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An Evolving Strategy for Online Learning Tales of Innocence and Experience by Dawn Cox Cochise Community College, Cochise, AZ, USA and Bernard John Poole University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, PA, USA
Collaborative Learning in the Online Classroom: Experiences, Advantages, and Concerns Summary of Online Design Considerations
Introduction <top> It seems appropriate that I extend the negative timeline of this reflection back to the fall of 1998 when Cochise College's Online Campus was in its infancy. I was already a strong advocate of the use of technology, whether in the classroom, in the office, or at home. I had completed a course in HTML and took every available opportunity to attend workshops and conferences that would teach me most anything about computers, software, CBL's (Calculator/Computer-based labs) or other technological information. At that time I was teaching chemistry and physics full-time (and an occasional math course) on the Douglas campus. The students loved the assignments and labs that included computers or other 'devices'. The fact that the use of technology was having a positive effect on student learning was a factor in my decision to join the online campus. That fall only a few courses were being offered by Cochise via Internet. The powers-that-be were eager to encourage other instructors to convert their courses to electronic form and join the "Online-campus" faculty. I have to admit that the $2000 stipend for creating such a course was inviting, but I found this opportunity irresistible anyway and decided to give it a try. Many of the faculty of some particular disciplines (like the Sciences) were very resistant to the idea of offering courses online. They felt that the real thing, face-to-face, could never be replaced. I agreed that a lab course might not be the best option for my first attempt at developing and teaching an online course. There was one requirement for the choice of course and that was that it must be at the 100 level or above (in other words non-remedial and transferable to a university). I decided to choose MAT122 (Intermediate Algebra) and was able to get its development approved by the "Online-campus Committee". I spent every Tuesday and Thursday morning during the spring of 1999 converting all of my traditional lectures to "online lectures", outlining homework assignments, due dates, etc. I was scheduled to teach my course for the first time in the summer of 1999. Looking back now the course looked exactly like my traditional one with a few links under "Classroom" links (in Web-Course-in-a-Box). I did not use the discussion forums or links in any actual assignments that semester. The course was definitely not learner-centered. I was taking the responsibility for presenting the course content and I was expecting the students to absorb it. In the tradition of a lecture-and-test type classroom so typical of universities, the students were simply required to read the online lectures and the textbook, submit homework and exams on time, and take a proctored final exam at the end of the term. The attrition rate was incredible. Approximately half of the students either just disappeared into cyberspace somewhere during the semester or earned an "F" grade at the end of the course. They were not learning the way that I wanted them to. Coincidentally, that same spring, my husband received a job offer to become the Public Works Director/County Engineer for Navajo County. This job offered an increase in pay and he could be the 'boss', so we all packed up and moved from Bisbee to Overgaard. As a result, I had no choice but to resign as Department Head (Science and Math) and as a full time instructor from Cochise College. The nature of the online course allowed me, however, to become an adjunct faculty for Cochise and I continue to teach two sections of my course every semester (including summers) to this day. Once settled in Navajo County, I had to decide what to do with myself now that I wasn't working full-time. The only community college in this area is Northland Pioneer and the position that I needed was already filled. So I decided to apply for admission to the EdD program at Northern Arizona University (NAU) where I gained acceptance into the Curriculum and Instruction program. It was at this point that I began learning how to teach an online course…. by taking one from someone who was trained to teach in this new delivery mode. The electronic courses at NAU helped me to reflect on my own learning processes and I began to relate them to my teaching. I was experiencing triple-loop learning even though at that point I had never heard of it at all. I began trying to make my course more learner-centered. Every semester I made changes and additions as a result of the things that I learned from my Educational Technology (ETC) online courses. I added interactive lessons, self-evaluative quizzes, webquests, CD-ROM assignments, and forum questions. Student outcomes improved somewhat and I found the retention level improving. I was learning as much about teaching an online course as my students were hopefully learning about math. During the fall semester of 2001, along with my fellow students who were enrolled in ETC677 (Creating Online Learning Communities) I was asked to teach a unit of study using the BlackBoard Course Management System (CMS). We were to do this using the information in our textbooks and our other learning experiences as guides to design. We were then required to teach the unit to a pilot group. I was already teaching my online course at Cochise College, using their version of BlackBoard. I therefore encountered no problems, either in the use of the CMS software or applying, as best I could, the principles