknesses. After the first study with 5 users has found 85% of the usability problems, you will want to fix these problems in a redesign. After creating the new design, you need to test again. Even though I said that the redesign should "fix" the problems found in the first study, the truth is that you think that the new design overcomes the problems. But since nobody can design the perfect user interface, there is no guarantee that the new design does in fact fix the problems. A second test will discover whether the fixes worked or whether they didn't. Also, in introducing a new design, there is always the risk of introducing a new usability problem,even if the old one did get fixed…
Figure 4 Web self-service in the Context of Web2.0 5) REFERENCES Dix,A.et al.(2003).Human Computer Interaction. Book Review; Prentice Hall. Gardner, O.(2009).Success Criteria. available at: http://unbounce.com/landing-pageoptimization/the-5-second-rule-bestsites-of-2009-part-1/
Idinopulos,M.(2008).Creating a Participatory Knowledgebase: 3 Best Practices. available at: http://michaeli.typepad.com/my_weblo g/2008/03/creating-a-part.html
4.2) Web2.0 services can be appropriate -ly integrated into the CMS Open Source as a resource sharing tool or a communication tool among users of the Knowledgebase. Web2.0 seems to be a technology of many facets” and deserves the variety of names we gave to it as follows …Web 2.0 is also called the wisdom Web, people-centric Web, participative Web and read/write Web..Web2.0 harnesses theWeb in a more interactive and collaborative manner, emphasizing peers' social interact -tion and collective intelligence, and presents new opportunities for leveraging the Web and engaging its users more effectively… (San Murugesan,2007) And that is the reason why we opted for ‘Twitter’ as a communication tool of our Knowledgebase.
Lindgaard,D.et al.(2006).Attention web designers: You have 50 milli -seconds to make a good first impression! Journal of Behavior &Information Technology.Vol.25, No.2.March-April 2006. 115-126 available at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conte nt/tandf/tbit/2006/00000025/00000002 /art00003
Murugesan,S.(2007).Understanding Web2.0. available at: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/ buildyourcareer/fa009
Nielsen, J.(2000).Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users. Alertbox, March 19,2000.available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/200003 19.html
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Tomoko, I.et al.(2010). Improving the usability and learnability of a home electric appliance with a long-term usability study.Journal of Engineering Design.1466-1837, Volume 21, Issue 2, First published 2010, Pages 173 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 187.available at:
----------(2001).Search: Visible and Simple. available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/200105 13.html
Norman,D.(2004).Human-Centered Design available at: http://abu9.blogspot.com/2004/11/d esign.html --------- (2010). Design Without Designers. available at:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/c ontent~content=a916819494~db=all~j umptype=rss
UNESCO.1998. Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Vision and Action.available at:
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------------.(2010). Why Design Education Must Change? available at:
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Wikipedia.(2010). Edward Tufte. available at:
Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H.(2002). Interaction Design: Beyond Human -Computer Interaction, New York: Wiley, p.21. available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_T ufte#Small_multiple
-------------.(2010). Don Norman.Design Principles. available at:
http://twobenches.wordpress.com/2008 /06/05/don-normans-design-principles/ PRIMUS Knowledge Solutions.(2002).Know -ledge Management Best Practices. White Paper. available at: http://www.thinkhdi.com/library/deliv erfile.aspx?filecontentid=130
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Nor man. ------------- (2010). Don Norman.Seven
Stages of Action. available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_sta ges_of_action
Yelden,Eugene F.,Albers, J.A.(2004). The Business Case For Knowledge Management.Journal of Knowledge Management Practice.August2004 available at:
Sauro,J.(2010). Can you use the SUS for websites? available at: http://www.measuringusability.com/bl og/sus-websites.php
Search Time.Com.(2009).50 Best Websites. available at: http://www.time.com/time/specials/ packages/completelist/0,29569,191 8031,00.html Taweechart,S.(2002). The development of an instructional model based on resource-based learning to enhance information literacy of lower secondary school students. available at:
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http://cuir.car.chula.ac.th/handle/12345 6789/10796?mode=full ----------------------------------------------
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Experience of e-learning in Pakistan: Perceptions and Suggestions of Graduate Students 1
A. Niwaz PhD Scholar Edu. International Islamic University, Islamabad Pakistan (asif_satti123@hotmail.com)
ABSTRACT
1)
The present study was designed to evaluate the perceptions and suggestions of graduate students of virtual university of Pakistan. Firstly, through snowball sampling techniques 35 graduates of Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS) were selected working on managerial posts in multinational companies. Secondly, an open ended questionnaire was developed on facilities, course delivery, assessment criteria, marketing of cyberspace, job oriented content, and student teacher interaction to collect data. Thirdly, qualitative data were analyzed through constant comparison method. Lastly conclusions were drowned and suggestions were made on the basis of data. Some of the findings were: physical facilities provided in virtual compasses of major cities are better than campuses of small cities; courses are well planned and meeting the standard; delivery of lectures was very good but these are not being kept updated; assessment criteria is satisfactory; marketing aspect was very weak; course work was not meeting market demand; and student teacher interaction was also missing.
Cyberspace is the most influencing component of life in the world. It has brought about revolutionary changes in the lives of people round the globe. The service of internet connection with computers is not only the cyberspace, but also any electronic system or device that is or can be connected either directly to the internet or indirectly through some other device or system, as well as the mechanisms that connect them. These may include such things as automatic teller machines, industrial control systems, even telephone and other telecommunications systems. These connections may be obvious, or they may not. Thus, not only is a Webenabled cellular telephone part of cyberspace, but so is a desktop phone, not only because it is part of the same worldwide telephone system as the cellular phone, but also because that telephone system increasingly relies on computers and the internet to help manage traffic and for other purposes. Even a computer with no connection to the Internet is part of cyberspace if it has a way of communicating with other computers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; such as through floppy disks or other removable media. Cyberspace also includes the software that runs computers and their connections. It includes the data stored on or generated by those computers and other devices and the transmission of those data to other computers and devices. It includes cables, routers,
Â
Key words:Â e-Learning, virtual learning, bachelor degrees, Pakistan, Perceptions and suggestions
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INTRODUCTION
servers, networks, the Internet backbone, and even satellites used in Internet transmissions. It even has its own atlases and sophisticated electronic mapping techniques to help manage networks and internet. In this study, the focus is on educational services through cyberspace and perceptions of students about this new technological development and its role in learning at distance. In Pakistan, students of Allama Iqbal Open University and Virtual University are enjoying the services of cyberspace. Today is the age of cyberspace. We cannot ignore its role in our lives. Basically, it is a type of interactive simulation which is called cybernetic simulation. In cybernetic simulations, human beings are necessary components. You can poke and punch an interactive simulation and get your required information back from it. 2)
networks. Gibson (1984) considers cyberspace as the sum of the world’s data, represented graphically, and accessible through computer consoles (Tomas, 2000). Gibson’s definition describes “a computer-generated landscape” (Aikat, 2000, p.23), which gives us a common definition: cyberspace refers to the digital world generated by computer networks. In this light, it can be said that the definition based on Gibson’s work tends to focus on a technical perspective of cyberspace. Benedikt (2000) considers cyberspace as commonality, pointing out a number of different ways. In his definition, cyberspace is “a world in which the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments, and alter-human agency takes on form: sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic light” (p.29). In comparison with Gibson’s, his definition can represent what cyberspace is in a more clear and detailed manner. However, he does not approach a definition of cyberspace as culture. On the other hand, Bell (2001) considers cyberspace as culture that is lived and made from people, machine, and stories in everyday life. As an alternative definition, he defines cyberspace as an imagined space between computers in which people might build new selves and new worlds, which he calls symbolic stories. In Bell’s definition, unlike Gibson’s and Benedikt’s, human interaction, recognition of selves and others, and people’s experiences are centered in cyberspace. In this light, he emphasizes that cyberspace is always cyber culture in that any and every thing around us is the product of culture. In terms of understanding cyberspace as culture, Turkle (1995) has a point of
CYBERSPACE
The term cyberspace is not an easy word to define in that it describes a virtual world. Due to its virtuality, researchers define cyberspace in a variety of ways. The term cyberspace was crafted for a science fiction novel by Gibson (1984). In order to name the virtual world that he created imaginatively in his book, Neuromancer, he defined cyberspace as “a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts … A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Like city lights, receding” (1984, p.67, cited in Bell (2001)). This long definition describes the real and cultural relationship between people and machines working within the confines of computer-based 144
view similar to Bell’s. She sees cyberspace as the culture of simulation in that even though they might not see others, people have the opportunity to build new kinds of communities in which they participate with others from all over the world, others with whom they have conversations every day, or others with whom they may have deeply intimate relationships. Differing from Bell, however, she emphasizes specific local contexts in cyberspace. In her discussion of constructing identity in cyberspace, she argues that experiences in cyberspace can only be understood in the cultural context. From the anthropological aspect of cyberspace, Escobar (2000) insists upon the belief that any technology represents a cultural invention, emerges out of particular cultural conditions, and helps to create new social and cultural situations.
reality until the introduction of latest technologies and ideas in the education system. The government’s aim was to promote e-learning for the human resource development and capacity building. The need for e-learning recognized because targeted progress was not being achieved by the conventional education system as it had close connection with some obvious deficiencies. • Severe shortage of high quality faculty from school to university level • High cost of education especially by conventional means • Most of the higher education institutes are located in the urban area • Social factors that don’t allow certain people to go other cities By anticipating the significance of elearning, Ministry of Science and Technology planned to exploit the potential of Information Technology and established a Virtual University and National ICT R&D Fund with the aim “Education for all” and lifelong learning. After observing the magnificent growth and outstanding developments in the physical infrastructure of Pakistan in recent past years, the UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) which is mainly responsible and carrying out multidimensional activities throughout the developing world for sustainable economic and industrial development by applying modern technologies such as elearning built the partnership with Ministry of Science and Technology to establish a Virtual University in Pakistan. The Virtual University has been offering many professional degree offering programs on bachelor and masters level in various disciplines like Computer Science, Business Administration, Commerce, Public
3) e-LEARNING IN PAKISTAN According to Hoodbhoy, assuming that educational goals can be fundamentally re-oriented away from indoctrination towards the creation of critical, creative, and informed minds, the intelligent use of technology may well be the only way out of Pakistan's educational morass. While technology can never replace a teacher, it can act as a great force multiplier. Both for training teachers, as well as for direct instruction of students, one can imagine that distance-learning through specially developed video and multi-media learning materials could be extremely powerful tools. e-learning has been getting prime priority to the Government of Pakistan. By the year 2000 it was becoming evident to the Government of Pakistan that its dream “Education for all” would not come into 145
Administration and Psychology. Beside its degree offering programs the university also offering some diplomas and certificate courses as well. The University has been following a hybrid model of e-learning with many local campuses in many district headquarters of the country along-with T.V. channels and LMS. Virtual university has in collaboration with many private institutions in different district headquarters around the country and using those as local campuses, where the student could use the internet and watch the lesson on T.V. [http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/sasia-it/archive/2002/10/msg00039.html] A study conducted from the 431 Bachelor of Computer Science student of Virtual University Pakistan [http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde26/pdf/a rticle_6.pdf] shows that 89% students agreed that virtual education provides alternate opportunities to formal system at higher education level. Majority of the respondents (94%) were of the opinion that the virtual education is necessary to keep pace with the world of knowledge explosion in the field of information technology. Majority of the respondents (86%) were of the opinion that virtual education enhances the performance level of the learners, (88%) were of the opinion that virtual education integrates nation through uniform system of higher education, 85% agreed that virtual education acts as an agent of social change promoting cross-cultural values and 94% of the students were of the opinion that cultural values can get collaboration through virtual education 85% of the respondents were of opinion that tutors give positive comments on assignments. [http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde26/pdf/a rticle_6.pdf]
4) METHODOLOGY The population of the study was graduates of BCS of Virtual University (VU) of Pakistan working in different multinational companies. Identification of the graduates was made through 04 students (earlier classes) of the researcher. The sample was taken through snowball sampling techniques and total 47 graduates of VU could be contacted working on managerial posts. Only 35 graduates replied appropriately and they were finally included in the sample. Open ended questionnaire was developed on the basis of set indicators like physical facilities, course delivery, assessment criteria, marketing of cyberspace, job oriented content, and student teacher interaction. Data of the study were analyzed through constant comparison method. Each response of the question was analyzed separately with respect to all of the respondents. Responses of the respondents were categories and then summarized. 5) FINDINGS Although Virtual University Learning Management system was very well developed and first of its nature in Pakistan, but there was always remained some room for improvement. As alumni of VU, respondents suggested to improve some of key areas that can be beneficial to current and future students. There were two types of Virtual campuses, directly run by VU itself and privately owned. Majority of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; preferred campuses run by virtual university as these had almost every facility including TV, Lecture Recordings, Lecture CDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Internet etc. But some of the private campuses were not meeting the standards; some 146
even did not have proper lecture rooms in order to accommodate students from different semesters. VU should define strict criteria for an institution which was going to be a Virtual Campus. Coursework designed by VU for Bachelors programs was well defined and it could be compared with any top rated institute of Pakistan having bachelor program of computer. Professors/ Lecturers were very much experts of their concerned domain. Majority of the respondents suggested updating lectures as per demand. Most of the lectures were the same that they had enjoyed 4/5 years back. Lectures should be recorded on regular basis as per content needed in market and trends which were not static. Assessment criteria of the VU were also well designed and could be compared to any other assessment criteria of good institute in Pakistan. Studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knowledge was challenged via regular assignments, quizzes, graded discussions, midterm tests and final exams. Our exams were conducted online i.e. VU used a specific software designed for it. But there were some subjects especially Mathematics which involved complex equations, and much of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; time was consumed in typing process during exam. In this regard majority of the respondents recommend either to increase exam duration or there should be option for students to physically write their answers on paper. Secondly there must be a proper and easy way to re check the exams, as student must have to visit head office. In case of marketing, advertisements of admission were not frequently published in daily Newspaper as compared to other institutes. Most of the respondents were opined that strong marketing campaign
should be launched in order to provide mass awareness among common people regarding non conventional mode of education. Seminars/ workshops can be planned on monthly or quarterly basis to create awareness. Unluckily, most of our institutes were not meeting the requirements of the industry. There was gulf between Industry and institutes which needs to be bridged by industry-university collaboration. Coursework should be designed according to the requirements and marketing trends. Student-teacher interaction as an important component of teaching learning process was missing, although it is facilitated in VU by different technological means including e-Mail, Online Discussion Board, Telephone etc, but it will be better if professors /lecturers visit virtual campuses on monthly basis. 6) PERCEPTIONS VU is providing world class education at very affordable cost. Due to non conventional mode of education there is very less public awareness in this regard. VU graduate is equipped with all the necessary skills which are being taught/educated at any other institute. My university fellows and I also are working in very well known organization. In most of the cases market/industry does not differentiate VU graduate and other graduates. As we fit in their criteria. In contrast, as compared to top level university such as NUST, FAST, UET there is exceptional case. And recruiter and employer obviously prefer their graduates to hire as compared to VU graduates. 7) CONCLUSIONS
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The practices of cyberspace in Pakistan shows that education as one of the key goal of every nation and fundamental basic right of human can be easily achieved through the use of information and communication technologies. The experience of VU in Pakistan is very successful in the sense that its number of graduates are increasing day by day. VU is offering a variety of courses through its main campuses and study centres in the country. The students who are unable to enroll in formal structure of education due to certain reasons (low achievement in previous class, poverty, unavailability of formal set up in the area, etc.) have chance to enhance their knowledge and skills through e-learning. Due to unawareness about the availability of elearning opportunities to the masses, the virtual education is not propagating as per capacity of virtual campuses. Probably, proper marketing is not adopted by higher management of virtual university campuses.
4. Student-teacher interaction may be improved through physical visits in study centre or get together parties/seminars/workshops etc. 5. The standard of education through VU may be raised to other well known universities of the country. REFERENCESÂ Aikat, D. (2000). Cyberspace of the people, by the people, for the people: Predominant use of the web in the public sector. In A. B. Albarran & D. H. Goff (Eds.), Understanding the web: Social, political, and economic dimensions of the Internet, Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press Bell, D. (2001). An introduction to cyber cultures London and New York: Routledge Benedikt, M. (2000). Cyberspace: First steps. In D. Bell & B. M. Kennedy (Eds.), The cyber cultures reader. New York, NY: Routledge Escobar, A. (2000). Welcome to cyberia: Notes on the anthropology of cyber culture. In D. Bell & B. M. Kennedy (Eds.), The cyber cultures reader. London and New York: Routledge Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. London: Grafton Professor Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy (famous Critic and Educationalist, Pakistan). Tomas, D. (2000). The technophilic body on ethnicity in William Gibson's cyborg culture In D. Bell & B. M. Kennedy (Eds.), The cyber cultures reader. London and New York: Routledge
8) SUGGESTIONS Following suggestions were made: Physical facilities in Virtual campuses may be provided of equal quality and quantity both in big and small cities 1. Courses of VU programs may be prepared as per demand and need of the market to create space for graduates for reasonable earning. 2. Lectures of the courses may be updated in the light of content and knowledge necessary to meet the demand of the market. 3. Proper marketing of VU educational programs may be adopted through advertisement of admission regularly in the Newspaper of the country.
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Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. NY: Touchstone Press Asia Pacific Network Information center, http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/sasia-it/archive/2002/10/msg00039.html Student Attitude towards Virtual Education, http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde26/pdf/ar ticle_6.pdf Dr.Irshad Hussain, Student Attitude towards Virtual Education, http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde26/pdf/ar ticle_6.pdf Â
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Random Number Generation in Microsoft Excel for Enhancing the Teaching of Quantitative Research within an e-Learning Context 1
A. Dryver1 and W. Boonsathorn2 Graduate School of Business Administration, NIDA, Bangkok, Thailand (dryver@gmail.com) 2 School of Human Resource Development, NIDA, Bangkok, Thailand (wwasita@hotmail.com) statistics. Random number generation can be used in various ways to enhance the learning experience of basic statistics (Dryver, 2009, Grun and Zeileis, 2009). In eLearning, faculty and students can have access to Microsoft Excel and its random number function “RAND().” From this function various distributions can be generated. Random numbers can be used to create a nearly infinite number of problems for students to work on and as the saying goes “Practice makes perfect.” Granted the students work may not be perfect, but at least fewer mistakes can be expected with practice. Many, if not most, computer languages and software packages offer random number generators. The advantage of Microsoft Excel is that it is very user friendly, especially for people with little to no programming skills. Simply type “=Rand()” within Excel and a uniform random number greater than or equal to 0 and less than 1 will be generated that is a uniform random number with bounds [0,1). If the user desires numbers uniformly from [50,60), the command is simply “=50+Rand()*10”; it is just that easy within Microsoft Excel. Given the central limit theorem, the distribution of the average of non-normally distributed data goes to the normal distribution as the sample size goes to infinity. Simply put, although the underlying distribution of the data may be uniform, such statistical tests as t-tests may be appropriate if the sample size is sufficiently large, i.e. greater than 30. In addition, many professors and students are already comfortable with Microsoft Excel, especially more so than most other statistical software packages.
ABSTRACT One of the major advantages of eLearning for teaching quantitative research is the ability to leverage random number generation. Microsoft Excel gives access to random number generation. In addition to random number generation, Microsoft Excel can also calculate basic statistics ranging from descriptive statistics to multiple regression. Using Microsoft Excel and random number generation teachers of quantitative research can enhance their teaching materials in various ways. Random number generation can be used to create multiple problems, from unique questions to realistic datasets for analysis. Grading individual assignments in the conventional learning context can be a considerable amount of work to being nearly impossible, depending on the size of the class. An advantage that e-Learning offers professors is that they can e-mail individual assignments easily using Microsoft Excel and grade these assignments easily as well. This paper goes into more detail in exploring the advantages Microsoft Excel and random number generation for teaching quantitative research within an eLearning context. Keywords e-Learning, random number generation, teaching quantitative research 1) INTRODUCTION A major part to learning quantitative research is learning the fundamentals of 151
grading. Solutions can not only be hidden, but using “Lock” the professor can prevent the student from viewing the answers without a password. In addition to hiding solutions, Excel can grade the homework and this grade could be hidden as well. Thus using Excel in an e-Learning context professors can e-mail the homework and students can return the homework via email as well, and finally the professor can check the grade of the student by merely unlocking hidden cell(s). This will be illustrated in the following Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 consists of two very basic statistics questions. They ask the student to solve for the sum and the mean of just a few numbers. The yellow boxes are where the students are to enter their answers. In fact the non-yellow cells are “locked” and “protected” so that students can only type in the yellow colored cells. This restriction on where students can enter their answers enables automatic grading by enabling the professor to know the cells where the students’ answers are entered. This sheet could be created by copying and pasting values from a master sheet with the RAND() function, thus allowing unique assignments for all of the students easily. The master sheet would be deleted before emailing to the students. Figure 2 covers the grading of the students’ answers. The margin of error is the amount that the student can be off by and their answer still be considered correct. The margin of error in this example was set to 0.02. Notice that in Figure 1 none of the answers is exactly correct; they are off by a little bit. The first answer is off by 0.01 and the second answer off by .025, as shown in Figure 2. Given the 0.02 margin of error, the first answer would be considered correct and the second answer marked wrong. The students score is the number of correct answers they gave. In this example, there was only 1 student answer marked as correct of the 2 questions. Also, given in Figure 2 are the students’ answers, the correct answers calculated from Excel, and the last column consists of 1’s and 0’s
This paper covers some of the advantages of using Microsoft Excel and random number generation for teaching quantitative research courses. 2) LEVERAGING E- LEARNING
EXCEL
FOR
Traditional paper textbooks on quantitative research usually contain a finite and very limited number of exercises and examples. Unfortunately, many students desire more examples, and leveraging random number generation and Excel are now very feasible for supplying students with many of problem-solution sets to work on. For example, an author could write a question involving a t-test and create a lot of different sets of numbers easily via the function RAND() within Excel. On one sheet there could be a template sheet with the question and the function RAND() producing the numbers. Next, all that is needed is to copy the template sheet and “paste special” as “values” to another sheet. This turns the randomly-generated numbers into now static numbers that do not change. This could be done a multiple number of times in order to create the same problem type but with different numbers for students to practice on. As for offering problem solution sets, this could be done as well using Excel. Excel is capable of doing basic statistics (Middleton, 2004) and the author can compute the answers within Excel, not just the problems. In Excel, it is possible to hide rows and columns, and the solutions could be computed and kept in these hidden rows and or columns. Students, after solving the problem, can unhide the solutions to check their work. Random number generation can also create numerous problems for students, but if they are not careful it can also create problems/headaches for professors as well. Unique problems for students’ homework and their exams lead to individualized 152
where a “1” represents a correct answer. These two figures below illustrate the ease with which random number generation within Excel adds to the creation of individual assignments, from creation to grading.
3) SUMMARY The function RAND() within Excel in conjunction with the statistical functions in Excel can greatly aid in the creation of multiple unique problem-solution sets. Excel is a very user-friendly program and given the number of people already familiar and comfortable with Excel, this approach is relatively feasible to implement. In summary, the authors recommend professors teaching quantitative research e-Learning classes to investigate the possibilities of using Microsoft Excel to enhance their materials. REFERENCES Dryver, Arthur L. (2009). “The Enhancement of Teaching Materials for Applied Statistics Courses by Combining Random Number Generation and Portable Document Format Files via LaTeX” Journal of Statistical Software, 31(code snippet 3), 1-9, URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v31/c 03
Figure 1: Sample questions, in which all cells are locked except the yellow cells where students enter their answers.
Figure 2: The cells that check the student answers, are locked and unseen by the student but can be viewed by the professor using the password protecting the sheet.
Grun B, Zeileis A (2009). “Automatic Generation of Exams in R.” Journal of Statistical Software, 29(10), 1-14. URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v29/i 10
The latter example in Figures 1 and 2 was for simple statistics questions for illustrative purposes, but this could have easily something more advanced such as ANOVA and multiple regression. One drawback of the RAND() function in Excel is that it does not take random seed values. If the function accepted a random seed then different problems for each student could simply be generated by the student entering his or her unique student ID number and Excel would then use the student ID number as the seed. Should later versions of Excel offer this option, that would further increase the ease of using Microsoft Excel for enhancing quantitative research teaching materials.
Middleton, Michael R. (2004). “Data Analysis Using Microsoft Excel: Updated for Office XP 3rd Edition.” Thomson, Brooks/Cole
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A Development of Conceptual Framework for Blended Problem-Based Learning Model to Develop Students’ Ethics S. Sekkhunthod Program in Computer Education, Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University, Thailand (saifon_sek@yahoo.com) ABSTRACT
1) INTRODUCTION
The purposes of this study were to develop conceptual framework and study the experts’ opinions on a Blended Problem-Based Learning Model. The procedures of this study was divided into three phases: The first phase was to study conceptual framework of related theories, including theories of Problem-Based Learning and Blended Learning which composed of three characteristics: cognitive, constructivism and performance support. From these theories the model was developed to be “PIE-BPBL Model”. At the second phase, the PIE-BPBL Model was implemented. There are three stages of the model: 1) preparation stage, 2) instructional development stage, and 3) evaluation stage. The preparation stage compose of five steps. These are defining objective domain, content selection, student analysis, orientation, and facilitator support. The objective domain consist of skill-driven learning, attitudedriven learning, and competency-driven learning. In the second stage, the instructional development is very important because the activities from the Blended Learning Model and Problem-Based Learning Model were integrated. The activities from Blended Learning Model were e-Learning and Face-to-Face Learning. The techniques used in e-Learning were coaching, collaboration, cooperative learning. The techniques used in Face-to-Face Learning were active learning, individual lecture, and individual seminar. In addition, Problem-Based learning used “EILA model” which consisted of explore the problems (E: Explore the problem), identify of the ways to solve the problems (I: Identify), finding issues to learn to solve the problems (L: Learning Issues) and apply the knowledge to solve the problem (A: Apply it). The final stage is to evaluate students’ ethic which composed of four elements: ethical knowledge, ethical attitude, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior. In each element, the evaluation was classified into five levels of ethics; basic, advanced, proactive, excellent, and profession. The third phase was to study nine experts’ opinions on the quality of the PIE-BPBL model. The results showed that the quality of the PIE-BPBL model was at high level.
According to the national education act 1999 and amendment (No.2) act 2002 of Thailand, the educational technologies has focused. Students are motivated and supported to have the knowledge, capabilities and skills for utilization of educational technologies. This national education act express that the development of education with the use of technology is very important. Educational technologies should be integrated in classroom teaching and learning. Teachers should use technology to change their teaching to accommodate and respond to enthusiasm of the students to make full capacity. (Educational Testing Service, 2002) Therefore, teachers need to explore ways of teaching and learning in a variety of ways such as Blended Learning which integrated model of learning various whether it’s learning that occurs in the classroom or outside the classroom. The goal is to help the students achieve in learning. Blended Learning is the teaching practice that combines teaching methods from both face-to-face and online learning. It is extending classroom instruction beyond the school day, supporting credit recovery programs, enhancing teacher professional development or delivering enriched learning opportunities for accelerated students, Blended Learning models are increasingly common practice across the curriculum for students and teachers alike. It is implemented in a various of ways, ranging from models in which curriculum is fully online with face-to-face interaction to models in which face-to-face classroom instruction. The rapid growth of Blended Learning has been a catalyst for additional instructional transformation, including:
Keywords Blended Learning, Problem-Based Learning, Student’s Ethics. 155
our learning agenda. It suggests an elegant solution to the challenges of tailoring learning and development. Thorne (2004) states that Blended Learning represents an opportunity to integrate the innovative and technological advances offered by online learning with the interaction and participation offered in the best of the traditional learning. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) encourages knowledge construction by starting each learning experience with a complex reallife problem that is typically presented to a small group of students in a tutorial setting. Students take responsibility for their own learning as they identify what they already know about the problem and then ascertain what they need to find out, what questions are relevant to their inquiry and what actions they need to take. Members of the student team tend to work independently as they research different aspects of the problem before bringing their findings back to the group and to the tutorial in order to co-construct new knowledge. Although PBL has become firmly embedded as a strategy for teaching in higher education, it remains on the fringes of mainstream activity (Savery, 2006). The adoption of PBL is a complicated business because of PBL’s strong philosophical and epistemological foundations that challenge the dominant cultures of university teaching. Problems are usually given to a team of students; students then become responsible for defining the problem, finding out what they do know already and recognising what additional information they need to solve the problem. According to Woods (1994), The Process of Problem-based Learning are: 1. Explore the problem. 2. Try to solve the problem with what you currently know. 3. Identify what you do not know, and what you need to know. 4. Draw up a research plan. 5. Self-study and prepare. 6. Share the new knowledge in the group. 7. Apply the knowledge to solve the problem. 8. Reflect on the problem-solving process.
1. Evolving pedagogy in which teachers’ roles include facilitation, student mentoring and differentiating instruction for individual learners, 2. Increased flexibility and personalization of students’ learning experiences, and 3. Strategic uses of technology as districts tap the capabilities of the learning management systems to support a wider range of instructional programs. Driscoll (2002) points out that blended learning can mean different things to different people. It can mean: 1. to combine different web-based technologies, 2. to combine different pedagogical approaches, 3. to combine any form of instructional technology with FTF instructor led training or / and 4. to combine instructional technology with actual job tasks in order to improve learning transfer. Driscoll (also) sees Blended Learning primarily as an strategy to help starting e-Learning in organizations: “Blended Learning allows organizations to gradually move learners from traditional classrooms to e-Learning in small steps making change easier to accept.” The mostly used “ingredients” of the blend include: classroom instruction; interactive web-based training; email; self-paced content; threaded discussion; collaboration software; virtual classroom; print-based workbooks; and on-line testing. Blended Learning (b-Learning or Hybrid Learning or integrated learning or multi-method or mixed mode learning) consists of the combination of e-Learning and traditional education approach. The goal of Blended Learning is to provide the most efficient and effective learning experience by combining different learning environments. Blended Learning stands in the forefront in respect of interactivity with target learner group, enriching learning process and integration of technology into education. (Rovai & Jordan, 2004). e-Learning has had an interesting impact on the learning environment. Blended Learning is the most logical and natural evolution of 156
the computer to individuals organizations and social; and 7) the academic and professional ethics. 2. Have a good basic knowledge and practice in the relevant scientific theory and can be applied properly in the profession and higher education levels. 3. Have modern knowledge and be avidity for learning, able to develop knowledge for themselves, and able to develop work and social. 4. Able to solve the problems in a systematic with the appropriateness 5. Able to work with others, have management skills and teamwork. 6. Search for knowledge by themselves and can communicate with other people as well. 7. Have the ability in English and foreign language for communication and ability in the use if information technology. 8. Able to analyze the needs of the user design, development, installation and update computer system and able to resolve the organization or individual requirements effectively in accordance with the working environment. 9. Able to analyze the impact of computer applications to individual and social organizations as well as legal and ethical issues. 10. Have ability to give a consulting on how to use computers in an organization. 11. Have the ability to manage the systems in organizations. 12. Have the ability to develop the small programs to work.
In this sense, PBL can be quite a radical departure from the usual learning approach that is heavily lecturer-centred. Overall, students have responded positively to PBL and reported that they have profited from the new learning approach in various ways: 1. Increased research and thinking skills. 2. Being able to learn and define objectives. based on own needs and interests. 3. Becoming able to express own opinions. 4. Learning how to work effectively in a team. 5. Learning how to find research sources. 6. Learning how to draw up a research plan. According to the section 6 of the National Education Act and Amendments 2002 of Thailand, education shall aim at the full development of the Thai people in all aspects: physical and mental health; intellect; knowledge; morality; integrity; and desirable way of life so as to be able to live in harmony with other people. Section 22 of the Act indicates that education shall be based on the principle that all learners are capable of learning and self-development, and are regarded as being most important. The teaching-learning process shall aim at enabling the learners to develop themselves at their own pace and to the best of their potentiality (section 23). These ideas agree with Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF) of Computer Program which states that the desirable characteristics of the graduates should be: 1. Be ethical, good citizen, responsible for themselves profession and society and moral issues. The ethical standards of learning are 1) recognize the value and sacrifice, and moral integrity, 2) discipline, punctuality and responsibility for themselves, profession and society, 3) the situation of the leadership and followership; can work as a teamwork and to resolve conflict and priority, 4) respect and listen to the opinions of others; respect for the value and dignity of the human, 5) respect for rules and regulations of various organizations and society, 6) can analyze the impact of using
As the information reviewed above, the researcher would like to develop PIEBPBL Model in order to promote the ethics of Rajabhat University students. 2) PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The purposes of this study were: 1. To develop conceptual framework for Blended Problem-Based Learning model to develop studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ethics. 2. To study the expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opinions on a Blended Problem-Based Learning model to develop studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ethics. 157
3. Collaboration Learning: the concept of collaborative learning, the grouping and pairing of learners for the purpose of achieving a learning goal, has been widely researched and advocated the term “collaborative learning” refers to an instruction method in which learners at various performance levels work together in small groups toward a common goal. The learners are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own. Thus, the success of one learner helps other students to be successful. Environments in which learners communicate with others: e-mail, online chat or discussions board. 4. Cooperative learning is an approach to organizing classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. Students must work in groups to complete the two sets of tasks collectively. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. 5. Discovery learning is an inquiry-based, constructivist learning theory that takes place in problem solving situations where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned. Students interact with the world by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing experiments. As a result, students may be more likely to remember concepts and knowledge discovered on their own. 6. Face-to-Face Learning is traditional learning which more sense of leadership from instructor and not so easy to ignore instructor. The details of face-to-face learning such as group meets in “stop and start” fashion; strong sense of when group meets all those involve attend at same time, date, etc.; time important and is a limiter; people leave during meeting for other meetings; controllable, deadlines usually adhered to since the expectation to complete them on time is high, and it is not really possible to continue into next period of time. Performance support reference materials or resource and tools that enhance learning retention and transfer, including infrastructure,
3) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS The researcher studied the conceptual framework of related theories, including theories of Learning theory, The National Education Act 1999 and Amendment (No.2) Act 2002 of Thailand, Theory of ethics, Problem-Based Learning and Blended Learning which composed of three characteristics: cognitive, constructivism and performance support. Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes. The assumption is that humans are logical beings that make the choices that make the most sense to them. “Information processing” is a commonly used description of the mental process, comparing the human mind to a computer. Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. However, Constructivism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are also active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, Constructivism is connected with experiential learning. Theory of constructivism as a means of learning thought themselves to create them and we can easily also mean the shortest is “learning by practice (Doing) or a Making) things that happen,” and can be expanded. Learning occurs best when students are involved in creating something that is tangible and meaningful to themselves. The concepts of construction in learning and teaching are as follows: 1. Live Events: synchronous, instructorled learning events in which all learners participate at the same time, such as in a live “virtual classroom.” 2. Self-Paced e-Learning: learning experiences that the learner completes individually, at his own speed and on his own time, such as interactive, Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, and CD-ROM. 158
internet room, PDA, personal computer, notebook, telephone, and printable references. From these theories the “PIE-BPBL Model”. was developed. Conceptual framework of this study is shown in Figure 1. Learning Theory
Blended Learning Theory
Cognitive
Constructivism
5) RESEARCH RESULTS The results from the study of the PIE-BPBL Model to develop undergraduate students’ ethics are presented in the Figure 2.
