Vol. 19, No. 4, December 2003

Using group communication to monitor web-based group learning

G.D. Chen, K.L. Ou, H.P. Chen & C.Y. Wang, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan

Email: chen@csie.ncu.edu.tw

In a web group-learning environment, students must communicate with other group members on the Internet to accomplish group projects and share learnt knowledge. Simultaneously, communication within the group is likely to affect group performance. Thus, analysing the relationship between (communicative relationships and group performance may help teachers to monitor groups effectively. The following tasks are necessary to perform such an analysis — recording group communication, extracting communication relationships and determining the relationship between group communication and group performance. This study develops a method for determining relationships and rules for predicting performance to enable teachers to take act appropriately according to the predicted performance of the group, to improve group learning. Four group performance indicators are considered — average grades within a group, project grade, frequency of resource-sharing and drop-out rate. Experimental results are also presented, concerning the application of the methodology to a web class of 706 students, divided into 70 groups. The experimental results show that group communication patterns significantly affect group performance.

Keywords: Collaboration; Communication; Discourse analysis; Email; Group; Peers; Undergraduate; World-wide web

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 401-415

Accepted: 1 November 2002

Reciprocal tutoring using cognitive tools

W.K. Wong, T.W. Chan, C.Y. Chou, J.S. Heh & S.H. Tung
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, National Central University & Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Email: wongwk@yutech.edu.tw

Reciprocal tutoring, where peers take turns to tutor each other, is an interesting style of social learning. In the Reciprocal Tutoring System (RTS), three computational cognitive tools were designed to facilitate reciprocal tutoring of Lisp programming on the network. The first is a Petal-style of code–chunk interface, with which a tutee can enter Lisp code without making syntactic errors. The second tool is Diagnosis-Hint Tree, with which a tutor can diagnose and comment on the errors in the tutee’s program. The third one is a list of dialogue templates, with which the tutee and the tutor can communicate during the tutoring process. A three-phase experiment was conducted, with each phase using different cognitive tools. In addition, with the help of the cognitive tools, RTS provides a virtual learning companion that can play tutor or tutee. Evaluation results reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of peer-based learning and intelligent tutoring, with supports of different cognitive tools. Peer-based learning supported by cognitive tools is a practical and attractive alternative to intelligent tutoring systems. Exactly which type of tutor is preferred depends on the tutee’s cognitive, communication, and emotional needs in the tutorial context.

Keywords: Agents; Attitude; Collaboration, Distance learning; IT-use; Summative evaluation

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 416-428

Accepted: 1 November 2002

Action research in continuing professional distance education

M.B. Nunes & M. McPherson, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield

Email: j.m.nunes@sheffield.ac.uk

In order to support the persistent evolution of Continuing Professional Distance Education (CPDE), an action research approach must be taken. For action research to be successful, explicit research models must be formulated and used. This paper presents such a model that conjugates pedagogical thinking, curriculum design and organisational context: the Educational Management Action Research (EMAR) model. However, the complexities and precise specifications required by Educational Systems Design (ESD) call for better support through development frameworks that incorporate educational and systems development philosophies. This paper presents and discusses an ESD framework that has been extensively used in the development of eLearning.

Keywords: Action research; Continuing; Distance; eLearning; Internet; Professional; Systems design; University

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 429-437

Accepted: 1 November 2002

Extensive reading online: an overview and evaluation

Y.C. Sun, National Chao-Tung University, Taiwan

Email: sunyc@cc.nctu.edu.tw

This study reports on the design and implementation of a reading program — Extensive Reading Online (ERO) — that aims to offer an online reading platform featuring specific needs for EFL learners in Taiwan. The system includes both teacher and student interfaces. Several reading aids are integrated into the system, such as concordancer help, stage-by-stage reading strategy training, and text annotation functions. ERO was integrated into a college level reading class. Results show that students held a positive attitude toward the reading system. Some recommendations for future improvement are also discussed..

Keywords: Concordancer; English; Extensive reading; Reading Strategies; Web-based

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 438-448

Accepted: 21 December 2002

Integrating ICT into second language education in a vocational high school

S.S.C. Young, National Tsing Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Email: scy@mx.nthu.edu.tw

This study investigated the potential impacts of integrating the Internet into an English as a second language (ESL) class in a vocational senior high school in Taiwan and included 29 students and a young male English teacher. It was found that the students overall had a positive perception toward using Internet tools. This study indicated that the integration of information communication technology on the Internet with English facilitates the creation of a virtual environment that transforms learning from a traditional passive experience to one of discovery, exploration, and excitement in a less stressful setting. The study revealed that a computer-mediated communication environment could lower students’ psychological barriers to enable them to express their opinions freely and to communicate actively on the Internet and that it could also enhance their critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills through online debates or class homepage construction. An individual case study further revealed that a task-oriented English tutoring strategy in association with email communication could motivate the student’s writing competence but the student’s language proficiency and grammatical accuracy did not improve. Finally, based on the findings, recommendations for future studies are made.

