Behaviorism and Cognitive Information Processing Notes

Behaviorism:
Black box: the mind - don't go there. Look at outward behaviors and what causes them and what the results of the consequences are of the behaviors.
Feedback loop and conditioning.
Stimuli (environment antecedent) -> Organism -> Behavior (response) -> Consequences -> Affects behavior
Strength -> you can do empirical research to see if it works in a certain context. Research has showed it to work in certain areas (military, child timeouts, etc.)
Weakness -> people don't respond to stimuli the same way (intrinsic motivation)

Cognitive Information Processing:
You are like unto a computer: sensory memory (visual, auditory; very very short term); short-term memory--like computer RAM (more conceptual-to stay there needs to be rehearsed; chunking).

Learning in this means you have input that goes through the process of different types of memory until it makes it into your long-term memory.

How to get stuff from short to long-term memory? Check out the article.

Educational Philosophy Meanderings

Epistemology and ontology:

My learning/teaching philosophy is definitely affected by my background in biology and in having done field research. Empirical evidence, objectivism, are inherit in some of the classes and activities. However, having been involved in learning other things and teaching I also have some roots in constructivism and situated theory. As I read through the different philosophies I inevitably would read a section and start thinking, “I like this stuff and it seems to jive with my take on learning.” And then, I would also inevitably hit some of the descriptors and think, “I am definitely not in agreement with that. For example, cognitive constructivism, “From the cognitive constructivist perspective, there is a real world that we experience...however, this world cannot be directly known, which broadens the nature of the ontology to realism. That reality exists is not denied…” (Up until now I like this) “…however, what we know of the world is only an interpretation based on our experiences.” Even that is okay but I violently disagree with the next statement, “As such, cognitive constructivism is subjective and relativist, providing for no absolute in what is right or wrong…”

Constructivism:

I picked this topic to see what it really is. I’ve heard about it a lot and kind of assumed it was a learning theory/philosophy. I was somewhat mistaken, particularly in the former. Why? Because constructivism is “not yet one theory but a multitude of approaches.” Drischoll, (200). It can be a set of values.

Looking at methods associated with constructivism can help one get a feel for it:

Discovery learning

Generative learning

Goal/problem-based learning

Collaborative learning

Approaches that are constructivist…what are their underlying assumptions?

1. Knowledge is constructed by rather than transferred to the learner

2. Embed learning in complex, realistic, and relevant environments (learn by doing; learn to deal with complexity, or the real world, by learning in complexity.

3. Provide for social negotiation as an integral part of learning (social interaction).

4. Support multiple perspectives and the use of multiple modes of representation (many perspectives and “models” gives you a better view of what is going on).

5. Encourage ownership in learning (anxiously engaged).

6. Nurture self-awareness of the knowledge construction process (metacognition).

Where is the research on constructivism- and situated-cognition type approaches?

Situated cognition: knowing and doing cannot be separated.

Knowledge as a tool. Irrelevant when divorced from context and then all to often misused when it is plugged back into context.

Community of practice…disciplines, professions, or manual trades are communities or cultures. Often students are asked to use the tools without being able to see or adopt the culture and enter the “community.”

Authentic activity.

Students create their own solution paths.

RSS

RSS

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Root-sum-square
Rock Star Supernova
or
Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary
Who knows which bolded phrase is right, both I suppose, but the top three could be just as fun!

RSS feeds are amazing little tools. However I rarely use them. I think one of the keys to using RSS feeds is to get the right ones. When I found about them I said hey these are great and I'll keep up with what's going on in the world. I subscribed to a three news feeds. The next day my reader had HUNDREDS of feeds. Lame! Going through that will take as much time as hitting the front page of a few news websites! Back to the drawing board. I am going to try TED talk since I have seen some lectures on that site that I liked. I have some classmates' blogs on there and I am going to try for ONE news RSS.

A plug for igoogle. On igoogle I have a reader app, an app for translating stuff into Spanish, a currency converter and many other fun little gadgets. Since I see that more often it is way more helpful for me to have my RSS feeds going there via my reader than logging into my reader. Try it out! http://www.google.com/ig.

Personal Learning Environment

Personal learning environments are just what they say they are:

Environment: What a particular location is made up of including all the things and conditions found there.

Learning: The act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge, skill, or becoming something.

Personal: You own it, you run it, content, look and feel, who sees it what you put there etc.

PLE: A particular location that you own and control that facilitates your learning including all the things and conditions found there. Most PLEs are not isolated but are open and can be shared with those you choose or those who choose to go there. A blog, a wiki, a website, a network site, igoogle, and many other types of places could be a PLE for you. However, these are not just personal environments so for most of us the Facebook page only partially counts. These locations are centered on learning.

Criteria for deciding whether you have a PLE:

• Did you stop using it when your class/project was over?
• Can you look at it and answer the question, what have you learned lately?
• Why did you create this environment?
• Is it controlled by you or by another organization?
  

I have started PLEs that simply turned into assignment boards. I have started other PLEs that ultimately ended up being controlled by others. Maybe this time I'll be a little more successful.

Distance Education Thoughts

From industrial education to transactional distance to Second Life! The world of distance education that we were thrown into has been a fun and stretching learning experience. I have enjoyed it and really never imagined it could be as complex as it is. And yet, I have seen just a small piece of the research, tools, principles, theories and application of all of these to attempt to help learners in a distance setting.

If I were to summarize a few key points and things I want to continue to learn about they would be:
1) What type of content and learners do best in distance education? I think distance learning requires active self-learning, students taking responsibility for the learning and outcomes. You have to do a lot more than in a normal class. I also think that more and more content areas are effectively learned in a distributed setting because of the technology advances. Despite that it seems that it is easier to create distance courses that require less collaboration (e.g. Norm’s accounting class, independent study, and other similar things have existed for quite some time and have done well).

2) Theories. There are quite a few theories out there yet I felt like the researchers constantly said that the framework for distance education research and principles was lacking due to lack of good theories that describe distance education. Some of the main theories that seem to be consistently coming up in the research were transactional distance and types of interaction (Moore and others), communities of practice and communities of inquiry, theories for technology use, conversational theory and others.