The National Education Act
Performance Support
-Live Event -Self-Paced e-Learning -Collaboration Learning -Cooperative Learning -Discovery Learning - Face-to-Face Learning
Blended Learning PIE-BPBL Model Problem-Based Learning
Student’ Ethics
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Study
4) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY There are three phases of this research study: 1. The first phase is to study conceptual framework of related theories, including theories of Learning theory, The National Education Act 1999 and Amendment (No.2) Act 2002 of Thailand, Theory of ethics, Problem-Based Learning and Blended Learning. 2. The second phase is to develop the “PIE-BPBL Model”. 3. The last phase is to study nine experts’ opinions on the quality of the PIE-BPBL Model. At this phase, the researcher used information obtained from both first phase and second phase to develop the PIEBPBL model. Then, the model was certified by nine experts through blended learning, problem-based learning, and ethics of students.
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A PIE-BPBL model for developing Rajabhat university students’ ethics which is consisted of three stages: 5.1) Preparation Stage The preparation stage compose of five steps. Step 1: Defining objective domain. The objective domain consisted of skilldriven learning, attitude-driven learning, and competency-driven learning. 1) Skill-driven learning; combines self-paced learning with instructor or facilitator support to develop specific knowledge and skills. 2) Attitude-driven learning; mixes various events and delivery media to develop specific behaviors. 3) Competency-driven learning; blends performance support tools with knowledge management resources and mentoring to develop workplace competencies. Step 2: Content selection is to subjects that will be used for teaching and learning in PIE-BPBL model. Step 3: Student analysis is to consider learner characteristics. To learn through the PIE-BPBL model. Step 4: Orientation is an orientation to understand and prepare the students about learning through the PIE-BPBL model. Step 5: Facilitators support is to provide materials or facilities or resource and tools. To teaching and learning through model most successful. 5.2 Instructional Development Stage In the second stage, the instructional development was very important because it integrated activities from the Blended learning Model and Problem-Based Learning Model. The activities from Blended Learning Model were e-Learning and Face-to-Face Learning. The techniques used in e-Learning were coaching, collaboration, cooperative learning. The techniques used in Face-to-Face Learning were active learning, individual lecture, and
individual seminar. In addition, ProblemBased learning used “EILA model” which consists of: Step 1: Explore the Problem (E) Step 2: Identify (I) 2.1 Try to solve the problem with what you currently know. 2.2 Identify what you do not know and what you need to know. 2.3 Draw up a research plan. Step 3: Learning Issue (L) 3.1 Self-study and prepare. 3.2 Share the new knowledge in the group. Step 4: Apply it (A) 4.1 Apply the knowledge to solve the problem. 4.2 Reflect on the problem-solving process. PIE-BPBL Model
Preparation Stage
1. Define Objective Domain 2. Content Selection 3. Student Analysis 4. Orientation 5. Facilitators support
Objective Domain 1. Skill-driven Learning 2. Attitude-driven Learning 3. Competency-driven Learning
Instructional Development Stage
1. Blended Learning 1.1 e-Learning 1) Coaching 2) Collaboration Learning 3) Cooperative Learning 1.2 Face-to-Face Learning 1) Active Learning 2) Individual Lecture 3) Individual Summaries 2. Problem-Based Learning EILA Model 1) E-Explore the Problem 2) I-Identify 3) L-Learning Issue 4) A-Apply it
Ethical attitude: an ethical attitude is an essential aspect of the analytic relationship. An ethical attitude encompasses the formal codes of ethics within the professions, but it is more complex than just following the rules. Ethics codes are needed in order to process dilemmas and complicated experiences and interactions. An ethical attitude is necessary because rules and regulations do not adequately cover the dilemmas that occur in the therapeutic relationship, issues that need to be considered and struggled with that often have no clear “right” answer. Ethical reasoning: ethical or moral reasoning is a critical part of decision making. In the context of reasoning, an issue is a matter of dispute with two or more distinct sides. Ethical reasoning entails doing what is right even in the face of powerful selfish desires. Ethical behavior: ethical behavior is the standards that you hold for yourself of the attributes of honesty, responsibility, and how you treat others in all facets Evaluation Stage of your life. Moral behavior is behavior that socialism like to visit and refrain from behaviors Component of that society does not like. Ethics 1. Ethical Knowledge In each element, the evaluations 2. Ethical Attitude are classified into five levels of 3. Ethical Reasoning 4. Ethical Behavior ethics: basic, advanced, proactive, excellent, and profession. Ethics-Basic level is a person Level of Ethics who has self-discipline. Know their 1. Ethics-Basic 2. Ethics-Advanced duties, honest sacrifice, have a 3. Ethics-Proactive responsibility to themselves and 4. Ethics-Excellent 5. Professional others. Conduct
Ethics-Advanced level is a good example to society. to understand others, responsible, contemplated. Accepted opinions of others and understand the world. Ethics-Proactive level is to promote and guide the society to realize the moral can persuade others to comply with the wishes of good to see the good that will lead to a peace who can guide the society. Ethics-Excellent level a sacrifice in a manner that dedicate themselves to the happy society. That people who have this level of morality that must be ready both physically and
Figure 2: A Blending Problem-Based Learning Model for Develop Students’ Ethics
5.3 Evaluation Stage The final stage was to evaluate students’ ethics which compose of four elements: ethical knowledge, ethical attitude, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior. Ethical knowledge: the knowledge about the contents of teaching social ethics and knowledge of moral truths or principles from which moral prescriptions
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mentally. It will have to sacrifice personal happiness for the benefit of the majority. Profession conduct level is an honest profession. The integrity of their careers doing. The integrity and living together in peace. Do not insult their careers in an individual with professional ethics, so the work to be happy and successful. This study will focus on ethics for computer professional. The third phase is to study nine experts’ opinions on the quality of the PIE-BPBL model. The results showed that the quality of the PIE-BPBL model was at high level. REFERENCES Driscoll, M. (2002) Blended Learning: let’s get beyond the hype, e-Learning, http://elearningmag.com/ltimagazine, March 1, 2002. Educational Testing Service. (2002). Digital Transformation A Framework for ICT Literacy, A Report of International ICT Literacy Panel. U.S.A.: Princeton. Rovai, A. P., & Jordan, H. M. (2004). Blended learning and sense of community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(2). http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/ article/view/192/795, October 15, 2010. Savery, J. R. (2006). Overview of Problem-Based Learning: Definitions and Distinction, Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 1(1): 9–20. Thorne, K. (2004). Blended Learning: How to Integrate Online and Traditional Learning. United States: Kogan Page. Woods, D.R. (1994). Problem-based Learning: How to Gain the Most from PBL. Waterdown, ON: Donald R. Woods.
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Money Game for Tween Girls: A Game-based Design to Support Financial Learning W. Inchamnan Faculty of Science and Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (w.inchamnan@student.qut.edu.au) with technology and as they get more mature their technological use and skill increases. The informal learning linked with games can provide a foundation for innovation which can be applied in a formal learning situation (Spikol and Milrad 2008). The fundamental idea for the money games experience is to link virtual world experiences with real world banking information. The money game for girls project is focused on serious gaming in the area of financial services, literacy and saving behavior for pre-teenage girls.
ABSTRACT This paper describes a game-based design that focused on serious gaming in the area of financial services and literacy for young people. The study aims to design game which assist childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial ability. The ability to manage the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial resources through saving, lending and knowing when to invest will assist in the development of real life skills and teach the concepts of financial management. The fundamental idea for the money games experience is to link virtual world experiences with the real world banking information through online learning technology. The primary target audience for Money Games project is pre-teenage girls. The game design process has highlighted three different usability issues that influence financial learning through playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience. These issues include the game interface, game mechanics and game play. The paper concludes with a discussion of play testing results and future research in terms of financial learning.
Other money games have been designed within the larger project to be suitable for both boys and girls. The project reported in this paper is focused on examining gamebased design specifically for tween girls. Children readily identify with their own gender group and become more motivated to approach and to learn within owngender activities (Karniol, Reichman and Fund, 2000). Engagement in games or other activities is impacted by own-sex favoritism (Boyatzis, Mallis and Leon, 1999). Consequently, this project is focused on gender and the ability of a game specifically designed for females to influence players in terms of learning outcomes.
Keywords Serious gaming, Money Game, Pre-teen girls, Financial learning, Online Learning technology, Interactive technology, Usability
There are many games in the market that are part of an initiative to teach tweens financial behaviors through the use of interactive technology.
1) INTRODUCTION In terms of money games, Coinland of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (www.commbank.com.au/coinland) aims to teach money management to children aged between five and ten. Wells Fargo in the USA uses an online game to provide
Pre-teens or tweens are children who are between middle childhood and adolescence, usually aged between 8 and 12 years (Media Awareness Network, 2009). Tweens are generally comfortable 163
both financial education and entertainment purposes (https://www.wellsfargo.com). This study involves a new money game, Party Girl, specially designed as a tween girl game.
usability issues that have the potential to influence the in-game learning experience: game interface, game mechanics and game play. These issues ultimately affect user satisfaction and impact on the extent to which leaning occurs.
2) GAME-BASED DESIGN 2.1.1.Game Interface The game called Party Girl is a two dimensional platform adventure game aimed at educating girls about the value of money. In each level of the game, the ultimate goal for players is to join a party which, in turn, allows them to gather information, helping the prince to escape from the Devil. To achieve this goal, players must control one of three characters, and find important items in a two dimensional side-scrolling, cartoonlike environment, while at the same time avoiding injury from a number of obstacles. The game aims to assist childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial ability. The ability to manage the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial resources through saving, lending and knowing when to invest aims to assist in the development of real life skills and teach the concepts of financial management. To ensure the learning satisfaction of the game player, game usability evaluation procedures were implemented.
The game interface is the device through which the player interacts with game. Usability in games deals with interface design that offers the player an intuitive and easy way to control the game. In games the interface takes input and produces output and is the mechanism through which the balance between the playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability and the game challenge is expressed. Good balance in this area enables the experience flow (Csikszentmihalyi, in Omar and Jaafar, 2010). According to Song and Zhang (2008) the game interface should be concise and designed to clearly guide the player through the system so that the state of flow can be achieved. One goal of game design is to make the interface easy to learn, use and master (Omar and Jaafar, 2010). 2.1.2. Game Mechanics Game mechanics are the rules and physics of the game which are developed through a combination of animation and programming. Game mechanics include the ways that player is allowed to move through the game environment such as running, walking or driving a car. Game mechanics design involves building challenges through specifying player actions and the effects of these actions within the game world.
2.1) Usability
Usability is the capability of an interactive system to be used by humans easily and effectively through considering ease of use, effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction (Federoff, 2002). Usability is a one of the core concepts necessary to ensure that specified users are able to achieve goals in particular environment (Omar and Jaafar, 2010). In-game usability focuses on delivering a better and deeper experience with less unnecessary, interruptions or challenges (Laitinen, 2010). Poor usability can turn a good game into an annoying experience, while good usability may keep player from switching off the console (Laitinen, 2010). We identify three
2.1.3. Game Play Game play is the process by which the player reaches the goal of the game. Game play consists of the challenges that a player must face to reach the goal and the actions 164
curious and enjoy puzzle solving. The random rewards and objects in the game should provoke player curiosity. The Party Girl mechanic should provide positive financial behaviors with interesting game rewards to maintain the players’ attention. The more girls play the game, the more financial knowledge they learn.
that the player is permitted to take to address these challenges (Federoff, 2002). 3) LEARNING STRATEGIES 3.1) Design strategies
The financial strategies used in designing the game aim to influence real world learning by providing positive rewards during play. The game should be related to players’ real life experiences by developing the skills through enticing and engaging interactive activities. The financial strategies of Party Girl, our money game for tween girls, are built on an understanding of social play, patterns of play and players’ emotion.
3.1.3. Player’s Emotion Emotion creates the series of internal sensations called player experience (PX). Access to game play and accomplishing game goals is called user experience (UX) (Lazzaro, 2009). A positive combination of both UX and PX encourages players by creating challenge and emotional connection with the game. Emotions emerge principally from the process of making choices and creating ideas. The mechanic provides curiosity, surprise and wonder. The game also provides iconic situations and aspiration fantasies.
3.1.1. Social Play The Party Girl story offers a wide array of potential creative activities which aim to capture the imagination of children. Social interaction is built into the game to maintain and enhance interest. Such interactions act as a key motivator for some game players. Research shows that girls prefer collaboration to competition and enjoy complete social interaction (Gorriz and Medina, 2000). Therefore, game design focuses on incorporating financial management tasks within a social gaming experience where players are in a social situation when playing the game. Party Girl allows players to interact with each other over the Internet in a group. Playing the game should build relationships as players share their experiences and learn together.
SOCIAL PLAY
Game Interface
Game Mechanics
Financial Learning
PATTERN OF PLAY
Player’s emotion Game Play
Usability of a game
Figure 1: A financial learning usability of a game on Party Girl 3.2) A Model for learning
3.1.2. Pattern of Play
Figure 1 illustrates design elements incorporated within Party Girl to create an engaging and educational experience. The game interface influences learning through incorporating social play. Real world metaphors or analogies within the game interface are designed to help players understand how to navigate through an
The game provides for imagination process. The fantasy objects, fashions and rewards, should appeal to fantasy fulfillment and motivation to learn. Women and girls tend to prefer adventure and games with a narrative (Gorriz and Medina, 2000) and preteen girls are young 165
enhance Party Girl in terms of usability, engagement and learning. The usability test allows designers to determine whether the Party Girl game can be picked up and played easily by someone without any help. It is critical to make the game comprehensible and smooth. After play testing, the players were required answer a simple interview-based questionnaire to better understand their level of satisfaction and financial learning after playing the game.
environment and interact during game play (Federoff, 2002). These analogies will also be designed to encourage learning. In addition, social learning and observation, positive influences on learning (Isbister, 2009), are incorporated into the game. In terms of player’s emotion, fun and challenge are essential characteristics of engaging game play. To achieve game missions in Party Girl, players must control one of three characters each of which has different personalities and attributes. Offering challenge and opportunity to master a skill aims to provide motivation to engagement in the game. The game mechanic is designed to foster player satisfaction through choice, challenge and a variety of actions. Party Girl allows players to have fun when they invest, deposit or spend money. The money knowledge comes when the game allows players to identify with characters as they explore their environment. These are two key playing patterns that engage girls (Gorriz and Medina, 2000). The more children have fun, the more attentive they become and the more financial knowledge they may build.
3.3) Result and discussion
The Party Girl prototype received generally favourable responses from play testing in terms of overall mechanics and style of play, and a number of key issues were identified. These included how these elements impacted on the overall experience; the importance of story, context and overall progression in orientating the users’ perception of the style and objectives of gameplay; and, the way in which the game’s financial components are structured to enhance the depth of the overall learning experience. 3.2.1. Usability: Game Interface testing
Usability can provide player satisfaction. People can learn to use games without manuals or training and develop their own strategies to improve their performance (Federoff, 2002). In terms of game-based design, usability is a key element design process. Our design focuses on usability in terms of learnability. The game interface will motivate player’s learning through social interaction. Game mechanics will influence financial learning through social play and player’s emotion. Game play will encourages player’s emotion and allow for player fantasy fulfillment.
In terms of interface design, four testers did not clearly understand the purpose of the bank. For example, Figure 2 shows the deposit dialogue. In the case of the Bank, players acknowledged its presence and generally discovered how to deposit and withdraw funds, yet did not recognize that banking coins prevented them from losing fund when they died or that it would enable them to save funds for future levels. As a result the players advised that easy dialogue would help them learn about the bank and money.
3.2) Play Testing Method
3.2.2. Solutions: Game Interface testing
Party Girl play testing eight players who were both naïve and experienced users. The comments from testers will be used to
To improve game interface design, the tutorial dialogue that occurs with the non player character (NPC) from which an item 166
is purchased should also demonstrate this changed state and its use and effect visually rather than through explanation. The description of the benefit of depositing money must be added when a player interacts with a bank. The advantage of using the bank should be clearer when the game becomes multi-leveled. The game interface should better incorporate the financial design elements to map to real world use such as a bank note and ATM screen. The interface will encourage financial behavior through improved mapping to players’ real experience.
NPC relocated or removed to rebalance the level. The relocated character could instead be deployed in a similar area later in the level where an increased level of complexity is more appropriate and less punishing. This needs to either be placed earlier or potentially players could be scaffolded a little more regarding the games financial management components. In essence, this would involve gradually introducing each element (spending, saving, and investing) in different stages as the player progresses to higher levels of complexity. The slightly clearer progression will encourage player to keep playing and learning. The game mechanics usability will keep player from switching off the game. 3.2.5. Usability: Game Play testing Figure 4 shows the challenge within the game play. It was found during play testing that many users displayed a tendency to skip the opening dialogue and instructions in favor of ‘feeling’ their way through the prototype. This meant however that they played on largely unaware of the activities available. They try to win the game by walking through the level.
Figure 2: A banking dialogue interface
3.2.3. Usability: Game Mechanics testing
Figure 3: A game environment in Party Girl
Naïve or less experienced testers were prone to dying at the very first challenge (first pond/body of water) (see Figure 3). One tester was unable to pass this area at all. This occurred largely because the body of water was a little long to jump whilst avoiding two different harmful NPC’s; particularly at a stage of the level where players are still coming to terms with controls.
Figure 4: A challenge within Party Girl
3.2.6. Solutions: Game Play testing Players needed to clear the stage. However, preconceptions regarding the genre of the game (platformer) tended to dictate play style at the expense of some of the core gameplay elements. For example, players tended to rely on the collection of coins, speed and linear progression as they
3.2.4. Solutions: Game Mechanics testing To correct this issue, the river should be significantly narrowed and at least one 167
Sex Roles, Vol. 40, No. 1/2. Federoff, M. (2002). Heuristics and usability guidelines for the creation and evaluation of fun in video games. Indiana University. Gorriz, C. M., and C. Medina. (2000). Engaging Girls with Computers through Software Games. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43, No. 1, 42-49. Jimison, H., M. Pavel and T. ,Le. (2008). Home-based cognitive monitoring using embedded measures of verbal fluency in a computer word game, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2008. 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE , vol., no., pp.3312-3315 Isbister, K. (2009). Understand social play. In Bateman, C., Beyond game design : nine steps toward creating better videogames (pp.49-59). Boston: Course Technology. Karniol, R., S. Reichman and L. Fund. (2000). Children’s Gender Orientation and Perceptions of Female, Male, and GenderAmbiguous Animal Characters. Plenum Publishing Corporation, Sex Roles, Vol. 43, No. 5/6. Laitinen, S. (2005). Better Games Through Usability Evaluation and Testing, Retrieved on 10 November, 2010, from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2 333/better_games_through_usability_.php Lazzaro, N. (2009). Understand emotions. In Bateman, C., Beyond game design : nine steps toward creating better videogames (pp.3-48). Boston: Course Technology. Media Awareness Network. (2009). Marketing and Consumerism – Special Issues for Tweens and Teens. Retrieved on 15 November, 2010, from http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/iss ues_teens_marketing.cfm Omar, H. and A. Jaafar. (2010). Heuristics evaluation in computer games, Information Retrieval & Knowledge Management, (CAMP), International Conference on , vol., no., pp.188-193. Song, M. and S. Zhang. (2008). EFM: A Model for education game design. Edutainment, LNCS 5093, pp. 509-517.
assumed that those factors would become critical to a successful outcome. This meant that they would (at times) ignore elements such as collectables, useable items and abilities, NPCs as well as some of the financial functions; many of which were central to the intended gameplay. The intention of forcing the player to make educational choices should be rewarded during play. 4) CONCLUSION A financial learning model for preteen girls focused on usability design, game interface, game mechanics and gameplay. All ultimately affect users’ satisfaction in terms of financial learning through social networking, patterns of their play and their emotional connections. The model developed should support game designers and as they work to create more engaging and effective educational games. Our initial play-testing demonstrates that there is still work to be done to effectively integrate all of these elements. While playtesters were effective in playing the game and they appeared to be engaged and having fun, the financial elements were sometimes missed or caused confusion. Integration of learning elements needs to be refined. Game technology has the power to encourage the type of learning in which children act, interact, make decisions and learn in order to accomplish the goals. Game is a new medium though e-Learning. Incorporating iterative improvements into Party Girl based on our play-testing, will result in an interactive experience that encourages both engagement and financial literacy. REFERENCES
Acknowledge: Dr Peta Wyeth Senior Lecturer Faculty of Science and Technology | Queensland University of Technology Brisbane QLD Australia in reading and commenting on this paper.
Boyatzis, C. J., M. Mallis and I. Leon. (1999). Effects of Game Type on Children’s Gender-Based Peer Preferences: A Naturalistic Observational Study. Plenum Publishing Corporation, 168
Accommodating User Preferences in Designing Computer Based Learning Interfaces R. Al-Hajri1 and A. AL-Hunaiyyan2 1 Computer Science Dept. Higher Institute of Telecom. And Navigation, PAAET, Kuwait (rana_alhajri@yahoo.com) 2 Computer Science Dept. College of Business Studies, PAAET, Kuwait (Hunaiyyan@hotmail.com) ABSTRACT
1) INTRODUCTION
The use of information technology to support teaching, learning, training, and education has been possible for several decades. Many claims about the relative value of Computer Based Learning (CBL) have been made. The computer human interaction (CHI) environment regularly researches factors that affect the success or failure in interaction with computers. Designers need to construct meaningful frameworks for making appropriate decisions regarding visual design and user interaction. Although it has been difficult to prove the advantages of these programs over traditional teaching and learning, its use has increased and many attempts have been made to develop educational software products for different subjects, in a wide variety of educational settings, for different target learners and cultures. Moreover, this use has increased due to the new multimedia features modern computers can support. Many research studies are engaged in finding ways to build a computerlearning environment that can accommodate the different levels of learners' needs and abilities. This paper underlines factors based on findings of previous studies including individual differences of learners; program and interface design.
There have been numerous research studies on Multimedia’s effect on learners using Computer Based Learning (CBL). Learners’ performance, perception, and their ability to comprehend course content are determined by their varying skills and abilities. Features such as age, gender, interests, preferences, and background knowledge of course content may also affect learning motivation and performance. In other words, some users may need more explanations than others. Such differences, known as individual differences of learners, have been found to be important factors to consider in the development of learning systems. In hypermedia, learners are allowed to learn in their own ways and to make their own paths through the material. In this way, they learn things at their own pace and construct their understanding of subject matter actively (Chen 2002).
Keywords
Chen and Macredie (2002) indicated that a non-linear learning approach in hypermedia learning systems may not be suitable to all learners. Learners may have different backgrounds, especially in terms
It is important that instructors are easily able to recognize information resources that match user’s needs. In addition, user’s should have a flexible interface that accommodates their individual preferences, learning styles, and should also be able to easily identify relevant content and navigation support. 2)
CBL, e-Learning, HCI, Interface Design, Multimedia and Hypermedia, Usability.
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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
of their knowledge, skills, and needs, so they may show various levels of engagement in course content. Therefore, many studies argue that no one style will result in better performance. However, learners whose browsing behavior was consistent with their own favored styles obtained the best performance results. Previous studies demonstrated the importance of individual differences as a factor in the design of computer-based learning. Such individual differences have significant effects on user learning in computer-based learning, which may affect the way in which they learn from and interact with hypermedia systems. This paper discusses three factors: from cognitive styles; prior knowledge; and gender differences. 2.1)
tools such as “index” and “find” to locate specific content (Ford and Chen, 2000). Conversely, FD users tend to see a global picture (Witkin and Goodenough, 1981), and prefer to use well-structured tools such as maps or main menus (Chen and Ford, 1998). Additionally, some studies found that FI users relatively enjoy non-linear navigation while FD users seem to prefer a fixed path to navigate computer-based content. 2.1.2
In the Chen and Macredie (2002) study, two versions of a hypermedia learning system, the Breadth-first and the Depthfirst, were designed with program control paths. In the Depth-first version, each topic was presented in detail before the next topic, which was presented in the same way (i.e., Serialist condition). The material was classified into seven depth levels. In contrast, the Breadth-first version provides a summary of all of the material prior to introducing detail (i.e., Holist condition), and included 12 categories in breadth. Results showed that users whose cognitive styles were matched to the design of hypermedia learning systems that they preferred achieved higher posttest scores. Field Dependent learners performed better in the Breadth-first version than in the Depth-first version. On the other hand, Field Independent users performed best in the Depth-first version than in the Breadthfirst version.
Cognitive Styles
Cognitive style refers to the preferred way individual’s process information. Moreover, in a traditional, non-multimedia learning environment, matching a user’s cognitive style with content presentation has been shown to enhance performance and improve perception (Ford and Chen, 2001). Simply, cognitive style is known as an important factor that influences learners’ preferences. Three divisions of cognitive styles are discussed below. 2.1.1
Holist versus Serialist Strategy
Field-Dependent versus FieldIndependent
Field dependence (FD) and field independence (FI) refers to an analytical or global approach to learning, and is probably the most well-known division of cognitive styles (Witkin et al, 1977). FI learners generally are analytical in their approach, whereas FD learners are more global in their perceptions. Many experimental studies have argued the impact of FD and FI on the learning process.
2.1.3
Visualized versus Verbalized
There are many divisions of cognitive styles, among which Riding’s (1991) Visualizer / Verbalizer particularly emphasizes the presentation of information. Since multimedia systems incorporate numerous ways to present information, such as text, graphics, sound, animation and video, multimedia content was found to significantly influence users’ levels of understanding and enjoyment.
With regard to navigation strategies, some studies suggest FI users prefer navigation 170
The main differences between the two cognitive styles, Visualizers and Verbalizers, are described in (Jonassen and Grabowski, 1993). A Visualizer prefers to receive information via graphics, pictures, and images, whereas a Verbalizer prefers to process information in the form of words, either written or spoken. Visualizers prefer to process information by seeing, whereas Verbalizers prefer to process information by listening and talking. 2.2)
2.3)
Prior knowledge
Learners with different levels of prior knowledge, from experts to novices, benefit differently from hypermedia learning systems (Last et al., 2001). According to Simmons and Lunetta (1993), a novice can be defined as someone having little or no formal training/experience in the area examined, whereas an expert can be defined as a learner with formal training and experience in the area under investigation. Torkzadeh and Lee (2003) discussed how to understand users’ prior knowledge, which can influence the system success directly and indirectly. Mitchell, Chen, and Macredie (2005) have followed this line to examine the relationships between prior knowledge and user learning in hypermedia systems.
Learner's Gender
Gender differences are also argued as an important factor that significantly impacts learning in hypermedia learning systems (Ford et al., 2001). Studies show that, in general, females have less experience with computers than males (Schumacher and Morahan-Martin, 2001). Thus, females tend to experience more disorientation in hypermedia than males (Chen and Ford, 1998), and males have been found to outperform females (Ford and Chen, 2001).
3) HYPERMEDIA AND INTERFACE DESIGN Hypermedia is an evolution over traditional Computer Based Learning systems, which allows the users to choose their own path to navigate through the material available. The earlier studies indicate that prior knowledge plays a major role in the perception, retention and satisfaction of the users. Hence, Chen, Fan & Macredie (2006) decided to develop a mechanism to help users with various levels of prior knowledge. The aim of their framework was to integrate users' prior knowledge into the design of hypermedia learning systems. This framework includes four elements: disorientation problems, content structure, navigation tools, and additional support.
Several studies also examined gender differences in perceptions of computers and the Web and found significant differences. Male users had more positive attitudes towards computers and the web compared to female users (Schumacher and Morahan-Martin, 2001). Conversely, there are studies indicating that there are no gender differences in attitudes towards computers. Young and McSporran (2001) examined gender differences in user learning performance in a hypermedia learning system and found that females favored and performed better with online learning courses. On the other hand, Roy’s and Chi’s, study examined the effect of gender differences on users’ information seeking performance, and found that males performed significantly better than females on gaining knowledge. Still, other studies have argued that there are no gender differences (Liu, 2004).
3.1)
Disorientation problems
Many studies argued that not all learners are able to manage the high level of links accessed by hypermedia systems. Some learners may get lost or become disorientated in such systems. Many 171
studies indicated that learners' prior knowledge is an important factor that has significant influences. Especially, "novice hypermedia users met more disorientation problems and needed analogies with conventional structures if they were to learn successfully" (Chen, Fan and Macredie, 2006). Last et al. (2001) presented a study that showed similar results. They found that users with high prior knowledge of the content were able to navigate more easily, they remembered the link where they came from, and were able to decide where to go. These users reported more positive feelings and seemed to suffer much less from frustration while performing their tasks, in contrast to the results of the users with low prior knowledge who suffered from disorientation. 3.2)
Carmel, Crawford, and Chen (1992) found that experts were more interested in using tools that could facilitate the location of detailed information related to specific entities. Conversely, novices appeared to benefit from hierarchical maps, which can facilitate the integration of individual topics. Hierarchical map can help novices incorporate the document structure into the conceptual structure, which helps them to integrate their knowledge. 3.4)
Many studies argue that hypermedia learning seems to be more suitable for expert users. Conversely, novice users experience more disorientation problems, so it is essential to provide them with additional support through mechanisms such as advisement, advance organizers, human support, graphical overviews, and structural cues (Shin, et al., 1994).
Content structure
A number of studies suggest that experts and novices differ in their performance, depending on content structure in hypermedia learning systems. The findings suggest that a hierarchical structure is most appropriate for novices. Shin, et al. (1994), Pazzani (1991) examined the effects of hierarchical structure and network structure on hypermedia learning. Results indicated that novices gained more benefit from the hierarchical structure than from the network structure. On the other hand, experts were able to function equally well in both. 3.3)
Additional support
4)
CONCLUSION
This paper highlighted some research studies that focused on various factors which influence learning when using and designing computer-based learning (CBL). These factors include Individual Differences on learners such as their cognitive Style, Prior Knowledge and Gender. In addition to, program interface design which includes Disorientation Problems, Additional Support, Content Structure and Navigation Tools. Understanding individual differences of learners and learner's characteristics will undoubtedly help designers to provide effective CBL, in which users can acquire knowledge that will meet their individual needs, resulting in improved learning performance in hypermedia environment.
Navigational tools
Navigational tools are used in current CBL systems, most commonly hierarchical maps and alphabetical indices, each of which provides different functions for information access. For example, hierarchical maps provide an overview of the global structure of the context, while alphabetical indices are useful for locating specific information (Chen and Macredie, 2002).
REFERENCES Carmel, E., Crawford, S., & Chen, H. (1992). Browsing in hypertext: A cognitive study. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 22, 865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;884. 172
based tutorial, Learning, Media and Technology, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 27–40 Pazzani, M. J. (1991) Influence of prior knowledge on concept acquisition: Experimental and computational results, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 17, 416-432. Riding, R.J., (1991). Cognitive Styles Analysis. Learning and Training Technology, Birmingham. Schumacher, P. and Morahan-Martin, J. (2001) Gender, internet and computer attitudes and experiences, Computers in Human Behavior, 17(1), 95-110. Shin, E. Schallert, D. and Savenye, C. (1994) Effects of learner control, advisement, and prior knowledge on young students' learning in a hypertext environment, Ed Technology Research and Development, 42(1), 33-46. Simmons, P. E. and Lunetta, V. N. (1993) Problem-solving behaviors during a genetics computer simulation: Beyond the expert/novice dichotomy, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(2), 153-173. Torkzadeh G. & Lee J. (2003) Measures of perceived enduser computing skills. Information & Management. 40, 607– 615. Witkin, H. A. and Goodenough, D. R. (1981) Cognitive Styles: Essence and Origins. New York, International Universities Press. Witkin, H. Moore, C. Goodenough, D. and Cox, P. (1977) Field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles and their educational implications, Review of Educational Research, 47(1), 1-64. Young, S. and McSporran, M. (2001) Confident men - successful women: Gender differences in online learning, Proceedings of National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand, pp.433-436.
Chen S. Y., Fan J., Macredie R. D. (2006), Navigation in hypermedia learning systems: experts vs. novices, Computers in Human Behavior 22, 251–266 Chen, S. and Ford, N. (1998) Modeling user navigation behaviors in a hypermediabased learning system: An individual differences approach, International Journal of Knowledge Organization, 25(3), 67-78. Chen, S. Y. (2002). A cognitive model for non-linear learning in hypermedia programmes. British Journal of Edu. Technology, 33(4), 449-460. Chen, S. Y. and Macredie, R. D. (2002) Cognitive styles and hypermedia navigation: Development of a learning model, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(1), 3-15. Ford, N. and Chen, S. (2000) Individual differences, hypermedia navigation, and learning: An empirical study, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 9(4), 281-311. Ford, N. and Chen, S. (2001) Matching/mismatching revisited: An empirical study of learning and teaching styles, British Journal of Educational Technology, 32(1), 5-22. Jonassen, D. H. and Grabowski, B. L. (1993) Individual Differences and Instruction. New York, Allen & Bacon. Last, D. A. O'Donnell, A. M. and Kelly, A. E. (2001) The effects of prior knowledge and goal strength on the use of hypertext, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 10(1), 325. Liu, M. (2004) Examining the performance and attitudes of sixth graders during their use of a problem-based hypermedia learning environment, Computers in Human Behavior, 20(3), 357-379. Mitchell T. J. F., Chen S. Y. and Macredie, R. D., (2005), The relationship between web enjoyment and student perceptions and learning using a web173
Specifications of an Intelligent Mediating Model for Collaborative e-Learning Courseware Systems Akanbi C. O1. and Adagunodo E.R.2 1 Department of Information and Communication Technology, Osun State University, Osogbo, Osun State (akanbico@uniosun.edu.ng) 2 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University programmes as an alternative. A number of these institutions have acquired suitable educational software platforms called Web-based learning Courseware systems(E-LCSs) such as WebCT, Convene, Blackboard Authoware, Learning Space, Course Info, Cyber Proof, Mallad, CM Online (Monari,2005) These e-LCS systems lack ontologies for sharing their domain knowledge learning objects with others (Sampson and Karampiperis, 2006). This is due to differences in architectures, platforms, protocols and representations. This does not permit collaboration with other e-LCS during a learning process particularly, when a learner needs further adaptive and intelligent supports to compliment the learning process. The limitation of this scheme to the e-learners is that learning process is restricted only to the knowledge base of a particular courseware which may reduce the mastery of a learning concept. To overcome this drawback, we specified an intelligent component of mediating architecture that uses hybrid rule and case based reasoning model to provide a collaborative platform for making possible, the sharing of the learning objects across multiple e-LCSs, during a learning process in this paper .