of recommended online course design. The course has developed satisfactorily over time, with one exception. I have not been successful in encouraging much of any interaction between my students. I have tried whole class discussions, group forums, chats, grade motivation and reminder emails. Nothing seems to get most of my students interested or motivated to either talk to or, more to the point, learn from each other. Appendix A below describes my proposal for the experimental interactive exercise. Appendix B is the "Introduction Page" posted on the course site and describes the activity in which the pilot group was engaged. Appendix C is the paper that resulted from this activity. A group of four students, enticed by the offer of 15 extra credit points, agreed to try out this unit. Each student completed all portions of the lesson and then, as a group, they wrote the required paper. The students all thought that the online lessons (which were interactive) and the self-evaluative quiz were useful. They told me that they wished they could have done these lessons back when we were studying functions. However, they felt that working in a group was stressful. "Overall, working together in an online environment was very difficult. This exercise, in our opinion, depends too much on the students working together. One student can’t continue until another of their [sic] group has done their part, which will hold some people back." I am not sure if this is a failure to 'get the students interacting', but they obviously did not enjoy doing so. They did complete all components of the assignment but it was submitted late and one of the members of the group participated only minimally, with the other members ultimately having to complete his part of the work. The students did not like working together and felt that it would be unfair for them to receive a grade as a result of a group effort. I have several questions about this.
These questions will be ongoing in the coming semesters as I continue to alter the course to achieve my goal.
Collaborative Learning in the Online Classroom: Experiences, Advantages, and Concerns <top> The experiences that I have had teaching in an on-line environment are outlined in the previous section, so I am going to concentrate on my experiences learning on-line in this discussion. Growing up and attending school in the 60's and 70's, I did not have many chances to participate in group learning in the traditional settings of my classes. Constructivism was basically unheard of and the desks in my schoolrooms (even in college) were lined up in neat rows facing forward. I was responsible for my own work. The closest I ever came to collaborative learning was in college during my lab courses when I usually was assigned a 'lab partner' to work with. But even in those cases my grade came from my own personal lab report and the quality of my partner's work did not have any effect on mine. My first experience collaborating with classmates came with my first on-line course at NAU. The instructor asked that we post to the forum area at least three times per week and our grade was actually dependent on our participation. This was very new to me and at that time I don't think that I liked it much. I took one course through the Education Curriculum and Instruction (ECI) department in which the entire class was involved in the weekly forums. I have some very strong opinions about the 'quality of education' in the United States, which was often the topic of discussion. One student didn't like my postings and kept verbally attacking me on the public forum instead of discretely sending me emails to vent her feelings. Some of the other students stepped in and defended me, but the instructor never entered the discussion. I felt that it was part of her job to do so. Coincidentally, this same student (the one who attacked my views) started out in this course (ETC677) but dropped. When I saw her name, I was hoping that she would not end up in my group or as my BlackBoard buddy. This is not an attitude that I am proud of, but the virtual world is not so different from the real one. Each of us has people that we like and work well with and those that we don't. Later when I decided to do my EdD emphasis in Educational Technology, I began taking courses in that department. These courses all required me to participate in group activities. The members of the group each had a job to do to achieve a goal (usually a group paper). At first I didn't like this because I didn't like depending on someone else to do his or her part of a job before I could do mine. Some of the other negative factors that I encountered were: occasion rudeness by a member (lack of proper Netiquette); a group leader with less than desirable writing skills (the team leader writes the paper) resulting in what I felt was an inferior product; a group member who is constantly late for chats or doesn't post to the forum. As I said, at FIRST I wasn't sure if I liked this "group thing." At the end of each course, however, I realized that I was actually learning things due to these group interactions that I wouldn't have learned by just reading the textbook and doing the assignments. Talking to others about the course material, especially if it is controversial, can open one's eyes to points that may never have occurred to one otherwise. More importantly, however, I learned things about myself. My husband says that I have the temper of a Klingon (Star Trek) and I suppose that is true in real life (and possibly just with him?). But I have found that in cyberspace, because I can take my time responding, I tend to be more patient. In fact, in some cases, I found myself working as the diplomat of the group. Thus, it seems my electronic personality is a bit different from the one I have in the real world. I can work well with others and I have learned to 'depend' on them to do their part even if they are not doing it 'right'. Working with them has helped me reflect on the course material, the way that I learn, what I want to learn and why. In other words, to put a name to it, multiple-loop learning is occurring. I can take this information about how I learn in an electronic course and apply it to how I teach my on-line course. I am convinced that, if I can get my students to start interacting, several interesting things will occur:
The Great Equalizer: In Online Classrooms are Relationships and Interactions the Primary Generator of Knowledge? <top> I have to give a vague answer to this question. It depends. It depends on what kind of knowledge the instructor is trying to generate. If the learning outcome for a course is for the student to simply be able to perform mathematical manipulations and calculate the correct answer, then the only thing that he needs to do to complete an online math course is possess the self discipline to finish the course (and a lack of math anxiety). Most of the time, however, an instructor expects more. He wants the student to develop competencies at a higher cognitive level. To apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate (Bloom), a student must spend more quality time on the course content. In a math class he must understand why he is performing a particular mathematical function and how he can apply it to the real world. The best way to accomplish this is by taking the time to ask and answer questions about what he is doing. This is best accomplished by talking about it. This type of learning leads to retention of the information and in turn a thirst for more knowledge. That is what we want for our students. In an online course this is accomplished through student interaction and thus we should take advantage of this unique feature of the electronic environment. In a traditional classroom there is a certain amount of social interaction because students are in physical proximity to each other. The interaction may be limited because of a student's race, appearance, behavior or personal prejudices and it is certainly limited by time. These limitations don't exist in an on-line classroom. A student will develop his own electronic personality, which may be very different from the one he projects in a face to face situation. In an online course, the student can be anonymous and this facelessness can actually assist in his learning process by allowing him to view course content differently while interacting with others. "Through this depaysement ….one leaves one's own culture to face something unfamiliar, and upon returning home it has become strange - and can be seen with fresh eyes" (Chester and Gwynn). The time shift of the online environment gives the student time to reflect. If a student is given a problem in a traditional classroom and then placed into a group situation, that group has 50 minutes (or whatever the time limit of the class is) to come up with an answer. But in an online class, students usually have a week or two to come to a consensus because of the nature of the delivery. This gives them time to think, to reflect on other responses and on their own opinions. The Electronic Collaboration: A Practical Guide for Educators, says "Electronic collaboration—because it can be done at any time, from anywhere—allows for a sustained effort where participants can propose, try out, refine, and shape ideas themselves." It is the instructor's job to make sure that students are learning the course content in a manner in which it will be retained, used and applied to life. This will not be accomplished simply by spoon-feeding the information and then using a test to see if the information has been swallowed. Because an online environment offers a unique opportunity for the instructor to present the content and then step back and let the student take responsibility for his own learning, it would be a shame if the student were not encouraged to question, analyze, and reflect through interaction with others. Interactions and relationships are not the only methods for the student to learn in an electronic course but they are definitely the most productive ways for him to learn and learn deeply.
Some Final Thoughts <top> I am convinced that for a student to learn effectively in an online course he needs to develop on-line relationships. It is the instructor's role to assist this process. I have not been successful in most of my attempts to make this happen in my course. I know that many of the other instructors teaching for the online campus have not had success in this area either. When I first put the Function Unit (the one I taught for this course) together, I asked one of my colleagues to take a look at it. His response was "It will never work. I have tried to get my students to work together and they just won't do it." The instructors for the on-line campus have their own forum area and I have seen postings regarding this issue. Many of them feel that student interaction is not a necessary part of their course and this makes me question the quality of some of the courses.
Summary of Online Design Considerations <top> As a result of my experience teaching and learning online, I therefore suggest the following online course design considerations:
Communication of subject matter is essentially in the form of text. Online lectures, however, need pleasing form and pictures or graphics to amplify and illustrate the textual content. Interaction is a plus. For a College Algebra course, for example, several interactive graphing lessons have been designed and employed that show students step by step how to graph equations using mouse-over interactions and immediate feedback quizzes.