3) Practical knowledge. Being a newbie to the program I loved the hands on practical things we learned. They were also very helpful in other settings. Some of them were doing a class at a distance, creating surveys, open coding, seeing the independent study, learning about copyright, line item analysis, using some of the available tools in class (Breeze, SL, Skype, shared docs, blogs, and any mixture of this list to make it work J), and there are probably others that I am forgetting.

I feel like there is a lot to learn in distance education and I see no slowing down in the discipline. Some of the things that still boggle my mind are how to use the right amount and effectively facilitate collaboration, how to help institutions get “on board” and accept distance education as a legit learning medium (and how to reduce low-quality programs so this can happen), how to balance and use both asynchronous and synchronous tools effectively to just name a few.

Surveys- Qualtrics

I really enjoyed our class on surveys and using Qualtrics. Props to whoever said Larry Seawright could help out with some customizations, I think that was Peter. I called Larry and asked him to create a template with the MTC logo and he was all for it. Anyway, since I found out about it I have started 2 surveys and completed one. It will eventually evolve to be a survey we’ll use at work with the international MTCs (I have posted a few of the questions at the end of this post). For me the significance of this tool is fairly large since we can quickly gather information and feedback from MTC teachers and managers from all over the world.
With the advent of many free and inexpensive survey tools surveys seem to have spring up all over. If you Google surveys your first sites will deal with MySpace, Survey Monkey and advertisements for fun surveys. I think “fun surveys” that are appearing in online networks and advertising could be better leveraged for education. I think that every survey I have ever taken for school has been a post class survey. One application that comes to mind is that a professor or teacher could survey the students before the class starts to find out expectations, get to know them, and also by nature of the survey communicate some expectations of the class. Just knowing expectations would help a teacher know how to go about teaching the course a little differently or how to express their expectations. This may help change students perception of the class before they even get into it. This could be particularly helpful in a blended or distance class where there is more opportunity to cater the class to different students due to the increased on-on-one interaction. By referring to fun surveys I simply mean that the surveys don’t have to be boring. I saw one professor share with his students some comments from surveys which had me laughing my head off. “Is your mustache the source of your knowledge, if it is don’t set so difficult questions because most of us don’t have mustache.“ “He combs his mustache but not his hair.” “No grass on the busy road, no hair on the clever head.” “The world is peaceful when you stop talking.” You could tell he loved interacting with the students and had a way of connecting with them. Some interesting or even humorous questions that students could see some results to or the final summary could help a class begin to feel a small connection to the classmates and the teacher that they haven’t met yet.
How much time has the manager of training and operations dedicated to training activities this month? (¿Cuánto tiempo ha dedicado el gerente a asuntos de capacitación este mes?)
Less than 50% (menos de 50%)
50-59%
60-69%
70-79%
80+%
Si menos de 50% ¿porqué
How many hours of formal training from the manager have the teachers received this month? (¿Cuántas horas de capacitación formal han recibido los maestros de parte del gerente este mes?)
1
2
3
4
Mas que 4
For each session indicate the topic and duration. If you had less than 5 sessions (which is likely) leave the others blank. For example, if you had 2 sessions fill out the first two rows and leave the rest blank. (Para cada sesión indique el tema (o los temas) y la duración. Hay espacio para cinco sesiones pero no es necesario llenarlos todos. Por ejemplo si solo tuvo 2 sesiones llenen los primeras dos filas y dejen los otros blanco.)

Column Options
Duración
Column Options
1° session 1 hora2 horas3 horas4 horas5 horas
2° session 1 hora2 horas3 horas4 horas5 horas
3° session 1 hora2 horas3 horas4 horas5 horas
4° session 1 hora2 horas3 horas4 horas5 horas
5° u otra sesión 1 hora2 horas3 horas4 horas5 horas

Tema
Indique el tema para cada sesión


Please rate the manager in the following categories. (Por favor asigne un valor al gerente para cada categoria a continuación.)
Slider scale garphic with rating scale of 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Energía y entusiasmo
Abilidad de captar atención
Menos uso de texto en PowerPoint

Education in Second Life

Previous to our class in Second Life I knew what it was but had only seen it once and that was on The Office when Dwight was flying around hilariously looking like himself, check it out http://www.hulu.com/watch/15619/the-office-dwights-second-life. Anyway, maybe because of my lack of experience it was interesting to have a class in there. Though I think there are a lot of moral implications I have no intention of getting into that here because I think if you wanted to find a virtual world that could be used for education and controlled to keep out unwanted things I think you could. Just from an education perspective I think that education in virtual worlds is a mixed bag.

In distance education I think collaboration, environment and social presence are difficult things that some people would like to improve. The avatar issue is complex but may help some of these things in an educational setting. I found a little article that described interaction in distance education. The researcher wrote a commentary on their findings aside from the paper and said that, “Verbal immediacy behaviors can lessen the psychological distance between communicators online; overall sense of social presence is linked to learning (http://www.kent.edu/rcet/Publications/upload/ISP&ADpict.pdf).”

It seems that with an avatar you could potentially increase the sense of social presence and there could be an increase in verbal immediacy. The question is if the avatar can facilitate those things better than a real life web cam call or video conference? I have little experience with avatars but I think there is something to seeing how people portray themselves which would add to the social presence aspect. I think immediacy is a tossup.

As I researched some links related to the readings I came across a blogger who focuses on the business aspect of second life. He felt the avatars and the perspectives in virtual worlds could help people have more thought out conversations.

“As it turns out meeting with someone in a virtual space to have a conversation makes things quite a bit easier from another perspective: it lets you “take a step back” from the issue, think about it logically, and then contribute with something far more sane and sober than you might have otherwise.

This theory has actually been borne out among therapists who have been using virtual spaces for PTSD and conflict resolution with great success. Being somewhere and speaking to someone is one thing, but taking a step back and seeing yourself with someone having a conversation is something different altogether http://www.calebbooker.com/.”