ABSTRACT E-learning courseware systems (eLCSs) lack ontologies for sharing their domain knowledge learning objects with others due to differences or nonuniformity in architectures, platforms, protocols and representations. The effect of this on e-learners is that collaboration with other e-LCS during learning processes is not permitted. Hence, learning process is restricted only to the knowledge base of a particular E-LCS adopted by an institution, which may limit the mastery level of learners. To provide a remedy to this problem, an intelligent multi-agent mediating system model is proposed in this study using hybrid rule and case based reasoning scheme. Unified Modeling Language(UML) is used as a design tool to specify the active and passive entities of the model in form class The model proposed provides a collaborative platform for sharing of the learning objects across multiple e-LCSs, during learning processes. Keywords Collaborative Learning, Web-based, Learning Management System, Artificial Intelligence, UnifiedModeling Language (UML)
2.0. Intelligent Mediating System An intelligent mediating system is a software agent that exploits encoded knowledge about certain sets or subsets of data in different knowledge/data base to create information for a higher layer of applications. Mediator improves the management of the integrated system
1.0 Introduction The advent of the Internet Technology has motivated various institutions of higher learning offering distance learning programmes to embrace e- learning 175
where if the conditions are true then the actions are executed. The action part of a rule might assert new facts that fire other rules. When rules are examined by the inference engine, actions are executed if the information supplied by the user satisfies the conditions in the rules. Two methods of inference often used are forward and backward chaining. (James, 2000 ; Watson. and D. Marir ,1994)
through the amalgamation of learning objects coming from different knowledge base of diverse learning objects (Akanbi, Adagunodo and Omotosho , 2008) Learning object is a smallest digital reproducible and addressable resources of a learning contents stored in various Knowledge base of courseware systems (Koper, 2003).: 2.0 Litrature Review 2.1 Arficial Intelligence An artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage in behaviours that humans consider intelligent Sycara (1988). Different artificial intelligence approaches have been employed to provide intelligent reasoning for agent-based systems. Notable among them according to (Gruer , Khan, Ogier, and Keffer, (2004) include rule-based reasoning,Case-based reasoningdapts,Pattern recognition using neural network, fuzzy logic,and Hybrid /integrated approaches Rule Based, Case based and hybrid reasoning approaches are discussed in details in this paper because of their relevances to this study.
2.1.2 Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) CBR is a method to solve new problems by adapting solutions that were used to solve past problems (James, 2000). With CBR, past cases that are analogous to the current case are searched for. The solutions of the most analogous past cases are then used to create a solution for the current case. In case-based reasoning (CBR) systems expertise is embodied in a library of past cases, rather than being encoded in classical rules. To solve a current problem, the problem is matched against the cases in the case base, and similar cases are retrieved. The retrieved cases are used to suggest a solution which is reused and tested for success. If necessary, the solution is then revised. Finally the current problem and the final solution are retained as part of a new case Two major classes of CBR are problem-solving CBR and precedent-based CBR ( Agnar and Agnar, 1994) (1) Problem Solving CBR In problem solving CBR, the typical focus is on using past cases to find a detailed problem solution (e.g., a plan, a course of action), where the new solution is generated by adapting a previous solution. Industrial design and planning are paradigmatic examples of problemsolving CBR (2) Precedent based CBR Precedent based CBR is distinguished by its focus on the use of past cases ("precedents") to justify a solution and explain its rationale This this
2.1.1 Rule-Based Reasoning (RBR) The idea of rule-based reasoning is to represent a domain expertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knowledge in a form called rules. A rule-based system consists mainly of three items : facts, rules and an inference engine that acts on them. Rules represent knowledge and facts represent data. A rule-based system solves problems by applying rules on facts (i.e. matching facts with rulesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; if clauses). The common knowledge base rule is production rules which consist of two parts: conditions (if clauses) and actions (James, 2000). These rules occur in sequences and are expressions of the form: if <conditions> then <actions>
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could be structural.
textual.
conversational
or
3.1 Mediator System Architecture The system architecture is shown in appendix 1 . It consists of two agents which are collaborative agent for searching for learning modules (learning objects) and filtering agent for recommending suitable learning modules. It consists of three main components; (i) Courseware Mediator Interphase (CMI). (ii) Recommender Engine (iii) Knowledge Base
2.2 Hybrid Reasoning Approaches Hybrid systems combines different artificial intelligence approaches. The believe is that using multiple techniques emphasizes the advantages of each and overcomes the individual disadvantages (Andrew. and Paul, 2003) . For example, rules are applied when the cases are not enough to provide a solution. Hybrid reasoning approach consisting of both rule based and case based was adopted in the modeling of intelligence of the mediator system architecture proposed in this study.
(i) Courseware Mediator Interphase (CMI) This query is typed in by the active learner (who needs collaborative supports) through the Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the client side of the requesting courseware (R-courseware Courseware). Also the suitable learning objects recommended by the mediating system are sent to the requesting Courseware (Rcourseware) through this module.
2.3 Related Works Gadgil (2007) in attempt to solve the problem of reusability of existing software resources, developed a scalable, fault tolerant management middleware architecture that combines publishsubscribe and service-oriented computing principles for managing a set of distributed entities. The service oriented architecture employed provided interoperability to the management process. Also, in Fiaidhi et al. (2007) a brokering architecture that exploits semantic web technologies for locating multimedia learning objects was proposed. Central to their architecture is the Brokering Web Service, which provides lightweight query processing and reasoning in response to Requestor OWLOQL queries. They described the use of this broker, its associated ontologies and its reasoning mechanism in an intelligent multimedia learning object search engine prototype. While all of them have modeled a mediator that search through a knowledgebase of a learning management system , this study attempt to model a mediator that searches through several learning management systems.
(ii) Recommender Engine(RE) : Recommender engine is the intelligent (reasoning) component of the mediator architecture. It consists of two major categories of agents: (i) Filter agent (FA) which is stationary carries out the filtering process with the ultimate goal of recommending suitable learning objects to the active learners. (ii) Collaboration agent (CA) which is mobile is created automatically by the broker agent when there is a service request to search for suitable learning objects (LOJ(1â&#x20AC;Ś.m)) from the Pcourserware systems that matches the ALQ. (iii) After arriving at a location, the agent intelligently fetch required
177
learning objects using rule base reasoning (RBR) scheme.
(i) (ii)
in the knowledge base. This demonstrates the capacity of mediator to improve upon a pure rule-based or case-based system. In addition to accuracy benefits, having rules together with the cases allowed three innovations in AI technology: (i) the rules provided a natural way to index the cases (prediction-based indexing) (ii) CBR then becomes a postprocessor that improves on the approximate similar result provided by rule base. (iii) combine multiple independent knowledge sources achieve higher accuracy.
Knowledge Base. This is the knowledge repository for the mediator system. It consists of two categories of repositories as shown in figure 2 which are: Matched Learning Object Repository Recommended Learning Object Repository 3.2 Embedded Intelligent Frameworks in Mediator System. The Hybrid reasoning approach consisting of case based reasoning (CBR) and rule based reasoning(CBR) is adopted to provide intelligence for mediator system in this study. It takes advantage of the strengths of both CBR and RBR to retrieve learning objects that are highly similar to active learner query (ALQ) based on their computed similarity values which is the average of concept and relational similarity values as shown in equation 1 Similarity Value = ( Concept_SimVal + Relational_ SimVal)/ 2
3.3 Intelligence in Filter Agent Intelligence in filter agent was achieved using the hybrid reasoning scheme consisting of rule based reasoning (RBR) and case base reasoning (CBR) scheme as shown in figure 2. RBR was employed for service request and transition while CBR was used in searching and retrieving previous cases stored in the knowledge base. This is done by comparing the active learning object to past cases (learning objects) in the knowledge base.
………….(1) Where Concept_SimVal = 0 no common concepts 1 same set of concepts, otherwise ………………(2)
3.3.1 Filter Agent RBR The courseware mediating intephase(CMI), collaboration agent and knowledge base assert the facts into the fact list of the recommender engine. The fact list is the input to the artificial component of the filter agent. Rule base filtered the message and come out with result which may be active learner query (ALQ) or recommended learning objects. Filter agent was equipped with RBR to handle among others, these three activities: (i) identifies the alert messages (ii) creates collaboration agent (iii) recommend suitable learning objects
and Relational_ SimVal 2*Σlnaibi/Σlnai2+Σlnbi2
=
…………….(3) where vectors A and B are filled with the number of concept nodes of graph G1 represents ALQ learning objects and graph G2 represents P-courseware visited by the collaboration agent. The suitable learning object is obtained from both current filtered results and previous recommendation results all stored 178
Interface(CMI), Filter agents, and SynonymsDB . The active and passive entities contain various cases and rules.
In order to handle these service requests and transitions, filter agent uses a simple RBR scheme called “ECCA” rule which has four parts: • Event: The event that triggers this rule. • Condition: The condition that needs to be checked before the action is performed. • Action: The action to be performed when the condition is true. • AltAction: The action to be performed when the condition is false.
3.5 Protocol Interactions in the Class Diagram The mediating agent model adopts the following protocol interaction. (i) Filter agent receives ALQ and creates collaboration agent to execute (ii) Mediator collaboration agent migrates to other courseware in the collaborative environment, to search for similar learning objects (LOj) one after the other. (iii) Collaboration Agent Wrapper Module (CAWM) generates the XML. file format for the active learner query file (ALQi), and the learning object files LOJ( 1……n) found in P-courseware.
Filter agent CBR Filter agent uses CBR to retrieve relevant cases (Learning Objects ) and accurately from the knowledge base. Filter agent builds an indexing knowledge structure that will return the most appropriate case(s) at high speed. Case base indexing minimizes the number of cases that have to be evaluated at run time and is required for a large set of cases as linear searched will yield a probability long retrieval time (Watson. and Marir ,1994)
3.5 Implementation We are currently developing this prototype intelligent mediating system using appropriate program language such as JAVA (Java expert shell. software(JESS) and Java Agent Development Environment (JADE) Technologies). It is believed that the full implementation of this mediating model will go a long way to solve the interoperability problem among diverse elearning courseware systems in various institutions of higher learning.
3.4 UML Model for the Mediator Architecture A Unified Modeling Language(UML) is adopted in this study as software engineering tool for the modeling of this design The interaction protocol specified in this is represented by the Unified Modeling Language UML class diagram in appendix 2 . The model shows the relationship between the primary entities (actors) and passive entities of the developed system.. Appendix 2 is the class diagram specifying various object-oriented design connections between the active and passive entities. The active entities are Rcourseware, P-courseware, Collaboration Agent and the Learners while the passive entities are Courseware Mediating.
4.0 Conclusion The major problem of existing elearning courseware has been highlighted, An intelligent mediator architecture for collaborative e-learning systems was designed in this paper, The architecture model uses hybrid reasoning mechanisms consisting of rule based for collaboration agent and case and rule-based reasoning for filter agent is proposed in this paper to provide a collaborative platform for the sharing of the learning objects across
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Systems”, McGraw-Hill International Editions, Computer Science Series. Koper, E.J.(2003): Combining re-usable learning resources and services to pedagogical purposeful units of learning. In A. Littlejohn (Ed.), Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to eLearning London Kogan pp. 46–59 Koper, E.J.(2003).: Combining re-usable learning resources and services to pedagogical purposeful units of learning. In A. Littlejohn (Ed.), Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to eLearning London Kogan Pgs. 46–59 Monari M. (2005): Evaluation of Collaborative Tools in Web-Based Web-based learning Systems M.Sc thesis, Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden. Sampson, D. & Karampiperis, P. (2006). Towards Next Generation ActivityBased Learning Systems. International Journal on E-Learning. 5 (1), pp. 129-149. Sycara K. (1988). Resolving Goal Conflicts via Negotiation. In Proceedings AAAI-88, American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Watson I .and D. Marir (1994), “CaseBased Reasoning: A Review”, Cambridge University Press, 1994. The Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol. 9, No. 4: pp. 355-381.
multiple E-LCSs, during a learning process. The UML model specifications of class diagrams is presented to show various interactions in the design. References Agnar A. and Agnar. A (1994):“CaseBased Reasoning: Foundational Issues,Methodological Variations, and System Approaches” AI Communications, Vol. 7, pgs 3959. Akanbi C.O. Adagunodo E.R. and Omotosho L.O.(2008) : Design of an Intelligent Broker Architecture for e-Learning Courseware Collaboration. Proceeding of 3rd International Conference on ICT Applications (AICTTRA) held at Obafemi Awolowo University Ileife, pp. 56-62. Fiaidhi, J. Mohammed, S. and Hahn, M. (2007). Developing a Brokering Architecture for Multimedia Learning Objects on the Semantic Web. International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, IJCSNS , 7(10): pp. 2329. Gadgil, H. (2007). Scalable, Fault-tolerant Management of Grid Services: Application to Messaging Middleware. Ph.D. Thesis. Department of Computer Science Indiana, University, Bloomington Gruer D. , Khan I., Ogier, R. and Keffer R. (2004) : "An Artificial Intelligence IBM research report, Computer Science, RC20305. James P.I ,(2000): “The Development and Implementation of Rule-Based Expert
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` CMI LOs Recommender Engine Recommender Engine Reasoning Module (RERM)
Collaboration Agent CAWM
Rule Base
CAMM.
Collaboration
Filtering
Filter Agent Case Base
CMI â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Courseware Mediator Interphase CAWM â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Collaboration Agent Wrapper Module CAMM - Collaboration Agent Match Module Matched Learning Recommended LearningMediator System Architecture Figure 1: Intelligent Object Repository Object Repository (MLOR) (RLOR) Knowledge Base
Appendix 1 : Intelligent Mediator System Architecture
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1.*
R- Courseware +createTutor 1 +acceptLearnerProblem Query( ) +manageStudentInfo( ) 1 +assignTestToLearner( )
send
1.*
1
Learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Model +viewStudentInfor( ) +sendLearner ProblemQuery() +monitorStudentInterraction()
contacts
1
Filter Agent
1
+search for existing cases +receiveMatchSimval( ) +computeFiltering( ) +recommendLO( )
CMI +receiveLearnerQuery() +sendRecommendLOs
consists
1 consist of
1 consists of 1
1 1 consists
1
1
Mediating - Agent +receiveLearnerProblemQuery( ) +searchforCollabCourswLO( ) +computeMatchSimilarity( ) +recommendlearningObject +manageCoursewInfo( ) +allocateCollabLOToCoursw( )
1
1 provides
Collaboration Agent
+generateLearner Query Xml( ) +generateSimSynonymsXml( ) +generateSimCollabLOXml( )
+searchCollabLO( ) +computeMatchSimLO( ) contacts 1 2.* P- Courseware 2.*
2.*
+provideCollabSupport( ) +createTutor( ) 2.* +acceptLearnerProblemQuery() +manageStudentInfo( )
SynonymsDB (FODOC) +provideSynonymWords()
migrates 2.*
1 consists of 1
1
CAWM = FODOC = CA = CMI =
Collaborative Agent Wrapper Module Free Online Dictionary of Computing Collaborative Agent Courseware Mediator Interphase
Appendix 2: The Proposed Mediator Model: Class Diagram
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A Competitive Study towards Teaching Geography Based Technology among Educators H. Hamid1 and Merza Abbas2 1, 2 Center for Instructional Technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia 1 2 (hamizunhamid@yahoo.com , merza@usm.my ) person communicator for transferring knowledge into learners. The current development opened the way for integrating a new technique for enhancing teaching by using visualization tools, virtual environment, and so on (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996). The capacity of existing educational approximations to reveal knowledge, skills and benefits relevant to a rapidly dynamic world has been interrogated by educationists, researchers as well as employers. Such interests are motivating a growth in the implementation of educational technology that requiring be reporting and recognizing from a different perspective (Lidstone, 2010). As well as information and Communication Technology (ICT) abilities engage a key role in promoting the educational development towards teaching and learning of the development countries such as; Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.... ICT has been known lately in supporting teaching, especially the topics concerns Geography, History, and Computer that needs to obtain a high equipment of technology for assisting and helping teachers to transfer the topic aims (Lambert & Balderstone, 2000). Information and Communication Technology has a straight role to perform in education and if appropriately used, can carry many advantages to the education sector (Gersmehl, 2008; Gold & Geographers, 1991). For example, it supplies new possibilities for education and schooling, including offering opportunities for more students centered teaching, opportunity to reach more learners, greater opportunity for teacher-to-teacher and student-to-student
ABSTRACT Nowadays understanding geography involves different methods as well as cognitive skills and concepts from the domain of science and education towards teaching geography. The adoption of technology in teaching geography helps in the development of new learning and teaching materials which presents a rapid growth. Teaching and learning based technology and other computer-aided tools have been tried in Geography education since its early days. Integrating tools into teaching geography education is a prevalent teaching pattern. It is a tendency that educators linked up with the main components of geography to assist teaching. Hence, this paper seeks to reports the process undertaken and results obtained from previous researches towards the using of technology in teaching geography. Meanwhile, this paper will develop a new teaching framework for geography among educators. Keywords: Teaching Geography, Teaching based Technology, Learning Activities, and Teaching Methods 1. INTRODUCTION Recently, the amalgamation of new technology, low-cost high-performance graphics cards, and fast pcs has made it promising for developing and constructing a new method for teaching and learning among students and teachers (Badia, Pallarès, & Llurdés). This creation has been directed to a large range by different researchers for assisting teaching based technology. Teaching determined as an in 183
An example, Kenya, Philippines, and Indonesia and other developing countries, there is presently limited incorporation of real-world learning skills in the traditional classroom setting. Mostly, the content demonstrated in the classroom is confused from its real world theme, which leads to have a detrimental effect on the learning process, adversely affecting learner motivation, in particular. Meanwhile, real learning located in real world contexts has been indicated to have beneficial impressions on learning and learner motivation. Teaching Geography based simulations have been found to give a solution by providing some characteristics of real learning in the traditional classroom. However, computers have been founded to help teaching and learning Geography in various educational environments, few institutions use them innovative (Horton, Lovitt, & Slocum, 1988). While computers may be common in Geography instruction in education, their use at the pre-collegiate degree is not extremely common, but is growing. The utilization of computers in education is often named Computer Assisted Learning (CAL). Google earth is touted to be pressing in helping comprehension of teaching the geographic concepts thereby increasing student performance in Geography. Computer tools and other teaching techniques such as 3D, Video, and Visualization tools are included to be a practicable example of teaching Geography in some schools. Furthermore, other teaching methods may either be a substantial physical system, or a theoretical one (Home, 2000). Teaching Geography based technology implicate the utilization of a pattern to experiment, which carry a comprehension of the behavior of the teaching methods used. The aim of integrating technology into teaching Geography is widely involved representing certain key attributes or behavior of a selected physical or theoretical concept.
communication and collaboration (Engvall, 1997; Fang, Su, Lu, Wang, & Lin, 2007). Teaching geography presents a complicate task to be vitalized by students since the computer has been recognized as the most productive technology that can make teaching and learning situations more worthwhile and advantageous than it has ever been before. 2. ISSUES AND TECHNIQUES IN LEARNING GEOGRAPHY A different number of schools facing difficulties on access to the limited resources of computer, which involving computer suites, and lack of access at desired times to browse and retrieve information regarding Geography. The employing of computer in teaching Geography determined a proper way for vitalizing the concepts of Geography among students by using a suitable technique such as 3D, Video, Audio, Google Earth, GPS, etc...There are also comparatively lacked in explaining Geography based technology, which stated by relevant studies such as (Kinuthia, 2009) stated the lacks in teaching Geography based computer by some teachers, the reason back to the limit use or practice by teachers to deliver the main ideas. Furthermore, in many schools, weaknesses in Geography education are related with limitations in the use of computer technology and strategic direction of ICT (Papastergiou, 2009). Good teaching of Geography ought to be based on clear assumptions of geographical consequences, with good preparation and planning, which gives a number of connected actions to look after pace and students interest. As well as computer techniques such as 3D, Video, and GPS are determined a software program that contains a practicable model of a teaching and learning Geography. While computers may be common in Geography instruction in higher education rather than schools. Moreover, their use at the pre-collegiate level is not very common, but is increasing. 184
Geography, which enables secondary science teachers to include a category of geospatial technology applications into extensive classroom subjects. The study evaluated the teacher's impacts quantitatively and qualitatively. The Postquestionnaire feedbacks indicated an important rise in teachers’ perceived technological expertise, interest, and ability to integrate geospatial technology into their science teaching. Furthermore, the using of application of the Technical Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework for three case studies draws such growth. The key aspects of professional development in encouragement of teaching science with geospatial technology incorporate intensive training and growing support. Finally, the suggestions were demonstrated for design of professional development and use of TPACK in evaluating impacts. Henry (2009) illustrated the perspective of utilizing Google Earth for Internet GIS applications. The study particularly investigates the benefit of vector and attributes data and the potential of presenting and converting this data in new ways using the Google Earth platform. Henry reported the growth of the future developments in GIS on the Internet, which found in; GIS data access, spatial information dissemination and GIS modeling/processing. The study formulates a methodological framework to obtain its target that includes three major parts: a database stage, an application stage and a client stage. As evidence of the conceptualization, the study developed a web prototype, named VISQUE – VISualise and Query Using Earth, which blends a different range of datasets. The results displayed that both vector and attribute data can be efficiently represented and visualized using Google Earth. Moreover, the usefulness to query custom data and visualize results has been attached to the Google Earth platform. Figure 1 presents VISQUE concepts in teaching Geography based Google earth.
The computer is then organized to project results of any change in the creative situation. They can reduce a cost, reduce the risk and improve understanding of the students towards Geography. Therefore, this paper sought to place the mismatch recognized here in the event of teaching Geography for the school students based on using computer technology and other teaching techniques that have been proven to have a positive impact on learners’ performance. Few educators use them in teaching and learning innovative. 3. RELATED WORKS According to Osodo, Indoshi, & Ongati (2010) described the main issues in accessing computer res courses for teaching and learning Geography subject in different schools in the developing countries. As well as the lack of access to relevant educational computer hardware and software often obstruct geographic instruction in many societies. Osodo focused on the issue of teaching and learning Geography in Kenya, which faced an implementation of using technology in teaching Geography, the context for this execution has not been investigated as to its effectiveness thereby leaving the innovation to chance. The purpose of the author was to set up the way to access and reach knowledge with an extent and possible utilization of computer based resources in Geography education in secondary schools. The design of the study was descriptive surveys within target 240 secondary school teachers and 3500 from three high school students. Questionnaire surveys were used to collect data. Osodo found that no school in Kisumu District had computers could help to enhance the student's performance towards learning Geography. However, Trautman, & MaKinster (2008) describe the possibilities of adopting Google earth in teaching Geography. The study concluded the main points in teaching 185
According to the competitive studies in teaching Geography based technology. We summarized and determined the conceptual framework for teaching Geography based technology. The presented framework illustrated the capabilities of performance, teaching theory, and technology in teaching Geography as it’s mentioned earlier in the previous section. As well as, this can be conducted based on using certain tools and methods such as; Google earth, GPS, Video, and others. Adopting these tools and methods could leads to provide understanding, motivation, collaboration, and others. In addition, the student's response may depend on three main stages to be touched that includes; assessment for learning Geography, technologies and instructional alignment.
Figure 1. VISQUE in teaching Geography based Google earth 4. PROPOSED FRAMEWORK
Figure 2: Teaching Geography based Technology Framework
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about nothing? School of Justice Studies Faculty Papers, 5. Fang, R., Su, K., Lu, H., Wang, C., & Lin, C. (2007). Application of global positioning system (GPS) in earth sciences teaching. Gersmehl, P. (2008). Teaching geography: The Guilford Press. Gold, J., & Geographers, I. o. B. (1991). Teaching Geography in Higher Education: a manual of good practice: Blackwell. Henry, A. (2009). Using Google Earth for Internet GIS. Home, P. (2000). Geography and the Internet: adding a Keys Skills dimension. Teaching geography, 25(4), 187. Horton, S., Lovitt, T., & Slocum, T. (1988). Teaching geography to high school students with academic deficits: Effects of a computerized map tutorial. Learning Disability Quarterly, 11(4), 371-379. Kinuthia, W. (2009). Educational Development in Kenya and the Role of Information and Communication Technology. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 5(2). Lambert, D., & Balderstone, D. (2000). Learning to teach geography in the secondary school: a companion to school experience: RoutledgeFalmer. Lidstone, J. (2010). Teaching and learning geography through field work. Developing skills in geographical education, 53-59. Osodo, J., Indoshi, F., & Ongati, O. (2010). Application of computer based resources in Geography education in secondary schools. Educational Research (ISSN: 2141-5161), 1(7), 219-225. Papastergiou, M. (2009). Digital GameBased Learning in high school Computer Science education: Impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation. Computers & Education, 52(1), 1-12.
5. EXPECTED BENEFITS Identifying the main issues in teaching and learning Geography and extracting a conceptual framework could lead to the following benefits: • • •
Provides rich details toward using technology in teaching Geography; Highlights the main weakness that may effects on teaching performance in class; And provides an alternative way for setting up a new teaching process ;
6. CONCLUSION This paper highlights the issues in teaching and learning Geography based on using certain methods and technologies. Moreover, the paper addressed the important for computer software in teaching that are going to be a significant advance in the way we are able to interact with geospatial data, and seamlessly integrate this capability into learners everyday behavior, using certain technologies to access and explore real time geospatial information. Finally, the paper illustrated a conceptual framework based on the related studies in terms of teaching Geography in schools. REFERENCES Badia, A., Pallarès, M., & Llurdés, J. The use of new technology in teaching geography in the EHEA. The subjects of Social and Economic Geography, Cartography and Photointerpretation, and GIS. DIGITHUM. Duffy, T., & Cunningham, D. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction. Handbook of research for educational communications and technology, 171. Engvall, R. (1997). The professionalization of teaching: is it truly much ado
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Trautman, N., & MaKinster, J. (2008). Flexibly adaptive professional development for teaching science with geospatial technology. TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHER EDUCATION ANNUAL, 19(8), 4791.
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The Comparative Study of Learning Achievement in Thai Language between Hearing Impaired and Normal Students: Case Study of Thugmahamek School of the Deaf N. Iam-Khong1, S. Suksakulchai2, W. Poolek3 and J. Plubsawat4 1 Department of Computer Business, Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University Under The Royal Patronage, Pathom Thani, Thailand (nuttaya_i@vru.ac.th) 2 Department of Electrical Technology Education, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand (surachai.suk@kmutt.ac.th) 3,4 Thugmahamek school of the deaf, Bangkok, Thailand (sotthung_bkk1@hotmail.com) (NIETS), Thai Language, hearing impaired students
ABSTRACT This research was emphasized to the comparison of learning achievements in Thai Language between hearing impaired and normal students. The samples used in this research ware purposively divided into 3 class levels, grade 4 - 6, grade 7 - 9 and grade 10 – 12, of 2008 – 2009 academic years. The testing scores in Thai Language of 82 hearing impaired students’ ware compared to the national average testing scores, both scores , the Ordinary National Education Test or O-NET, tested by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service, NIETS. The results were analyzed using mean, standard deviation (SD) and percentage. The study found that the learning achievement in Thai Language of the hearing impaired students were 42.38% lower than normal student in grade 4-6, 38.92% lower in grade 7-9 and 45.30% lower in grade 10–12. Therefore, the hearing impaired students have a huge serious problem about learning, This finding is opposite from the most Thai people think about the reading ability of the hearing impaired students that they can read Thai easily, which is incorrect.
1) INTRODUCTION Thai Language holds significance for being a national language. Furthermore, it is a communication tool and a cultural heritage. Thai is also a critical factor as a foundation for education in various subjects. In studying Thai Language, learners can apply their knowledge to the benefits of daily livings with learning processes that involved all four aspects of the language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thai learners must practice these skills regularly until being able to apply them appropriately, actively and accurately [1]. Language learning is, therefore, vital to the daily living [2] and can be difficult for hearing impaired students (HIS). Typically, students learn a language mostly by applying listening skills [3]. However, hearing impaired children must rely on vision by using pictures and sign language as crucial components of their learning processes to enhance their reading and text comprehension abilities [4]. These abstract
Keywords Learning achievement, the National Institute of Education Testing Service
189
pictures stimulate HIS to sustain accurate and lasting memorizing abilities [5]. Understanding the vocabularies is the best starting point for the learning process. When learners understand the vocabularies well, they are able to apply them in composing sentences or short messages to be used in communicating with others. Accordingly, vocabulary is the most vital basis for learning Thai Language [6]. Teaching HIS often involved games in curricular activities as a way to enhance learning by stimulating emotional participation, increasing the level of enjoyment and learning simultaneously. Meanwhile, these games are also used as tools for practicing Thai Language skills by adding ideas and opportunities for expressing viewpoints with discretion, for example [7].
standards, 17.74% or 93,880 students do not pass writing standards and 22.29% do not pass mathematics calculation standards. Vocabularies that are most troublesome to students are words that contain no final consonants, diphthongs and terms with silent marks on certain alphabets (karan) [9]. With the significance of Thai Language and the aforementioned issues, the group of researchers recognizes that language is vital for communications in the daily lives. Improper uses of the language can result in various consequential problems expanding from personal to international and worldwide levels. Therefore, studies on language development are highly crucial to be established from childhood, the most important fundamental stage for humans [10]. Accordingly, this research is aimed at comparing scores in Thai Language subject between HIS and normal students (NS) in order to assess learning achievements using results from Ordinary National Education Test (O-NET) conducted by the National Institute of Education Testing Service (Public Organization) or NIETS. The comparisons in this study are performed on three class levels, namely class level 2 (grade 6), class level 3 (grade 9) and class level 4 (grade 12). Class level 1 contains no comparison on learning achievements due to the lack of official testing. The comparison results on learning achievements obtained will be deployed for the development of educational standards to ensure the quality of HIS in the future since HIS are also a group of populations in the country that must be given the same precedence as regular citizens.
From the preliminary Thai Language learning process, it is discovered that a large number of students have low reading abilities and are illiterate. They have incorrect pronunciations and cannot extract contents or have no comprehension on contexts read. Since students cannot read properly, issues that followed are poor writing or learning performance [8]. From the Basic Education Quality Evaluation (Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education) to Ensure Student Qualities 2009 conducted on 502,469 students in grade 3 from schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission in regards to reading, writing and mathematics calculation, it was found that 7.22% or 37,813 students do not pass the reading
2) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES This research is conducted to compare learning achievements of students in three different class levels between HIS and NS 190
in the Thai Language Study Group of Thungmahamek School of the Deaf.
were taken from 18 students from class level 2 and 17 students from class level 3.
3) RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
4) EXPECTED BENEFITS
This research takes O-NET scores in the academic year of 2008 and 2009 from NIETS to find educational achievements of HI students in the Thai Language Study Group of Thungmahamek School of the Deaf.
This study allows for the discovery on learning achievements of Thai Language Study Group according to the essence and learning standards of HIS
3.1) Research population
Thungmahamek School of the Deaf arranged for its students to take O-NET in order to obtain raw scores of students in the class levels 2 to 4 for analysis.
5) DATA COLLECTONS
3.1.1. Students in three class levels of the Offices of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education are students in the class level 2, 3 and 4.
6) DATA ANALYSIS
3.1.2. Students in three class levels of Thungmahamek School of the Deaf, under the Bureau of Special Education, the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education are students in the class level 2, 3 and 4.
The Researchers take raw and average scores from HIS and NS of all three class levels to compare using descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation (SD) and percentage values. 7) RESEARCH RESULTS
3.2) Research sample group
After collecting and analyzing data retrieved from NIETS and Thungmahamek School of the Deaf, averages and SD are calculated. It is found for 2008 that (Table 1) [11] the average scores of students in the three class levels are as followed: in the class level 2, NS have an average of 42.02 while HIS have an average of 22.44, in the class level 3, NS have an average of 41.04 while HIS have an average of 22.00 and in the class level 4, NS have an average of 46.42 while HIS have an average of 24.33.
3.2.1. Samples are students in class level 2 to 4 from the Offices of the Basic Education, Ministry of Education using average scores from NS nationwide. For the year 2008, scores were taken from 953,087 students from class level 2, 803,323 students from class level 3 and 343,859 students from class level 4. For the year 2009, scores were taken from 898,041 students from class level 2, 794,300 students from class level 3 and 350,889 students from class level 4.
Table 1: O-NET Scores of Thungmahamek School of the Deaf 2008
3.2.2. Samples are students in class level 2 to 4 from Thungmahamek School of the Deaf, under the Bureau of Special Education, the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education. For the year 2008, scores were taken from 15 students from class level 2, 17 students from class level 3 and 15 students from class level 4. For the year 2009, scores
Students
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
in Class
HIS
NS
HIS
NS
HIS
NS
SD
5.64
12.90
6.00
11.03
4.53
14.00
Mean.
22.44
42.02
22.00
41.04
24.33
46.42
Note: Displays average scores from HIS and NS for the academic year 2008.
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Furthermore, it is found for 2009 that (Table 2) [11] the average scores of students in the three class levels are as followed: in the class level 2, NS have an average of 38.58 while HIS have an average of 15.42 and in the class level 3, NS have an average of 35.35 while HIS have an average of 17.59. There is no score for the class level 4 since HIS do not take the examination.