Students should be paired up with a “subject area buddy” with whom they can each work all semester on homework and assignments. Collaborative learning should be encouraged. They can also be placed into a group of 4 to work on a few group projects per semester. The projects might include email, forum posting and synchronous communication through the use of the chat. Specifically, they might be required to post to their group or full class forum (depending on the assignment) at least 3 times per week. Their participation grade should be 10% of their grade (160 points of 1600). This includes 15 weeks of forum and attendance at at least 2 chats per term (see the next entry).
The instructor should send out several emails a week and try to respond to questions within 12 to 24 hours. The instructor also should hold “office hours” in the chat room twice per week. The students can come and go as they please and ask questions of the instructor or other students present in the chat room.
The instructor might, for example, place all of the week’s lessons in one place and state “please do each of the following in the order given”. Students are reminded to post to their forum in each lesson. All lectures, assignments and reminders are included in the lesson. At the beginning of the semester the students should be encouraged to print out and keep a copy of the syllabus, due dates, policies, etc. (and anything else the instructor regards as important). Students should be required to indicate that they agree with all policies and procedures if they intend to continue pursuing completion of the course after reading all of the preliminary information.
Students should be required to undergo testing and/or other forms of evaluation in a controlled environment where their acquired knowledge related to the subject matter of the course can be carefully assessed.
Online courses have been shown to have a higher drop-out rate than face-to-face courses. Students thus need to be helped to keep up with the course by clear directives that spell out the consequences of poor performance. They should be told, for example, that they will not receive incompletes. They should also be told that the first and foremost reason for cyber failure is procrastination. They also should be contacted several times a week as a reminder to do their work.
If a student has a question, they should be directed to web sources or they should be encouraged to do their own web search to find answers to their questions. Often it may be best to answer a question from students with an invitation to go seek the answer themselves amongst the resources already available on the Web.
Use them. In a very real sense, fully learning online should be predominantly Constructivist after the best pedagogical practice. The WebQuest is an excellent example of an environment in which the students are encouraged to use higher order thinking skills to construct an understanding of the subject matter to be learned. Professor Cox has designed a WebQuest entitled “WebQuest: A Real Life Word Problem”. It is designed to be done in a group of four and answers, in the context of College Algebra, the question “When am I going to use this stuff?”.
Appendix A <top> Distributed Learning Unit Proposal Dawn Cox
I am in a unique situation because I already teach two sections of an online math course via blackboard. Cochise College has placed the software on one of its own servers and all instructors were required to switch their online courses from 'Web Course in a Box" to Blackboard by summer of 2001. I have been teaching mine on Blackboard since spring of 2001, which means that this is my third semester of experience. We changed textbooks this semester, which forced me to 'rewrite' my entire course to accommodate the changes that are always experienced when adopting a different text. I am not satisfied with some of the lessons that I didn't have time to update and would like to use this opportunity to improve on one of them. The book "Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace" states that the biggest complaint that most instructors encounter when teaching an online course is encouraging students to post to forums and interact. Accordingly this can be one of the great benefits of the online learning environment. The authors state that this is a result of 'bad online teaching. Since I have certainly experienced this problem almost every semester, I suspect that I need to change my approach. The students know that ten percent of their grade is participation but they don't seem to think that I mean it or they don't care. Many go through the whole semester without posting to the forum. I think that it is harder to stimulate lively conversation in a math class than in other disciplines, but I do think that collaboration always results in deeper learning. Obviously, I need to do something different to make this happen. So I thought that I would make this lesson a group activity. I will use the students presently enrolled in the course as my pilot group.
Course: Intermediate Algebra (MAT122): online section
Target Audience: The population of students who enroll in this course is diverse. Most of them are adult learners, but I have had some high school students take the course so that they can jump right into College Algebra or even Calculus when they enter college. The students also come from a variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. Cochise College is located in the southeaster corner of Arizona, bordered on one side by New Mexico and to the south by Mexico itself. One campus exists on Fort Huachuca. As a result, a number of military personal (who may or may not travel), single moms, students who work full-time and ESL students enroll in our online courses.