I suppose if someone views the virtual conversation how they will say it and thinks about it long enough to “give themselves feedback” they might adjust what they would add to the conversation. I don’t know how many people would do that but there might be something to it. Anyway, avatars aside I think in some ways we are taking a step back in technology use as we hop into second life. This may be pure ignorance of what can be done in virtual worlds but in a video conference training I can have tons of resources at my fingertips including video, audio, PowerPoint, white boards etc. When you step into a virtual world you seem to lose all that technology. That sounds a little ironic since the fact you can have a virtual space is pretty amazing but it limits the kinds of interactions you can have around content.

Test Blueprints and Instruction/Assessment Alignment

I had some thoughts in my class notes from our lectures with Scott and wanted to get some of them out on the blog. Here they are:

Test blueprints help align instruction with tests. During class Scott mentioned that hardly anyone uses them. In fact it seems that he mentioned that those who mainly use test blueprints are involved in the development of state, national and professional assessments. I wondered why when it seemed like such a no brainer to align instruction with assessments. And then I looked at some sample test blueprints. It became very clear why faculty doesn’t use them. How they are done varies greatly. In most cases they probably seem unnecessarily complex and they are not the most intuitive tools to use. I doubt most faculty have the time to just figure it out and I can’t imagine a faculty member in the math department, or any other, sits there thinking, “ah man I need to get my test blueprint done.” Without support how could we expect them to do so. Also, depending on the type of blueprint you may finish one and then wonder what the next step is or how it will really translate into the actual assessment(s).

I think an interesting project would be to create a self-guided online or at least computer guided test-blueprint tool. It could walk professors through the steps of the blueprint creation and provide practical suggestions for the course instruction, assessment plan, and tests. All based on what the professor indicated were the objectives and desired outcomes.

I am sure creating such a tool would be a complex issue but I think it could be done. Having a blueprint would help the faculty be one step closer to aligning instruction and assessment. However, not only is it necessary to align assessment and instruction but there is an ever growing need to align the delivery method of instruction with the delivery of assessments. This does not seem to be addressed in the blueprints I saw nor do I think the online blueprint creation tool could ensure that. That alignment becomes not only a design issue but a resource and environment issue. I’ll leave that discussion for people much smarter than myself

The TEACH Act

Before our copyright class I knew very little about the process, rights, and fair use. With that disclaimer to my ignorance it seems to me that the TEACH act restricts user rights in a distance ed context.

The second issue is that I think that it is more restrictive than the more general fair use act. Part of the benefits of distance education is that it can be very different from the learning that happens F2F yet the TEACH act seems to assume that a distance ed course should use resources like they would be used F2F.

There are also many restrictions. Here are a couple of examples:

Many things that are NOT DONE in a F2F setting are also being required such as:
*Provide accurate copyright information and promote copyright compliance
*Provide notice to students that course materials may be protected by copyright
*Perhaps this is necessary but if we don't do it F2F why require it online?

Another thing required that does not seem to be enforced at all are the following:
*Retention of the work in accessible form by students for longer than the class session; and
*Unauthorized further dissemination of the work in accessible form by such recipients to others.

*See http://www.lib.byu.edu/departs/copyright/tutorial/module2/page16.htm

It seems that one of the benefits of distance ed is that you could access previous materials that were helpful. I know that has been the case for me with some classes that have posted the class syllabus with links and references on an open site.

I agree with Clark that the TEACH act didn't help us a whole lot. In fact it may not have been all that necessary. It seems to me that the general guidelines in the fair use act covered all the uses with exception of one or two that could have been easily clarified rather than creating a new act and revising a whole section of code 110 (2).

If I knew more I may not have this view but from what I know this is how I see it.

Assessments as Instructional Tools

Something that came up in class started a train of thought on assessments. Charles mentioned the use of assessments as instructional tools. We discussed the general lack of this in education and some of the complications of doing so. Despite some of the complications, with all the tools we have, this seems a little silly. An institute of higher education exists to instruct and facilitate learning. All too often a student goes to take their test and then never looks at it again (unless there is some way to get more points by looking at it afterward or if they know it will help them in some cumulative final). I can remember classes where I just wanted to take the test, see my score and be done with it. The testing center is set up perfectly to reinforce that idea; no feedback is provided, you can't look at the test after it is graded unless the professor returns it. Therefore the only learning gains from a test is the preparation. It seems this usage of assessments represents an incorrect focus in learning, meaning the assessment is geared toward the institution's and professor's benefit rather than the student and learning. Perhaps it is due to administrative ease, or to create an obstacle to cheating, or save on/ compensate for a lack of resources. Either way they rarely help a student really learn. In my opinion formal teaching has much more bang for its buck when there is a pattern of pre-teaching preparation on the part of the student, the actual instruction, and then lots of follow up. In my experience in a training setting this model is very effective. Perhaps I would even go so far as to say that the follow up is where most of the learning gains (50%) and experience happens because it involves the application of what was learned. The pre-training and training can be split various ways to make up the other 50%.

So with that said it seems that assessments in some ways should be part of the training or teaching piece rather than the follow up. This would mean that the post-assessment activities and application of what was learned would be the key follow up where most of the learning would happen. Any thoughts?

Collaborative structures that the Lord has given us.

There are probably a few collaborative levels in a family. As far as immediate families I see three groups that interact distinctly enough, in certain contexts, to merit being different structures or at least substructures: 1) the entire family, 2) parents, 3) children. As far as the family as a collaborative structure I'll I really have to go off of is my own experience. There were 8 of us, 6 children, my mom, and dad. Rarely did all the kids make up their own collaborative structure because of the age spread and the different interests and circumstances but often a group of about 3 maybe 4 kids would band together and collaborate. Likewise, the parents were the heart of the collaborative structure. They would pull different or all of the kids into the "collaborative group" as needed. By design I think the "experts" in the family or those who have more experience learn just as much as the novices though the novices usually don't see it that way.

