How do ALNs Change the Teacher’s Role In Case Study Discussions?

1. How do ALNs Change the Teacher’s Role In Case Study Discussions? Robert Heckman Hala Annabi School of Information Studies Syracuse University

2. Agenda • Describe Study • Present Results • Discuss Implications for Teacher’s Role

3. Study Description

4. Objectives • Descriptive. To provide a rich, detailed, descriptive comparison of actual case study discussions in both FTF and ALN modes. • Methodological. To expand our understanding of several content analysis approaches for analyzing ALN discussions. • Pedagogical. To explore methods for improving the conduct of case study discussions in ALN mode.

5. Method • Transcripts from 4 FTF and 4 ALN case study discussions were content analyzed • Content analytic framework derived from previous work of Anderson, Archer, Garrison and Rourke (1999, 2000, 2001); and Aviv (2000)

6. First Level Second Level Description Social Process (Rourke et al.) Affective Response Responses that include affective content Cohesive Response Indication of building group cohesion and having a sense of group commitment. Interactive Response Indication of open communication, attentiveness and interaction between members Cognitive Process (Garrison et al.) Exploration The exploration of information and ideas Analysis The analysis of information and ideas Integration The connection of ideas and the construction of resolution Teaching Process (Anderson et. al.) Direct Instruction Indication of the intellectual and scholarly guidelines for the discussion Facilitating Discourse Maintaining the interest of students to keep them involved in the discussion. Discourse Process Speaker/Target (Aviv) The source and target of the utterance Discourse Characteristics The linguistic characteristics of the discourse Coding Scheme

7. Conceptual Model Antecedents Structuring Processes Outcomes Organization Technology Task Structure Group Structure Reward Structure Experience Culture Individual Traits Performance (e.g.Grades, quality of Product, etc.) Opinion of Others Satisfaction Learning Social Process Discourse Process Cognitive Process Teaching Process

8. Results

9. Summary of Findings • Teacher presence was much greater in FTF discussions. • Virtually all student utterances in FTF were responses to the teacher. In OL discussions nearly two-thirds of student utterances were responses to other students.

10. ALN FTF Average # Utterances/student 2 5 Teacher: Words/utterance 50 80 Student: Words/utterance 100 30 Ratio:Student/teacher utterances 5:1 1:1 Ratio of Utterances

11. Target Speaker

12. Summary of Findings (cont.) • The major interactive operation in ALN was continuing a thread., in FTF it was asking a question (almost always by the teacher.) • Much greater incidence of direct instruction in the FTF discussion, (presenting content, confirming understanding, focusing discussion) • Greater incidence of drawing in participants, especially through cold calling on students, in the FTF discussions.

13. Pattern of FTF Dialog T T T T T S S S S S Time

14. Pattern of ALN Dialog T S S S T S S S S S S S T S S S Time

15. Summary of Findings (cont) • In the average FTF discussion there were nearly twice as many instances of Cognitive Process as in the average ALN discussion. • In FTF discussions, the instances of Cognitive Process were predominantly in the lower order Exploration category. • In contrast, the ALN discussions contained more high-level Cognitive Process instances, both in absolute and relative terms.

16. Cognitive Process over Time: FTF

17. Cognitive Process over Time: ALN

18. In which mode did your instructor provide more helpful information?

19. Student Comments • There was more feedback in the class. • He presented the same information in both, however, listening to it in class as opposed to reading it made it sink in better and seem more relevant. • The professor leads the discussion much more in class and translates what people say so everybody understands it

20. In which mode would you prefer to discuss cases in the future?

21. Student Comments • I prefer the flow of the verbal discussion. It’s more organized, less formal. • Ideas can grow and diversify faster (in FTF). • FTF makes you get more involved. I prefer it because it makes me pay attention. • Although I got more from the FTF discussion, I contributed more to the asynchronous discussion.

22. Implications for the Teacher’s Role

23. Problems for the Teacher in ALN Case Study Discussions • Less control of the “choreography” • This makes it more difficult to: • Ask follow up questions • Provide immediate feedback • Provide serendipitous direct instruction • Explore concrete detail

24. Problem: Choreography • Solution: abandon Socratic form • Difficult because student assumptions about traditional Socratic choreography are implicit and deep • Replace serial with parallel forms • e.g. Parallel topical discussions • Role change: Make choreography explicit rather than implicit

25. Problem: Questioning • Solution: Partially transfer questioning role to students • Difficult because students are implicitly and deeply habituated to respond to teacher questions • Train students in art of questioning • Role change: Require students to post questions in Q1 and Q2

26. Problem: Feedback • Solution: Partially transfer feedback role to students • Difficult because students implicitly value teacher feedback more highly • Train students in art of feedback • Role change: Require students to answer other student questions in Q1, Q2

27. Problem: Direct Instruction • Solution: Partially transfer direct instruction role to students • Difficult because students lack authority in other students’ eyes • Train students to find concise external sources of information • Role change: Require students to present relevant and credible external information

28. Problem: Explore the Concrete • Solution: Rely on the story for concreteness • Choose stories for vivid detail • Train students how to support every abstract assertion with concrete evidence • Role change: Focus on story value more than abstract analytic value

29. FTF Roles Choreographer: of implicit Socratic dance Teacher: question, feedback, present content Analyst: Emphasis on rational deduction ALN Role Designer: of explicit new structures Teacher: teaching students to question, feedback, present content Storyteller: Emphasis on story values Summary of Role Changes