Subject of the Unit: Functions and Relations
Learning Objectives of the Unit: After completing this unit the student will be able to: 1. Successfully work together and complete this unit with his assigned group. 2. Graph and identify sets of order pairs. 3. Evaluate an expression. 4. Identify a function from a set of ordered pairs. 5. Identify a function using the vertical line test. 6. Identify a relation. 7. Find the domain and range of a function. 8. Find the range point on a graph from a given domain and visa versa. 9. Find the x and y intercepts from a graph. 10. Reflect on the benefit of the lesson and the collaborative activity.
Duration of the Unit: One week (of the fifteen in the semester)
Basic Outline of the flow of Content for the Unit: 1. Students click on "Lesson Three" under "Course Documents". 2. The instructions say, "Do the following steps in the order given." 3. The steps are: a. Introduction: This will describe the group and assign tasks to each member of the group. b. The Lesson (the student will have to go through the tutorial independently): i. Part one: Order pairs and evaluating expressions ii. Part two: Identifying a function from a table or using the vertical line test. Identifying a relation. iii. Part three: Finding the domain and range of a function. Finding range point from a given domain point and visa versa. Finding the x and y intercepts of a function from its graph. iv. Part four: Self-evaluative quiz with feedback to the student and to the instructor. c. WWW assignment: Each student must locate one WWW source that discusses real life applications of functions. He will post these in the group forum area. Each member of the group will 'visit' each source. d. Post ideas for the completion of the group paper on the forum as threaded discussions. One chat is required. e. Submit the group paper: This paper will include. i. A collaborative definition of 'function' ii. A discussion of the real life examples of functions found on the web. i. A group reflection describing their collaboration, if it assisted in the learning process and how. This should encourage double-loop learning and perhaps even transformative (triple-loop) learning.
Evaluation of the unit: 1. Formative: a. I will be sending updates of the project to my 'Blackboard Buddy' as I develop it. b. The students in my course this semester will test-drive the unit for me (with the offer of extra credit I expect!). They will recommend how if the unit does what I want it to do and how to make it run more smoothly before it is permanently implemented into the course. c. As I read the textbook and start working on this unit I will self evaluate the process and make appropriate changes along the way.
2. Summative: a. Students will be writing a reflection on the value of this lessons which may be used as one part of my evaluation (is the lesson doing what I want it to? Are the learning outcomes being achieved?) b. I will compare test performance of students who did the lesson to those who did not to determine if they actually learned the material.
Appendix B <top> Introduction and Description of Activity
You will be completing this lesson as a group. There is no official "homework" assignment for this week but I will post an optional assignment so that you can practice some problems similar to what you might expect to see on the next test. Your group will be working together to write a paper at least two pages long discussing functions. Your "grade" for this week will result from this effort. Here are the directions for this lesson.
1. Each of you needs to go through the lessons independently. There are three parts to the lesson and an interactive quiz. You should do this by Tuesday of this week. Once you have completed it email the members of your group and let them know that you are done.
2. Do a web search and find at least one real life example of a "function." Post the URL of this example in the group forum under "Function Discussion" by Thursday night. Check back periodically for your peer's URL's. Each of you must visit each of the web sites listed. You must all respond to each question posted by person #2 (see below) in a threaded discussion by Sunday evening.
3. Look at the order of your names in your group description. o Person #1 is responsible for contacting all the members of the group to set up a time when everyone can meet in your group chat room to discuss the topics of your group paper (see below). He will send a summary of this chat to person #3 by Tuesday of Week Four. o Person #2 is responsible for posting questions and topics in the forum to assist your group in writing the paper. This must be done by Thursday of this week. He will send a summary of the forum discussion to person #3 by Tuesday of Week Four. o Person #3 is responsible for writing an outline of the two-page paper using the chat and forum items as a guide. This should be completed by Thursday of Week Four. He will send this outline to person #4. o Person #4 will write the two-page paper using the outline as a guide. He is responsible for sending the paper to the group for comments and for sending a copy to the instructor via email by Sunday of Week Four.