Interactions between collaborative structures:
As I think about family as a collaborative structure it seems that a very important factor is interaction between one collaborative group and another. For example, the immediate family is one structure and then you have extended family. How those two structures interact can define each other. For example, if there is unity between the two when they come together the immediate family almost feels like a subset of the extended. If there is no unity, need for each other, or ties then they become distinct groups. Also, it gets really hard to feel like the entire extended family is a collaborative structure just because of the size, much like a large class compared to a group from that class that works together.

Outside of the family I think the Lord has given us many other collaborative structures: quorums, classes, neighbors, and friends make up just a few. As I grew up I had a handful of close friends, they were from both quorums and school classes. They had a large influence on my life and I think the Lord knew that I needed those people who really were, in many ways, a collaborative structure. There were about 5 of us most of the time and because of that collaborative structure I learned things and participated in many things that I would not have otherwise. We were different enough to learn from each other yet we had mostly similar interests. Those with more aptitude and experience in a specific interest pulled the rest of the group into those areas that they maybe would not have seen or chosen to be involved in individually. Those interactions also allowed us to build faith in the principle that we are able to "act for [our]selves and not to be acted upon" in such a way that we can "do much good" (2 Ne 2:26, 2 Ne 3:24) and achieve things that were difficult.

In all cases these collaborative structures can potentially provide negative experiences that perhaps hinder faith and learning. Perhaps understanding among group members, a unity of purpose, a willingness to adapt and change, shared positive experiences and other similar factors help avoid a negative collaborative structure.

There is no way to eliminate individual structure in life. The Lord has built it in. Rich experiences come as we learn to be "with ourselves." I also see activities such as personal scripture study, personal hobbies and sitting down just to think alone as individual structure. It seems that the quest of improvement and ultimately salvation is a rich interaction between the key life components of individual structure and collaborative structure, particularly in the family.

Unaccredited Organizations

Wikipedia has a long list of these schools. Interestingly enough, most are religious institutions.

Accreditation and Quality Control?

As opposed to many other countries where the government has an educational body that takes responsibility for accreditation, the U.S. Department of Education does not accredit schools. Rather the principle of peer review is used. If I understand it right, in practice this means that accreditation groups are formed by members of the academic community that the group will then accredit. What are the pros and cons to this version of quality control?

Pros:
The peer review system could push itself to higher standards as peers will most likely ask more of the other schools than a government agency would.

The system is self-regulating and not driven by a government agency which may lack the resources and time to maintain high accreditation standards.

Academic organizations get some form of cross pollination of ideas.

Cons:
Conflict of interest, it seems that because members' schools get accredited and these same members accredit others there may be an occasionaly conflict of interest.

Peers may fail to hold a high standard because they may not want to meet that standard at their own organization.

Not as unified accreditation standards across different accreditation groups. Maybe this isn't a con.

I still like the peer reviewed system but is that the best quality control for higher education? What about industries getting involved in accreditation since they are the secondary client receiveing those students educated at schools into their companies and organizations. Also, what student quality control is taken into account for accreditation. I don't think that student ratings count as student quality control and it seems that students may be a good source for quality control data. What about an international accreditation body so that the peer group is expanded and includes more ideas and different standards. Do we do this at all in any way?

Applying CoI to Interaction

I had this blog entry sitting in my drafts forever. Since I have been working on my research proposal I have learned some interesting things about communities of practice. Somehow when we discussed it in class I missed the fact that a community of inquiry (CoI) is a type of community of practice (CoP). It seemed to me that interaction would be the heart of these communities. I draw this conclusion assuming that the power of any kind of CoP is the social capital that comes from the shared tacit and book knowledge of the group. That knowledge is best shared with the community via members of the CoP hence the interaction becomes key. I thought it very interesting when I ran across a visual representation of Moore's interactions overlaid on the CoI model that represents this idea. You can find this article by Swan at http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/pdf/interactions.pdf.

Forming a CoI also seems very difficult, unless perhaps you look at it through the facilitation of interactions. Of course interaction along will not do it. I have two examples from work. In two different teams we had somewhat of a CoP but very different results came out of those two groups. In one we openly discusses and brainstormed about a project which lead to new ideas , capabilities and greatly shortened the learning curve. In another the CoP interacted just as much or more but for some reason we became stuck in analysis paralysis. We had interaction in both cases with similar types of people but the context of the interaction and weight placed on it was very differennt. Despite this it seems that a community of practice could go a long way in refining skills, identifying best practices, saving time by counseling together, coming up with better solutions that have been thought through more thoroughly and avoid problems/mistakes.

Something I would hope to learn more about is the idea of how one becomes a part of a CoP and the process of them going from newcomers to experienced members of the group. One idea that I found deals with the idea that a newcomer does simple, peripheral type activities within the community that still contribute to the community's purpose. They continue to increase in activity until they are experienced members. Wikipedia has a little blurp on this. It is called the legitimate peripheral participation theory that describes this process but one of its creators later abandoned or transformed his thinking on this process. I am not sure why.

Virtual Schools: Distance ed in K12

After Michael Barbour's class I had the thought that we know so very little about distance education for K-12 especially grades lower than high school. However, we are quickly moving to having more and more of these distance programs. I was disappointed that more had not been done to analyze the effectiveness and effects on the students. At first I thought, man our government is irresponsible for pushing some of these programs at times and yet not funding research to find out more about them. Then I thought that perhaps the responsibility falls as much on educators and educational researchers as it does the government. Anyway, my feelings of the need for research were confirmed in this week's readings:

"Little empirical research has been performed to determine [distance education's] effectiveness in elementary and secondary settings. Questions remain about the educational needs best addressed through online learning as well as its impact on school improvement and learner outcomes. Programs of research informed by early lessons learned are needed to inform the future development of online learning. "

As I looked through the conclusions and findings of the 8 research projects that were funded I did not find much that helped answer the educational needs that would be best addressed through online learning. In fact I found that most of the articles said that there was a need for more research or that perhaps there were problems with the random samples or the implementation of the experimental design. I can understand that it could be difficult to do an experiment design in an educational settings. Educators, and parents may not want their children to be randomly assigned to different groups like lab rats if they feel they may not "make it" or that it may not give them the experience they think they should have.