HIS have an average of 24.33. For the academic year 2009, in the class level 2, NS have an average of 38.38 while HIS have an average of 15.42, and in the class level 3, NS have an average of 35.35 while HIS have an average of 17.59. When compared to find differences in score levels, it is found that students in class level 2, 3 and 4 have differences in average scores at 42.48%, 38.92% and 45.30%, respectively. Therefore, the HIS have a huge serious problem about learning, This finding is opposite from the most Thai people think about the reading ability of the HIS that they can read Thai easily, which is incorrect.
Table 2: O-NET Scores of Thungmahamek School of the Deaf 2009 Students in
Level 2
Level 3
Class
HIS
NS
HIS
NS
SD
5.32
10.24
3.93
11.49
Mean.
15.42
38.58
17.59
35.35
9) DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Note: Displays average scores from HIS and NS for the academic year 2009.
9.1) Different Levels of Average Scores Between HIS and NS
When comparing the average scores for the Thai Language Study Group found in Table 1 and 2, it is discovered that HIS have lower scores than NS in the class level 2, 3 and 4 at differences of 42.38%, 38.92% and 45.30%, respectively. The results are shown in Table 3.
From the difference in scores in Table 3, the average difference is found to be at 42.20%. Typically, hearing impaired people learn slower than normal people during childhood. As they grow older, learning development will increase according to the surrounding and will develop better if parents or close contacts care and place importance on enhancing language skills to those individuals. Later on, hearing impaired individuals can develop further language skills [12-13]. However, nowadays parents and close contacts to students with hearing impairment lack interest in improving their language skills. Consequently, HIS have much lower scores than the standards. Thus, schools will divide students into two groups prior to beginning the curriculums in order to build strong learning foundations. Students are segmented into a group of students that still have some hearing ability or have slight hearing impairment for the school to teach and explain with additional pictures. Nonetheless, for students who cannot hear at all nor have severe hearing impairment, the school must teach sign language and lip
Table 3: Differences in the Average Scores in the Thai language Study Group Year 2008 - 2009 Students in Class Level 2
42.38%
Students in Class Level 3
38.92%
Students in Class Level 4
45.30%
Note: Displays differences in the average scores between HIS and NS in the Thai Language study group.
8) CONCLUSIONS From analyzing O-NET test scores of HIS and NS, it can be concluded, for the academic year 2008, that in the class level 2, NS have an average of 42.02 while HIS have an average of 22.44, in the class level 3, NS have an average of 41.04 while HIS have an average of 22.00 and in the class level 4, NS have an average of 46.42 while 192
in spelling of difficult words for the hearing impaired children. Thesis M.Ed. (Technology in Education). Bangkok. Srinakharinwirot University. [3] Padoong Arrayavinyoo. (1986). How to teach speaking. Teaching materials of special education Department of adults and special education Faculty of education Srinakharinwirot university. [4] Nancy L. Robbins. (1983). The effects of Signed Text on the Reading Comprehension of Hearing. Impaired Children American Annals of the Deaf. [5] Piaget, J. and Inhelder. (1970). The Psychology of the Child. Translated by Helen Weaver. New York : Basic Book. [6] Sriya Niyomthum and Prapatsorn Niyomthum. (1976). Language development. Second edition. Bangkok : Banakit. [7] Sirirat Petchporee. (2005). A study on sign language vocabulary memory of hearing impaired children in prathomsuksa 1 by minor game. The master of education degree in special education (M.Ed.) (Special Education). Bangkok. Srinakharinwirot University. [8] Jeeriang Boonsom. (2000). Effects of peer tutoring with reinforcement on attitude, abilities of reading aloud and reading comprehension of prathomsuksa four students with low reading abilities. Thesis. M.Ed. (Educational Psychology). Bangkok. Chulalongkorn University. [9] National Institute of Educational Testing Services, Office of the basic education commission Ministry of education. (2009). The evaluation education of basic education for quality assurance 2009. [10] Supawadee Sriwanthana. (n.d.).
reading additionally so that the students can live in the society more smoothly. 9.2) Learning Media to Help Increase Student Potentials Presently, the number of hearing impaired individual increases. Education is one factor that helps hearing impaired individuals to sustain lives into the future on their own. Moreover, education assists them in gaining knowledge and competence so that they can work as equally well as normal individuals [14]. Nevertheless, when the researchers compare O-NET scores in Thai Language subject, HIS score lower than NS at an average of 42.20%. Consequently, skill development process must be conducted to enhance student potentials. Information communication technology (ICT) can possibly be involved to boost skills for students [15] by considering utility abilities, needs, expectations on ICT and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; communication skills. These considerations will result in development and design of proper tools for individuals with hearing impairments, producing maximum benefits for students henceforth [16]. Currently, the government sector continuously offers financial funding and teaching tools. Parents of HIS should also cooperate with schools by knowing, understanding and being able to use sign language. Parents can use sign language as a tool to communicate with their children in order to explain and answer their questions and to be a complimentary assistance in language development. REFERENCES [1] Academic, Department of the Ministry of Education. (1992). Guide for teachers association with the basic of Thai textbooks in student grade 1st books 2. Bangkok : Suksapanpanit. [2] Sumana Hong tong. (1997). The development of instructional package 193
Enhancement of language development of young children. (n.p.). [11] NIETS, National Institute of Education Test (Public Organization). (2010). National Institute of Education Test (Public Organization). Retrieved July 1, 2010, From http://www.niets.or.th/ [12] Steven Gillis, Kristin Daemers et al. Karen Schauwers. (2006). Normal Hearing and Language Development in a Deaf-Born Child. Otology & Neurotology. , P.924-929. Retrieved July 1, 2010, From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/15547421 [13] Haripriya, G., and Shyamala, K. C. Ravikumar. (2010). Maternal Interaction and Verbal Input in Normal and Hearing Impaired Children. Language In India Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow. , P.27-36. Retrieved July 1, 2010, From www.languageinindia.com /july2010/maternalhearing.pdf [14] National office for empowerment of persons with disability. (NEP). National economic and social advisory council. (2008 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2009). Report of disability in 2008 - 2009. Retrieved November 8, 2009. From http://thaisocialwork.org /index.php [15] Mateja Verlic, Petra Povalej and Matjaz Debevc. Maja Snajder. (2007). Pedagogical evaluation of elearning courses-adapted pedagogical index. Conference ICL2007, (P. 4). Villach : Austria. Retrieved September 1, 2010, From halshs.archivesouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/72/26/PDF/ 42_Final_Paper.pdf [16] Alberta Eduction. Special programs. (2007). Essential components of educational programming for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Retrieved July 21, 2010, From www.education.gov.ab.ca /k_12/specialneeds 194
Development of Success Indicators of e-Learning System for Higher Education Institutions in Thailand 1,2
K. Chantanarungpak1 and J. Na Songkla, Ph.D. 2, Department of Educational Technology, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University (kanokphonc@gmail.com)
ABSTRACT Keywords e-Learning indicators, successful eLearning, e-Learning for higher education, e-Learning
e-Learning becomes playing more role in learning environment. Some e-Learning course didn’t success, in the other ways some are success. In Thailand, there are no success indicators for e-learning, so the main objective this research is to develop successful indicators for e-learning system for higher education institutions in Thailand which developed from 5 imply success factors -- success factors, ranking online education, best practices in elearning, quality assurance for e-learning and accredited on e-learning. There are 3 sections of the method on development of success indicators of e-Learning system for higher education institutions in Thailand. The first section is synthesis success indicators of e-learning system by reviewing and interviewing. The second section is study e-Learning circumstance in higher education in Thailand by using survey method. And the third section is development, validation and proposes success indicators of e-Learning system for higher education institutions in Thailand. After the first section the researcher found that there are 19 indicators including institution’s mission, admission, teacher’s support system, learner’s support system, financial, infrastructure, management system, curriculum, interaction, LMS, instructional design, media system, development and production media, quality of media, learning resources and assessment.
1) INTRODUCTION Nowadays, e-Learning becomes more popular. Moreover, studying in the classroom with traditional learning style, eLearning represents the new way of learning by studying anywhere, anytime. From the past, there are many universities success in e-Learning; meanwhile many universities do not success in e-learning. For the successful e-Learning, it’s imply success by using success factors, ranking online education, best practices in e-learning, quality assurance for e-learning and accredited on elearning. By the way for e-learning in Thailand, there are no success indicators for e-learning yet. Then researcher’s interesting in development of success indicators of eLearning system for higher education institutions in Thailand. 2) FRAMEWORK For the Development of Success Indicators of e-Learning System for Higher Education Institutions in Thailand
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การพัฒนาตัวบงชี้ (นงลักษณ วิรัชชัย, 2545) ตัวบงชี้ หมายถึง สารสนเทศที่บง บอกถึงปริมาณ เชิงสัมพันธ ซึ่งจะบงบอกถึงสิ่งทีต่ องการมุงวัด ในชวงเวลา ใดเวลาหนึ่ง วามีผลดําเนินการตรงเปาหมายหรือไม เพื่อ ใชบงบอกสภาพ สะทอนลักษณะการดําเนินงาน ผลการ ดําเนินงาน ตลอดจนใชกําหนดนโยบาย การพัฒนาตัวบงชี้ มี 6 ขั้นตอน ดังนี้ กําหนด วัตถุประสงค นิยามตัวบงชี้ รวบรวมขอมูล สรางตัวบงชี้ ตรวจสอบคุณภาพตัวบงชี้ และนําเสนอรายงาน
ตัวบงชีก้ ารเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกสที่ ประสบความสําเร็จ ระดับอุดมศึกษา ใน ประเทศไทย - สถาบันและการจัดการ มีตัวบงชี้คือ ปรัชญา ปณิธาน และ พันธกิจของสถาบัน การรับเขาศึกษา ระบบสนับสนุนผูสอน ระบบสนับสนุนและบริการผูเรียน การเงิน และการชวยเหลือ ทางการเงิน มีโครงสรางพื้นฐาน (ทรัพยากรทางกายภาพ) อยางเพียงพอ และการจัดการและการออกแบบระบบ - การออกแบบการเรียนการสอน มีตัวบงชี้คือ หลักสูตร สอดคลองกับเปาหมายของสถาบัน มีปฏิสัมพันธในการ เรียน ทัง้ ระหวางผูเรียน-ผูเรียน และผูเรียน-ผูสอน ระบบการ ดูแลและการใหขอมูลปอนกลับ และมีการใชกลยุทธในการ สอน - สื่อและเทคโนโลยี มีตัวบงชี้คือ โครงสรางและการจัดระบบ ของสื่อการเรียนการสอน การพัฒนาและผลิตสื่อการเรียน การสอน และคุณภาพของสือ่ ในการเรียนการสอน - ปจจัยสนับสนุน มีตัวบงชี้คือ มีหองสมุดและทรัพยากรการ เรียนรูตา งๆ รวมถึงสิ่งอํานวยความสะดวก - การประเมินผล มีตัวบงชี้คือ จํานวนบัณฑิต การ ประเมินผลผูเรียน และการประเมินผลหลักสูตร
การเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส (Khan, 2005; Michael Moore, 2005; Sloan Consortium, 2005) การเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส เปนการนําประโยชนจาก คุณลักษณะและทรัพยากรบนเครือขายอินเทอรเน็ต มาใชในการ จัดการเรียนการสอน และมีความสะดวกในเรื่องของเวลา สถานที่ และบุคลากรอีกดวย ในงานวิจัยนี้ศึกษาการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกสใน 2 ระดับ ไดแก การเรียนการสอนแบบผสมผสาน และการเรียนการสอน ออนไลนเต็มรูปแบบ ในการพัฒนาการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกสจะตอง พิจารณาองคประกอบดานเนื้อหาระบบบริหารจัดการรายวิชา การ ติดตอสื่อสาร และแบบทดสอบ ภายใต 8 ขอบขาย ดังนี้ สถาบัน การ จัดการ เทคโนโลยี การสอน จริยธรรม การออกแบบหนาจอ ทรัพยากรสนับสนุน และการประเมินผล
การเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกสที่ประสบ ความสําเร็จ - ปจจัยความสําเร็จ - การจัดอันดับการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส - การปฏิบัติที่เปนเลิศในการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส - การประกันคุณภาพการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส - การรับรองวิทยฐานะการเรียนการสอนอิเล็กทรอนิกส 196
explore factors analysis and confirm factors analysis. Then, validation and propose the indicators. 3) METHODOLOGY There are 3 sections of the method on development of success indicators of eLearning system for higher education institutions in Thailand The first section is synthesis success indicators of e-learning system by reviewing and interviewing. The second section is study e-Learning circumstance in higher education in Thailand by using survey method. And the third section is development, validation and proposes success indicators of e-Learning system for higher education institutions in Thailand. In this paper, there is about the first part of the research so the methodology is only synthesis success indicators of eLearning system by reviewing as a document research and interviewing 5 experts in Thailand e-Learning.
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The research instruments in the first part of this research are the synthesis form and the semi-construct interviewing form. 4) RESULT AND CONCLUSION After the first section the researcher found that there are 5 parts – Institutions, Instructional design, media and technology, support and evaluation which are 19 indicators including institution’s mission, admission, teacher’s support system, learner’s support system, financial, infrastructure, management system, curriculum, interaction, LMS, instructional design, media system, development and production media, quality of media, learning resources and assessment. The result of the first part is going to be used in the next part which is about 197
Doherty, A. (1998) The Internet: Destined to Become a Passive Surfing Technology?. Educational Technology, 38 (5) (Sept-Oct): 6163. Driscoll, M. (1997) Defining Internet-Based and Web-Based Training. Performance Improvement. 36(April) Duchastel, P.C. (1997) A web-based model for university instruction. Journal of educational technology systems, 25(3) Ellis, R. (1997). Effective use of the web for education design in principles and pedagogy. [On-Line]. Available: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~rells/ workshops/design Hall, B. (1997). FAQ for web-based training. Multimedia and Training Newsletter. [On-Line]. Available: http://www.brandonhall.com/faq.html Hannum, W. (1998). Web based instruction lessons. [On-Line]. Available: http://www.soe.unc.edu/edci111/898/index_wbi2.htm Hazen, Catalano, Jemiola, Silverman, Silverman, Steinfeldt and Lannacone. (2002) Standards for online learning. New York Institute of Technology Hiles, J. M., and Ewing, K. (1997). Designing and implementing instruction on the World Wide Web. [On-Line]. Available: http://lrs.stcloud.msus.edu/ispi/proce eding.html Johnstone, J.N. (1981) Indicators of Education Systems. London : UNESCO Jones. M.G., and Okey, J.R. (1995). Interface design for computer-based learning environments. [On-Line]. Available:
http://www.hbg.psu.edu/bsed/intro/d ocs/idguide Ken W. White, Jason D. Baker. (2004) The student guide to successful online learning : a handbook of tips, strategies, and techniques. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon Khan, B.H, (Ed.). (1997) Web- based instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technologies Publications Kim E. Dooley, James R. Lindner, and Larry M. Dooley. (2005) Advanced methods in distance education : applications and practices for educators, administrators, and learners. Hershey, PA : Information Science. Kum Leng Chin and Patrice Ng Kon. (2003) Key Factors for a Fully Online Elearning Mode: A Delphi Study. Australia: ASCILITE Available from: [online] www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/ade laide03/docs/pdf/589.pdf Marion Wands and Andrew Le Blanc. ( 2001) Critical Success Factors: eLearning Solutions. Available from: [online] http://internettime.com/itimegroup/cr it_capp.htm McDaneil, O.C. (1996) The Theoretical and Practical Use of Performance Indicators. Higher Education Management. New York : Agathom, McManus, T.F. (1996). Delivering instruction on the World Wide Web. [On-Line]. Available: http://ccwf.utexas.edu/~mcmanus/wb i.html Michael G. Moore, Greg Kearsley. (2005) Distance education : a systems view. Belmont, Calif. : Thomson/Wadsworth Michael Grahame Moore, William G. Anderson. (2003) Handbook of 198
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distance education. Mahwah, J.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Michael W. Allen. (2006) Creating successful e-learning : a rapid system for getting it right the first time, every time. San Francisco : Pfeiffer. Militiadou, M. (1999) Motivational constructs as predictors of success in the online classroom. Available from: [online] http://www.seamonkey/ed.asu.edu/~, mcisaac/emc703/mariosf.html. New York Institute of Technology. (2002) Draft standard for online learning. Stan Silverman, New York Institute of Technology. Nielsen, J. (1996). Top ten web design mistakes, [On-Line]. Available: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605. html Oliver, R., & Omari, A. (1999) Using online technologies to support problem based learning L Learners responses and perceptions. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 15. Otto Peters. (2001) Learning and teaching in distance education : pedagogical analyses and interpretations in an international perspective. London : Kogan Page. Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (1999) Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace. San Francisco: JoseyBass Publishers, Parson, R. (1997). An investigation into instruction available on the World Wide Web. [On-Line] Available: http://www.osie.on.ca/~rparson/out1 d.htm Relan, A., and Gillani, B.B. (1997) WebBased Information and the Traditional Classroom: Similarities and Differences. In Badrul H. Khan (Ed.), Web-based instruction (pp. 4345). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Educational Technologies Publications. Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt. (2001) Lessons from the cyberspace classroom: the realities of online teaching. San Francisco : Jossey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Bass. Samantha Chapnick. (2000) Are You Ready for E-learning?. Available from: [online] http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000 /nov2000/Chapnick.htm Santosh Panda. (2003) Planning & management in distance education. London : Kogan Page. Sloan Consortium, The. (2005) Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the United States 2005. USA. Thomas M. Duffy, Jamie R. (2004) Kirkley. Learner-centered theory and practice in distance education : cases from higher education. Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. William J. Rothwell, H.C.Hazanas. (1992) Mastering the instructional design process : a systematic approach. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. Willis, B. (1993) Distance Education: A practical guide. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Wim Jochems, Jeroen van Merrienboer and Rob Koper. (2004) Integrated Elearning : implications for pedagogy, technology and organization. London : RoutledgeFalmer. Yair Levy. (2006) Assessing the value of elearning systems. Hershey, PA. : Information Science Pub.
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The Development of Web-Based Instruction for Students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University C. Yomdit1 and P. Nilsook2 1 Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University, Ratchaburi, Thailand (dryomdit@hotmail.com) 2 King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand (prachyanunn@)kmutnb.ac.th) that students were satisfied with every aspect of web-based instruction.
ABSTRACT This research aimed to develop webbased instruction for undergraduate students at the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University. To conduct this research, 30 first year students majoring in Muay Thai were selected sample and were randomized by simple random sampling. The statistics implemented were mean (X), standard deviation (SD) and standard criteria of 80/80. Research Findings ; Regarding the development of web-based instruction for Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine students in 4 subjects i.e. Thai wisdom of selfdefense, science and art in Thai selfdefense, sport science of Muay Thai and computer skills for postgraduate students, experts evaluated that the websites’ quality had a total average of 77.34 which was considered to be of good level. The effectiveness of webbased instruction met the criteria of 80/80. This score was measured by both formative and summative tests. To analyze the figure in details, the effectiveness of web-based instruction in Thai wisdom of self-defense was at 89.17/ 85.21 per cent, that of science and art in Thai self-defense was at 88.95/ 87.78 per cent, that of sport science of Muay Thai was at 85.33/ 80.67 per cent and that of computer skills for postgraduate student was at 83.14/ 85.71 percent. Overall, students found web-based instruction satisfactory. Regarding each aspect, it was reported
Keywords Web-based , Web-based instruction, Muay Thai, Thai Traditional Medicine. 1) INTRODUCTION Since 2005, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University has operated the College of Muay Thai offering a graduate level major in Muay Thai and Thai wisdom. Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University began to operate Muay Thai as a graduate diploma program, as well as at master’s degree level, to satisfy the need of those who value Muay Thai. After its success, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University continued to carry out doctorate degree in Muay Thai so that learners and those interested in this martial art would be assured of the progress of Muay Thai, and that Muay Thai teachers are produced to teach in universities. This program aims to satisfy the need of the learners, to meet the criteria of active socio-cultural development, to support Thai society, to increase competitive ability, and to be in accordance with the development plan mentioned in the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan. Competitive strategies for Muay Thai will be underlined while developing its curriculum. To ameliorate the curriculum, postgraduate students are expected to enroll in the graduate school, and webbased instruction will also be emphasized. Both undergraduate and postgraduate programs are provided. The college was 201
Web-based instruction has played a vital role in educational systems. In the past, students and teachers had to be together in order to give or gain instruction in any particular subject; however, not everybody had an opportunity to attend schools. With the advent of web-based instruction, together with a learnercentered concept, anyone can learn anywhere at any time (Aggarwal and Bento, 2002). Mostly, the development of e-learning does not reach the level of allowing learners to communicate promptly. Learners could only read from the websites. This brought about a lack of conversation (Liberati, 2004). Another drawback to online-learning is that learners may still be confused, and may not have an accurate conceptualization. It is difficult to organize content which offers a challenge at an appropriate level. Instructors are to give advice and clarify the advantages of web-based instruction (Bonk Wisher and Lee, 2004). It is required that web-based instruction be designed systematically by experts in particular subjects. The media are required to cover the content of all subjects. Then, they will be considered effective media which are of high quality. The College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine has offered a bachelor, master and doctorate degree in Muay Thai and Thai wisdom since 2005. The co-operation of learningteaching network has also been developed in Nakorn Ratchasima, Sisaket, Prae, Bangkok and at Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University. There are a vast number of students going on to Muay Thai tournaments; thus, web-based instruction can facilitate learning for these students since they can learn anywhere at any time. At present, both Thais and foreigners are interested in this curriculum. So as to satisfy their need, researchers have conducted research and developed the web-based instruction of Master of Arts in Muay Thai so that this sort of Thai wisdom and culture becomes better-known
renamed the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine when Thai Traditional Medicine was taught as a major subject. Apart from its main duty, The College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine is in charge of offering academic service to communities in many provinces as well as collaborating with governmental or private organizations in conducting research on Muay Thai and other related fields. The service also includes organizing Keeta Muay Thai competition, Wai Kru and Muay Thai skills contests. Training is also provided for producing Muay Thai trainers, with an emphasis on teaching this martial to children as well. Undergraduate students majoring in Muay Thai, and those from other faculties interested in Thai boxing, are encouraged to demonstrate this kind of self-defense to the public and teach Muay Thai to foreigners. Yomdit (2008) pointed out clearly that there were no permanent lecturers working for College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine. It is, therefore, vital to produce qualified instructors by encouraging those who have master and doctorate degrees in this field to teach in the undergraduate program which is expected to open soon. The program mentioned aims to accept former professional boxers and grant them scholarship. At present, numerous exboxers are imprisoned and there are some working for casinos in Thailand and foreign countries. This undergraduate curriculum has been established to support former boxers and help them lead a more virtuous life i.e. by working legally. A large number of Muay Thai trainers are hired overseas. Thai boxing has now become internationally recognized owing to foreignersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interest in Thai martial arts; consequently, they are willing to take courses at the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine. The college has made plans for setting distance learning for masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in Thailand and overseas. 202
in Thailand and in the whole world.
6) CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
2) PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Independent variable - Web-based instruction for students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine.
To develop web-based instruction for students taking courses at the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University. To examine students’ learning outcome after giving web-based instruction. To examine students’ satisfaction of webbased instruction. To evaluate the quality and efficiency of web-based instruction.
Dependent variables - Learning outcome after giving webbased instruction - Learners’ satisfaction of web-based instruction - Web-based instruction’s efficiency.
The development of web-based instruction system - Learning management system through websites - Analysis - Design - Development - Application - Evaluation
3) SCOPE OF THE STUDY To meet the objectives of the study, 30 undergraduate students majoring in Muay Thai and those who are enrolled in Muay Thai web-based instruction program, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University are selected subjects in this research study.
Courses - Thai wisdom of self-defense - Science and art in Thai self-defense - Sport science of Muay Thai - Computer for postgraduate students
4) VARIABLES Independent variable: Web-based instruction for students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine. Dependent variables: 4.1) Learning outcome after giving webbased instruction. 4.2) Web-based instruction’s efficiency. 4.3) Learners’ satisfaction of web-based instruction.
7) RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS To carry out this study, researchers have developed tools for conducting and developing web-based instruction for students at the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine, Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University. The tools are listed below: Websites which are designed for webbased instruction for students at the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine are as follow: Thai Wisdom of Self-Defense http://www.muaythai-mcru.com/elearning1 Science and Art in Thai Self-Defense http://www.muaythai-mcru.com/elearning2 Sport Science of Muay Thai http://www.muaythai-mcru.com/elearning3
5) VARIABLES Independent variable: Web-based instruction for students at College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine. Dependent variables: 5.1) Learning outcome after giving webbased instruction 5.2) Web-based instruction’s efficiency 5.3) Learners’ satisfaction of web-based instruction
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80/80. This score was measured by both formative and summative tests. To analyze the figure in details, the effectiveness of web-based instruction in Thai wisdom of self-defense was at 89.17/ 85.21 percent, that of science and art in Thai self-defense was at 88.95/ 87.78 per cent, that of sport science of Muay Thai was at 85.33/ 80.67 per cent and that of computer skills for postgraduate student was at 83.14/ 85.71 percent. Overall, students found web-based instruction satisfactory. Regarding each aspect, it was reported that students were satisfied with every aspect of web-based instruction. The language used was the most satisfactory one, followed by content organization, font, color and tests respectively.
Computer skills for postgraduate students http://www.muaythai-mcru.com/elearning4 Expert evaluation form of online lessons, consisting of 25 items Tests on 4 subjects for evaluating learning outcome 7.1) Test of Thai Wisdom of Self-Defense (24 items) 7.2) Test of Science and Art in Thai SelfDefense (30 items) 7.3) Test of Sport Science of Muay Thai (20 items) 7.4) Test of Computer skills for postgraduate students (35 items) Evaluation form of students’ satisfaction of online lessons (32 items). 8) DESIGNING RESEARCH TOOLS Four websites designed for web-based instruction and three evaluation forms are implemented as research tools for this study. The processes of designing them are explained below: Moodle e-learning, a a free Open Source software package which has been widely used, was installed and used as the learning management system. The software used in installation processes are as follow: Moode version 1.92 which was the learning management system Data based system of MySQL version 5 Database management system of phpMyAdmin Linux operational system
10) DISCUSSION The development of web-based instruction aimed to provide students with online instruction in the field of Muay Thai. There are 4 courses offered: Thai Wisdom of Self-Defense, Science and Art in Thai Self-Defense, Sport Science of Muay Thai and Computer skills for postgraduate students. Experts evaluated that the websites’ quality had a total average of 77.34 which was considered to be of good level. The criteria used in evaluation process were similar to that implemented in the research conducted by Chanittha Chongpipatwanit, Theerapong Iamyang and Thotsaporn Duangsawat (2008). The evaluation form of electric instructional media developed by Surachet Wechapitak et al (2003), the Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development was used to assess the website’s quality. The assessment focused on 4 aspects: content, instructional design, web design and special techniques. According to the experts who were in charge of website evaluation, all four websites developed for the field of Muay Thai are at a good level. Thanks to Moodle program,
9) RESEARCH FINDINGS Regarding the development of web-based instruction for Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine students in 4 subjects i.e. Thai wisdom of self-defense, science and art in Thai self-defense, sport science of Muay Thai and computer skills for postgraduate students, experts evaluated that the websites’ quality had a total average of 77.34 which was considered to be of good level. The effectiveness of web-based instruction met the criteria of 204
Thai traditional medicine to foreigners interested in these two subjects mentioned. The implementation of the research findings may be used as the pilot scheme for other faculties or sections to design web-based instruction. This kind of distance learning could lead to efficient and effective learning management which would be beneficial to students. Muban Chom Bueng Rajabhat University may develop web-based instruction for part-time students attending courses at other academic centers. This web-based instruction could play the role of main instruction media or additional one in order that students at other academic centers have other effective learning sources. Moreover, there will be various pedagogical approaches which are advantageous to students.
this web-based instruction works systematically. To develop Web-based instruction, Moodle, the online electronic instructional program, was implemented. Moodle provided effective pedagogical management and a member management system, a content management system, an activity organizing system, and other related systems were ameliorated and facilitated. Referring to Sopapan Sa-ad et al (2008), the effectiveness of web-based instruction of the College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine met the criteria of 80/80. The data was collected from formative and summative tests. Also, the research conducted by Tawatchai Mooksri (2005) reiterated the effectiveness of the Rajabhat Institutes curriculum (Thawatchai Muksri, 2005) which included standardized computer assisted instruction through internet applied to teach computer science undergraduate students. Overall, students were satisfied with web-based instruction since it was brandnew. The use of technology to manage distance learning for Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine students was beneficial. Web-based instruction was created owing to the fact that Muay Thai students working as professional boxers were in training programs, went on the tournaments and missed many classes. Thanks to its availability everywhere and at anytime, students have been able to learn efficiently. Web-based instruction was considered an innovation which meets the need of the learners and helps modernize teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pedagogical approaches.
12) RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH It is suggested the research and development of web-based instruction for Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine students examine websitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conditions and focus on problems occurring while getting access to the websites. This would be useful and bring about efficient pedagogical management. Furthermore, Muay Thai practice is recommended to be integrated in webbased instruction for Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine students so that students gain more experience. Muay Thai demonstration or simulation should be included in the web-based instruction in order that students have more experience and skills before practicing on their own.
11) POLICY SUGGESTIONS The College of Muay Thai and Thai Traditional Medicine will take research findings into account and continue to develop web-based instruction. This was the first step to distance learning which would promote the art of Muay Thai and
REFERENCES Aggarwal, A.K. and Bento, R. (2002) Web-Based Education. in Webbased instructional learning edited by Mehdi Khosrow-Pour.
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Rajabhat Institute. Master Thesis in Computer Technology, Faculty of Technical Education. King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology North Bangkok.
London : Information Resources Management Association. Bonk, C.J. , Wisher, R. A., and Lee, J.Y. (2004) “Moderating LearnerCentered E-Learning : Problems and Solutions, Benefits and Implications” in Online Collaborative Learning : Theory and Practice edited by Tim S. Roberts. London : Information Science Publishing Chanchai Yomdit. (2008). The First Ph.D Programe in Muay Thai at Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University. Mathichon News. Febuary , 22 ; 2008. Chanittha Jongpipatwanit, Therapong Eiamyang and Thodsaporn Doungsawad. (2008). Instuctional Development in Vocational Education on Web-based Learning Environment. Bangkok : The Office of Vocational Education Commission. Liberati, D. (2004) “Building Successful Online Relationships” Getting the Most from Online Learning (George M. Piskurich Editor) San Francisco : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pituk Ahadkumwong. (2007). Doctoral Curriculum in Muay Thai at Muban Chombueng. Khawsod News. October 4, 2007. Sopapan Saard and the others (2009). A Model for Developing Role Model Teacher on e-Learning to network learning in Nursing College, Ministry of Public Health. Nonthaburi : Nonthaburi Nursing Collage. Surachet Wechapituk and the others.(2004). How to developing Computerbased Instruction and Web-based Learning to the Quality. Bangkok : Department of Academic, Ministry of Education. Thawatchai Muksri. (2005). Development of Web-based Learning on Advanced Programming for undergraduate curriculum of 206
Development Research–Based Learning By Blogs in Graduate Students J. Wattakiecharoen Department of Graduate School, Christian University, Bangkok, Thailand (jeuajan13@yahoo.com) by the writer (Stephens, 2006). The growth in the popularity of blogs as educational tools increased. A blogs environment facilitates common access to class members’ assignment. It has been proposed that a classroom blogs activity prompt creation of self -supporting online student communities (Walker, 2005). In the context of mass higher education especially graduate students, where year after year fewer resources are allocated to support greater numbers, teaching staff may be attracted to the potent idea of a tool that can offer such advantages, especially if it is one that is readily available and easy to implement. However, enthusiastic claims for blogging in educational settings are founded on a research- based learning that is currently limited: little empirical work lies behind them.
ABSTRACT As the use of web logs (blogs) becomes increasingly popular, Blogs can be used in education as individual part of personal and professional commentary sharing. This study, conducted in a graduate student program (PhD program), introduces blogs as a tool to help students prepare for meaningful classroom discussion and learning. All the students who visit blogs can participate in the discussion surrounding each post, as well as read all the existing comments. This research consists of 3 steps. First, the instructor developed an instructional model on research-based methodology.Second,an instructional model with research-based learning was implemented via blogs. Third, a survey of the blogs participation, learner’s development and problems of blogs in teaching and learning development. The students were asked to complete discussion questions, and reflections on their topics of interest to which their classmates can respond. By using the same assignment and open ended questionnaire in three different courses, blogs were effective in enhancing class learning and discussion across the disciplines.
2) LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1) Research -based learning The research based learning approach (RBL) engages students in research related to course objectives. RBL uses interdisciplinary research, and collaborative student-faculty research teams as learning tools (Nikolova Eddins & William, 1997). RBL empowers students to become actively involved in their education. By promoting research experiences with course contents, students engage in collaborative learning experiences and apply knowledge from their readings, and class lecture (AgborBaiyee, 2009).
Keywords Blogs, Graduate student, Research –based Learning. 1) INTRODUCTION Blogs is information that is instantly published to the web, and contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided
RBL is the strategies for successfully linking teaching and research. The universities today especially those that are 207
helps to facilitate the process of teaching and learning, which is a way known to be helpful in fostering critical thinking (L. Tsui,2002).
research-intensive create and validate new knowledge as a skeleton of the course. Research is an important way to develop the quality of learning and teaching. The research results could be used and applied for learning development. RBL process can be applied in four ways (Sinlarat, 2005): 1) As a research consumer- teacher reads and applies the result of research to their teaching and learning activities. 2) Assign research reading to the students by selecting an appropriate theme responsive to learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; competencies. They develop learning skill and knowledge by studying, critiquing or synthesizing other research work. 3) Teachers apply a research process on a learning design ; problem identification, hypothesize, data collecting, data processing, and discussion on research finding; and 4) Students propose research by themselves with teachers facilitating in all the research process. The students can validate and verify the new knowledge on research.RBL needs computer network technologies and necessary equipment, experimental apparatus and relevant software. Curriculum resources need to be provided with the aim of stimulating teachers and students to promote the study of research issues, and guiding the students to independently investigate and deal with them. According to this requirement blogs will serve all kinds of objectives.
