Verkkopedaseuranta

Vuoden numero toi tullessaan miellyttävän yllätyksen ja joukon uudistuksia lehden toimitukselliseen politiikkaan. Yllätys (?) oli päätoimittajan vaihtuminen. Uusi päätoimittaja on tämän blogin seuraajille jo entuudestaan tuttu Athabascan yliopiston suuri poika Terry Anderson. Merkittävin uudistus on lehden määrällinen laajentuminen. Aiemman kahden vuotuisen numeron sijaan luvassa on 3-4 numeroa. Uusi lehti tulee julki heti kun siinä on riittävästi sisältöä: "new 'continuous batch' publication model". Anderson lupailee myös alueellisia erikoisnumeroita, joista ensimmäinen olisi piakkoin ilmestyvä Australian verkko-opetusta käsittelevä teema. Kovasti tuo maapallon toinen peränurkka on kiinnostuksen kohteena. Ennakoitavissa on että lehden rankkaus tulee nousemaan top-10:ssä.

Uusin numero sisältää viisi artikkelia ja tavanomaiset Reasearch ja Technical Notes -osiot sekä kaksi kirja-arvostelua. Fred Rovai ja Hope Jordan kirjoittavat sulautetun (blended) opetuksen ja yhteisöllisyyden (sense of community) kehittymisestä. He vertailevat keskenään perinteistä luentosaliopetusta, sulautettua opetusta ja täyttä verkko-opetusta ja päätyvät siihen että "blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses." Sulautettua (blended) opetusta käsitellään myös Richard Lynchin ja Myron Dembon artikkelissa, jossa keskeisenä huomion kohteena on (opiskelun) itse-sääntelyn ja verkko-opiskelun suhde. Kolmannessa tekstissä Mary Allan esittelee Uudessa Seelannissa kehiteltyä työkalua, jolla voidaan graafisesti kuvata asynkronisen keskustelun osanottajien sosiaalista kommunikointia keskustelun aikana. Hän arvelee että visualisointi voisi helpottaa e-tutorointia. Neljännessä kirjoituksessa Shalin Hai-Jew käsittelee online opetuksen mukanaan tuomia kulttuurisia muutoksia organisaation tasolla. Kohteena on WashingtonOnline Virtual Campus. Viimeisessä artikkelissa Robert H. Woods ja Jason D. Baker pohtivat vuorovaikutusta ja välittömyyttä enempi teoreettisesti. Tavoitteena on "the development of a new conceptual model ". Technical Notesien puolella näyttäisi olevan parikin kiinnostavaa kirjoitusta äänen verkkokäytöstä opetuksessa.

Kannattaa tutustua IRRODL 2/2004

Artikkelit

Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses, Fred Rovai and Hope Jordan, Regent University - USA

Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses.

The Relationship Between Self-Regulation and Online Learning in a Blended Learning Context Richard Lynch, Woosong University - South Korea Myron Dembo, University of Southern California, Los Angeles - USA

This study reviewed the distance education and self-regulation literatures to identify learner self-regulation skills predictive of academic success in a blended education context. Five self-regulatory attributes were judged likely to be predictive of academic performance: intrinsic goal orientation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, time and study environment management, help seeking, and Internet self-efficacy. Verbal ability was used as a control measure. Performance was operationalized as final course grades. Data were collected from 94 students in a blended undergraduate marketing course at a west coast American research university (tier one). Regression analysis revealed that verbal ability and self-efficacy related significantly to performance, together explaining 12 percent of the variance in course grades. Self-efficacy for learning and performance alone accounted for 7 percent of the variance.

A Peek into the Life of Online Learning Discussion Forums: Implications for Web-Based Distance Learning Mary Allan, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Supporting quality learning in online discussion forums is an intricate task, particularly for e-tutors aspiring to facilitate vigorous interactive learning environments. I argue that the key to successful online discussion forums is the ability of e-tutors to provide learners with feedback well informed in the meaning making and knowledge advancement processes emanating from learner interactions. In this paper, a newly developed concept of providing e-tutors with the information they require is explored, exhibiting the Event Centre (EC) concept, through which tutors are able to obtain periodic “snapshots” of the occurrences throughout discussion forums, which highlight processes of meaning construction and knowledge advancement. The EC concept provides e-tutors with visual images that depict the links and routes through which participants using text messages convey meaning, construct knowledge, and create Socio-Informational networks within discussion forums.

WashingtonOnline Virtual Campus: Infusing Culture in Dispersed Web-Based Higher Education Shalin Hai-Jew, Seattle University, USA

Started in 1997, WashingtonOnline Virtual Campus (WAOL) consists of a consortium of 34 community colleges around Washington State to provide asynchronous online learning. WAOL bears many of the features of a loosely coupled organization with its geographically dispersed frontline instructors, fragmented external environment, modularity of courses and supervision, and its use of enhanced leadership and technology to communicate a culture. Recent surveys of its administration, instructors, and staff found disparities in various constituencies’ perspectives on the organization’s culture, decision-making, values, brand or reputation, communications, and WAOL’s authorizing environment. Research suggests that WAOL benefits from some aspects of loose coupling: greater adaptive abilities and responsiveness to the State’s college system; “fast” course development and launching; and isolated breakdowns. There is, however, a persistent difficulty in conveying a cohesive culture. There is a perception of WAOL’s invisibility among its varied constituencies. This organization is at a crossroads, with the threat of colleges disconnecting from this consortium. WAOL should redefine its direction and purpose, such as coupling with local universities to provide not only associates degrees but full Baccalaureate and/ or Masters degrees. It may strengthen its position by improving learner supports, publicizing its decisions, creating a stronger sense of virtual community among the instructors (as in its recent creation of an online community for instructors), increased participative decision-making and use of line faculty and staff insights, and greater course varieties.

Interaction and Immediacy in Online Learning Robert H. Woods, Spring Arbor University, USA Jason D. Baker, Regent University, USA

Interaction and Immediacy in Online Learning – Robert Woods and Jason Baker provide a theoretical contribution that first overviews and then critiques our perennial focus on interaction in distance education. By highlighting the notion of immediacy, they argue that it is not interaction itself that leads to learning, but rather the nature and affective components of that interaction. They provide a new learner-centered model of interaction that shows interaction relationships between a learner and their community, context, the instructor and content.