Anyway, the other problem that seemed glaring to me was stated in the article:

"Research on K-12 online learning rarely has been conducted in a sustained, systematic manner. There is a pressing need for efforts to organize and systematize research on the effectiveness of K-12 online learning."

Recommendations:

What good is a critic with no better plan right? I don't think I have the answers but it seems to me that there are some great research opportunities here. If a group of experienced researchers could formulate a systematic plan with a set timeline to evaluate the effectiveness of K-12 distance learning based on what we already know and ensure that the studies will really get at what we want--effectiveness then I have to think that our government would take the responsibility to fund such an undertaking. As a tax payer I for one would want to know if these distance educational experiences are going to help our children. I'd also want to know at what point these experiences are most effective and with which content areas.

Quotes taken form http://www.ncrel.org/tech/synthesis/synthesis.pdf

Blended Learning

I've been slacking on my blog but hope to dive into this a lot over the next little while and get into the blogs of all the rest of the distance ed students.

I've been thinking about what we discussed tonight and here are a couple of take home messages I pulled from the discussion:

Don't take technology and just do what you would do in a F2F setting with it. One of the things we should think more carefully about as designers and teachers is taking technology and distance ed tools and using them to figure out how its strengths and differences can transform pedagogy for the better.

Another way of putting this is--use blended learning to change pedagogy rather than enhancing what's already there. Use technology to do things we cannot do otherwise. Transform the class not just make it more productive.

I like this idea but do struggle with it a little bit. In the little experience I have this seems very difficult. I haven't seen any kind of "products" including technology, or other materials for that matter, that have changed pedagogy. What I have seen is that it can help reinforce a change in one's learning/teaching philosophy, methodology, and style or take away from that change but not actually make it. There has to be something more to make a shift like that. With that said I think there are isolated instances where the technology seemed to change the dynamic of a course which appeared as a change in pedagogy. My personal feeling on this is that the teacher using that technology has already begun to transform their pedagogy and the technology is reinforcing that change.

In addition, I will shamelessly generalize and say that the tendency of most teachers, myself included, is to use technology to improve what is already there. Because of that tendency I think we are much better off trying to figure out and look for ways to use technology to do things we cannot do otherwise despite the argument that it may not transform our pedagogy.

Findings

Articles from The American Journal of Distance Education
Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.

1) Proved that combining the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and Dillman's four stages of pretesting to develop a distance course evaluation assessment results in a culturally sensitive valid and reliable instrument.
2) Created the SASODE http://ohi.tamu.edu/survey.html which is proven to assess student perceptions of quality distance education.

Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.

1) Interest and support of the workplace in employees' learning activities is key to their success.
2) Participation in online community did not distract from or disturb learners' involvement in their workplace community.
3) Participation in online community did not significantly contribute to the sense of an enhanced workplace community with colleagues.

Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.

1) The process of self-categorization decreased cognitive messages (p=.018) in forums but significantly increased organizational (p=.003) and social units (p=.001).
2) The decrease in cognitive messages is likely due largely to the impact of self-categorization (the researchers concluded that this is similar to the effect of heavier instructor monitoring in a synchronous environment which was said to interfere with students' "idea generation, emotional expression, and creative ideas"

Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.

1) Online courses are being taught by more females, majority are white, at least 50 years old and experienced faculty.
2) Considerably more females are enrolling in online courses than males. Majority are 1) white, 2) undergraduates 3) education majors. They enroll mainly because of convenience factors.
3) Strategies for maintaining online instructional quality: open communication with students, rigor, variety in instructional methods, requiring interaction.
4) Effective online assessments should include: wide variety of regular assignments, feedback based on a rubric, e-mail messages, chat room conversations, and discussion board postings.
5) Effective assessment techniques: projects, portfolios, self-assessments, peer evaluations, weekly assignments with immediate feedback, timed tests and quizzes, and asynchronous type of communication using the discussion board.
6) Only 34% of the study population responded which may skew some of the responses.

Jones, J. G. (2008). Issues and Concerns of Directors of Postsecondary Distance Learning Programs Regarding Online Methods and Technologies. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 46-56.

1) Main concerns are cost, support, vendor lock in, digital divide/technology access.
2) Interestingly noted that less attention was paid to quality or the level of the teachers and satisfaction of the instruction.

Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.

1) The list of instructional design elements of barriers or helps for students with special needs is long and sometimes contradictory.
2) 38 design elements were defined as critically important to the design of Web sites for people with disabilities.
3) These elements fall into five categories: accessibility, Web site design, technologies used, instructional methodologies, and support systems. Some of the examples are:
· Allow easy disengagement of pop-up windows.
· Provide visual text equivalents.
· Provide alternatives for moving images.
· Determine the pervasiveness of graphics per page based on the course's target population.
· Ensure required and optional materials are available in accessible formats with instructions.

Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.

Factors facilitating the development and/or use of learning objects:

1. Good examples of learning objects 2. Online resources (recommended Web sites containing information to assist with learning object design and development) 3. Availability of resources to assist with the evaluation of learning objects (MERLOT, Learning Object Analysis Sheet).

Barriers:
1. Defining the term learning object 2. Amount of work involved and skill deficits 3. Structure of repositories 4. Lack of learning objects in some disciplines 5. Quality of learning objects in repositories 6. Granularity of learning objects 7. Metatagging and cataloguing in repositories 8. Copyright and intellectual property.

O'Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.

· In general, online course exceeded expectations (65%).
· Statistical tests yielded no evidence that the phone call had an effect on student satisfaction.
· Statistically significant effect between phone call and grade but most likely not practical (p=0476).
Factors that may affect the conclusions were timing of the phone call and number of calls.

Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.

· There is a relationship between cognitive style and achievement levels.
· Introverts attained significantly higher achievement than extroverts (85.16 vs. 80.05 mean).
· Attributed to cognitive style. Both had challenges. Extroverts had challenge with limited interaction and interaction constraints whereas introverts felt more tension.

Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.

· Substance rate was higher for the peer-moderated group (p<.01).
· Moderated groups had more substantive responses.
The conclusion is that student moderation elicits more meaningful interaction.