Keywords: Case study; Communication; Discourse analysis; Email; English; ESL; ICT-use; Interview; Questionnaire; Schools; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 449-463

Accepted: 21 December 2002

Developing a collaborative learning environment using a web-based design

M. Neo, Multimedia University, Malaysia

Email: kneo@pc.jaring.my

Today, technology is being used to support teachers in designing interesting and stimulating learning environments for the students. In this paper, a web-based design project is used to create a collaborative learning environment with the aim of inculcating collaborative skills into the learners and increase their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The design project was created using multimedia tools such as Dreamweaver and Adobe-Photoshop. Students worked in groups and were actively responsible for their own learning processes. Results showed that students engaged in collaborative learning enhanced their problem-solving and critical thinking skills, learned to work in a team and became more autonomous learners.

Keywords: Attitude; Collaboration; Constructivist; IT-use; Multimedia; Student-centred; Team

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 464-475

Accepted: 19 December 2002

Understanding and analysing activity and learning in virtual communities

F. Henri & B. Pudelko, Centre de Recherche LICEF, Télé-université du Québec

Email: france_henri@teluq.uquebec.ca

The purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary framework to observe, analyse and evaluate both activity and learning in virtual communities. So various types of virtual communities were studied by examining their relationship to socialisation and learning. After a presentation of the main ideas of Wenger’s social learning theory, the principal components of the social context of the emergence and evolution of virtual communities will be described. It will show how taking this context into account enables the definition of four principal types of virtual communities: community of interest, goal-oriented community of interest, learners’ community and community of practice and describe how the activity of these communities develops according to the goals they set for themselves and to the strategies they adopt to reach them. For each type of virtual community, an attempt will be made to determine the process of negotiation of meaning at the base of learning, and to describe the learning performed in terms of participation and reification processes..

Keywords: Asynchronous; Collaboration; Learning; Negotiation; Socialization; Virtual communities

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 476-489

Accepted: 2 October 2002

Undergraduate students’ gender differences in IT skills and attitudes

A. Lee, Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching, The University of Hong Kong

E-mail: anitalee@hkucc.hku.hk

The worldwide concern about the gender gap in information technology and the lack of woman participation in computer science has been attributed to the different cultural influences to which boys and girls are subject. In The University of Hong Kong, girls achieved greater improvements in their computer skills than their male counterparts after completing one year of studies. Recognising their own progress has, in turn, boosted their confidence in using IT. The young women’s estimates of their skill levels have doubled over the years from 1998 to 2000. Despite this recorded acceleration at the end of the academic years, girls were less confident of their abilities and possessed lower IT skill levels than boys before starting their university education, as found in surveys of freshmen’s computer skills. This study compares the responses of student participants of the HKU/IBM Notebook Computer Programme, which started in 1998, in the self-reported IT skills and attitudes of male and female students, in surveys conducted both at the beginning and again at the end of the freshman year. It also examines the achievement scores of the IT Proficiency Tests and the ‘Foundations to Information Technology’ courses administered for the student IT requirement for graduation.

Keywords: Attitudes; Computer; Gender; IT-use; Quantitative; Survey; Undergraduate

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 490-503

Accepted: 20 December 2002

Contextual issues in the construction of computer-based learning programs

A.C.K. Leung, Department of Information Systems, Lingnan University, N.T., Hong Kong

Email: leungcka@ln.edu.hk

Based on the constructive learning theories, particularly constructivism, four contextual issues are identified and discussed in this paper regarding the construction of effective computer-based learning programs, namely topic selection, authenticity, complexity, and multiple perspectives. These four issues are considered essential for effective learning in terms of learners’ participation, reasoning and knowledge construction. After a thorough review and discussion of these issues, a generic conceptual model is built, which shows both the interrelationships among the four issues and the measurement variables of each issue. It is expected that the four contextual issues and the generic model can provide invaluable insights toward research in computer-based learning, training and many other related fields, and address the needs of practitioners to develop better computer-based learning programs. Recommendation for further research is also suggested in the end.