They can be utilized as virtual environments where all students can participate in a critical discourse on scientific topics (Brownstein & Klein,2006). Blogs development can empower students to become more analytical and critical; through actively responding to Internet materials (Oravec, 2002). Blogs may be used as constructivist tools for learning. Because the contents that students and teachers create is on the web, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s content becomes part of the wider body of knowledge that the Internet represents (Richardson, 2006). They could also expand the walls of the classroom. The teachers who are employing blogs could transform the curriculum and allow learning to continue long after the class ends (Alireza & Moghaddam (2006). Continuous learning after the class could lead students to the direction which best suits their interests, and from this point of view, blogs are democratic tools that support different learning styles.Blogs are becoming the means to help construct and ask for feedback, and therefore encourage students to write and reflect more and better (West, Wright, Gabbitas & Graham, 2006). In conclusion, blogs can serve teaching and learning on the following aspects: 1) encourage student-teacher contact. If dialogue is encouraged between students and teachers and among students (in and out of class), thus creating a community of learners, student motivation and engagement can increase. 2)encourage cooperation among students. Educational experiences of all students are enhanced when the diversity of their experiences are acknowledged, valued, and drawn on in learning and teaching approaches and activities. 3) encourage active learning. When students are encouraged to take
2.2) Blogs and Multiply programs A weblog (blog) is a public domain webbased journal published in reverse chronological order. In this research, blogs are created by Multiply Program. Most blogs contain not only the web journal called the post but also allow hyperlinks, pictures or videos to be embedded in the posts and has a feature for readers to send their comments directly to the author or reply via email (T. Kelleher, and B. M. Miller,2006). Blogs offer a two-way communication channel that connects teachers to students and vice versa. This 208
responsibility of their own learning, they are more likely to develop higher-order thinking skill such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. 4) give prompt feedback by students and teachers. Meaningful and timely feedback to students improves learning. 5) emphasize time on task. Learning can be enhanced and independent learning skills can be developed through appropriate use of information and communication technologies. 6) communicate high expectations. Clearly articulated expectations, goals, learning outcomes, and course requirements increase student motivation and improve learning. 7) respect diverse talents and ways of learning. Students learn in different ways and their learning can be better supported by the use of multiple teaching methods and modes of instruction (visual, auditory, and read/write).
3) METHODOLOGY 3.1) Design of the study A descriptive survey method was used. A purposive sample of 13 PhD students and PhD candidates was recruited. The study was conducted in the second semester of 2010. 3.2) Population The class of 13 students consisted of 4 PhD candidates, 9 doctoral students in all disciplines of management science. The students also represented a variety of major fields: 13 in the philosophy course; 8 in the qualitative research course; 8 in the psychology course. The whole group of students were 3 in nursing management; 1 in hospital management; 8 in public and private management and 1 in educational management.
2.3) Instructional Model Instructional Model called ADDIE was applied to the study. ADDIE comes from the first letter of Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. ADDIE is the generic model of a current instructional design. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design based on the system approach that consists of input, process, output and feedback. ADDIE (Branson,Rayner,Cox,Furman,King,Hann um,1975;Watson,1981) consists of 5 steps as follows:1) Analyze: define the needs and requirement in a PhD program, 2) Design: specify learning activities-discussion, comment and feedback on research papers and assignments by blogs, 3) Develop: begin production, formative evaluation, and revise. Introduce a blogs approach and the way to post comment and feedback on research paper and assignments. 4) Implement: put the blogs into a teaching and learning process; and5) Evaluate : evaluate the implementation from all PhDcourses.
3.3) Implementation Blogs implementation was conducted for the first time at Christian University for the PhD students. Introduction to philosophy course, psychology course and qualitative research course which were held every week for 16 weeks in a lecture hall, 3 hours per session in philosophy and psychology courses, and 2 hours per session for qualitative research course. The course fulfills 3 credits requirement for philosophy course and psychology course, and 2 credits requirement for qualitative research course. The study took place in the second semester, and the students had no experience taking the subject from other courses. The course consisted of lectures by core faculty and guests lecturers. Blogs sites were created with the Multiply.com free software available through Google.com. Each blogs were set up to be accessed only by invited participants. Students could view and participate only on their individual blogs sites. Before the course, the PhD student 209
on the blogs, with 7% reporting 1 hour or less per week on the blogs, 31% greater than 1 hour but less than 2 hours, and 61% more than 2 hours. Most students (62%) used blogs for the first time. Most of the students attending the class (80%) said that they could apply blogs for accessing the contents anytime, anywhere with repetition. Most of the students (74%) continued to have access to the online contents and resources on what they had learned. All of the students (100%) can retrieve research papers that were assigned in each course. Most of the students (84%) can share and allow their feedback on the teaching and learning process of their lecturers in the blogs. Blogs allowed them to explore their learning styles (34%). Most of the students (80%) found it easier to write a post or a comment than to discuss it in the class. Based on the midterm surveys, we also asked students to comment on what they liked best about participating in the blogs, and their answers included: free time of participation, hearing different ideas, exchanging points of view with other students, allowing other students to see and comment on their postings and opinions, and providing a way to participate in discussing in class. They could post their own schedule. They feel more comfortable to participate, share, and learn from one another. They found the learning community built on sharing what they know with others. One answer that was very important was, blogs let him fail without fear of embarrassment. This encourages exploration and testing of ideas. With the right feedback he created a great learning environment. Regarding a case of failure, one could always start over and over which was something that one couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do in class.
participated in 2-hour training session that included skill-building exercises for posting and participate in discussion/comment/feedback and handson practice with blogs on Multiply.com. Students received e-mail invitations to the blogs from their instructions on how to join and participate in the program. Students posted their assignments on blogs. They read and comment on the new postings that appeared on their blogs. Students posted their assignment and discussed them online 1 to 2 days before they were discussed in the classroom, until their interest last. Students posted their individual assignments and their comments of research paper on blogs. During the last week of midterm, students were asked to complete anonymously an online survey asking about their blogs and perceived impact on learning of the course that facilitated interactions with classmates. Due to the short duration of the activities that lasted half the semester, even though the class had not finished yet, the data had to be collected during the midterm . Feedback on blogs was also obtained informally from student and contributed to ongoing adjustments in blogs. 4) DATA RESULTS
COLLECTION
AND
Data collection instruments were a demographic data questionnaire and open end questionnaire about blogs. The midterm survey questionnaire consists of 5 topics as follow: 1) How often did you use the blogs and what is your purpose?; 2) How much did blogs participation support the learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development?; 3) Did the blogs provide more opportunity to learn from classmates?; 4) How do you compare participation on blogs for learning in this class?; and 5) What was the problem of using the blogs? Data collection was the student responses via blogs. After clarifying the expectations from the midterm survey, students spent more time
The blogs acted as vehicles for discussion of case analyses and peer feedback, and encouraged explorations of other related topics of interest. The majority of students (58%) reported that participating in the blogs enriched their learning of both in the courses and provided more opportunities to 210
a fast convenient and powerful learning tool across three courses for PhD students by using research-based learning. The survey results showed that blogs could facilitate teaching and learning processes.
interact with their classmates Most of the students (74%) said that they could apply the experience of using the discussion on blogs in their current and future courses. The blogs provided more opportunity to learn from classmates. The students (36%) can share resources; research papers, pictures, diagrams, DVD, etc and gained from other students. This offers opportunities to learn from peers. Online discussions among class members encouraged peer support, peer interaction and peer learning and the consequences were in terms of active learning. Some students (26%) said that the teachers who were employing blogs could allow learning to continue long after the class ended. And they thought that blogs are the tools that support different learning styles. Blogs helped them share ideas more effectively and manage their time more efficiently than traditional classroom environment. Some students (38%) were not familiar with using blogs. They felt tense, or lacked of trust that discouraged their participation, as well as decreased sharing and learning from one another. They had no learning development. Some students (7%) didn’t enjoy reading and writing. They found blogs being quite a burden and being “forced” to make comments.
6) LIMITATION A limitation of the study was a short time frame (8 weeks) for the particular course. At the end of the course which may have long period to fully assess the capacity of developing teaching and learning processes. REFERENCES Agbor-Baiyee, W. (2009). Orienting Students Using a Case-based Instructional Approach: A Case Study. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 36,20-28. Alireza & Moghaddam( 2007). Blogs: A Genre of Virtual Platforms for Collaborative Discourse in Education Faculty of Education University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada). Branson,Rayner,Cox,Furman,King,Hannu m,1975;Watson,1981) Branson, R. K., Rayner, G. T., Cox, J. L., Furman, J. P., King, F. J., Hannum, W. H. (1975). Interservice procedures for instructional systems development. (5vols.) (TRADOC Pam 350-30 NAVEDTRA 106A). Ft. Monroe, VA: U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, August 1975. (NTIS No. ADA 019 486 through ADA 019 490). Brownstein,E.& Klein,R. (2006).Blogs: Applications in Science Education. Journal of College Science Teaching; 35(6); ProQuest Education Journals,18–22. Education Policy 2005, 18. (265269).education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(7), 616-621.
5) CONCLUSION Blogs would be a great way to connect with students, as well as teachers. Integrating blogs into the educational community has potential and potency. Students would be able to ask questions or make comments on posts that the teachers make on various materials related to learning process. Blogs are successful in creating supportive learning environments. It could raise educational achievements and facilitate an effective discourse between teachers and students as well as among the whole class society. This study was descriptive research on using blogs as 211
Stephens, M. (2006). Blogs. Library Technology Reports. 42(4), 15-35. T. Kelleher, and B. M. Miller,(2006).Organizational blogs and the human voice: Relational strategies and relational outcomes.Journal of ComputerMediated Communication, 11, 395414.tools for classrooms. Tousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press. Walker, J. (2005).Weblogs: learning in public. On the horizon, 13(2), 112-118. West, R. E.,Wright,G., Gabbitas, B., & Graham, C. R. (2006). Reflections from the introduction of blogs and RSS feeds into a preservice instructional technology course. TechTrends
L. Tsui. (2002). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fostering critical thinking through effective pedagogy: Evidence from four institutional case studies.â&#x20AC;? The Journal of Higher Education, 73 (6), 740-763. Nikolova Eddins, S.G., & Williams, D.F.(1997). Research-based learning for undergraduates: A model for merger of research and undergraduate education. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 8(3), 77-94. Oravec, J. A. (2002). Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in p153-167.Persson M (ed) A Vision of European Learning and Teaching. Swan Nordic. Sinlarat, P. (2005). Changing the Culture of Education in Thai Universities in Higher ,50(4),54-60.
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A Development of Blended Learning Model Using Research-Based Learning to Encourage the Scientific Mind for Undergraduate Students N. Rodniam1, R. Kaewurai2 , W. Kaewurai3 1 Department of Education Technology and Communication, Naraesuan University, Thailand. (rnarumon@hotmail.com) 2 Department of Education Technology and Communication, Naraesuan University, Thailand. (rujroadk@nu.ac.th) 3 Department of Education, Faculty of Education, Naraesuan University, Pitsanulok, Thailand. (wareeratk@nu.ac.th) the blended learning model to other subjects as well. They agree that the development of nine components of scientific mind is necessary for developing their learning carrier. The majority of students use these blended research method helps them to have scientific mind to learn actively e-media design development subject.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to develop a blended learning model using research-based learning, which is to develop the scientific mind. The research procedure comprised two steps; first, creating and examining the quality of blended learning model. Second, testing and studying the effect of blended learning model. Forty undergraduate students at Naresuan University during the first semester of academic year 2010 were participated in the study. The results showed that; 1) The blended learning model using research-based learning to develop the scientific mind was mainly composed of face-to-face instruction and online learning via weblogs in social network. The blended learning processes consist of five steps: 1. preparation, 2. practical construction, 3. presentation, 4. learning logs and sharing 5. assessment and reflection. Each step will use the research method and metacognitive strategies to self-reflection about applied scientific mind. The experts agreed on quality of this model were in an excellent level. 2) The studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scientific mind after using this model was .01 significantly higher than before learning and got the effect size of 3.586, which was on the set target. The findings of this study support that the blended learning model can improve the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scientific mind effectiveness. From the research pointed out that students want to apply
Integrated blended learning model using research based learning to encourage scientific mind as a core would be the basis for the development of teaching and learning in various subjects in higher education which whom has interesting can apply this model for their benefit of their students. Keywords blended learning, blended model, researchbased learning, scientific mind. 1) INTRODUCTION Generally, it is accepted that both teaching and learning are an important key factor in countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; economic and social development. A truth is that Face-to-Face (F2F) teaching and learning between teachers and students have been doing since the ancient time till now a day and it will also be in the future. F2F has one drawback which is not only the limitation of number of students but it is also the exchanges of ideas are just in the class. It was evident that from the period A.D. 1960's (Bersin, J., 2004). And Online Learning History shown how leading to 213
computer assisted instruction. Allowing instructors to teach the students outside the classroom or distant from the teacher. Also, offering an opportunity for discussions to be broad. Multi-media such as TV, radio, video which power by computer’s software, computer hardware, digital technology, telecommunications such as network and satellite are widely used for teaching and learning which all blended methods is called the Blended Learning (BL) (Docs.moodle, 2008)
Goals. Scientific Mind 9 Components : 1) inquiring, 2) creativity, 3) collaboration, 4) rationality, 5) open-minded, 6) scrupulosity, 7) responsibility 8) persistence, 9) honesty.
Currently, learning in higher education and industry, etc. are modified by taking the advantage of BL model to gain the benefit of learning, it also to ensure a flexible learning, and it takes advantage on space and time. BL is one of the learning methods that meet the needs of individual students.
Figure 1: A concept framework of Blended Learning model using Research-Based Learning (RBL) to encourage undergraduates’ scientific mind (RBBL-SM) 4) METHODOLOGY
The results of this research can be seen that the BL and the scientific mind clearly enhance the students’ education, and better understand how this research can be balance the development of teaching and learning. .
The Research and Development (R&D) approach were used into two steps : 4.1) Creating a blended learning model and examining its quality.
2) THE PURPOSES OF RESEARCH.
In this step, researcher analyzed and synthesized the concepts, principles, theories, and research study concerning existing Blended Learning, Research-Based Learning, and the scientific mind, to set concept framework and construct for the BL model, which is to encourage the student’s scientific mind. Then, the BL model was reviewed and evaluated by 8 experts, whom were chosen by selected sampling. Gathering data by using questionnaire. Furthermore, it tried out by fifty of 3rd year students who enrolled in the Behavior Teaching Computer course during the second semester of the academic year 2009, the Faculty of Education, Naraesuan University. The researcher gathered data by self from observing, interviewing, tracking from the social network and learning logs, and summary of after-action review (AAR).
A specific purposes of this research were ; 2.1) to create a blended learning model using research-based learning to encourage undergraduates’ scientific mind and examine its quality. 2.2) to test the developed model and study the effects of using it. 2.2.1. to compare the score of the scientific mind before learning through the developed model and after learning. 2.2.2. to study students’ opinion towards the developed model. 3) CONCEPT FRAMEWORK Conceptual framework of this study is shown in figure 1.
214
After that, data was analyzed by mean ( X ) and standard deviation (S.D.) for analyze the quantitative, and content analysis was used for analyze the qualitative. Then the researcher take summary and comment for improving the BL model.
students’ scientific mind by using a scientific mind test, which was a fivepoint, Likert - type rating scale questionnaire, and it has reliability of 0.89, after that asked for their opinions. The quantitative data were analyzed by using dependent sample t-test, an efficiency index (E.I) and the effect size. For the qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis.
4.2) Testing the developed model and study the effects of using it. In this step, The sampling group was forty of 4th year students who enrolled in the e-media design development course during the first semester of the academic year 2010, the Faculty of Education, Naraesuan University. They were chosen by selected sampling. Research design is One Group Pretest – Posttest Design (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2003) for determined efficiency of model. Students studied through the developed model for 16th weeks, which online learning via multiply social network at http://patumariya.multiply.com/ and F2F learning. After finished, following
Significant of model : The essential of development learning of human in 21 century by Research-Based Learning , and the use of technology to support learning.
I: Orientation
5) RESULTS Based of the research, the results can be seen as follows: 5.1) A developed model was called that “RBBL-SM model”, which consisted of four parts:. Part I : Orientation to the model, Part II : The model of BL, Part III : Application, and Part IV : Learning outcomes. (Adjusted from teaching model of Joyce,Weil, and Calhoun (2004). As shown in figure 2 and table 1. IV: Learning outcomes
II : The Model of Blended Learning
1.Preparation
Concepts &Theory
• Constructivism Theory, • Research-Based Learning • The Learning Strategies for develop the Scientific mind •Blended Learning
Principles
1. Focus on problem and activities learning to encourage the Scientific Mind such as metacognitive strategy, active learning , collaborative learning, project learning etc. 2. Collaboration of teacher and learner by using 1) research process, 2) research tools , and research outcomes for development teaching and learning and Scientific mind. 3. Mix F2F Instruction and Online Learning environment.
RBBL Effects
4.Learning Logs & Sharing
Problem
Report
2.Practical Construction
Collaboration The SM 9 components: Gathering
Conclusion& Discussion
Analysis and Interpretation
Nurturing Effects The ability of learner in analysis thinking, system thinking, Communication Skills , ICT skills for learning.
3. Presentation
Objectives To encourage a scientific mind : 1) inquiring, 2) creativity, 3) collaboration, 4) rationality, 5) open-minded, 6) scrupulosity, 7) responsibility 8) persistence, 9) honesty.
5. Assessment &Refection
Hypothesis
A Scientific Mind was encouraged : 1) inquiring, 2) creativity, 3) collaboration, 4) rationality, 5) open-minded, 6) scrupulosity, 7) responsibility 8) persistence, 9) honesty.
III. Application • Teacher should create plan for BL course level consists of 4 phases : 1) Orientation for BRBL-SM : 1 weeks 2) Practical-Strategies (pre-project) : 6 weeks 3) Project Construction : 7 weeks 4) Evaluation and Report : 2 weeks • Learners should participate in orientation and all activities. • Institute / Faculty should supports the provision of integrated curriculum, service learning resources and promote fund for research.
Figure2. A Research-Based Blended Learning to encourage undergraduates’ scientific mind. (RBBL-SM model) 215
Table 1: Show Research-Based Blended Learning to encourage the scientific mind process. Steps 1) Preparation
Social System • Teacher’s role : motivator and facilitator
1. study and gathering dta, • Student’s role 2. analysis & : Self-goal, self-plan and interpretation actively participate. data 3. conclusion. 4. select problem 5. design activities /tasks
2) Practical Construction 1. open minded for problem 2. hypothesis/design 3. collaborative 4. test and gathering 5. analysis 6. conclusion 7. report 8. AAR 3) Presentation
4) Learning logs and sharing
5) Assessment and reflection
• Student’s role : Inquring and selfmonitor. • Teacher : mentoring and coaching.
Principles of Reaction (Teacher :T, Learner :L) • T:L : 1: N , N:M create a climate of trust and inquiring and curiosity • L:L : 1:1, 1: N, N: M. exchange idea , motivate and moral support
• L:L:1:1, 1: N, N : M. open mnd for inquiry knowledge of scientific mind community. • T:L :1:1, 1: N independence in the inquiry knowledge of scientific mind community.
• Student’s role • T:L: 1:1 , 1: N : presenter and self• L:L:1: N, N : M. reflection-evaluation discussion, • Teacher: moral criticism . support &feedback. • Student’s role • T:L : 1:1 , 1: N : writer and reader, support the create of scientific mind • Teacher: e-mentoring, community coaching, monitoring & feedback. • L:L : 1:1 , 1: N exchange idea. • authentic assessment • L:L: 1:1,1: N, N : both formative and M., motivate , summative encouraging , moral assessments support , discussion, criticism and • student’s role dialogue create of : self-assessment , scientific mind peer- assessment , community teacher- assessment , • Teacher: evaluator and model of the researcher and scientific mind (SM).
Method / Tool & Resource • Online Methods : - motivate : present activities / tasks / question on blogs - facilitate : present content / research outcomes on blog from YouTube Video , eResearch, e-Library, webboard - monitoring : Questionnaire online by poll, google form • F2F Methods : meeting, dialogue to review the problem in classroom : power point, TV, computer, video, books, mind map. • F2F : learner interaction together to create knowledge in each activity, laboratory work and field work . • tool : tool of research such as questionnaire, memorable, camera, mp4,computer etc • resources : computer room, laboratory , real places, library , communities. • F2F : Oral presentation : Resources : classroom, Exhibition room • Online : present on Blog • Online : record of learning outcomes on blog and sharing via social network
• F2F : use of an observation, interview, test, project. • Online : participate in activities and answered questions on the blog, interaction with friends, learning logs, e-portfolio • Tool : Survey knowledge before learning, an observed behavior forms, memorable, self-assessment report in the scientific mind.
Note. It could begin with online or f2f depend upon the appropriateness of the activity and readiness.
The experts agreed to the quality of the RBBL-SM model in excellent level. ( X =4.63, S.D.=0.55) 216
5.2) A results of implement a RBBL-SM:
5.2.4. Students’ opinion RBBL-SM processes :
5.2.1. The average scores of the students’ scientific mind after learning through the developed model were significantly higher than students’ scientific mind before learning on .01 level of significance. As shown in table 2. 5.2.2. The effect size of the students’ scientific mind score after learning through the developed model and before learning at 3.586*, which was on the set target. As shown in table 2. Table 2: The comparison of pretest and posttest of the scientific mind’s score. Score
N
X
SD
effect size
pretest 40 139.9 9.84 3.586* posttest 40 175.2 8.95 Note: * effect size > .50 , **p<.01
t
p
18.731
.000**
5.2.3. The effectiveness index (E.I.) of using the developed model was 0.58, which means that students have the scientific mind higher than 58 percent. And when considered in each components, it was found that the 9 components on the efficiency of index values higher than 0.5, indicating that the students developed the scientific mind and the increase of 9 components at the appropriate level as shown in Figure 3.
about
the
Undergraduate students had opinion about the RBBL-SM process that would appropriate in the high level and it would help them to greatly develop their scientific mind, especially in terms of selfreflection and self evaluation. It would help students to understand themselves, and making them aware of their strength, and weakness on their problem solver. It would help them to develop not only their knowledge in higher levels but also they could gain problem solving, analysis thinking, communication skills and information technology and communication (ICT) skills. Also, they are able to exchange their learning with their classmates as well. It also said that teachers and friends who both play an important role in developing their scientific mind, they receive encouragement and support from teachers and friends. All are the key for the mental development of their scientific mind. which was seen from the following cases. First case: Student 1: “Like this learning because it has discovered new knowledge more than goal such as getting new techniques for searching and how to solving problems from friends and mentors.”
E.I. 0.800 0.700 0.600
0.695 0.658
0.400
0.587
0.539
0.500
0.550 0.502
Second case: Student 2: 0.682 0.617 0.605
0.507
0.300
“The online learning and the doing for the research project are leaded the students who practice their problem solving skills. Practice of systems thinking and the unity in the group.”
0.200
Third case: Student 3:
0.100 0.000
E.I.
Figure 3. Show of efficiency of index values of each components’ scientific mind. 217
“It makes me feel the freedom of learning. And I have good relationships with colleagues to become more targeted to understand themselves and others more and more, and I think that the self-assessment and reflection to help to create awareness in the development of my scientific mind. ”
6) CONCLUSION
8) REFERENCES
It would be better to do more research and development on BL in order to find a better way to develop onto the scientific mind. The research aims to point out that the development of a new RBBL-SM model. It could improve the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scientific mind capability in over all; the results of the qualitative data would be collected for future comparisons. Students have the opinion that the teaching role is critical to the development of their scientific mind. Especially in terms of generosity regarding the fact that the primary lesson taught learning activities. An open mind - open feedback on the web. Students make the trust. And trust in teachers. Then follow the instructions. Learning by heart is happiness is an addition. Students are told that the project was completed. It is a new thing for the students. To learn this subject. Giving them the knowledge to understand their own and more. Students need to be taught and with the increment of the BL.
Blackmore, P. and Fraser, M. (2007). Researching and teaching: Making the link. In P. Blackmore & R. Blackwell (Eds.), Towards strategic staff development in higher education. 131-141. Baldwin-Evans K. (2006). Blended Learning: The What, Where, When and How, Training & Management Development Methods,20,3,353-366. Bersin, J. (2004). The Blended Learning Book-Best practices, proven Methodologies, and lessons learned. USA: Pfeiffer John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Bliuc, A., Goodyear, P., & Ellis, R. A. (2007). Research focus and methodological choices in studies into students' experiences of blended learning in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 10,4, 231-244. Brew, A. (2006). Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide. Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire. Bonk, C., & Graham, C. (2006). The handbook of blended learning. New York: Wiley. Clark, Burton R. (1997). The modern integration of research activities with teaching and learning. The Higher Education. 68,3, 241-255. Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, (2003). Research Methods in Education. (5th Edition). Routledge, London, UK, 2007. Colis, B. and Moonen, J., (2001), Flexible Learning in a Digital World: Experiences and expectations (London: Kogan-Page). Driscoll M. (2002), Blended Learning, ELearning, 3,3, 54. Docs.moodle. (2008). Content is available under GNU Public License.Online Learning History. docs.moodle. org/en/Online_Learning_History , December, 16, 2010.
Recommendations for further research. It should have the development of mental science in depth. That is by learning the basic skills of the students or the learning style and so on. 7) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments. In addition, this research would not be conducted successfully without moral supports from my family and friends. Finally, I would like to send many sincere thanks to the Faculty of Education and Graduate School of Naresuan University for the education grant towards this opportunity today.
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Educational Developments, 4,4, 24 – 27 Phithiyanuwat, S. and Bunterm, T. (1998). Research-BasedLearning. Research Methodology. Bangkok:Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University. (In Thai). Rovai, A.P.,& Jordan.H.M. (2004). Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, ISSN: 1492-3831. Sinlarat,P.(2002). Research –Based Teaching in undergraduate student. in Sinlarat, P.(ed.), Research-BasedInstruction. Bangkok : Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University. (In Thai). Sriwongkol, T. (2007). “Blended Learning Design using Weblog for Graduate Students” the APEC Future Education Consortium, ALCoB Internet Volunteers (AIV) 2007, Bangkok, Sripatum University. Suwannoi,P. (2009). Research-Based Learning. Khon Kaen University, 29,3, 16-26. Thorne, K. (2003). How to integrate online & traditional learning. London: Kogan Page. Visser, J. (2002). Technology, Learning and Corruption: Opportunities and Hurdles in the Search for the Development of Mind. in an International Development Context. Educational Technology Research and Development 50,2, 85-9. Visser, J. (2008). Rethinking human learning with sustainability in mind: Building the scientific mind a case in point. www.learndev.org/ppt/Stellenbos ch080610.pdf. August, 23 2010.
Faulkes Telescope. (2008). ResearchBased Learning, Faulkes Telescope Project. faulkes-telescope.com/ education/rbl_approaches.August 26, 2009. Feist, Gregory J. (2006). The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring. American Psychologist, 34,10, 906-911. Flexible Learning Advisory Group. (2009). Blended learning : Australian Flexible Learning Framework. pre2009.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/g o/home/contactus/gettingstarted/Co mmon_Jargon. December 1, 2010. Gersten, R., Chard, D., & Baker, S. (2000). Factors enhancing sustained use of research-based instructional factors. Learning Disabilities,33,5,445-457. Green. A , (2010). GIHE Good Practice Guide on Research-Based Learning prepared. www.griffith.edu.au/gihe December 1, 2010. Griffiths, R. (2004). Knowledge production and the researchteaching nexus: the case of the built environment disciplines. Studies in Higher Education. 29(6), 709-726. Healey, M. and Jenkins, A, (2009). Developing undergraduate research and inquiry. The Higher Education Academic. Innovation Way.York Science Park : Heslington. Indian National Science Academy. (2005). Siminar on Building The Scientific Mind. www.insaindia.org/reportbuildingscientificmind.pdf. August 23, 2009. Joyce,B.,Weil,M.and Calhoun,E. (2004). Model of Teaching. (7th ed). Boston : Allyn and Bacon. Maidenhead, UK : McGraw-Hill International.Blackmore, P. and G. Cousin (2003 – 2004), 'Linking Teaching and Research through Research-Based Learning',
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Online Test System for Japanese Particles S. Naranong Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand (fhumsdn@ku.ac.th) Bangkok (2008) nowadays 89 of a total of 112 higher education institutes have Japanese courses. Besides, the number of Thai students learning Japanese, which is continuously increasing, has risen to 71,083 persons making Thailand one of the top ten countries which have the greatest number of Japanese learners. These data show the progress of Japanese language teaching in Thailand. However, Thai students majoring in Japanese, even those studying at the intermediate level or at the advanced level, have trouble concerning with the usage of the six Japanese particles: “wa”, “ga”, “ni”, “de”, “o”. and “no” in particular. (Naranong, 2003)
ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to construct a system for learning Japanese particle usage through a selfaccess online test. The test focused on only six Japanese particles: “wa”, “ga”, “ni”, “de”, “o” and “no”, which, according to a prior research, caused the most problems for Thai students majoring in Japanese. The system was developed by constructing a website using the NetBeans IDE 6.7.1 program along with the My SQL Server 5.1 program.The website consisted of various components: registration, exercises, lessons, a pre-test , a post-test and results of the tests. Firstly, the targeted students registered online and gave their personal information in their profiles. Then they logged in to do the pre-test within the time limit. After that they could log in to see the results of their own tests and do the exercises and review the lessons any time anywhere they want. Finally, they were requested to do the post-test. The scores of the post-test were significantly higher than those of the pre-test. It can be concluded that if the students are given the opportunity and time to review lessons and exercises on their own out of class, they are able to improve their abilities.
The Thai Education Act of 1999 reflects the country’s realization of the necessity of the use of the computer and information technology. According to this act, the government has to support and promote the availability and production of various kinds of learning materials, including printed matters, radio scripts, television programs and electronic learning materials in the form of computer – assisted instruction (Kanittapongrat, 2003). With regard to Japanese language teaching, there are many projects that have introduced electronic materials such as websites into learning programs in Japan. Through these electronic materials, those who want to learn Japanese are able to learn by themselves any time and anywhere. However, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) (2003) found that while Thai Japanese-language teachers in high schools and universities in Thailand recognized the necessity of the computer, more than 80%
Keywords Japanese particles: “wa”, “ga”, “ni”, “de”, “o” and “no”, online test system, self-study 1) INTRODUCTION According to the survey of Japanese Language Centre, Japan Foundation in 221
NetBeans IDE 6.7.1 program and the My SQL Server 5.1 program, the other was designed for creating the text contents of the website. The contents were consisted of a pre-test, a post-test, exercises and lessons for each particle. Those texts including tests were originally created and corrected by a Japanese teacher.
of a total of 111 subjects lack the ability to create homepages or websites themselves. This means that there is still much to be done in order to achieve progress in this area and to help solving the Japanese particle-learning problems. Therefore, the development of online test system for Japanese particles is considered necessary for the benefit of Thai students so that they can improve their proficiency in Japanese language by themselves through self study.
Regarding the pre-test and the post-test, which was the important parts of this project, there were 8 questions for each particle. Thus there were 48 questions for both the pre-test and the post-test. The score for each is also 48.
2) PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH
For the system, as mentioned above the NetBeans IDE 6.7.1 program was applied to create the system and the My SQL Server 5.1 program was used as the database. Microsoft Office 2003 program was also used as text file input both in Japanese and in Thai. For the registration the targeted students were requested to log in using a code provided by the system first and then they have to register on line by filling their profiles with personal data and information about Japanese learning experience before they do the pre test within the time limit. After they did the pre test, they could see the result of the test immediately and knew at that moment how many scores they got and which particles were their weaknesses or their strengths. However good or bad the result, the pretest could not be done twice. Then they were given time about one month to review the lessons and the exercises as often as they wish on line. Finally, they were asked to do the post-test of which difficulty was on a par with that of the pre test. It was expected that the result of the post test will be better than that of the pretest.
The purpose of this research was to construct a system for students to learn Japanese particle usage through a selfaccess online test and reviewing lessons provided in the website by themselves any time and anywhere they want. This study focused on only six Japanese particles: “wa”, “ga”, “ni”, “de”, “o” and “no”, which, according to Naranong’s prior research, caused the most problems for Thai students. This research was designed to address one main research question: Can advanced level Thai students improve their ability to use Japanese particles through an online test system? 3) PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES As a pilot project, this study was meant to solve the problems of the students at the advanced level. Therefore, the target group was the fourth-year students majoring in Japanese. Six senior students were selected to participate in this research because they all had studied in Japan for one year so their proficiency of Japanese was assumed to be of the same level.
4) RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 4.1) Components of the website
For the methodology, it was divided into two parts: one was designed for constructing the system by applying the
The website is composed of registration, exercises, lessons, a pre-test , a post-test 222
and the results of the tests. However, As for the pre-test and the post-test, which are the most important parts of this study, students cannot do them without the instructor’s permission. If the status of the test is “not permitted” the test cannot be done.
Following the first page, the next page is the main page for instructor instruction and other pages are students list, exercise page, lesson page, pre test , post test and result of pre test and post test. After the development of the system was finished, it was tested as an experiment of system by 27 students taking “Reading and Oral Reports” course in the fiscal year 2009 by using local host url: http://158.108.54.90:8080/WebApplication 1/and it was found that the system had some errors on registration and had some problems with the instruction while filling profile because it was written in English and when students filled their personal data both in Thai and in English it had a conflict with the system. Therefore, the system was revised once again to be much more stable before it will be launched with the targeted group.
As shown in figure 1 below, it is indicated on the first page of the website that the members are required to login by their code and password provided by the system. This means that the students’ names and ID codes must have already been filled in by the instructor. On this page the instructions, which are given also in Japanese, are: There are six particles: wa, ga, ni, de, o and no and a pre-test or a posttest, each consists of 48 questions for the 6 particles. After doing the pre-test, a self study is needed and finally the pos- test is to be done. Time is limited to 15 minutes for each test. Please try your best.
4.2) Results of the pre -test Table 1: results of the pre -test
An application program for analyzing the effectiveness of Japanese Grammar Study
ID
助詞の問題
Score (48)
IDStudent 48111801
: 39 48111827 : 36 48111934 : 36 48111942 : 38 48111959 : 27 48112734 : 30 average 34.33 Note: Names of all students are obmitted here.