Theoretical Framework

Summary:

Can an article lack a theoretical framework? I guess if you dig enough you could pin it to some kind of theory but I didn't think that was the point. It seems to me that a discipline has a set of theories to help organize and guide the knowledge that is found while doing research. One challenge that this presents is that if a theory is not explicitly mentioned in an articel unless one knows most of the theories for that discipline then it will be hard to see the theoretical framework in which a study was carried out. Either this is the case for 60% of my articles or they simply did not have a theoretical framework to guide them but rather they were finding holes or things that had not been looked at that dealt with technology or a social component of distance education and studying it. So can an article lack a theoretical framework? I would say it automatically does if the initial planning was not based on some theory.

None specifically mentioned (6)

Jung's theory on cognitive style (1)

Transactional distance (2)

Various other theories pieced together (1-2)

Theoretical Framework

Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.

Various: 160 articles reviewed using theories from some of these, none specifically mentioned
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (1999)
Dillman's (2000) four stages of pretesting
Social ecological model



Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.
· None really but stretching we could say the theory of distance education increasing life-long learning and different types of learning
Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.
· Moore's transactional distance



Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.
· The Illinois Online Network strategies for online instructional strategies
· University accreditations



Jones, J. G. (2008). Issues and Concerns of Directors of Postsecondary Distance Learning Programs Regarding Online Methods and Technologies. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 46-56.
· None really. Implications of information technologies: why, what and how.



Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.
· None really. Accommodating individuals with special needs



Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.
· Learning object articles outlining studied areas of learning objects – no solid theory noted(Wiley quoted)



O'Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.
· Various theories including transactional distance and others that discuss learner-instructor interaction



Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.
· Jung's theory on cognitive style



Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.
· None really. Debate of moderation in online discussions. Should it be teacher moderated or non-moderated? Or a student moderator?

Post-Industrial Distance Education

So I have no where else to put my notes and thoughts from one of the articles I read today so I wanted to put them up here.

Mass communication/production and independent learning VS Post-industrial approach to distance education (personalized and collaborative)

Computer mediated communication
• Asynchronous text based application
• Computer conferencing
> Collaborative
> Not replicate classroom convention


Synchronous and asynchronous discussions on computer. Synchronous is more available but he says that as more people join a computer mediated synchronous discussion it can become complex, confusing and misguided.

“There is little understanding of when real-time interaction, mediated through communications technology, is most useful to enhance learning.”

Computer conferencing is a post-industrial technology
Written word goes hand in hand with higher thinking. Computer conferencing often involves writing so could be a potentially powerful technology.
Some argue that higher order thinking is seldom possible without writing.
The challenge: interpersonal dynamics and social climate

Collaboration is more than simply exchanging information or passing on instructions. Collaborative learning necessitates critical discourse for the purpose of going beyond information exchange. Meaningful collaborative learning ‘creates “added value” and new understandings amongst the members of each group’.

That is, it is the constructive development of connected ideas and coherent knowledge-structures through group communication.

Computer conference is doomed to failure without an active moderator.
Computer conferencing is dependent upon three main moderating functions. 1) contextualizing, 2) monitoring, and 3) meta-communication.

Contextualizing: provides general organization or communication model and focus.
Writing by nature takes out contextualization, one option to overcome it is meet face to face initially

Monitoring: recognizing and prompting individual contributions.

Meta-communication: addresses agenda, relevance, overload and weaving in connections, identify themes and summarize the discussion.

If I were ever teaching a distance ed course. I think for the first few days I would have the students read through a few key things, including parts of the syllabus and then for the first day of class, instead of having class, you have a ten minute video conference meeting with each student so they can ask questions and you can set up some of the class and establish a connection so that you can have “contextualized” distance interactions for the rest of the semester. In fact I think I would try and do this more than once during the semester. The other thing I might entertain is a phone conference with all the students in the second week so that they could get to know each other along with a post on a blog or access to each other's facebook (or whatever else will achieve the objective)so they can get to know each other better.


Ideological biases and implications of computer conferencing: clash between industrial and post-industrial education due to changes in technology and goals.

Summary of Methods

If I had to summarize what methods were used in my articles I would say:

1) Heavy on the qualitative data.
2) Very little quantitative data that mostly comes form Likert scale type questions.
3) Most studies used methods such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and analysis of student work and discussions.
4) Most of them mentioned the description research method. I don't know all the implications or ins and outs of that method but it seems to consist of the above three things.
5) Data and information was analyzed to find trends and commonalities from which conclusions were made.

Methods

Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.
Development of tool and testing based on the Standards for Educational
and Psychological Testing and Dillman’s 4 stages of pre-testing.
Stage 1: Professional review of survey and statistical analysis of survey items
Stage 2: Test survey for reations on 10 distance ed. students
Stage 3: Pilot study and construct validity evaluation
Stage 4: Outside review by 3 people


Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.
• Based on qualitative research methods
o Interviews
o Questionnaire
• Likert-type scales
• Rating questions


Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.
• Qualitative Analysis
• Students given discussion review (“Reflective Activity Form”) where they counted their week 1 total number of messages, social messages, and off-topic messages. They also rated their messages and classified quality as high, fair, or poor.
• Wk 4, students engaged in a post-treatment discussion on a new topic.
• A questionnaire was administered in Week 5.


Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.
• Descriptive research method.
• Goal: to investigate the perceptions held by students and faculty regarding online instructional and assessment techniques.
• Data collected using a questionnaire survey instrument (Gay, Mills, and Airasian 2006) administered to faculty and students.
• Likert scale type questions.