Keywords: Constructivist; Courseware; Discovery learning; Multimedia; Problem solving; Student-Centred

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 503-518

Accepted: 23 December 2002

Previews in hypertexts: effects on navigation and knowledge acquisition

U. Cress & O.B. Knabel, Institute for Psychology, University of Tuebingen

Email: u.cress@iwm-kmrc.de

In hypertexts previews can be used as local tools for navigation. They pop up when a link is activated and provide information about the linked page. In an experimental study with 50 participants the effect of previews on searching and knowledge acquisition was investigated. The participants had to explore a hypertext with the aim either to understand as much as they could or to search for information. Previews enhanced knowledge acquisition in both conditions and supported intentional and incidental learning. In the searching condition previews were used for link selection, even if they could not enhance the search results.

Keywords: Advance organiser; Browsing; Hypertext; Previews; Searching; Undergraduate

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 519-529

Accepted: 23 December 2002

Characteristics of multimedia textbooks that affect post-test scores

J. Mikk & P. Luik, Department of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia

Email: piretluik@hot.ee

The evaluation of computer software relies on the relationship between the characteristics of the software and the efficiency of its use. To find out which characteristics of the software can influence the level of acquired knowledge, an experiment was carried out with tenth grade students in Estonian schools. Fifty-four students studied 35 units from different multimedia textbooks. Correlation coefficients between the post-test score of the students and different characteristics of the textbooks were calculated. The correlation coefficients revealed five factor groups for the post-test score: text, presentation of information on the computer screen, graphics, navigation, and students’ self-control.

Keywords: Empirical; Interface; Multimedia; Readability; Secondary; Software evaluation

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 530-539

Accepted: 12 January 2003

An exploratory study of adolescent’s perceptions of the Web

J. Dinet, P. Marquet & E. Nissen, Universities of Strasbourg & Poitiers

Email: jerome.dinet@univ-poitiers.fr

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the influence of two individual characteristics (Web experience and academic focus) of adolescents on the Web perception, using off-line questionnaires (a Lickert response scale) constituted on the basis of a series of interviews. Questions concerned: perceptions about the nature of information found in the Web; ‘strategies’ of access to the interesting Internet sites and the reliability of different information resources (libraries, television, Web, etc.). Results lead to the assumption that adolescents with high Web experience became more critical, less confident and less enthusiastic than adolescents with low Web experience and that, in some dimensions, perceptions of literature students are different to those of science students. Even if some interesting results were obtained, further research is needed to explore users’ perceptions related to individuals’ characteristics and to determine the generalisability of the influences identified in this exploratory study.

Keywords: Adolescent; Information retrieval; Perceptions; Secondary; Student-centred; Questionnaire; World-wide web

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 540-547

Accepted: 18 March 2003

The Internet for educating individuals with social impairments

J. Bishop, School of Computing, University of Glamorgan

Email: jonathan@jonathanbishop.com

Social impairments materialise in a number of forms, from developmental disabilities such as autistic spectrum disorder, to psychiatric conditions such as social phobia. The individuals diagnosed with these problems find it difficult to deal with social situations through either the inability to perform in these situations or the fear of not being able to do so. The study investigated the social and practical implications of using Mobile Internet technology to deliver information relating to a social situation in real-time to participants with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (n = 10) and General Social Phobia (n = 3) diagnosed using DSM-IV. The participants used the agent on their mobile phone to convert phrases they found offensive or confusing into more concise and understandable definitions. Analysing their attitudes found that the technology enables socially impaired individuals to learn the meaning of emotions and understand more about how they communicate with their peers. However, the study concludes that governmental organisations, education providers and society as a whole need to adopt a cohesive approach to communication to ensure socially impaired individuals are fully included in society

Keywords: Autism; Collaboration; Emotion recognition; Social phobia; Special education; Wireless agents

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 548-558

Accepted: 19 March 2003

Effects of vocabulary computer training in kindergarten

E. Segers & L. Verhoeven, Dept. of Special Education, University of Nijmegen

Email: e.segers@ped.kun.nl

In the present study, intensive vocabulary training by computer was undertaken in a two-year kindergarten programme in the Netherlands. In the intervention, 67 native and immigrant children in the first and second years of kindergarten played vocabulary games on the computer twice a week for a period of 15 minutes over 15 weeks. A control group of 97 kindergartners followed the regular curriculum. In a pre-test-training-post-test-retention test design, positive effects of the computer training were found on a curriculum-dependent vocabulary test. A trend was found towards positive effects of the computer training on a curriculum-independent test for children in their second year of kindergarten. The results present an alternative and relatively teacher-independent method to enlarge children’s vocabularies.

Keywords: CD-ROM; Control group; Experiment; Multimedia; Pre-school; Quantitative; Second language learning; Vocabulary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 4, 559-568

Accepted: 10 April 2003