このテストは主に「は、が、に、で、を、の
IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent
」という、６つの日本語の助詞を中心に作ら れています。
Pre
もそれぞれ
48
test
も
Post
問あります。
test Pre
test を終えたら、自分で勉強し、それから Post test をやるようにして下さい。時間は 15 分ず
The above pre test score average is 34.33 which indicated that even though the students are at the advance level and all had experience in studying at Japan for at least one year they still face the problem of using particles as expected.
つです。頑張ってくださいね。 Username :
aj_soysuda
Login
Password :
Figure 1: Rregistration part at the first page of the website
4.3) Results of the post- test Table 2: results of the post- test ID IDStudent 48111801
: IDStudent 48111827 : IDStudent 48111934 : IDStudent 48111942 : 223
Score (48) 43 39 39 36
IDStudent 48111959 : IDStudent 48112734 : average
31 34 37
As for the results of the tests as expected the post-test average score of 37 is higher than that of the pre-test of 34.33. Although the increase is not high, it proves that a self study through online test system is very useful. However, it was found that the proficiency of using Japanese particles was related to other aspects such as the scope of vocabulary and expressions. Since Japanese particles follow part of speech such as the modified noun, pronoun, adjective, if the student does not know the context and the correlation of the sentence they cannot use particles correctly.
Note: Names of all students are obmitted here. 4.4) Comparative results of the pre-test and the post-test Table 3: results of the pre-test and the post-test ID
Pre-test
Post -test
IDStudent 48111801
: 39 : 43 48111827 : 36 : 39 48111934 : 36 : 39 48111942 : 38 : 36 48111959 : 27 : 31 48112734 : 30 : 34 average 34.33 37 Note: Names of all students are obmitted here. IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent IDStudent
5) CONCLUSION The online test system, which focuses on six Japanese particles: : “wa”, “ga”, “ni”, “de”, “o” and “no”, has shown that it is beneficial and it can help support Japanese learning because it can be used out of class without limitations of time and place through the students’ self study. The results of the post-test average score which is higher than that of the pre-test indicates that the online test system, consisting of various components, can solve the problem of using particles.
After the students had done the pre-test and checked the result, they were requested to review lessons through self study for a month and then did the posttest. The table above shows that The student’s average score has increased to 37. and except for only one student, the students’ proficiency of using Japanese particles has much increased. 5) DISCUSSION The format of the website, which is consisted of various components, is beneficial to the users because they can do the study any time and anywhere they wish out of class. They can repeat all the parts, except the tests, several times or choose only the parts they are interested in for more practice.
Therefore, it can be applied to solve problems of teaching or learning Japanese in other grammatical subjects and it can also be developed to use with other foreign language learning. REFERENCES Kanittapongrat, S. (2003). Internet and foreign language education: a case study of German. Journal of Humanities, 4(1), 83-93.(in Thai) National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) (2003) . Nihongo kyooiku no gakushuu kankyoo to gakushuu shudan ni kansuru choosa kenkyuu. Tai (Bankoku) ankeeto choosa shuukei kekka hookokusho. (in Japanese)
Moreover, unlike the exercises or the tests in a textbook which cannot be changed because they are in sequence, the questions for the exercises and the tests in this online system are not always in the same order. Since the order is randomly set by the system every time the users access to the website. Thus, the students will not be bored with their study. This is a strong point of this system because it is updated, lively and interesting. 224
Naranong, S (2003). A study on grammatical errors in elementary and intermediate Japanese composition writing of Thai students:Problems in using particles.Proceedings of the 41th Kasetsart University Annual Conference ,448-455.
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e-Learning in an EFL Academic Writing Class: An Online Forum Example A. Srijongjai Department of Western Languages, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand (aranya@swu.ac.th) activities effectively in a writing class, however, is a challenge for teachers.
ABSTRACT Teachers of writing should encourage their students to read as it will support the development of their writing skill. Linking reading activities effectively in a writing class is a challenge for many teachers. For them, e-Learning can be used as a sound alternative. This paper recounts a one semester experience using an ATutor online forum to integrate reading into an academic writing class of third-year university students in the academic year 2010. Through the ATutor online forum, students discussed a narrow range of topics based on reading articles assigned in class. In this way, the students had an opportunity to practice their critical thinking skill by analyzing the purpose, audience and organization of the reading texts, so as to help them understand more about the elements of writing and apply what they have learned in their own writing.
In the first semester of the academic year 2010, the author taught “Reading and Writing Process of English I.” It is a compulsory major course for the Bachelor of Education Program in English at Srinakharinwirot University. Nineteen third-year students registered for this course. The prime objective of this course was to help students develop their skills in academic writing while integrating reading into the writing process. To accomplish this, in the limited time allotted to the course during the semester, an e-Learning course was created in ATutor 1.6.3 on the university’s website. Its forum feature was employed as the conduit for threaded discussions of the assigned readings and regarded as the supplementary part of this classroom-based course. 2) THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The online forum was prepared with the following objective: To have students practice critical thinking by analyzing the purpose, audience and organization of the reading texts, so as to help them better understand the elements of writing and apply what they have learned in their writing. As Tompkins (2003) remarks, “There are practical benefits of connecting reading and writing. Reading contributes to students’ writing development, and writing contributes to students’ reading development” (p. 60). Students’ awareness of purposes, audience and organization of the reading texts is also important for writing. Barnes (2000) pointed out that students gain better outcomes when they write with the consideration of a purpose and an audience. Axelrod and Cooper
Keywords academic writing, ATutor, EFL, e-Learning, online forum 1) INTRODUCTION Writing is one of the survival skills required of university students. It can contribute to their academic achievement as well as their work life (Axelrod & Cooper, 2002). To write is not difficult, but to write well is another story. For those who study English as a foreign language (EFL), writing is a challenging process to get through. To help students develop their writing skill, many teachers encourage their students to read. Linking reading
227
(2002) also stated that, “Students who learn to write for different readers and purposes do well in courses throughout the curriculum” (p. 3). According to Cali and Bowen (2003), organization is one feature of effective writing. As different genres are for different purposes and audiences, they need different text structures
3.2) Student roles Students were required to read the articles outside class and answer questions posted on the ATutor online forum. Thoughtprovoking questions were asked about the purpose, audience, and organization of the texts. Students’ opinions were solicited, as they enhanced the students’ development of ideas. Examples of questions posted by the instructor were shown in Table 1.
After defining the overall details of the course, the supplementary e-Learning materials on ATutor were integrated into the course syllabus. The next step was to finalize the online forum model. Chan and Yap (2008) surveyed English language learning websites and found several models of online forums: the ‘ask-theexpert’ forum, the student community forum, the serious discussion forum, and the creative writing forum.
Table 1: Examples of questions in the ATutor online forum Topics Purpose Audience Organization
The serious discussion forum model was selected for the course since it closely matched the online forum’s objective. This model allows the instructor to take control of the forum by posting questions and topics for discussion. Discussion is related to the reading articles assigned and can be used to develop more insightful understanding of the materials (Chan & Yap, 2008).
Questions - What is the writer’s purpose? - Who is the audience of this article? - What is the thesis statement of this essay? - How many reasons does this writer give to back up the thesis statement? What are they? - The writer tried to express his opinion on the use of uniforms in Thai universities. He supported his idea with many reasons. What are they?
3.3) Instructor roles The intructor’s role related to the ATutor online forum activities was to: 1) distribute the reading materials, 2) provide backgrounds to reading materials, 3) offer ideas to rouse students’ interest in the reading topics, 4) post the questions in the forum’s threaded discussions, 5) monitor the ATutor online forum activities, and 6) guide the students on reading when necessary.
3) ONLINE FORUM ACTIVITIES 3.1) Reading articles During the course, three reading articles were selected and distributed to students in the three genres taught in class: narrative, persuasive and opinion. These articles were “Mom, You Never Told Me…” by Jeffrey L. Aran (as cited in Scull, 1987, pp. 7-8), “Stopping Youth Violence: An Inside Job” by Fawcett and Sandberg (1996: pp. 288-289), and “Uniformed Students, Uniform Minds: Why Uniforms Have No Place in a University” by Patrick Jory (2006).
3.4) Evaluation Student performance was evaluated in two ways. First, contributions to the ATutor online forum were marked as a part of their participation score. Second, one part of the final exam was based on the three reading articles designed to test their critical thinking on the purpose, audience and 228
organization of the texts. See Table 2 for examples of questions of the written exam.
5) LESSONS LEARNED From the ATutor online forum activities, some concerns were observed. At the beginning of the first reading assignment, some students copied their classmates’ answers or mixed and matched answers of other students. The issue of plagiarism was discussed and originality was encouraged as a quality trait. Also, many students had poor reading skills. They had to work hard on reading assignments as well as to struggle on their writing assignments. Finally, the students were not used to thinking critically. They needed guidance in order to complete their critical thinking.
Table 2: Examples of questions of the final exam Topics Audience
Purposes & organization
Questions If you wanted to change the audience of the article, “Mom, You Never Told Me…,” from parents to children, how should you revise it? Give some examples. If you wanted to change the purpose of the article, “Stopping Youth Violence: An Inside Job,” from teaching conflict resolution skills to all children to reduce youth violence to banning violent computer games to reduce youth violence, what should be in the body paragraphs of this article? Write three topic sentences for three possible body paragraphs.
6) CONCLUSION Online forums can be used effectively to integrate reading into academic writing courses. They can provide a good opportunity for students to practice their reading techniques as well as develop their critical ideas on certain elements necessary for writing. The success of the ATutor online forum depends on the purpose of the forum, the materials used, and the model applied. As de Vry and Brown (2000) remarked, the success of threaded discussions can be achieved in three ways: 1) they must be weaved to emphasize discussion on narrow topics, 2) they must attentively overseen by an instructor, and 3) they must be graded. Teachers of writing should consider an online forum as one of their choices for integrating reading activities into their writing courses.
4) OUTCOMES Overall, the students’ participation in the ATutor online forum was constant and attentive. Some students asked not to set a deadline for the closing of the forum as they wanted to join every topic of discussion. Students also monitored one another in the forum. One student posted her answer in the wrong thread, she was teased by her classmates. Irrelevant answers were also pointed out by students. In terms of their writing skills, students did not write long answers in the ATutor online forum at the beginning; they posted only short answers. After being encouraged to write more, most of them wrote longer answer and tried to back up their answers with supporting details (See Appendix for examples of students’ responses in the ATutor online forum). The results of the final exam also showed that every student was aware of the purpose, audience and organization of the texts.
REFERENCES Axelrod, R.B., & Cooper, C. R. (2002). Concise guide to writing (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Barnes, B. (2000). Student-designed online art history references. In D. G. Brown (Ed.), Teaching with technology: Seventy-five professors from eight universities tell their stories (pp. 10-15). Bolton, MA: Anker. 229
APPENDIX
Cali, K., & Bowen, K. (2003, n.d.). The five features of effective writing. Retrieved December 3, 2010 from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, LEARN NC Web site: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ few/ Chan, M., & Yap, N. (2008, Novermber 20-21). A framework for an online forum for a writing course. Paper presented at International e-Learning Conference 2008 (IEC2008), IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok: Thai Cyber University Project, Commission on Higher Education. de Vry, J. R., & Brown, D. G. (2000). A framework for redesigning a course. In D. G. Brown (Ed.), Teaching with technology: Seventy-five professors from eight universities tell their stories (pp. 10-15). Bolton, MA: Anker. Fawcett, S., & Sandberg, A. (1996). Evergreen: A guide to writing (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Jory, P. (2006, December 11). All together now: Uniformed students, uniform minds: Why uniforms have no place in a university. Bangkok Post. Retrieve June 27, 2010 from http://www.thaiscience.info/News/ ThaiScienceNews/64000443.htm Scull, S. (1987). Critical reading & writing for advanced ESL students. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. Tompkins, G. E. (2003). Literacy for the 21st century (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Examples of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responses in the ATutor online forum
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Design and Development of Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment to Enhance Analytical Thinking for Computer Education Learners S. Charuni1 1 Department of Computer Education, Faculty of Education, KhonKaen University, Thailand (thaibannok@hotmail.com) ABSTRACT
1) INTRODUCTION
The aimed of this research were: 1) to design and development of constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners, and 2) to examine the learners’ analytical thinking. Research methodology is developmental research (Type I): statistic methods are document analysis, survey and case study. The procedures were as following: 1 (to examine the principles and theories 2( to explore the context concerning analytical thinking 3( to synthesize designing framework 4 (to design and develop according to above mentioned designing framework, and 5) to evaluate the efficiency of the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking. The result revealed that: 1.The designing and developing of constructivist web-based learning environments to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners were based on the key concepts of constructivist theories. These included 1) Problem Base, 2) Resource, 3) Collaborative Learning, 4) Scaffolding, 5) Coaching, 6) Tools, and 7) Analytical thinking lab. 2. Three aspects of the computer education learners’ analytical thinking ability was found 1) classify and discriminate the elements of things, 2) identify the logical correlation among those elements, and 3) group or categorize them. Keywords Analytical thinking, Construct web-based learning environment
In recent world of rapid changing and entering to globalization, it caused people, society, and environment around the world to change. Important to make people who have to knowledge is, "Education" and sustainable, it must make people thinking skill and recognize innovation to solve problems by themselves effectively. (Sumalee Chaijaroen, 2008). Therefore, educational management had to change from teaching paradigm to learning as student centered and the students were the most important. The educational management process had to focus on students development as well as encourage them to be able to construct knowledge by using information technology for serving life long learning. (Charuni Samat, 2009). Curriculum for Basic Education Act 2550 has focused on the learning process with a focus on skills based on the thinking process, applies of knowledge to solve problems, learning by doing, trained to thinking and loves of reading, and can be used in real life. Specifically, analytical thinking as higher order thinking, it played an importance role on students’ characteristics. In recent and future society, the analytical thinking was human ability included thinking ability for solving problems or situations by various techniques with combination of prior experience and new knowledge for the occurred problems. (Kriengsak Charoenwongsak, 2003). Moreover, the instructional process had to be encouraged for promoting and developing various aspects, such as thinking skill training, managing activity for students’ learning from real experience so that the graduates 231
were able to search for knowledge by themselves especially the ability to analyze, criticize, construct knowledge by themselves, and present their viewpoint appropriately. According to the above reasons, constructivist theory was very congruent with learning management encouraging students’ desirable characteristics. According to the above reasons, the researchers were aware of the importance and necessity in studying the analytical thinking of students studying through Constructivist Web-based Learning Environment to enhance Analytical thinking for Computer education students by using instructional management paradigm as student centered. It was the environmental management for students’ analytical thinking development with Media attribution and Media symbol system to serve the need in constructing the students’ knowledge and enhancing their analytical thinking by focusing on the students’ learning the course content simultaneously with analytical thinking development and technology use. Therefore, this research would focus on the study of design and development of Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment to enhance Analytical thinking for Computer education students. Consequently, the findings of this study would be applied as a guideline for developing, encouraging, and promoting the learning environment efficiently to be relevant to learning reform in Thai society in the future.
3) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research and development was employed in this study. Research methodology is developmental research Type I (Richey, RC and Klein JD, 2007): statistic methods are document analysis, survey and case study. 3.1) Target group 1) Six expert review for assessment the validation of learning environment as follows: content, instructional technology design, web-based learning design and Evaluation. 2) Forty of Second Year Bachelor’s degree students in Computer education major, the faculty of Education, Khonkaen University. 3.2 Research Instrument 1) The instrument for experiment included the constructivist web-based learning environment model to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners with design and development process as follows: (1) to examine the principles and theories, (2) to explore the context concerning analytical thinking, (3) to synthesize designing framework of the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking, (4) to design and develop the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking according to above mentioned designing framework, and (5) to evaluate the efficiency of the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking.
2) RESEARCH PURPOSE 2.1) to design and development of constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners 2.2) to examine analytical thinking.
the
2) The instrument for collecting Data including: (1) The Record Form of Documentary Investigation and Analysis for constructing theoretical framework, (2) The Analysis Record Form for constructing the design framework, (3) The Evaluation Form of Learning
learners’
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According to studying evaluates the output for checking the quality of the learning environment as following details: (1) To evaluate validation of the content It was to examine the accuracy of the content of necessary on the industrial with tools; open-end question assessments of content then it was evaluated by 2 experts in content. After finishing evaluation, researcher edited the content based on feedback, (2) To evaluate the constructivist web-based learning environment model to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners. It was evaluated with open-end question assessments of design by 2 experts in instructional technology design then edited based on feedback, and (3) To evaluate media and web-based learning design and presentation for checking the media quality on the network. It was evaluated with open-end question assessments of media and presentation by 2 experts in educational technology then edited based on feedback.
Environmental for the experts, and (4) The Analytical Thinking Interview Form. 3.3 Data Collection 1) Document analysis and Literature review According to studying and analysis principles, theories, and related literature with design and development of constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners including Psychological base, Pedagogies base, Technologies and Media base, and Contextual base. 2) Contextual study of learners According to studying studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analytical thinking, found that from The Analytical Thinking Interview Form was used for studying the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; analytical thinking based on Sumalee Chaijaroen, (2008) approach: (1) classify and discriminate the elements of things, (2) identify the logical correlation among those elements, and (3) group or categorize them. Next step was to design and development learning environment from the results of contextual study. 3) Synthesis of designing framework According to studying synthesis of the designing framework based on theoretical framework including results from principles, theories, and related literature and contextual study of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; analytical thinking. Researcher would offer to the advisors and expert review for comment then edited based on feedback. 4) Develop the learning environment model Development the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners based on foundation of creating designing framework was adopted. 5) Evaluate validation of the learning environment with experts
4. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Design and develop the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners in this study would be presented into two parts as following details. 4.1 The constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners. The learning environment with conceptual framework in designing as follows: 1) Problem Base, 2) Resource, 3) Collaborative Learning, 4) Scaffolding, 5) Coaching, 6) Tools, and 7) Analytical thinking lab obtaining from major theories in various aspects: Psychological base, Pedagogies base, Technologies and Media base, and Contextual base that enhance the learners to encourage analytical thinking base as shown in the following figure: 1-7
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Figure 1: It was shown Problem base for enhancing the students to construct knowledge and enhance analytical thinking.
Figure 4: It was shown Scaffolding for enhancing students to solve problems or learning in case that they couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to practice their own task by themselves.
Figure 2: It was shown Resource for collecting information, content, technology which the students used in Problem base while they were facing it.
Figure 5: It was shown Coaching center by teachers and experts in computer network with Best practice.
Figure 3: It was shown Collaboration for supporting the students to share their experience with experts through Web-blog. Besides, there were Web-board and Chat room for expanding thinking viewpoint.
Figure 6: It was shown Tools for constructing knowledge and enhancing analytical thinking. The students had to be supported in practice their learning task.
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meaningful as the needs in learning task. Furthermore, Constructivist WebBased Learning Environment was designed facilitating analytical thinking. It could be seen from the components of analytical thinking lab as the empirical evidence from the students’ interview that “I like Analytical thinking lab because it is fun and relax. When I can match the symbol and meaning, it could help in solving problem during labeling different figures and connecting with problem solving in problem base for computer network equipment.” Moreover, Student can summary diagram of the concept and classify concepts into the relationship of the concept such as comparisons, collect the data, and explanation. Empirical evidence derived from interviews with students, theories and principles that support the learners able to create enhancement for analytical thinking skills.
Figure 7: It was shown Analytical thinking lab for enhancing Analytical thinking based on Sumalee Chaijaroen (2008). 4.2 The model efficiency assessment Evaluation of productivity, which was divided into content, the learning environment design, and assessment, was appropriate. (2) Evaluation of using context was found that using group of three was suitable (3) Assessment of learners’ opinions effected learning environment, which was found that supporting and development of students’ analytical thinking, (4) Evaluation of students’ analytical thinking, which was found that three aspects of the computer education learners’ analytical thinking ability was found 1) classify and discriminate the elements of things, 2) identify the logical correlation among those elements, and 3) group or categorize them. According to the above findings, found that it was supported by the findings of Tezci (2008); Sumalee Chaijaroen et.al., (2007), and Ratchanee Srisongmuang (2009) found that the students showed their analytical thinking including: 1) classify and discriminate the elements of things, 2) identify the logical correlation among those elements, and 3) group or categorize them. It was the enhancement for students to apply and develop analytical thinking ability based on Analytical thinking’s approach. It was supported by Salomon’s (1977) approach with explanation that learning could be able to create enhancement for skills which would be
5. CONCLUSIONS According to all of the above findings, it could be confirmed of efficiency of the constructivist web-based learning environment to enhance analytical thinking for computer education learners that it could very well support the students’ knowledge construction and analytical thinking, more ever for The application of Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment to enhance Analytical thinking of computer education learners in instructional management, the congruence with the students’ context, school, course content, and appropriate media attribute. REFERENCES Sumalee, C. et.al., (2003) Handout of Concurrent Technology. Department of Educational technology, Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University. ………………. (2007). A Study of Thinking Potential of Students studying Instructional Innovation Enhancing Thinking Potentiality. A Research Report, Research 235
Project of General Research Grant, Khon Kaen University. ………………. (2008).Educational Technology Theories and Approach Into Practice. Khon Kaen: Klaung-nana-wittaya. Kriengsak, J. (2003). Analytical Thinking. Bangkok: Success Media Ltd. Richey, R. C., Klein, J. (2007). Design and developmental research. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Tezci, Erdogan. (2008). The Study of Reliability and Validity of Creative Materials. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 7, 1. retrieved January 30, 2010, from Education Resources Information Center.
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States and e-Learning: The Problem of Using and Abusing VLE S. Reza Eftekhari Department of Law and Islamic Studies, Islamic Azad University – Gonabad Branch Iran I.R. (sreftekhar@yahoo.com)
learning environment against illegal applications. Currently the concerns of legislature systems and occasionally the international legal bodies about the challenges to which the so-called law of intellectual property were exposed are declared in the form of advices for the betterment of educational system. Now these concerns are directed toward virtual environment. Theories, research findings, plans, knowledge content and artistic products are easily available through the web. This situation has led to further concerns about protecting rights assumed to virtual contents of the web and enhancing the domain of legal protection, an action which may cause serious critics because of limiting imposed on open sharing. Legal measures are asserted to cover the research tools too. As in sciences and technologies which are available in websites the increased patenting of “research tools” has heightened anxieties that patents inhibit research and development. (peter, 2004) If we limit the meaning of e-Learning to CBT (Computer-Based Training), IBT (InternetBased Training) and WBT (Web-Based Training) there would be many questions about the necessary or unnecessary controls that may be exerted by the copyright law. And the answer of many of these questions would necessarily refer to the content knowledge, styles, and the environment itself. Many scholars may deny a need to protection of e learning environments and VLE contents at all. This seems logical especially at a private environment because it consists of approved contents, styles, and ideas. However, the traditional view spreading among
ABSTRACT Different forms of education through the virtual Learning Environment (VLE) including WBL, IBL, CBL, display the effective role of new developmental approaches in education. But while the higher percents of public and private educations are being practiced through internet and computers in modern societies, the states would try to extend their control over the VLE too. In this paper, we argue that the conflict between these two poles may challenge the progress of e-Learning. On one hand the state trying to exert its control over the VLE in order for safety of educational environment. On the other, no official power is expected to exert legal or political influence on distance learning. So, if e-Learning is to be a paradigm shift in education and to serve the aims of human development it must first of all be protected against misapplications. It is necessary to find ways for governments not to impose any limitations on VLE while controlling the materials and methods. Keywords: Copyright Law, Education, e-Learning, Public Policy 1) INTRODUCTION States exert their control over educational programs traditionally. This kind of supervision which seems necessary from some points of view appears in the form of policies directed toward protecting learners and
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governmental approaches regarding the public educations usually talks about the necessity of official controls on any kind of training material and style and on educational environment as a whole through copyright law or punitive acts.
such a conflict between well-known copyright law and the public policies regarding education might not be discussed in many countries. As a matter of fact, the control approaches in the afore-mentioned forms though may doubtfully seem applicable in relation to the knowledge contents there are many questions about the accountability of these ways. Current situation of distance learning and the related areas of teaching in modern day societies show that controlling and supervising the virtual learning environment is considered an out-of-the date measure. By the way the official trends toward controlling this area now exist. Watching the current conditions of CBT, IBT and WBT will reveal the fading process of control from bottom to the top. (Fig. 1)
2) STATES AND THE NEED TO CONTROL As the VLE is considered a tool for training purposes the government may urge to supervise the institutes and orgs that enjoy it for this means. In this way the conduct of the states who exert such a control may be in conflict with the freedom of education and free flow of information exchange and communications approved as norms in modern day societies. Normally every official system affects on educational environment via different means including: 1. The use of control measures such as monitoring the behavior of applicants in web directories and contents of websites in order to guarantee the safety of virtual environment. Virtual learning and training areas are not excluded. The legitimacy of any action within these areas is dependant on the affirmative approach of local legislator who act as a supervisor. 2. The act of extending copyright laws and regulations protecting intellectual property can be applicable to any kind of training activities including learning and training styles and contents. This approach has proved to be somehow conflicting. Most scholars do not agree that the copyright law system can be applicable in such areas. As Rubenfeld says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;copyright, it has been said a thousand times, protects only expressions and not ideasâ&#x20AC;?. (2002) It is true in many democratic legal systems like American Case Law. However,
Styles (Min)
Environment
Content (Max. Cotrol)
Figure1. Official Control over the Different Factors of Virtual Environment from Bottom to the Top
As shown in the figure 1 the maximum control may be exerted over the knowledge content on behalf of officials and this part of educational system almost always need the protection of copyright law. The Virtual Learning Environment, in which learners and tutors participate in several on-line interactions, 238
same time many governments may apply a multidimension approach to confront the challenges produced by the extension of VLE. E-learning enables unique forms of education that fits within the existing paradigms of face to face and distance education. (Nichols, 2003) In this way many regulations related to the face to face education considering the safety and legality of that area may apply to distance learning. Naturally the official centers expect a safe educational environment and try to protect young trainees against any abuse and destructive activities. Generally the public policies in this regard are focused on punitive measures and in some cases such as drug or sexual abuse during training or in the environment may be punished severely. The safety of VLE in this meaning may not be so disputable because all educational systems normally assume a set of similar policies to guarantee the safety of educational environment.
including on-line learning (Abazi-Bexheti, 2008) the levels of control may be lower or the copyright laws may be irrelevant. The minimum control is seen in the top of the system which is comprised of the styles and the tools themselves. 3) LEGAL PROTECTION AGAINST USE AND ABUSE OF VLE Virtual learning environment, as it has been said many times, need legal protection from three aspects: the safety of environment, the security of the rights of owners of intellectual properties used as materials and the legitimacy of styles and methods. States are decided to guarantee the safety of the educational environment specially, where the possibility of misapplication occurs. Their proposed policies are differentiated in accordance with the levels of educational programs. The problem is that controlling materials and contents which are used as hard copy is much easier than those used in e-Learning processes. As suggested by Nichols, this approach is to merely be discussed in regard to the on-line learning and as it is suggested, by which we mean purely on-line learning that essentially is the use of e-Learning tools in a distance education mode using the Web as the sole medium for all students learning and contact. (2003) So, the governmental policies that are directed towards preventing various kinds of misuse and piracy against copyright law containing the intellectual rights of contents and styles can be viewed from three perspectives.
3.2) Knowledge Contents Different theories about the contents of e-Learning and related fields are stressing the necessity of using technological tools to prevent abusive or illegal approaches. Perhaps one of the hardest tasks of every legal system or technological agents is to protect knowledge as an abstract identity of modern societies’ assets. Knowledge (called by some “just-in-context”) is specific to tome, place, sequence, timing, position, and relationships, within communities’ contextualization. (2001) Protecting knowledge content is one of the main concerns of legislators in different systems. States may take different policies when faces the necessity of protecting intellectual property right of the research theories, chemical formulas, knowledge contents and curriculum materials. The dominant viewpoint apparently applied in wellknown CRL systems such as United States of America is to protect knowledge contents as intellectual property. Knowledge content can be managed to be supervised through two channels in e-learning. The first is the so-called copyright laws that are so formulated to cover such areas as VLE. Materials may be abused or misapplied as technology or content in e-learning. So, modern systems assume for themselves the task of regulating different ways to protect intellectual rights belonging owners of these materials.
3.1) Creating a Safe VLE States supervise the content knowledge of every educational program by the name of national security. But how it can create a safe environment for e-Learning? VLE safety means the outside supervising by any officials to prevent abusing web and internet environment and minimizing the harms of such misapplications. The variety of legal measures and public and private policies is so wide and at the 239
The second is the technical ways used with regard to the nature of various kinds of technologies that can be applied in virtual environment. One of the most useful of these is the CMS (Content Management System). CMS is a tool that enables a variety of centralized technical and non technical staff to create, edit, manage and finally publish a variety of contents, which being constrained by a set of rules, processes and workflows that insures a coherent and validated appearance. (Robertson, 2002)
4) CONCLUSION It is generally accepted that the virtual learning environment as well as other fields of education should be protected against any kinds of abusive acts. However, it is expected that international legal bodies propose the proper regulations for creating a safe and secure environment for computer-based learning. Since the official policies taken by states are different in nature and effects, the uniform measures, both legal and technical, are required. Today the interference of governments in the form of official policies results in a conflicting presence of acting parties in e-Learning areas. Regarding the safety of VLE these policies include a vast range of punitive, civil, and educational measures. States naturally refrain from performing in conformity with international rules or global system which acts upon legal norms and the principle of freedom of information exchange. So, public policies impose their own obligations on different forms of education as well as on VLE. International law can not impose its rules on states aiming to produce a safe virtual environment and to prevent from piracy and abuse. In this way, states can produce a safe educational environment which is suffering from indispensable limitations occasionally derived from domestic legal systems. In order to create such a safe environment, both content-materials and methods should be managed in a proper way to help purposes of e-Leaning including human development are achieved. In this way, legal and political measures can be applied coincidentally for both educational and intellectual property rights. Legal rules protecting the rights of the producers of knowledge theories and contextual contents are of the same important of the tools such as Content Management Systems.
This system drags the attention of all of the active elements of e-learning to a securitycentered process in which the contents are normally and technically managed. CMS must enable users to collaborate and interact on the creation and management of trusted content through the portal, and allow users to import or create new content and, edit existing content or properties. In conclusion, features are categorized to four content management areas: creation, management, publishing and presentation. (Ibid.) 3.3) The Copyright of e-Learning Methods
Copyright law system puts methods in every learning and training processes in two groups. 1) Those methods and styles which are registered as intellectual properties belonging to their producers. 2) Those methods that are related to using any tools or technology in any direction or purpose. Methods that are usually used for learning and training purposes are of this kind. Theses groups are rarely protected by copyright law. E-learning should be considered as a new approach in using and trying technological tools to create a novel and effective way of education. As it is suggested, e-learning enables unique forms of education that fits within the existing paradigm of face to face education. (Nichols, 2003) In this meaning eLearning and other parts of VLE are related to the styles of learning and not to the contentknowledge. It is related to Horton that â&#x20AC;&#x153;eLearning doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change any thing about how human beings learnâ&#x20AC;?. (Ibid.)
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REFERENCES L. Abazi-Bexheti, L., (2008) “Development of a Learning Content Management System”, International Journal of System Applications, Engineering & Development” 1,2 pp.1-5 Lee, Peter (2004) “Patents, Paradigm Shift, and Progress in Biomedical Sciences”, The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 114, pp. 659-695 Nichols, Mark, (2003) “A theory for eLearning”, Educational Technology & Society, 6(2) 1-10, Available at http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/6-2/1.html Online Etymology Dictionary, (2001) Online Etymology Dictionary. Resource Document, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php Robertson, J. (2002), “How to Evaluate a Content Management System”, Intranet journal, Available at: http://intranetjournal.com/articles/20020 8/pse_08_19_02c.html. Rubenfeld, Jed (2002) “The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright’s Constitutionality”, The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 112, pp. 1-60
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The Role of Internet and Satellite Channels in Cultural and Political Changes in Developing Countries: A Review of Research Findings M. Rahim Eivazi∗ Associate Professor of Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran the one side, and the changes inside borders on the other. Daniel Lerner is right that is positing these devices have powerful influences because they facilitate the process of extrapolation and tautology and finally provide for the growth of basic character for accepting different conditions (Cazeneuve, 1372: 247). As John Fiske put it, TV and satellite programs have a new interpretation of human in them. This human can understand individual and social experiences of others and contribute in their wisdom and imaginations. This new interpretation carries with it a new look at human, art, values, etc. which will become widespread all over the world. News will direct people’s impressions and interpretations and creates a new model of political-social thoughts in their mind. Noticing the fact that the main part of news and programs are produced in Europe and America, a big part of values and concepts present in these societies are disseminated using satellites. Even local media products like what is produced in Arab or Asian south eastern countries are also influenced by concepts of western modern culture. In other words, 15000 TV channels will prepare the ground for cultural globalization (Melody, 1995: 6-10).
ABSTRACT Media like internet and satellites have significantly changed the political and cultural interactions of political groups, so that it overshadows the concept of border as one of the element of governments and nations. Therefore, this paper focuses on awareness in selection of the programs and contents of the above-mentioned media and their effects. It also clarifies the range of influences from these media and their power which can clear the way for a realistic approach in dealing with their consequences in Iran and in programming for meeting challenges like cultural invasion. The results show that political-cultural changes cannot be clarified focusing on a single factor, since they do not have causal relationship with media like internet and satellite and should be studied taking into account other influential factors. Therefore, the functionality of these media can be noticed taking into account the environmental conditions and considering them as medium factors. Keywords Internet, satellite, cultural-political changes, telecommunications, socialization, political socialization.