Jones, J. G. (2008). Issues and Concerns of Directors of Postsecondary Distance Learning Programs Regarding Online Methods and Technologies. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 46-56.
• Qualitative Data
• Online questionnaire consisting of twenty items that contained both demographic information and items that examined technology utilization for the distributed/distance learning programs.
• Average of 4-7 interviews of 45 minutes each were carried out with the 27 directors who finished the study.
• Interviews were based on 5 set questions which were after being initially asked were then discussed in more detail.
• Patterns and themes from coded data were derived from a method developed by Glaser and Strauss


Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.
Descriptive method including statistics.
(1) identifying design elements
applicable to special-needs populations:
• Paired elements cited by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (2000), early versions of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (World Wide Web Consortium 2006), other legal documents, guidelines for internet accessibility, and research literature with elements in the Instrument of Instructional Design Elements of High School Online Courses (IODE)
(2) reporting the frequencies
of those elements in contemporary practice.
• Frequency statistics were derived from a study performed in 2003 (Keeler 2003a) of a random sample of twenty-two online high school courses, sixty-six lessons, and 183 assessments from five online high schools. rural and disadvantaged schools, and others focus on servicing students


Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.
• Students designed and used learning objects. Challenges and other information was gathered via an online conference discussion and an essay written at the end of the semester. Researchers analyzed this data using manual and open coding techniques to identify common themes among individual postings, in the case of the conference postings and excerpted paragraphs, for the essays.


O"Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.
• Satisfaction of phone call was measured using the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm via a questionnaire based on disconfirmation principles and the service quality (SERVQUAL) methodology.


Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.
• Mixed method research approach (qualitative and quantitative)
• Students without significant differences provided data from different colleges via questionnaires and in-depth interviews.
• These questions related to factors that characterize learning via the videoconference medium


Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.
• Comparison study between moderated and non-moderated discussion groups.
• Groups of students were required to participate in online discussions for four weeks. They were asked to post at least one message per week.
• Eight students volunteered to serve as trained moderators. Each moderator was randomly assigned to a group.
• Spontaneous moderating was avoided by monitoring the discussions.

Making Sense of The Transactional Distance Theory

This week I attempted to truly strive to understand what the transactional theory is all about. I don't know that I have succeeded but here is a summary.

Goal of transactional distance is to define the distance education field in pedagogical terms.
The first thing the theory states is that distance education has its own identity! The character of the identity is the "meat" of the theory and consists of 3 main components:
1) Structure of the teaching-learning program (defines rigidity and flexibility and thus the ability to respond to individual learner's needs and preferences)
2) Dialog (rather than interaction due to positive connotation): communication between teacher and learner (determined by course structure since it exists within that structure
3) Autonomy of learners (role of learner=self-management)
Transaction=interplay of different components therefore in DE it is the interplay of teachers and learners in environments that have special characteristic of their being spatially separate form one another.

Amount of dialog and structure defines learner autonomy and determines the transactional distance. The equation looks like this Structure/Dialog=Transactional Distance. So if structure is high and therefore dialogue low then the transactional distance is high and vice versa.
And to add in autonomy if the transactional distance is lower than learners can get by with less autonomy and the converse is true. Higher transactional distance = learner need to exercise higher autonomy.

The three components also help us understand the "interactive" pieces of distance learning:

Interaction: There are 3 types, learner to content, to instructor or to other learner(s)
Organize courses/learning to have all three types of interaction. One common pitfall is using only one medium of communication and therefore there is a focus on one interaction. Design for all three.


So as of this week I have learned about the industrial theory, the transactional theory and the teaching-learning conversation theory. All of which in my mind define different aspects of the distance education field. As far as the macro/micro-ness of these theories Moore sees it this way:

Teaching/Learning Conversations

Is God the ultimate distance education course designer?

He seems to be invested in some of the principles:
* Personal relations
* Study pleasure (scripture stories, doctrines, the need to pick and piece together parts to get the whole picture)
* Empathy (atonement, having "descended below all things" the instructor can have a relationship of understanding of feelings of learners)
* "Feelings of empathy and belonging promote students' motivation to learn and influence the learning favorably." Holmberg, 70

* Prescriptive Components for Good Distance Education
* Promotes and guides argument and dialogue (have to have a structure in text) (example present a question and provide the point and counterpoint-opposition in all things)
* Reflection in writing or recording (prayer)
* Clear, colloquial language-use pronouns and talk informally (instructor to learner put down on text; moderate information density) plenty of this in the scriptures
* Explicit advice (commandments)
* Personal involvement with study matter (This is MY work and MY glory-I think he is pretty personally involved)
* Dialogue, but NOT IDLE CHATTER (Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question—unto what were ye aordained?)
* Problem-oriented (Lost manuscript, Nephi vs Laman and Lemuel, David and Goliath, Ammon and scattered sheep, Peter walking on water and then losing it, etc)

The above was an interesting thought process to go through but as I come to the end I think, perhaps, there is just so much stuff in the spiritual realm that you could find examples of hundreds of different educational principles being applied???

The Resolution of the Peters/Holmberg Fued? Doubt it.

Perhaps in discussing distance education theories in a distance education class we have the tendency to try to see the distance education application. The Holmberg discussion made me wonder, "How many of the proven f2f learning principles can be applied to distance education? Does a different set of principles rule the distance learning world?"

Holmberg said,
"I assume that if a course consistently represents a communication process that is felt to have the character of a conversation, then the students will be more motivated and more successful than if it has an impersonal textbook character."

This "conversational style" is a major component of the teaching-learning conversations theory. In distance education the materials/interaction(text, phone, internet, assignments and comments) should be designed to create a conversational character and environment.

The Mitchell/Peters argument. The argument against the above is that this is just a principle of good education and/or it does not apply to all contexts and subjects where a strict objectivity is needed, further he states, that rather than a conversation, "intellectual pleasure" can come form picking apart a dense, seemingly inaccessible text.

Who is right? My answer is yes! Here is how I see the merging of these two ideas.

1) Holmberg is talking about distance education, though the principle he is supporting is an important part of effective education in general. Perhaps, he is assuming that the "conversational style" that occurs so readily and naturally in the f2f settings needs to be prescribed in distance courses because it is so hard to get at in the distance learning world whereas it is a natural by-product of most other educational settings.