4. Reminder: Person 2 must post the questions on the forum by Thursday of Week Three. The URL's of each student must be posted and "visited by each member of the group by Thursday of Week Three. Each member of the group must post responses to each of the questions posted on the forum by person #2 by Sunday evening. The chat must be completed by Sunday evening. The paper is due on Sunday of Week Four, which means that your group has two weeks to complete this assignment.
5. This paper will include the following: o A collaborative definition of "Function" including some of the things that you learned in the lessons regarding identification. o The URL's of your real life function examples (there should be atleast four of them) and a summary of your group's discussions about them. o A group reflection describing your collaboration. Did working together help you learn these concepts? How did it help or hinder your understanding? Did you enjoy working together? Why or why not?
Appendix C <top> The Paper
Extra Credit GroupDawn Cox Mat 122 November 27, 2001
This group consisted of Rick Phelps, Rachel Reeves, JR Ramos and Melissa Hansen. Our objective was to work together to research real life uses of a function. First, we must define what exactly a function is. A function is a set of ordered pairs in which no two first coordinates are equal (145).
While working together we were able to elaborate on this definition. In that a function is used to determine the value of an expression for each given value of x. In order to be a function there can only be one value of y for each value of x, and each input has a unique output.
We visited several websites to better explain the concept of a function. Www.efg2.com/lab/library/delphi/MathFunctions/index.html, this site shows how functions are used for things such as mortgages or loans. Another site that uses functions in this way is www.homeseekers.com. A practical example is displayed with the example of Farmer Bob building a pen to keep his pigs in, this can be found at mathforum.org/dr.math/problems/realfunc.html. The situation is such that Farmer Bob only has 16 feet of fence and he wants to use it to build the largest possible pen for his pigs. As it turn out the best choice is actually a circle, but if the pen has to be a rectangle, to find the best rectangle using the formula f(x) = x(8-x) and graphing the results it is possible to find the maximum usage.
Some of the other sites that were found are: www.coolmath.com, dlmf.nist.gov. www.aspfaqs/ShowCategory.asp?CatID=15, mini.net/tcl/819.html, and forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/tocs/functionhigh.html . The group found that going to these sites to see how a function worked helped them to better understand the concept presented in the textbook.
As a group we have agreed that working together in a chat environment is inconvenient to students taking class online. Everyone has their own schedule to maintain, commitments, etc. We did find, however, that posting the questions in the discussion board made it more convenient for everyone to respond when it best suited their schedule. Overall, working together in an online environment was very difficult. This exercise, in our opinion, depends too much on the students working together. One student can’t continue until another of their group has done their part, which will hold some people back.
We have encountered a few problems with Blackboard: while logging on after entering the information it says the site is unavailable, after clicking on the back arrow it opens the window. On occasion, the discussion board will take a long to post a message almost seeming to freeze. In the discussion board we’ve noticed that on occasion it will state there are 2 replies when in actuality there are 4, since this doesn’t tell you if there are new messages it is easy to overlook a posting. The last issue we’d like to mention is the confusion of where to post. Right under communication there is a discussion board, but there is also the one under group tools, it was difficult to know exactly where was the best place to post.
Looking back, we think this idea could work if we all had 2 weeks to finish the assignments. But we cover the material so quickly some students would be left unfairly behind because of inactivity on another’s part. Thank you Dawn for giving us this opportunity. And thank you to each group member for your input.
Bibliography <top>
1. Palloff, Rena and Pratt, Keith. (1999) Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
2. Learning Skills Program. (1996) Bloom's Taxonomy. [WWW Document]. URL: http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html
3. Chester, Andrea and Gwynne, Gillian. (1998) Online Teaching: Encouraging Collaboration through Anonymity. [WWW Document]. URL: http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol4/issue2/chester.html
4. Laboratory At Brown University (LAB) and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (2001) Electronic Collaboration: A Practical Guide for Educators. [WWW Document]. URL: http://www.lab.brown.edu/public/ocsc/collaboration.guide/keying.into.shtml#Heading3 |