Therefore, questions are posed about their “role” in cultural and political changes in general and in cultural and political changes in developing countries in particular. In other words, the effects of globalization of electronic communications on changes in accepted positions in the structure of different cultural and political systems are studied. Considering these facts, the main research question is: what are the effects of communication devices like internet and satellite on political and
1) INTRODUCTION Internet and satellite are among telecommunication media which do not have the obstacles limiting and controlling the transmission of messages. Rapid growth of these communication devises in the world which has different bordering and forms, made people worried about the future conditions of borders in future on 243
considered as parts of hindering or encouraging elements which lead the changes and whose power and functionality is determined in the framework of social systems which includes the cultural and political systems. This way, media are transferring elements in nature that can play the role of mediating variables. In other words, in the series of events leading to political and cultural changes, media can affect these changes by restating and processing the representations, but their role is not considered as an independent variable. Considering the plurality of globalization processes, confinement of the relationship between the messages of media with their audiences as a result of shortage of time on the part of the audience and close competition of media, alongside the audiences’ variable selection power make us concentrate on understanding these media as “path breakers” for those attitudes in the area of political and cultural issues. Thus we enter the areas related to formation of people’s viewpoints and beliefs or the issues of socialization and political socialization. From this perspective, there is a necessary and meaningful distinction between the existence of a message on the one side and its acceptance on the other. We do not intend here to explain the processes of socialization and political socialization, but we will point at the structural position of mass media in this regard (Rabiei, 2001). A point which can help us understand the “ambiguity” in the “role” of these media is the combination of primary and secondary factors in the processes of socialization and political socialization. Mass media which are among the secondary factors have entered the realm of primary factors through utilizing new communication technologies. Their access to inside of families have consequences for family and its influence as the main factor in educating people, on socialization and political socialization processes. What may
cultural changes in developing countries? The hypothesis thereon are posed as: internet and satellite, through indirect but effective entrance into socialization and political socialization processes in developing countries, prepares the ground for political and cultural changes which differ depending on education rate in each society(Araqchi,1998). 2) THE ROLE OF INTERNET AND SATELLITE IN POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CHANGES Internet and satellite as international media has high potentials in transmitting messages. In fact, these two are among the greatest message conveyers in the world. Paying attention to this fact can help us in understanding their effects in the area of political and cultural changes, but besides the influencing power and positive or negative effects these media have, we should pay attention to the other side of the coin that is their audiences and the systems dominating them. That is because nowadays the concept of media enforcement has been rejected and proven wrong. The purpose of the hypothesis here is to pinpoint this fact which can be a good guide in analyzing cultural and political challenges of these media for nations and governments. Nowadays, one of the outcomes of globalization is the outspread of information at a global level or the globalization of awareness. In fact, the main audiences available for these media are people living in cities who, in spite of different local and national positions resulting from modern life, have a progressive analysis and understanding power. Thus, the answer to the question of the role of internet and satellite in cultural and political changes of (developing) nations depends on analyzing the applicants and change factors (the receivers of messages) and the systems or regimes they are in. based on a system approach, media are 244
we have to consider different layers of cultural and political changes in order to: 1) prevent the exaggeration made about their influence and 2) consider their utilization and reaction as they are, i.e. plural and relative. It seems that if the role of these media is analyzed from this perspective, the issue of cultural invasion and different ways to deal with it will take a novel and creative form.
suffer the society is the unconscious impressibility resulting from these media (Ashna, 2002). Jean Baudrillard writes about “the culture of mass media” in this way: behind “the use of images” by imperialism a reading system is revealed. That is, there exists increasingly just what can be read (what must be read, i.e. fictions). Thus, the reality of the world or its history is no longer important, instead, the internal coherence of reading system is prominent. If we want to use Mc Lohan’s terms, we should say each medium imposes its own message and what we “use” is a purified world reinterpreted by a technical and “fictional” code (Baudrillard, 1380: 115). Therefore, we can say that the two issues, i.e. “the conditions of cultural and political systems” and “conditions of receivers of messages” from different respects clarify the role of internet and satellite in the country. Thus, if internet and satellite messages are considered as external factors affecting political and cultural changes and their efforts and success are focused on in the framework of cultural diffusion and political implications, we should assess the internal factors affecting changes in political and cultural systems in order to be able to determine the rate of their effects (Naghshine, 1998). This way, instead of assuming every political and cultural change as the consequence of these media and their messages, we seek the reasons for their acceptance – the two issues mentioned above. Moreover, and the success or failure of people responsible for making values or culture reproduction are criteria for determining the rate of influences from internet and satellite in cultural and political changes. This is related to Hoebel's serious warning about the study of diffusion. Diffusion is not a simple process; instead, it’s more like a carriage which carries a cultural element around the world (Hoebel, 2001). These facts show that in determining the role of internet and satellite in cultural and political changes in (developing) societies,
3) RESEARCH FINDINGS In this study, considering the fact that the issue at hand requires longitudinal and repetitive methodology, research findings from different periods of time have been used to enrich the conclusions. Thus, the research findings are not confined to a specific research or time period. Generally, random and cluster sampling were used. In a research done by the Research and Instruction Undersecretary of the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance in 1374 using a random sample of 3540 people in 15 Iranian cities the following results were obtained for the question of “how do you usually become aware of the events and news in the country?”. The results are grouped based on “gender”, “age group”, “education”, “Marital status” and “income”( Mohseni,1998). Although in this research, direct reference is not made to internet and satellite as media for obtaining information about events and news in the country, considering the differences and similarities between internet and satellite on the one side and radio and TV on the other, we can use the results and draw the following conclusions: The relationship between gender and news media is significant (X2=47.6, p=0.000), but TV is more successful in providing women with news (74.2 % for women and 67.2% for men). Newspaper is more favored by men (15.5% for men and 9.2% for women).
245
Table 1: how people become aware of the events and news
gender
Age group
education
Marital status
Income of Family’ breadwinner (10000 Rials) total
m f 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 +55 Illiterate Literate without degree Elementary Guidance school Diploma Associate Degree B.A. and over unknown Single Married Divorced Widow Unknown 0-20 21-30 31-50 51-100 +101 unknown
Radio No. % 181 10.7 151 8.5 41 5.7 41 5.6 58 8.3 83 11.7 116 16.9 66 15.5
TV No. % 1182 67.2 1320 74.2 526 73.3 529 72.5 496 71.2 512 72.2 439 64 285 67.1
Newspapers No. % 273 15.5 163 9.3 97 13.5 106 14.5 105 15.1 72 10.2 56 8.2 14 3.3
conversations No. % 61 3.5 93 5.2 36 5 34 4.7 25 3.6 23 3.2 36 5.2 32 7.5
other No. % 18 1 11 0.6 4 0.6 9 1.2 7 1 2 0.3 7 1 -
unknown No. % 38 2.2 42 2.4 14 1.9 11 1.5 6 0.9 17 2.4 32 4.7 28 6.6
31
12.7
`182
74.6
9
3.7
18
7.4
-
-
4
1.6
62
9.8
503
79.2
42
6.6
15
2.4
2
0.3
11
1.7
56
8.5
498
75.6
66
10
23
3.5
6
0.9
10
1.5
72
7.2
707
70.6
166
16.6
40
4
8
0.8
9
0.9
14
8.3
106
62.7
35
20.7
7
4.1
3
1.8
4
2.4
38
9.7
213
54.3
103
26.3
16
4.1
10
2.6
12
2.1
56 257 3 22 -
7.2 10 9.4 13.9 11.9 8.7 8.8 8.7 6.1 9.4 9.6
8 515 1849 23 112 3 702 595 481 318 88 318 2502
57.1 66 72.3 71.9 67.9 60 72.9 79.6 70.5 64 59.9 66.7 70.7
1 141 279 4 12 76 65 105 102 35 53 436
7.1 18.1 10.9 12.5 7.3 7.9 8.4 15.4 20.5 23.8 11.1 12.3
3 43 97 12 2 53 26 20 18 10 27 154
21.4 5.5 3.8 7.3 40 5.5 3.4 2.9 3.6 6.8 5.7 44
7 21 1 1 3 8 7 2 8 29
0.9 0.8 0.6 0.1 0.4 1.2 1.4 1.2 1.7 0.8
2 18 55 2 5 16 18 8 9 3 26 80
14.3 2.3 2.2 6.3 3 1.7 2.3 1.2 1.8 2 5.5 2.3
X2 47.6 P=0.000 102.9 P=0.000
238.2 P=0.000
50.2 P=0.000
114.7 P=0.000
of visual media like TV satellite and internet should be considered as factors among others affecting cultural and political changes. On the other hand, the significance of the relationship between other variables (age group, marital status, and income) and ways of obtaining information about events and news in the country show that the change factor is not just the technological transformation and cultural-technical structure of the media. That is, the changes in people’s cultural and political conditions (employment, education, income, …) are effective in this transformation. In a survey with a sample of 300 persons randomly chosen in Tehran the following results were obtained: In the survey 182 male participants (60.67 percent) and 112 female participants (37.33) answered the questions with higher participation going to men.
Comparing these figures with those of a 1353 research by Research Centre for Communication and Development Sciences shows that the role of press in providing women with news have increased significantly from 1353 to 1374. In 1353, women who got news from press were 5 percent while this increased to 9.2 percent in 1374. Naturally, this report is related to the increase in women education in recent years; and had been under the influence of increase in their political awareness. The second conclusion is that the relationship between education and news media is statistically significant (X2=248/2, p=0.000). Results show that with the increase in education, the significance of radio and TV decreases. The results show that since audiences are not mere receivers and in today’s world, specifically in Iran, peoples’ awareness and education have increased, the effects 246
Frequency distribution and participant percentage according to age is analyzed and those of age 24-34 comprised 34 percent (102 participants) of the sample which is the highest percentage. The lowest percentage goes to participants over 44 years old (34 participants or 11.3 percent). Thus the young class of the society or the second generation of the Islamic revolution has the highest participants. The frequency distribution according to education showed that most of the participants (105 persons or 35 percent) has a B.A. or B.Sc. degree. The lowest figure goes to participants with M.A, M.Sc. and above (39 participants or 13 percent). Thus, we can assess the quality of responses considering the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; education.
using internet may also show that most people are familiar with it and use it as a mass medium. Table 4: frequency and percentage distribution for using the type of mass media
frequency 205 65
percent 68.33 21.67
12
4
300
100
percent 71.33
No Without answer Total
74 12 300
24.67 4 100
20.67 35 18 21 5.33 100
Reason
frequency
percent
Instructional programs Sports programs Political programs Films and series Without answer Total
62
20.67
105 54 63 16 300
35 18 21 5.33 100
In Table 5 frequency and percentage distribution for the reason of using satellite is analyzed. In this survey, most students reported they use satellite for watching films and series (214 participants or 71.33 percent). Also, 85 participants (28.33 percent) and 51 participants (17 percent) said they use satellite to watch instructional and political programs respectively. Thus we can say that almost one third of the population use satellite to watch films and series. In Table 6 frequency and percentage distribution for the reason of using internet is analyzed. In this survey, 141 participants (47 percent) reported fun programs, 83 participants (27.67 percent) using scientific
Table 3: frequency and percentage distribution for using internet frequency 214
percent
62 105 54 63 16 300
Table 5: frequency and percentage distribution for the reason of using satelliteÂ
In Table 2 Frequency and percentage distribution for using satellite is analyzed. In this survey, 205 participants (68.33 percent) said they use satellite as a mass media. The high percentage of people using satellite may show the increasing level of attention paid to it in the society.
Using internet Yes
frequency
Radio TV Satellite Internet54 Without answer Total
In Table 4 frequency and percentage distribution for the type of mass media used is analyzed. In this survey, 105 participants (71.33 percent) said they prefered TV and 63 participants (21 percent) said they preferred internet as a mass media in their leisure time. Thus, TV as a national medium stands first in Tehran to be used by people in their leisure time.
Table 2: Frequency and percentage distribution for using satellite Using satellite Yes No Without answer Total
Media
In Table 3 frequency and percentage distribution for using internet is analyzed. In this survey, 214 participants (71.33 percent) said they use internet as a mass media. The high percentage of people 247
resources and 42 participants (14 percent) obtaining economic information as the reason for using internet. Thus we can say that almost half of the population use internet to use fun programs therein.
models from satellite film characters. In this survey, 186 participants (62 percent) reported that they choose a character that supports justice as a model. 52 participants (17.33 percent) reported conservative characters and 45 participants (15 percent) reported patient and rough characters as their model chosen from films. Thus we can say that over half of the people watching satellite movies in Tehran prefer to choose just characters as their model.
Table 6: frequency and percentage distribution for the reason of using internet Reason Hobby programs Obtaining economic information Obtaining political information Using scientific resources Without answer Total
frequency 141 42
percent 47 14
23
7.67
83
27.67
11 300
3.66 100
Table 9: frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about the effects of satellite programs on the audiences’ attitude and behavior Opinion about the effects of satellite programs on attitude and behavior positive negative Somewhat positive Without answer total
Table 7: frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about choosing their fashion from mass media Media TV Satellite Internet None Without answer Total
frequency 10 52 21 201 16 300
percent 3.33 17.33 7 67 5.34 100
92 71 134
30.67 33.67 44.66
3 300
1 100
Table 10: frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about the effects of satellite programs on the audiences’ beliefs
Table 8: frequency and percentage distribution for participants’ choosing models from satellite film characters frequency 52 45 12 186 5 300
percent
In Table 9 frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about the effects of satellite programs on the audiences’ attitude and behavior are analyzed. In this survey, 134 participants (44.66 percent) assessed these effects on their own behavior and attitude as somewhat positive and 92 participants (30.67 percent) as positive. 71 participants (23.67 percent) reported these effects as negative. Thus we can say that over half of the population assessed the effects of satellite programs on their behavior and attitude as positive.
In Table 7 frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about choosing their fashion from mass media is analyzed. In this survey, 201 participants (67 percent) reported that none of mass media is effective in their choosing fashions. 52 participants (17.33 percent) reported satellite and 21 participants (7 percent) reported internet as effective factors in their choosing fashions. Thus we can say that the role of internet and satellite in this area is not significant.
Model character Conservative Patient despotic Favoring justice Without answer total
frequency
Opinion about the effects of satellite programs on beliefs In agreement In contradiction Without effect As alternative Without answer total
percent 17.33 15 4 63 1.67 100
In Table 8 frequency and percentage distribution for participants’ choosing 248
frequency
percent
97 68 101 30 4 300
32.33 22.67 33.67 10 1.33 100
In Table 10 frequency and percentage distribution for the participants’ opinions about the effects of satellite programs on the audiences’ beliefs are analyzed. In this survey, most of the participants (101 participants or 33.67 percent) reported that these programs have no effect on their beliefs. 97 participants (33.32 percent) reported the programs were in agreement with their beliefs and 68 participants (22.67 percent) reported they are against their beliefs. 30 participants (10 percent) reported the effects of satellite programs on their beliefs as an alternative factor. Thus we can say that almost all participants assess the effects of these programs in agreement with their beliefs. In another research done on male and female Rahnamaei (guidance school) and high school students comprising a sample of 1002 participants chosen by cluster sampling method, the following results were obtained.
part of the audiences. Thus, the audiences of visual media like TV, video, satellite and internet use these devices as a hobby and instructional purposes are not significant in this regard. 4) CONCLUSION The popularity of different media and their penetration in different layers of human life have made life without them very difficult, if not impossible. About internet and satellite, the main point is their popularity. In fact, because of their “distribution” power on the one hand and continuous presence in societies on the other, media issues get a direct relationship with “changes” which is not necessarily causal. Therefore, thinking about the relationship between the dynamic power of societies and their environment with media like satellite poses a significant question about explaining different changes including political and cultural ones: What is the role of internet and satellite among the factors leading to political and cultural changes? In this paper we tried to focus on organizing processes of attitudinal and intellectual frameworks and determine the factors for impressing and impressibility. In this regard, the processes of socialization and political socialization – which include assessments of present and favored cultural circumstances- as the common point of media, were considered as important elements in different processes like family. We showed that the emergence of new variables (like internet and satellite) causes an interference of sources and alters the patterns of political and cultural changes. This interference has many consequences including frangibility and weakening of the least reproduction of attitudinal and intellectual frameworks supporting the current and favored political and cultural circumstances. Therefore, in analyzing the various responses to the question of “what should we do?” in the political and cultural areas,
Table 11: frequency and distribution of participants’ using or not using the media Media TV video satellite
Using frequency percent 968 97.7 624 66 248 27.2
Not using frequency percent 23 2.3 322 34 664 72.8
According to the results, TV and video have the highest usage among the population respectively. Using satellite filled the third rank with only 27.2 percent of the participants using it. Of course these results, as the researcher says, should be analyzed considering the prohibition of satellite in Iran. Priority of purposes for using visual media was asked and revealed the following results. Table 12 priorities in using visual media Instructional Scientific Music Films and plays
1st 77 145 199 601
2nd 123 201 195
3rd 298 296 166 70
4th 296 171 301 54
5th 1 1 240 3
Score 2.97 3.39 4.45
As can be seen, the research findings supports previous findings and shows that films and plays got more attention on the 249
i.e. the types and orientation of cultural and political changes, attention is attracted toward new variables and their emergence. However, as expected and stated in the hypothesis, the “role” of internet and satellite, if considered along with other factors affecting cultural and political changes surrounded by the social system, are noticeable as path breaking factors. It’s worth noticing that this role has a relative high power in its own right, a fact which has made internet and satellite prominent. But we should not forget that cultural and political areas in every society are not easily changeable; therefore, cultural diffusion and political implications through internet and satellite are not effective and do not have absolute power unless the internal political and social conditions of a country are suitable for them. In a general conclusion, we can say that the role of internet and satellite in cultural and political changes of developing countries is an intervening and medium role which alters depending on internal political and cultural circumstances and the conditions of socialization and political socialization which determine the receivers of message. This alteration is the reflection of cultural and political potentials of each society which include a wide variety of capabilities. This may prevent the analyst to assess the role of internet and satellite as an independent variable causing political and cultural changes directly. Empirical evidence shows that the effects of internet and satellite is limited to specific levels and areas, and they are used most in the areas like film and hobby programs. Therefore, their role is significant taking into account these areas and their relationship with political and cultural changes.
REFERENCES Araqchi, A. (1998) Internet: A new area of cultural interactions. (B. Sarookhani and M. Mohseni, Trans.), Tehran: Etelaat. Ashna, H. (2002) Internet and politicalsocial stability of Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran: Strategic Studies Research Centre, 215-216. Baudrillard, J. (2001) The culture of mass media, (Sh. Ahmadzade, Trans),Tehran: Arghanoon Philosophical, Literary, Cultural Quarterly,. (19), 93-115 Cazeneuve, J. (1963) The sociology of mass media, (B. Sarookhani, and M. Mohseni, Trans.), Tehran: Etelaat Darani, K. (2002) The use of mass media by Middle and High school students in Tehran, Negahe Hozeh. Garaudy Roger. (1998) Lecture in Office of political and International Studies. Hoebel, Adamson.(2001) The effects of cultural diffusion on culture change (N. Fazeli, Trans.) ,Cultural Research Quarterly, Research letters, (2 and 3), 300309. Melody, W. H. (1995) Information in fras Trvc True of the Future: AMCI: Conference, Malasia. Mohseni, M. (1996) An analysis of Socialcultural attitudes and behaviors in Iran. Tehran: Ministry of Islamic Guidance, Research and Instruction Undersecretary. Naghshine, N. (1997) The expansion of internet in Islamic Republic of Iran,Information Quarterly (Faslname Etela Resani), 13 (3), 309-312. Rabiei, A. (2001) The sociology of changes in values. Tehran: Culture and Intellect (Farhang va Andishe), 45-48.
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The Role of the Confidence in Developing the Distance Education for Religious Courses in Iran R. Mohebbi Majd1 and Parviz Salmani2 1 Payame Noor University, Iran (H1mm2@yahoo.com, m.majd64@yahoo.com) 2 Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation (p.salmani@encyclopaediaislamica.com) those have welcomed the lessons of Qom Seminary professors (ulama), online presented on the internet, has been far less than all expectations. This article is going to study the role of the confidence in developing the Distance Education for religious courses, especially in Iran.
ABSTRACT Nothing like confidence may make development in the Distance Education. The Distance Education would fail in catching its goals, without attracting the students' confidence, even though all the bases and equipments for initiating and developing the Distance Education are prepared. This point is very important in educating the religious courses. The method of teaching in these courses has been face to face and teacher-based, through the teacher's conversation with the students in the classes or the mosques, till now. So, no doubt that changing this kind of education (teacher-based) into the Distance Education which is student-based, not only needs high costs for preparing the technical requirements, but also will face the opposition of some of the Presidents and instructors of the seminaries (religious schools).It seems that those who are to execute the Distance Education project don't have enough motive. The most important reason is that some of the merits of traditional education in the seminaries, such as presenting on time in the class and practicing some moralities, will be lost in the method of the Distance Education and the students will get used to laziness. Additionally, some difficulties for producing educational contents and technical problems will appear as well. Even though, such these difficulties aren't strange in Iran, their role in making or destroying the confidence of the students is very important. That's why, the number of
Keywords: Virtual Education, Islamic seminary courses, confidence, e-learning 1) INTRODUCTION Although making confidence in the Users of the web to exchange their personal, financial, scientific and â&#x20AC;Śdata's is very difficult; but bringing the confidence back to the users who have lost it, more or less, is more difficult than it. Personal and bank data of 25 million people of those who were under the financial support of the centers affiliated to the British Government, was lost in 2007. What was more important than the government's actions to prevent bank misusing and â&#x20AC;Ś of these data, was making the lost confidence of the people of Britain again; but it was very difficult. Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Vince Cable said in the Parliament of Britain: "After this disaster how can the public possibly have confidence in the vast centralized databases needed for the compulsory ID card scheme." The confidence of the web users to the bank and financial interchanges is very breakable and is lost with the least abuse; but the confidence in scientific and educational interchanges, because of the 251
1- Developing the Islamic theology and increasing the number of the users of the seminary courses especially, females and those who are fond of them all over the world, by increasing the capacity of the admission of the e-learning volunteers for these lessons. 2- Saving the costs of building the educational spaces and preserving and taking care of them. 3- Preparing the possibility of direct contact with the distinguished professors and senior scholars for all those who like to study religious courses and the seminaries located in deprived cities and far distant places. This will omit or at least reduces the students and professors educational emigrations, and also their expensive travels. 4- Preparing the justice possibility and equal fortunes for the students and users residing in the deprived and far distant cities or in the foreign countries to choose any course, lesson or the professor they like. Unfortunately, gaining these goals and results has been faced some difficulties and obstacles in Iran till now. Making confidence in e-learning/virtual education users is possible, in case of removing or decreasing the obstacles.
rareness and the lack of abuse, is more stable and isn't simply lost. 2) VIRTUAL EDUCATION OF RELIGIOUS COURSES IN IRAN It is several years that the islamic courses are presented on the web and internet. Many efforts have been made to create and strengthen the sub constructs of Virtual Education of seminary courses, and some steps have been taken for producing the educational contents. Now, jurisprudence (fiqh), principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), and Interpretation of Quran classes of some of the senior scholars and imitated authorities who mostly live in Qom city, are broadcasted live, via Bahar Voice Chanel and Internet as "Jurisprudence School", and the users from all over the world can receive them . In addition, the project of "MetroEternet" cable network as the most important sub construct for making the internet comprehensive system of the Iranian Seminaries, with the possibility of transmitting the data in a secure space, has been put into operation. This network services will cover all other iranian cities in the near future. Audio and written archive of the most of the seminary lectures, which has been prepared in the form of CD, DVD, Audio Files, etc, can be bought or received in free charge via web network. Moreover, admitting and educating the seminary students of different levels, especially the girls residing in the cities far from Qom city, are being accomplished now. 3) GOALS AND RESULTS VIRTUAL EDUCATION SEMINARY COURSES IN IRAN
4) OBSTRACLES OF MAKING CONFIDENCE IN OFFERING AND USING THE VIRTUAL EDUCATION OF THE SEMINARY COURSES IN IRAN Weakness of technical substructures, the lack of proper capacity of transmission and communication lines for broadcasting videoconferences and Qom professors live lectures in the internet network, and high expenses for using these equipments are some of the most important obstacles prevent from making confidence in the volunteers of using the e-learning for the religious lectures in Iran. In fact, for these and some other problems ;such as technical difficulties, repeated disconnections, and
OF OF
Virtual education of the seminary courses in Iran pursues the following goals and results:
252
ethics, just through participation of the students in the classes and receiving the direct guidance of professors are useful, otherwise they not only may not gain their goals but may become harmful and make the culture and morals of the society regress instead of development and progress.
improper quality, which is regular in Iran, and internet Servers can't solve it, lectures of the Qom imitated authorities broadcasted on the world wide web weren't welcomed well, and the amount of the users has been less than expected. At the beginning, the educational contents were so poor that most of the users couldn't have confidence on them, but now, after several years they have developed so much and are being completed very fast. Some of the developed organizations, such as Computer Research Center of Islamic Sciences and Jurisprudence Center of Pure Imams (a.s.) in Qom city, and some other scientific centers in other cities of Iran, have taken long steps in this way, and made confidence in the users through producing perfect contents.
In fact those students who don't participate regularly in classes, and don't accompany the seminary professors, learn neither respecting the teachers nor good manners of presence in the class, and good characters of professors. The e-learners are often exposed to the danger of laziness and the lack of activity. In addition, they may become scholars with good words but without deeds and be reduced to a mechanical Robot.
The other obstacle that at first sight doesn't seem to be important, and now perhaps isn't considerable in programming for virtual education/e-learning in the world, is the lack of enough motive and disagreement of some of the seminary professors and managers who are to be the executers of virtual education project, with the development of it. They have their own reasons for disagreement. Some of their reasons are historically and experimentally considerable.
5) CONCLUSION The best solution for bringing the necessity of developing and deepening the virtual education of religious courses, and the opinion of those scholars mentioned above together, is excepting some of the especial lessons or courses are morally and mystically important, from the virtual education/e-learning. By this way, the attention and the confidence of not only the students but also the seminary managers would be attracted, and the Moslems all over the world can easily learn islamic theology via virtual education/e-learning system.
The most important reason of these managers for disagreement is the necessity of paying attention to the islamic politeness and moralities, besides educating the seminary courses. They think that attending the classes and meeting the purged and moral scholars and professors in the islamic seminaries, gradually helps the students to become pious, moral and purged like them, besides learning seminary courses. These merits and achievements of teacher and class-based education aren't things easily gained via elearning and virtual education which is student-based. More over, some of the lessons such as Mysticism and practical
REFERENCES November21, 2007-â&#x20AC;&#x153;25 million exposed to risk of ID fraudâ&#x20AC;?. Available: http://www. timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article29107 05.ece September27, 2009. Available: http://www.rasael.ir/?task=show&nid=168 January29, 2010. Available: http://www.rasael.ir/?task=show&nid=329Â 253
http://www.hawzah.net/hawzah/Magazines /MagArt.aspx?MagazineNumberID=5054 &id=44852
Â
http://www.rasael.ir/?task=show&nid=168. http://www.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn =8806040183
254
e-Learning in Nigerian Higher Education: The Perceived Role of Academic Libraries B. Magaji Abubakar Department of Library and Information Sciences, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria (magaji02@yahoo.com) ABSTRACT
include poor funding of the higher education sector, lack of proper ICT facilities, erratic power supply, as well as low ICT literacy rate. The paper concludes that e-learning has come to stay at all levels of global educational system, and that Nigerian education system can not flourish in this information age without the adoption of e-learning, as such all hands must be on deck to ensure its adoption. Also appropriate academic library resources are required in order to ensure its success.
Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has brought about tremendous changes in higher education across the globe. One of such changes has manifested in the form of e-learning. Various technologies such as computers, Internet and the intranet are now used in various universities globally for dissemination of knowledge and information. e-Learning, refers to the use of new Information Technologies in disseminating learning, new skills, and knowledge. In view of the current developments and happenings in higher education at the global level, this paper posits that e-learning has become inevitable in Nigerian higher institutions, if they are to be part of the global learning environment and also play a key role there. Academic Libraries are libraries attached to institutions of higher learning such as the Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges where the primary concern is teaching, learning and research activities. They are therefore expected to provide supportive services to their parent institutions in the forms of e-resources, ebooks and e-journals to support the elearning initiatives. The paper discusses the role of the academic libraries in the elearning process. It also discusses the potential benefits of e-learning to the Nigerian higher education system. However, within this context this paper also discusses some of the major challenges that will likely hinder the adoption of e-learning in Nigeria which
Keywords e-Learning, Higher Education, Academic Libraries, Nigeria.
1. INTRODUCTION The rapid and progressive advancement in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) which is considered by many writers as pervasive (Karisiddappa, 2004; Minishi-Majanja, 2007; Abubakar, 2010) has brought about tremendous and massive revolution in all facets of human endeavor. These developments have had a positive effect on education and other sectors. In the information sector, ICT has completely revolutionized the way information is generated, acquired, stored, retrieved and disseminated. Similarly, in the field of education in general, it has made a tremendous impact in the way and manner research and teaching is conducted. Mabowanku and Okwilage (2004) notes that IT has made it possible for scientists, 255
teachers and learners to access information from non-traditional sources from all over the world, as well as facilitating the presentation and manipulation of data. Similarly, Kumbhar (2009) has observed that developments in ICT have brought about psychological, sociological as well as technological changes in the field of education. He further notes that the impact of ICT is now noticeable in formal and informal education, traditional and professional education as well as at all levels of education, which has now manifested in the form of e-learning. Thus, the practice of e-learning has now taken a centre stage in the global educational system due to its numerous benefits.
2. CONCEPT OF e-LEARNING The concept of e-learning has a variety of definitions, and has been defined by scholars in different ways. However, the concept denotes learning that is delivered via technology and online format with the aim of enhancing teaching and learning processes. According to Shiful Islam, Chowdhury and Anwarul Islam (2009), “elearning is: I. Learning facilitated and supported through the use of information and communication technologies II. Education offered using electronic delivering methods such as CDROMS, video conferencing, websites and e-mail- often used in distance learning program III. Learning that is accomplished over the Internet, a computer network, via CD-ROM, interactive TV or Satellite broadcast”. Moses (2008) citing Sarojini (2007), states that “e-learning is the transmission of learning content using information technology and often refers to delivery using intra or Internet. Eke (2010) defines e-learning as a learning that is provided either via the Internet or any other electronic means or gadgets, as such it is a learning that is enabled by electronic technology. Catherall (2005) on the other hand view e-learning as any technology allowing the delivery of learning resources or communication between tutor and student. Thus in a nutshell, the practice of e-learning involves the use and application of ICT in the delivery and enhancement of learning in this digital age.
Nigeria is a country that is geographically located on the coast of West Africa. It is characterized by unique features’ and great diversity in almost all its sectors. With a population of over 150 million people (UN, 2010), Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and accounts for 47 percent of West Africa’s population (World Bank, 2010). Nigeria is a nation that is blessed with abundant natural resources that spreads across the nation. Its capital city is Abuja. Higher education in Nigeria is provided in Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges. Presently, there are a number of universities, polytechnics, and colleges. Nigeria possesses the largest university system in Sub-Saharan Africa (Saint, Hartnett and Strassner, 2003; Africa News, 2010). University system in Nigeria is under the supervision of the National Universities Commission (NUC), a parastatal body under the nation’s Federal Ministry of Education. While on the other hand, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) oversees Polytechnics and Colleges respectively.
3. BENEFITS OF e-LEARNING TO NIGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION The benefits of e-learning to the Nigerian higher education system cannot be over 256
emphasized. Although, Eke (2010) has noted that in Africa, e-learning is still at an infancy stage. However, despite that, the practice of e-learning offers immeasurable benefits to students because of its convenience, flexibility, accessibility, and cost effectiveness. e-Learning system allows access to resources from any Internet-connected computer, rather than limited access on a university campus (Catherall, 2005). Also Huang (2010) notes that under an e-learning environment, students can learn at anytime, anywhere, at home or at a workplace at their own pace as long as they have access to a computer.
4. ROLE OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN e-LEARNING Academic libraries are libraries that are found in institutions of higher learning such as universities, polytechnics, and colleges. Their main mandate is to support teaching, learning and research activities of their respective institutions by providing information services to the members of their communities, which comprises of students, lecturers, and researchers. With the advent of ICT, the position and roles of the academic libraries has dramatically changed. More than ever before, academic libraries are now expected to provide information resources and services in the form of digital libraries. Thus, academic libraries are therefore expected to take advantage and opportunities offered by the emerging ICTs in order to provide quality services, and at the same time support e-learning programs.
Besides these, e-learning, ensures quality in the education been delivered. According to Abu Bakar, Harande and Abubakar (2009) e-learning have the potentials of providing quality learning, because the knowledge of experts and educators across the boundaries can be utilized by students at different levels. Furthermore, e-learning in higher education can be of immense benefits to intending post- graduate students who may be interested in part-time studies, because it provides an opportunity for an alternative form of education and training. Huang (2010) opined that e-learning can be considered as an alternative to traditional instruction for students who want to pursue a part-time post-graduate programme but who are constrained because of job responsibilities and time. These and many more reasons makes the adoption of e-learning vital to Nigerian higher education.
Provision of information services in a networked environment, and most importantly in a form of a digital library as against the traditional library is seen as one of the major role of academic libraries in e-learning. Jayaprakash and Venkatramana (2006) notes that the reason for using digital libraries in e-learning is that it can store and manage large amounts of digital content such as full text, course materials, bibliographic databases, library catalogues, image and audio clips, thus providing an environment conducive for supporting elearning, because collections of libraries can be accessed. Caldwell (2006) has noted that academic libraries in most instances constitute one of the stakeholders in the creation of online learning and research resources; they in addition offer access to those resources by ensuring that 257
their communities have access to them and therefore, playing a vital role to e-learning. Sen (2009) also observes that academic libraries apply appropriate communication technologies in support of e-learning and e-research by providing seamless access to electronic resources and services.
VI. e-tutoring, either in the form of cotutoring on an academic program, or the libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s programmes. 5. MAJOR CHALLENGES OF eLEARNING IN NIGERIA Despite the potentials and the thriving opportunities offered by e-learning globally, in Nigeria, the efforts of academic libraries in supporting e-learning is severely challenged by a number of obstacles. These include: a. Poor financial support to academic libraries and education in general. In Nigeria, the entire educational system is grossly underfunded. Successive governments have always paid lip service to education and academic libraries. The result is that education continues to be in shambles. eLearning cannot survive under this kind of unfortunate condition. b. Inadequate infrastructures. e-Learning in Nigerian universities and educational institutions is still a dream because of weak and poor ICT infrastructure (Ajadi, Salawu and Adeoye, 2008). c. Poor, limited and erratic Internet connectivity as well as high cost of bandwidth access. d. Lack of ICT knowledge among students, educators and academic librarians. Most educators, students and librarians lack the required skills in ICTs which serves as a strong barrier to e-learning. e. Epileptic and erratic power supply in the country which has a negative effect on all e-learning related issues.