So if conversational things are built into everything in a course then you will get the same benefits of the learning by collaboration, counseling, and talking, as you would in a f2f setting. Can everything in a course be 100% conversational? I don't think Holmberg thinks so but it is lacking in the distance education so you need to put as much in there as possible to help students deal with the complicated academic components (which in Holmberg's world would be very few). The "conversational style" helps make up for not having your peers and teachers there to discuss things in understandable terms and explain them. While those things that Peters feel are necessary (like objectivity and dense content) in the academic world will exist because you general can't avoid them, even if your goal is to make things conversational, when you are presenting content for most subjects.

So is this a distance learning theory? I would say yes and no. No because it is just a part of good education but yes because it is a specific application of a good educational principle in an educational setting where it is not often seen or easily achieved.

Article Contexts

Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.
• Survey review by panel consisting of nine professionals
• Interview of 10 students in or were in a health distance education class
• 601 university students enrolled in a distance education course(s) (Spring 2006)


Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.
• 10 (7 male, 3 female) full-time employed adult online learners in postsecondary distance learning programs across Canada in the middle of their class
• 6 workplace colleagues of the students
• Initial questionnaire with 10 students, phone interview with 7 of the participants, questionnaire for the 6 work colleagues


Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.
• 20 US university students participating in a five week online course within a noncohort master’s program in Career and Technical Education.
• Esed Blackboard (mainly the asynchronous threaded discussion)
• All forums were one week in duration
• During Week 3, students were asked to fill out a discussion review
(“Reflective Activity Form”)


Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.
• The population included 85
university faculty and 1,963 university students, with response rates of 34% (29 of 85) for faculty and 17% (332 of 1963) for students
• Online surveys, administered through the Blackboard and WebCT course management systems, were used to gather data


Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.
• Secondary-level online course students in classes using a “virtual classroom model”
• Special needs (physical and cognitive, no emotional) students
• Twenty-two sample courses were chosen from varying schools (with different accreditation bodies)
• The courses included at least four from each major
subject area (English, mathematics, science, social studies, and “other”)
and about four from each of the 5 online high schools


Kelsey, K. D. (2008). A Review of: Teaching and Learning With Virtual Teams. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 63-65.
• 4 sections of a book were reviewed
• First two sections each had 4 chapters last two each had two chapters
• Mostly empirical data from various authors were cited and explained


Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.
• The study involved twenty-seven graduate students enrolled in the Masters
of Distance Education (MDE) program at Athabasca University
• All were senior-level students, having completed at least four previous courses in the program
• Spanned a little over a two-month period


O"Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.
• Questionnaire was administered to selected students in the Iowa Community College Online Consortium at the beginning and end of the spring 2005 semester
• Students surveyed in the first two weeks and again at the end of the semester
• Sixteen instructors, representing five colleges, volunteered to participate in the study, they had a total of 348 students registered, 229 participated
• 66 students received a phone call the others were part of the control group; the rest did not end up participating


Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.
• Seventy-seven Israeli students participated in the study, 34 women and 43 men, who studied at least one DL course via videoconferencing.
• Data was collected from all but fifty-one of the students were interviewed
• The students were from a university geographically farther than 100 miles from the lecturer


Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.
• 174 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course at a Western university.
• First-year students (49%), second-year students (36%), and upper-level undergraduates (15%). Approximately 61% of the participants were in the 18–20 age range and 33% were in the 21–23 age range.
• Approximately 58% of the students were female.
• 166 participants divided in half and then into groups of 10-11 students

Scroll down to see the table with my articles please--still trying to figure out how to post a table in blogger?

Researchers Ponder the Yonder

Articles from The American Journal of Distance Education

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Article	Questions
Chaney lang=ES-CL style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language:ES-CL'>, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.	Can we develop a culturally sensitive instrument to assess the quality of distance education courses? Can this be done evaluating student attitudes, opinions, and perceptions of distance education? What do we learn when we test this instrument? Does it provide reliable measures?
Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.	If you participate in a learning community does that affect your relationship to your workplace environment and colleagues? Does a learning community of online peers contribute to community in the workplace? What is the most valuable exchange among colleagues? What do learners report about participation in a learning community? Is there evidence that this transfers over in the workplace?
Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.	The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of having online graduate students engage in a self-categorization of their individual asynchronous discussion contributions. Is there an increase in discussion quantity after self-categorization? The hypothesis was that after self-categorization that cognitive dialogue would increase, in number and percent, be more complex by showing a more inference and analysis and have a higher percentage of “deep-level processing.”
Gaytan style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.	Which instructional and assessment strategies are most effective in the online learning environment? What strategies can faculty and students use to maintain instructional quality in the online environment? How does using a variety of methods facilitate quality in the online environment? What is the importance of feedback?
Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.	This article addresses the intersections between online education and special education in terms of instructional design. The relevant elements of online instructional design, which require particular attention when teaching students with special needs, are examined. The overall finding is that contemporary courses generally include design elements necessary to meet the basic needs of students with disabilities. The authors recommend design methods focusing on either universal design principles or a specified target population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Kelsey, K. D. (2008). A Review of: Teaching and Learning With Virtual Teams. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 63-65.	What has been researched and what empirical data is there on 1) e-learning in virtual teams. 2) Strategies for effective teaching and learning in virtual teams. 3) Using international collaboration. to form teams and 4) teams and their use of technology. style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
Moisey style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.	What skills and information are required to develop and use learning objects successfully? What barriers affect developing and using learning objects in instructional materials? What factors facilitate the use and development of learning objects?
O"Leary lang=ES-CL style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language:ES-CL'>, P. F., & Quinlan class=SpellE>Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.	How does telephone distance learning impact the satisfaction and achievement of online students? How will one call from the instructor in the first two weeks of the class affect student grades? Will the grades improve if you received a call? Are students expectations meet in online courses?
Offir style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, B., class=SpellE>Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.	How does cognitive style (based on Jung’s theory) relate to achievement levels? What can this relationship teach educators about which students require more support in a distance learning setting?
Seo style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.	How does peer moderation affect meaningful interactions in online discussions? H1: A peer-moderated online discussion forum will contain more posts responding to previous comments than a non-moderated forum. H2: A peer-moderated online discussion forum will contain more substantive responses enriching the conversation than a non-moderated forum.