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Posts Tagged ‘Instructional Systems’

Learners’ Interpersonal Beliefs and Generated Feedback in an Online Role-Playing Peer- Feedback Activity: An Exploratory Study

Peer feedback affords interaction and critical thinking opportunities for learners in online courses. However, various factors prevent learners from taking advantage of these promising benefits. This study explored learners’ perceptions of the interpersonal factors in a role-playing peer-feedback activity, and examined the types of peer feedback that learners generated when playing a role. Participants were […]

Evaluation of Intelligent Grouping Based on Learners’ Collaboration Competence Level in Online Collaborative Learning Environment

In this paper we explore the impact of an intelligent grouping algorithm based on learners’ collaborative competency when compared with (a) instructor based Grade Point Average (GPA) method level and (b) random method, on group outcomes and group collaboration problems in an online collaborative learning environment. An intelligent grouping algorithm has been added in a […]

The educational problem that MOOCs could solve: professional development for teachers of disadvantaged students

The demographics of massive open online course (MOOC) analytics show that the great majority of learners are highly qualified professionals, and not, as originally envisaged, the global community of disadvantaged learners who have no access to good higher education. MOOC pedagogy fits well with the combination of instruction and peer community learning found in most […]

Twitter-Based EFL Pronunciation Instruction

This paper looks at the use of Twitter as a language teaching/learning tool. It describes the results of a study aimed at testing Twitter’s effectiveness for pronunciation teaching. The purpose of the study was to determine whether Twitter can foster online participation and whether it may have a positive effect on the pronunciation of a number of words commonly mispronounced […]

Language Learning Through Social Networks: Perceptions and Reality

Language Learning Social Network Sites (LLSNSs) have attracted millions of users around the world. However, little is known about how people participate in these sites and what they learn from them. This study investigated learners’ attitudes, usage, and progress in a major LLSNS through a survey of 4,174 as well as 20 individual case studies. […]

The rhizome: A problematic metaphor for teaching and learning in a MOOC

Deleuze and Guattari’s principles of the rhizome were used to inform the design of a massive open online course (MOOC), Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum, which came to be known as Rhizo14. In a previous paper about learner experiences in this course our reported findings from a qualitative survey (which enabled anonymous responses) raised […]

Understanding how students perceive the role of ideas for their knowledge work in a knowledge-building environment

This study explored how students viewed the role of ideas for knowledge work and how such view was related to their inquiry activities. Data mainly came from students’ online interaction logs, group discussion and inquiry, and a survey concerning the role of ideas for knowledge work. The findings suggest that knowledge building was conducive to […]

Learning outcome, presence and satisfaction from a science activity in Second Life

Although problem-based learning (PBL) has many advantages, it often fails to connect to the real world outside the classroom. The integration with the laboratory setting and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been proposed to address this deficiency. Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) like Second Life (SL) are 3D collaborative virtual environments that […]

Educational heterotopia and students’ use of Facebook

Facebook use in higher education has grown exponentially in recent years, with both academics and students seeking to use it to support learning processes. Noting that research into educational cyberspace has generally ignored spatial elements, this paper redresses this deficiency through using Foucault’s (1986) discussion of different spaces to examine Facebook use. Recognising that more than simple façade space is […]

Fostering postgraduate student engagement: online resources supporting self-directed learning in a diverse cohort

The research question for this study was: ‘Can the provision of online resources help to engage and motivate students to become self-directed learners?’ This study presents the results of an action research project to answer this question for a postgraduate module at a research-intensive university in the United Kingdom. The analysis of results from the […]

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