Although the status of digital libraries in Nigeria is not encouraging. This is because library development in Nigeria can be described in a form of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;one step forward and two steps backwardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Nevertheless, the recent establishment of digital libraries in three (3) Nigerian Universities i.e. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (A.B.U.); University of Lagos; and the University of Nigeria Nsukka (U.N.N) by the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) Nigeria, as reported in the literature by IT News (2010) can be considered as a springboard for the success of e-learning in Nigeria. Other strategic roles of the academic library in e-learning as highlighted by Shiful Islam, Chowdhury and Anwarul Islam (2009) include: I. development of organizational learning and teaching strategy II. decisions about the selection and purchase of VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) III. managing and advertising the V.L.E., e.g. configuring the system, provision of learning spaces for developments, programmes and tutors IV. setting up and establishing specific elearning environments such as design of site, uploading of materials e.t.c. V. training staff and students in the use of the VLE, as well as providing technical help and support
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(ICT) in Six Nigerian University Library Schools. Library Philosophy and Practice.
6. THE WAY FORWARD a. The need for the government to give adequate concern to education and academic libraries by providing adequate funds to support education, elearning and academic libraries in general. Also the universities and academic libraries should explore more alternative sources of funding. b. Improvement in infrastructure and ICT facilities. c. Improvement in Internet connectivity, as well as the need for reduction in the cost of Internet bandwidth. d. The need for improvement in ICT training among students, lecturers, and academic librarians to ensure full compliance to all e-learning related activities. e. Finally, there is also the need for improvement in basic infrastructures such as electricity supply, without which no any e-learning effort can thrive in the country.
Abu Bakar, A.B., Harande, Y.I. and Abubakar, B.M. (2009). E-learning in Malaysia and Nigeria: A Bibliometric Study. A paper presented at the 8th European Conference on E-learning held at University of Bari, Italy. P.5 Africa News (2010). Nigeria: Experts Examine 50 years of Nigerian Education. Google search, accessed 14/12/2010 Ajadi, T.O., Salawu, I.O. and Adeoye, F.A. (2008). E- learning and Distance Education in Nigeria. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 7(4) Caldwell, R. (2006). Web Accessibility, Elearning, and Academic Libraries. International Journal of Public Information Systems, 1, 1-9
7. CONCLUSION
Catherall, P. (2005). Delivering E-learning for Information Services in Higher Education. Oxford: Chandos. P.2
Academic libraries have a vital role to play in e-learning in Nigerian higher institutions in this digital age. However, their role in this regard is seriously tied down to their efforts in providing attractive and competitive services that will meet the requirements of the 21st century, in order to support the e-learning programmes of their parent institutions. But the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bottom lineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lies in their ability to overcome some of the major frustrations raised in this paper. All hands must be on deck to ensure the success of e-learning in the country.
Eke, H.E. (2010). The Perspective of Elearning and Libraries in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. Library Review, 59(4), 274-290 Huang,
REFERENCES Abubakar, B.M. (2010). Availability and Use of Information Technology and Communication Technology 259
L.K. (2010). Planning and Implementation Framework for a Hybrid E-learning Model: The Context of a Part-time LIS Postgraduate Programme. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 42(1), 45-69
IT
News Africa (2010). http://www.itnewsafrica.com. Accessed 15/12/2010
Sen, S. (2009). Academic Libraries in ETeaching and E-learning. A paper presented at the International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL) held at Delhi University, India, p. 177
Jayaprakash, A. and Venkatramana, R. (2006). Role of Digital Libraries in E-learning. A paper presented at the DRTC Conference on ICT for Digital Learning Environment held at Bangalore, India. P.5
Shiful Islam, M., Chowdhury, S. and Anwarul Islam, M. (2009). LIS Education in E-learning Environment: Problems and Proposal for Bangladesh. A paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Library and Information Education and Practice held at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, p. 521
Karisiddappa, C.R. (2004). Library and Information Science Curriculum for Developing Countries. A paper presented at IFLA General Conference and Council, p. 2 Kumbhar, R. (2009). Use of E-learning in Library and Information Science Education. DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, 29(1), 37-41
UN (2010). UN Data: A World of Information. Google Search, accessed 15/12/2010 World Bank Report on Nigeria (2010). Nigerian Investment.com. Available at http://www.nigeriainvestments.co m/index.php
Mabawonku, I. and Okwilagwe, A. (2004). Lecturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Use of Information Technology in Nigerian Library and Information Science Schools. Gateway Library Journal, 7(2), 2031 Minishi-Majanja, M.K. (2007). Integration of ICTs in Library and Information Science Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. A paper presented at IFLA General Conference and Council, p. 2 Moses, O.O. (2008). Development of Igbo Language E-learning System. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 9(4) Saint, W., Hartnett, T.A. and Strassner, E. (2003). Higher Education in Nigeria: A Status Report. Higher Education Policy, 16, 259-281 260
A Bibliometrics Study on e-Learning Literature of Nigeria Y. Ibrahim Harande Department of Library and Information Sciences Faculty of Education, P.M.B.3011 Kano.Nigeria. (yaibrahimah@yahoo.com) ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the study is to explore on the growth and development of eLearning literature in Nigeria; 19642008. Bibliometrics study was conducted on the literature of eLearning in Nigeria. A number of journal articles were compiled from ERIC database; the terms, “eLearning” AND “Nigeria” were considered as the MESH terms for the search on the database. Bradford`s law of scattering was also applied to the data collected for the study. The findings indicate that, on the growth of the literature, it started very slowly from 1964 and gradually increasing through the period of the study until the year 2001 onwards when the literature experienced high speed and exponential growth. The study also found that, the literature of eLearning in Nigeria is in harmony with the Bradford`s law of distribution and scattering of articles. Core journals were determined as a result of the spread of the literature. The findings generally show that the literature is receiving attention from the scholars and researchers in the country. The study may assist in the selection of relevant materials for libraries and Information centers.
The term e- learning entails learning in an electronically conducive environment. Users can have access to their lessons anywhere any time, so far the environment is electronically friendly. This method of learning encourages learning outside the four wall class rooms and disregard time frame for learning as it is the case in a classroom system. It is a form of learning that gives freedom of learning to groups and individuals. This system of learning provides opportunity for independent learning. Many people hold the view that e-learning is the bedrock of life long learning (LLL). The practice of e-learning is making a remarkable contribution towards the development, perfection, growth, refinement and effective practice of life long learning. The experiences realized in the cause of practicing e-learning exercises, strengthen the life long learning among many diverse communities across the globe. In a document, ITM FAQS (2009) it has been said that, “e-learning can be done using an internet connection, a network, an intranet, or a storage disk. It uses a variety of media like audio, text, virtual environments, video and animation. e- learning is a one-on-one learning method, it is self-paced and it has an experiential-learning format.”
Keywords; e-learning, literature, bibliometrics, periodicals, study, Nigeria.
The above statement shows that a user has freedom of learning a subject at the user’s own pace. The issue of missing a
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lesson does not arise, as the user can have access to the lessons at any point in time. Some people hold the believe that learning in this situation, is more of interactive than the traditional classroom approach. Opportunity for manipulation of learning materials and objects to suit users’ preference is quite available. Flexibility of the system enhances learning processes of the users. The elearning frame (2001) document summed up the whole concept of elearning in four sentences. “E-learning is internet-enabled learning. Components can include content delivery in multiple formats, management of learning experience, and a network community of learners, content developers and experts. e-learning provides faster learning at reduced costs, increased access to learning and clear accountability for all participants in the learning process. In today’s fast-paced culture, organizations that implement e-learning provide their workforce with the ability to turn change in to advantage.”
scientific publications.” Bibliometrics is considered an emerging area of research in the discipline of library and information sciences and has practical approaches in determining the coverage and quality of journals. Hazarika , Goswami , and Das (2003) opined that, “ It is used to identify the pattern of publication , authorship citation and coverage of journal papers in terms of geographic , subject , organization and other related parameters. In their study of authorship patterns, Perianes-Rodriguez, OmeldaGomez and Moya-Anegon (2010) opined that,” Detection and identification of communities with factor analysis is a useful tool for experts in bibliometric and scientometric studies. Likewise the networks obtained are a useful framework for decision making.” The result could help in library resource management and planning strategies for documentation service to the user community of that particular literary discipline. Similarly, Glover and Bowen (2004) hold the view that, “There are many ways with which bibliometrics and citation tools can be used. Bibliometric analysis can be used to take macro-view of research output.” The generality of the usage are centered towards multidirectional approaches and studies on documents and authors taking in to consideration the appropriate mathematical and statistical analysis to be applied. Lo (2010) in his study of genetic engineering research says that,” During the past several decades, plenty studies were done to show the productivities and research impact. There are quite an amount of studies which applied the methods adopted from bibliometrics while periodical articles were used for analyzing.” The result of
However the purpose of this paper is to explore on the growth of e-learning as a new method of learning in Nigeria using Bibliometrics approach. To achieve this purpose, journals that published articles on e-learning in Nigeria will be identified and core productive journals will be determined from the identified journals. Bibliometrics as a research method concern about the nature and manner on which information is presented quantitatively. It is quite flexible and relevant method that could be utilized in evaluating, synthesizing and analyzing both printed and nonprinted sources of information. Mattsson (2008) says that, “ Bibliometrics uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyze and measure the output of
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the analyses done usually exhibits a lot of useful information that could be used in the proper handling of information sources and resources in a given library, information centre, organization or institution.
Kademani, et al 2005; Rousseau; 2002 and Zabid, 2008.) 2. METHODOLOGY The data for the study was extracted from (ERIC) data base. The periodical articles used in the study were identified using Boolean searching approach; “elearning” AND “Nigeria” as the basic search terms. A total number of seventy two (72) periodicals were realized as the result of the searching exercise performed. This number covered the period from 1964-2008. Bibliometrics analysis was therefore conducted on these (72) periodicals identified. The extent of the growth of the literature in the country was determined based on the analysis conducted. Table, 1 and figure 1 give information on the extent of the growth of the literature. Table 2 was also presented to further confirm the extent of the growth of the literature through the frequent appearance of some keywords that constitute “e-learning” through out the period of the study.
Generally, the application of bibliometrics methods can be seen conspicuously. Franceschet, (2009) says that, “Today, bibliometrics is one of the rare truly interdisciplinary research fields. There are important links with philosophy, history and sociology of science, with policy and management studies and with mathematics, physics and computer science.” To buttress on this important point, Wormell (2002) hold the view that,” Bibliometrics, from which informetrics derives, is traditionally associated with the quantitative measure of documentary materials and it embraces all studies which seek to quantify the process of written communication. Bibliometrics refers to a variety of regularities taken from different fields and exhibiting a variety of forms.” Along this line Chang, Wu and Leu (2010),” Use bibliometrics techniques to analyze the status of technical development in the field of carbon nanotube field emission display CNT-FED. The different aspects of patenting activities are compared and the goal of this preliminary analysis is to understand the developmental path and current states of CNT-FED o many disciplines and subject areas. For example, in the area of Thesaurus construction, (Lykke, 2001 and Schneider and Burlund, 2002) can be spotted. In the area of informetrics, (Barillan, 2000; Bjorneborn and Ingwersen, 2001.) In the aspect of collection development, mention could be made of (Shin; 2004; Starr, 2008; Cox, 2008;
In order to find core journals in the subject of e-learning in Nigeria, Bradford-zipf distribution was applied to the collected data. Table 3 and figure 2 clearly shows the extent to which the Bradford`s law was applied to the elearning literature. Table 2; Keywords used in the study and their frequency of usage.
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significant speed. The literature experienced high speed and exponential growth from the year 2001 onwards. Table, 1 and Figure, 1 has clearly shown the trends of development of the literature during the period of the study. Four year interval was used for grouping the data of the study.
Keywords used Frequency of usage Keywords used Frequency of usage Education 18 Teaching and learning 04 Teaching 14 Laboratory 03 Learning 12 University 03 Teachers 11 Development 03 School 08 Program 03 Language 06 Reading 03 Secondary 05 Communities 03 Perspectives 05 Diversity 03 Literacy 05 Distance 03 Culture 05 Training 03 Attitude 05 Adult 03 Perception 05 Combating 03 Students 05 Parent 03 English 04 Science 03 Quality 04
Table 1; Distribution of periodical articles in the literature of e-learning. Year Submissions Cumulative Submission % articles Cumulative % 1964-1968 1 1 1.38 1.38 1969-1972 1 2 1.38 2.77 1973-1976 0 2 0 2.77 1977-1980 0 2 0 2.77 1981-1984 3 5 4.16 6.94 1985-1988 1 6 1.38 8.33 1989-1992 6 12 8.33 16.66 1993-1996 7 19 9.72 26.38 1997-2000 2 21 2.77 29.16 2001-2004 23 44 31.94 61.11 2005-2008 28 72 38.88 100 Figure;1 Growth of the literature of e-learning in Nigeria.
Cumulative submissions
Growth of the literature.
3. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 3.1.Growth of the literature
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 !9641968
19691972
19731976
19771980
19811984
19851988
19891992
19931996
19972000
Year
The trend of growth of the literature could be traced as far back as the year 1964. The growth started slowly and maintained this slow trend until 1981, when the literature started experiencing speed in growth and development. This trend continued tremendously with
3.2.Literature distribution using Bradford-zipf approach
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20012004
20052008
6 3 24 Language culture and curriculum 7 3 27 of education for teaching 8 2 29 online journal of
The pattern, in which the literature spreads, has clearly shown that there is significant scattering, growth and development of the literature in the country under study. To further ascertain the extent of applicability of Bradfordzipf distribution, the journal rank numbers are plotted logarithmically, against the cumulative number of the articles. Traditionally, a classic Bradford-zipf records a lengthy straight line in the middle of the graph. And this literature has such a line in the middle of the graph plotted. This clearly shows that the literature of e-learning is in alliance and harmony with the Bradfordzipf distribution . This shows that the literature of elearning in Nigeria is scattered widely and is growing significantly in the country. Table 3 and Figure 2 clearly show the extent of scatter, spread, dispersion and development of the literature of e-learning in the country. Eight journals were found to be the core journals of the literature. Table 3 exhibits these eight journals and are ranked according to their contributions.
Figure;2 Bradford-zipf distribution of the literature of e-learning of Nigeria.
Bradford-zipf distribution
Cum ulative frequency
80
21
60 50 40 30 20 10 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 Journal rank
REFERENCES Ber-illan, J. (2000) The web as information source on informetrics?-A content analysis. Journal of the American society for information science. 51, 5. 432-482. Bjorneborn, L and Ingwersen, P. (2001) Perspectives of webometrics. Scientometrics, 50, 1. 65-82. Chang, P. Wu, C and Lau, H. (2010) Using patent analyses to monitor the technological Trends in an emerging field of technology: a case of carbon nanotube field Emission display. Scientometrics, 82: 5-19.
Distant
Education 5 3 Language and education
70
0
Ranking Submission Cumulative submission Journal Title 1 6 6 Australian journal of Adult learning 2 5 11 Commonwealth of Learning 3 4 15 International review of open and
18
Turkish
Educational technology.
Table; 3 Ranked orders of the periodicals that produced 2 or more articles and constitute The core periodicals of the literature.
learning. 4 3 online journal of Distance
Journal
Turkish
Cox, J.E. (2008) Citation analysis of graduate dental theses references: implications for 265
Collection development. Collection management, 33, 3. 219-234.
Identifying and visualizing research groups in co-authorship networks. Scientometrics, 82: 307-319.
E- learnframe (2001) About e-learning. Google scholar. Accessed on the 19th March 2010. http://www.learnframe.com
Rousseau. (2002) Journal evaluation: technical and practical issues. Library Trends Volume, 50, 3, p418-439.
Franceschet, M. (2009) Bibliometrics in a nutshell. Google scholar. Accessed 20th March 2010.
Schneider, J W. and Borlund, P.(2002) Preliminary study of the potentiality of bibliometrics methods for the construction of thesaurus. Proceedings of the fourth International conference on conceptions of Library and Information Science. Seattle, W.A. USA July 21-25.2002, 151165.
Hazarika, T. Goswami, K and Das, P. (2003) Bibliometrics analysis of Indian forester: 1991-2000. IASLIC Bulletin 48, 4 213-223. Kademani,B.S.Vijai Kumar,Ganesh Surwase, Anil Sagar,Lalit Mohan,C.R. Gaderao, Anil Kumar, Kalyane, V.L.and Prakasan, E.R. (2005) Scientometrics dimensions innovation communication productivity of the chemistry division at bhabha atomic research centre. Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science, vol.10,; 1.65-89.
Shin, E.J. (2004) Measuring the impact of electronic publishing on citation indicators of education journals. Libri, vol, 54,221-227. Starr, S and Williams, J. (2008). The long tail: a usage analysis of pre1993 print biomedical journal literature. Journal of Medical Library Association.96,1. 20-27.
Lo, S.S. (2010) Scientific linkage of science research and technology development: a case of genetic engineering research. Scientometrics, 82: 109-120.
Tech-FAQ (2009) What is e-learning? Google scholar. Accessed on the 19th March 2010. http://www.techfaq.com
Lykke, N.M. (2001) A framework for work task based thesaurus design. Journal of Documentation, 57, 6 774-97.
Wormell, I. (2002) Informetrics and the use of Bibliographic data in a strategic combination. Proceedings of the fourth International conference on conceptions of Library and Information Science. Seattle, W.A. USA July 21-25.2002, 167183.
Mattsson, P. (2008) Bibliometrics-as important tool in research evaluation. The euroscience, issue 5. Perianes-Rodriguez, A. Omelda-Gomez, C. and Moya-Anegon, F. (2010) Detecting,
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Zabed Ahmed, S.M. and AnisurRahman, M.D. (2008) Nutrition literature of Bangladesh: A Bibliometric study. Malaysian journal of library and information science.13, 1.35-43.
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Political Benefits and Inconveniences of Electronic Government Y. Fozi Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran One of the concepts which is discussed so broadly in political and administrative fields in many countries of the world in recent decades is the concept of “Electronic Government”. This article examines the political benefits and damages of e-Government and also the strategies to reduce these damages will be studied.
ABSTRACT Electronic Government as a new concept in the realm of governance provides new opportunities for the authorities and the citizens; it has not only created a new image of governance and dministration, but has also led to the fact that the top officials of different countries confirm the emergence of the new world of “Information Society”.According to the existing figures, Iran with a population of about 70 million people has 23 million internet users; i.e. 34 per cent of the population of the country. Iran’s share of Middle-East’s Internet users is more than 50 per cent and it has the highest internet growth rate in the Middle-East as well. Between 2000 to 2008, the number of internet users in the country soared from 250000 to 34 million people. Being a comprehensive tool in performing economic, social, office and public tasks, this expanded network has drawn attention due to its efficacy and ability to lay groundwork for advancing towards Electronic government. This article first investigates different aspects and features of Electronic government, the advantages and impacts of it being established, and the effects of employment of information and communication technology in the governments’ performance. Then the situation in regard to advancement of Electronic government in Iran, its aspects and features, and the existing hurdles will be explored.
1. The features of Electronic Government There are different definitions for eGovernment. We can conclude this meaning by considering all of them: Electronic Government (e-gov) is the use of information technology, internet, and other new technologies by the government and public organizations. This will provide necessary facilities for adequate access to the information and governmental services, improvement of the quality of services, and it grants broader opportunities for participation in the democratic processes (Hughes, : 1998, p 75). In brief, four kinds of implementation form the main pillars of e-Government ( Davison: 2005, p 24) which are: 1. The interaction between government and citizens (G2C, government to citizen). This interaction is the most important and the most extended implementation of e-gov. 2. Relationship between governments (G2G, inter-agency relationship). This eases the relationship between governments. 3. Government and business enterprises relationship (G2B, government to business enterprises). It was the first relation which was developed; therefore the needs of the business community were paid
Keywords: Electronic government, good governance, Islamic Republic of Iran 1) INTRODUCTION
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attention to. These services are multi-faceted. Economic enterprises, supplier, and customers interact with each other. 4. The interaction between government and employees (G2E, government to employees). This type of relationship is to strengthen the internal governmental network and human resources information exchange is very important. 2. THE POLITICAL BENEFITS OF THE ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT The most important political benefits of electronic government can be summarized as preparing the grounds for integrated governance mechanism, as well as deepening good governance indicators. We are going to study these benefits: 2-1- Electronic Government paves the road to an integrated governance and strengthening the government authority Integrated and network governance is one of the goals of e-gov that can be particularly important for the national security of the countries. Focus on strengthening internal relations between
the concepts of e-government and integrated government is the infrastructure of new strategies of the e-gov in the countries. The ultimate goal of integrated governance is to improve collaboration between public servers on one hand and on the other hand is an impalpable but effective control of the citizens, and also strengthening the government authority in order to provide national security. For this purpose the government reengineers the internal and intergovernment processes through integrated governance with effort to meet the needs. This will lead to increased capability and capacity of the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immediate and rapid response to information received from multiple servers. The increase in ability to respond to crisis is another advantage of integration. Moreover the compatibility and information security will increase through the creation of common standards. It also improves the policy coordination between multiple public servers and the faster and more effective implementations of government decisions through data and information sharing.
- Avoiding balancing of different sectors of the state and integrating Integrated governance and increased government authority
- Exchange of information between government departments and large scale information management - Monitor economic and tax data and social records of the citizens - Increase impalpable control over the economical, social, and political behaviors of the citizens - Increase social and political security - Increase communication and coordination of various parts of political system - Quicken the reaction in facing crisis 270
maturity of democracy thanks to information technology. 2. Rule of law: Establishment of goof governance system requires not only legal frameworks which are fair and impartial but also the ruling of those regulations in the society. In e-gov with the help of easy, fast, and cheap access of people to information and communications, related to laws, the rule of law is deepened with public scrutiny that results in the capability of individuals in questioning and being aware of their social rights and the rule of law in all affairs. 3. Transparency: Transparency means the free flow of information and easy accessibility to it for all relevant stakeholders. Information should be enough and understandably available and on the other hand making and implementing decisions should follow certain rules and regulations. One of the results of electronic government is transparency and access to the state information. Equal access of citizens to information and public resources would make the direct supervision of individuals and free criticism and suggestion to the non-governmental sectors and citizens happen (Finger and Picad, 2003). 4. Responsiveness: Good governance requires that institutions and decision-making processes provide the necessary services to all the stakeholders within a reasonable time frame. Achieving this goal is only possible if the decision maker organizations have a sense of responsibility towards supplying demands and desires of individuals. Electronic Government can improve this responsibility by reflecting demands and desires of the people in the community to the authorities. 5. Consensus oriented: Good governance requires leading the various tastes and interests in society to a widespread consensus which has the best and most benefit for the whole society. Egov can make an enormous change in the traditional forms of ruling community
2-1-2- Electronic Government paves the road to good governance Including other political benefits of the egov, we can mention deepening the indicators of good governance. Theory of good governance is a paradigm for sustainable human development with the practical interaction of the three sectors of government, private sector, and the civil society. A fundamental basis for good governance features are the eight indicators which are discussed by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank (World Bank). These indicators are as following: 1. Participation: Participation means the presence of all the people in the various decisions both directly and through representatives legitimate institutions. Strengthening this civil partnership will have an important role in leading to the creation of public confidence in government. E-Government has the potential to participate the citizens governing processes by putting them through interaction with policy makers throughout the policy cycle and at all levels of government. To achieve this goal, ICT is necessary to create mutual and multi-sided communication channels, which allows users to announce their views on legislative or political projects. Thus, this step of e-government can include advisor bodies established between citizens/governments. These bodies are online communities where individuals can exchange their ideas, so the public awareness of issues increases. In fact this phenomenon has bestowed one of the key tools for achieving the ideals of good governance by providing facilities so that citizens and civil society organizations could monitor the processes of various public sectors democratically. Electronic Government provides the condition that the politicians pay the same attention to the needs of citizens. And this is an example of 271
citizens to receive the services they need with lower costs, more speed, and more desirable quality from governmental organizations. Electronic government has increased the performance by turning the relation between government and citizens into citizen-oriented government from stateoriented government, renovating the state through the processes based on new technologies, enhancing the speed and quality of services, reducing unnecessary tasks, and the gradual changing of the government agencies dominant culture to focus on the customer and his needs.
affairs by the use of information technology and transform the relationship between government and citizens. Electronic Government leads to developing ways through which the information flows vertical and diagonal and therefore covers a wide section of society, and a greater volume of information between the government and the civil society members and also between the government agencies will flow. 6. Inclusiveness: Health and welfare occurs in a society when all its members feel that they are involved and effective in the society. This is not possible except by creating opportunities for the vulnerable levels of the society to improve their welfare. In good governance all the individuals should have equal opportunities. Welfare in a society is depended on ensuring that all members feel they are stakeholders in the community. To accomplish this all vulnerable groups should have necessary support to increase their capabilities. EGovernment, with regards to its high capacity, can provide access to justice by creating equal opportunities. 7. Efficiency and effectiveness: Good governance means that decision maker institutions and organizations always have peoples’ needs in mind and use the existing resources in an efficient way. E-gov is a tool that is trying to use the knowledge and the new technology of information and communication to reduce the gap between the state and the people, and help the
Accountability: Accountability is vital for good governance. Not only governmental institutions but also private sector and civil society organizations should be accountable to the public and all the stake holders. It should be noted that accountability is not applicable without transparency and rule of law. Politicians would find out that countless eyes are watching their performance in e-gov and that hiding issues from the public would be difficult. E-Government will pave the road to direct dialogue between citizens and public authorities and thus this type of communication is far more effective than the traditional relationship between citizens and government and this will help considerably to the realization of accountability and responsiveness in public sector organization (Tek Nath 2002 pp.2536).
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Good Governance
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Participation Rule of Law Transparency Responsiveness Consensus Oriented Inclusiveness Efficiency and Effectiveness Accountability
2.2.2-The Vulnerability Increase Courtiers in Critical Situations
Therefore e-Government provides extensive facilities to form ideals of good governance. It helps importantly to improve the processes of providing services in public sectors, to accelerate providing the services to citizens, to make the government officials more accountable, the transparency of information, to reduce the gap between individuals and politicians, more effective participation of citizens and members of civil society in the process of public decision making, to expand social justice through equal opportunities to access information, etc. It helps to create an accountable, legal, transparent, and modern government on one hand, and effective participation of all citizens in government activities on the other hand (Okut Yuma, 2003 ).
of
The potential threats such as war, terrorism and natural disasters like earthquake and so on are another kind of inconveniences which can be a major threat for eGovernments by destroying the infrastructures and communications. This makes the governments not only expand the e-Government but also take the local strategy for specific situation into consideration. B. Reduction of Inconveniences of eGovernment However the e-Government can facilitate the upheaval and create new and efficient administrative processes, but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t solve all frauds and inefficiencies and is not able to overcome all the barriers against civil partnership. Moreover, the achieving an eGovernment would not occur by purchasing more computers or creating more websites. But, e-Government is a process which requires programming, permanent allocation of resources and political will. According to these issues, it is necessary to consider the following points:
2-2Inconveniences of Electronic Government Despite the benefits of the Electronic Government, it also faces significant damages that can be pointed as following: 2-2-1- National Security threats Electronic information faces more complex and more diverse threats. Therefore maintenance and security of information has achieved a specific position in the world of communication, science, and technology. The main purpose of information security is to use the set of policies, guidelines, tools, hardware and software to provide an environment free from threat in production, refining, transmission and distribution of information in all public and private sectors. These threats may include unauthorized copying or stealing information, manipulating information, and other threats in finance. Prevention of disruption in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s information system and expansion of these threats doubles the importance of information security and specifically the security of networks (dpsecure).
B.1- Developing Local Strategies and the National Program for Using New Technologies The first step in developing eGovernmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategy is to provide a definition. It means, the policy makers should know that what they are exactly looking for. Any government, according to its special condition, can define the sphere of influence of this phenomenon when tries to develop the e-Government strategy. After this stage, the development of the strategy is required. This strategy is important in terms of guiding the scientific and engineering processes and approaches
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words, people should be educated in the field of ICT which is of necessity for permanent localization of e-Government.
in a way that is in the line with eGovernment. This strategy should encompass the stages such as: defining the e-Government structure and its key components and elements Identifying the audiences and users of e-Government facilities and determining the required policies in order to support eGovernment objectives and recognizing the conition of each country and its potential crisis.
D- Strengthening the Security Mechanism Development of information security and transferring process should be properly taken into consideration more than ever. The e-Government can’t achieve its potential objectives without creating trust and security for the people and commercial units. People need to have trust in security of transfer, process and storage of information through networks.
B- Creating Digital Culture E-Providing the Legal Infrastructures All experts emphasize on the important role of creating culture and making public the use of IT in official and commercial affairs. Governments’ overviews and their initial studies for implementing eGovernment plan has shown that the main problem in creation and development of eGovernment is not the technology, but the problem arises from this question that “if the society is ready to accept ongoing extensive changes?” It seems that the lack of technologic structure isn’t the only challenge, but non-proliferation of culture of this kind of governance among the society and public organizations and their perceptions, especially the government attitude toward cyberspace is another major challenge which needs required attention to be taken.
Any e-Government plan requires developing a legal framework for protecting the privacy, computer crimes persecutions, the creation and strengthening of credibility assessment authorities and legal digital signature. In other words, a legal infrastructure to support and implement e-Government should be included as follows: E-Government Act: it allows the government to provide administrative procedures, functions and services in digital form. Data Protection Act: it deals with protecting and maintaining the privacy of personal information. Freedom of Information Act: it provides broad access to public information. The Digital Signature and Electronic Authentication Act: it allocates electronic identity and recognizes digital signatures and documents. The Network Fraud and Abuse Act: it protects digital intellectual property rights
C- Providing Local Experts in the Field of IT A fundamental element in success of eGovernment is the existence of human experts in new Communication and Information Technologies. Also, the people should be able to use and understand (Information Communication Technology ( ICT) and create local context. The governments can produce this human capital by their training policy. In the other
FThe condition of E-Government in Iran In Iran, the process of formation egovernment has been done in recent years. According to available documents, 274
increased. According to United Nation Department of Human Development, Iran has ranked 95 in human development index in 1997. This index has risen to 83 in 2006. In 2009 this position has improved (UNDP).
including national document of development of information technology of Iran’s 4th development plan, IT in Iran has been divided into four fundamental areas which are defined in functional, egovernment, electronic security, electronic training, electronic business and electronic banking areas.
About the condition of the third indicator which is Iran’s situation in fundamental area of telecommunication, it should be mentioned that technical infrastructures such as internet broad band networks and VPN and the program to connect residential and commercial buildings to fiber optic system haven’t yet had proper ideal condition. But, in the field of communication infrastructures, Iran has had many successes and could achieve its goals in many indicators such as number of computers, land line and mobile and fiber optic networks (research Center of Parliament of Islamic republic of Iran).
Iran’s goal in its 20-years perspective document is to be the number-one rank in the region. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in a report called “egovernment review” declared that Iran in the past two years has had good progress in developing e-Government. According to this report, while e-Government development index was announced as 0.4067 in 2008, this figure has reached to 0.4234 (UNDESA 2009). Based upon this report, Iran has acquired the 108th rank among 182 countries in development of e-Government in 2008 and the 102th rank among 183 countries in 2009. Moreover, among 12 countries in the middle-east, Iran has been ranked 8th with one level rising from 2008 (UNDESA 2009).
Therefore, the Islamic Republic by spreading the e-Government tries to apply its opportunity to turn into a convenience and integrated government; however, it worries about the vulnerabilities. So, the Islamic Republic has taken the following issues into consideration to deal with these defenseless matters:
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs refers to three indicators which are telecommunication infrastructures, human resource assessment and web section assessment in order to evaluate the e-Government condition of countries. Regarding the first indicator, Web Section evaluation, many programs including more than 200 major plans has passed and executed to implement the eGovernment information infrastructures in Iran during the past years.
1. Has attempted to increase the use of new technologies by compiling national plan and approach. 2. To do so, establishment of a national web network based upon specific needs has been prioritized to reduce the inconveniences. 3. Also, culture forming within the users to utilize e-government facilities properly. 4. Providing local experts in the field of IT to maintain its independency to improve national interests. 5. Providing data protection and web security as an important priority.
Iran also in the years after revolution in the field of human resource as another indicator of e-government readiness has taken large steps. Moreover, urban population percentage, human resource and information accessibility indicators have 275
http://www.dpsecure.net/electronic.htm
3) CONCLUSION
Hughes, own E (2003), Public
In general, we can conclude that in current situation e-government is not an option, but it is a necessity to improve the political system performance and strengthen the government on the one hand and move in the direction of having efficient and well reign. Nowadays, many countries by compiling and implementing the egovernment projects endeavor to adjust themselves for new facts and environment to benefit from its advantages. They attempt to reduce the e-government inconveniences, since if the e-government plans are designed and implemented in an efficient and targeted way, profound organizational reforms will be done in public section. But, it should be added that e-government will not occur by purchasing more computers or constructing more web sites rather e-government is a process which needs planning, sustainable resource allocation and political will. A stable and liable is formed on the basis of a precise strategy founded upon local needs and conditions of any country.
Management and Admin: An, third edition, Palgrave Hughes, own E. (1998), Public Management Administration: An Introduction. Second edition. Macmilan Press, Ltd Information Communication Technology Nath, 2002 Okut Yuma, 2003 Research Center of Parliament of Islamic republic of Iran. Tek Nath (2002 pp.25-36. The research Center of Parliament of Islamic republic of Iran United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2009. United Nations Department of Human Development
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Louis C.K. Ma (2005), from Government to E- Government Information Technology and People, vol. 18. No.3.pp.280-299, Emerd Group Publishing Limited.http://www.worldbank. Org/wbi/governance/pdf/trowish.pdf Dhakal, Tek Nath (2002): â&#x20AC;&#x153;NonGovernment Organizations in Grassroots Development: Implications and Challenges" in Public Administration Journal Vol XVII, No. 1, July 2002, Kathmandu, pp.25-36. 276
PAPER REVIEWERS Chawalert Lertchalolarn Thailand Cyber University Project, Thailand Supannee Sombuntham Thailand Cyber University Project, Thailand Howard Combs San Jose State University, United States Sukanya Nimanandh Chiangmai University, Thailand Thapanee Thammetar Silpakorn University, Thailand Anuchai Theeraroungchaisri Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Kobkul Sunphakitjumnong Kasetsart University, Thailand Maturos Chongchaikit Kasetsart University, Thailand Anirut Satiman Silpakorn University, Thailand Praweenya Suwannatthachote Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Jintavee Khlaisang Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Vorasuang Duangchinda Sripatum University, Thailand