TOOL5100 - CSCL

1. TOOL5100 - CSCL Empirical studies and interaction analysis

2. Presentation 23.03.06 • Hara, N., Kling, R. (1999) ”Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course” • Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003). ”Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning” Empirical studies and interaction analysis

3. Content – Hara,n.,Kling, R.(1999) Students Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course • Introduction • Literature Review • Background • Methodology • Students`Fustration in an Online Course • Understanding Studnets Perspectives • Discussion • Conclusion Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

4. Introduction • Recent cutting-edge technology enable universities to implement distance education to reach a diverse population and to provide open learning environments 24 hours a day 7 days a week • In addition they form ”a critical” pressure point for challinging the dominant assumptions and characteristics of existing traditonally organized universities in the 21st century” (Hanna, 1998) Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

5. Introduction cont. • Nipper (1998) indentifies three generations of distant education • The first; provided mostly through paper-based instructions • The second through integraded multimedia (ex: courses via television) • The third through two-way communications media (ex: video- conferencing) Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

6. Introduction cont. • The literature about distance education is dominated by enthusiastic studies and accounts • But some studies report the importance of students`isolation in distance education course • Original research question was: ”How do the students in B555 overcome their feelings of isolation in a virtual classrom to create the sense of a community of learning?” Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

7. Introduction cont. • But after the first interviews where students reported major fustration of various aspects and futher investigation of the literature they desided to shift the focus of the study • New research question: ”How do students`frustrations in a Web-based distance education course inhibit their educational oppertunites? How do students deal with these frustrations?” Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

8. Literature review • Research indicates that the achivments and satisfaction of student is almost the same in both traditional cassroom and distance education (Johnstone and Krauth, 1996) • Opportunities for students away from campus • Little focus on the students perspective, more on the students outcomes (Ahern and Repman, 1994) • Research on the use of the World Wide Web lack disciplined scholary articles. Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

9. Literature review cont. • Hidden phenomenon • Higher education are facing a challenge • The expectations for technology to transform the education are high • ”There have been an unrelenting cycle of technology in classrooms since the 1920s, where technology was introduced by enthusiastic advocates, such as administrators and researchers, only to fail because teachers lacked equipment, time and training” (Cuban, 1986) Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

10. Literature review cont. • Little research on distant education, and the research that was found was mostly positive, and do not indicate probems in social context • But important to study failures as well as successes, so that we can understand the limitations of each technology as well as its capabilities. This provided that we understand the people we are trying to educate and what kind of education we are trying to give them (Simpson, 1985) Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

11. Background • Study site • B555 was a graduate course whose syllabus characterized it as designed ”to give participants a broad view of computer-enhanced language learning and the place of the World Wide Web in the language lerarning classrom” • It was taught through a Web site • The site contained reading materials, activities, dicussion questions and additional readings organized along eight themes. • The main menu used the metaphor of a traditional classrom, so the students could be situated in their familiar environments Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

12. Background cont. • The Students and the Instructor - In 1997, B555 enrolled 6 master´s students • 4 of the students had minimal experience with computers, 1 was very familiar with computers; she was also familiar with the course`s content. And 1 student was taking the course far away from the university, so had no direct access to the university facilities • The Instructor was a Ph.D candidate and an international student • She was experienced English teacher; but was her first experience teaching by distance education • Instead of altering the Web site, she tailored the instructions by sending weekly e-mail messages Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

13. Metodoloy • Data collection • They choose to use a case study methodology because they found it necessary to develop a ”thick description” (Geertz, 1973) of a virtual classrom • The inquiry was an instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) based on a need for a general understanding of students in distance education Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

14. Metodoloy cont. • Data collection cont. • Three different methodologies was used; • Observation: Online classrom discussion was observed to grasp how the instructor facilitated the dialogue among the students. And it was observed how each student interacted with the Web site • Interview: Was conducted immediately after the students had finished their tasks on the Web • Document review: Examination of various types of documents realted to B555, including the course syllabus, reading assigment, and the cataog`s course description. And the instructor´s personal log Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

15. Metodoloy cont. • Data analysis • The data was simultaneously analyzed • The analysis was triangulated in terms of methodologies, people and time (Silverman, 1996; Stake, 1995) • Congruence as well as inconsistency were cautiously examind in order to present multiple perspectives Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

16. Students`Frustration in an Onlline Course • A Virtual Field Trip • SchMOOze University is a virtual university for people studying English as a second or foreign languange, which uses metaphors of locations • The observation and interviews showed different kind of frustrations, such as: no feedback if you did something wrong, no instructions for alternativ commands, and technical problems • But the trip also gave positive experience for one of the students. He was excited about the technology, and the involvement of real feelings Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

17. Students`Frustration in an Onlline Course cont. • Working Alone at Night • One of the students was working alone after midnight in the campus computer lab • Had not recived the the assignment specifications from the instructor and felt confused • To much information • Had doubts about the professional development of the B555 Web site Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

18. Students`Frustration in an Onlline Course cont. • Interactive Communication Tool: E-Mail • The students and Instructor generated quite intensive online discussions through e-mail • On the surface the the volume of the online discussions indicated a lively class • But there where underlying problems, such as; the students did not read the other students postings before writing their own e-mails. The lack of time to keep up with the amount of postings. And the new way of using e-mail made the work time consuming • It appeard that the students were competing with each other, or felt a duty to produce a notable number of e-mails Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

19. Understanding Students Perspectives • No Physical Existence, No Feedback - Feel a sense of competitiveness, since there are no feedback about the contribution done. Unsure about the Instructor`s expectations. • No immediate assistence from the Instructor when help is needed • The literature caution that the lack of communications cues is a disatvantage of CMC because people cannot use any non verbal cues, such as gesture and facial expressions Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

20. Understanding Students Perspectives • Technological Problems • No personnel to provide technical support • Inappropriate prerequisite statement • The instructor also felt fustrated because she knew about the students problems, but couldn`t help them • Pedagogical Issues – Ambiguous Instructions • Vage instructions for the assignments • Lack of the teacher`s support and clarification of her instructions Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

21. Understanding Students Perspectives cont. • Pedagogical Issues – Ambiguous Instructions cont. • The web site was developed for the same course only offered in a traditional classroom. Some hyperlinks were no longer accessible • Dealing With Fustrations • Talked to classmates and friends, supported each other • Experience for later • However, two students droped out of the course because they didn`t overcome their fustrations Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

22. Discussion • From the interviews and the observations it appared that there were two foci of fustrations among the students, the first was on the technological problems and the second was on the course content and the instructur`s practices in managing her communications with the students • The Instructor belived that she had reduced the students fustrations during the semester, but this was shown not to be true, as the student only had expressed some of their fustrations to the Instructor Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

23. Conclusion • Most articles about distance education emphasize the positive aspects • Only a few scholars examine important limitations and pervasive problems • It is time to seriously consider the actual experience among students in distance education courses an to critically discuss the phenomena of distance education • It is also question if technology can improve pedagogy with little specia effort Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

24. Conclusion cont. • In this case it is easy to place the burden of the students`frustrations on the Instructor. But the Instructor was chosen by the department chair who had expierience with online courses. • Even expirienced administrators can also misperceive the kinds of pedalogical shifts that are required from face-to-face teaching • It all end out to the need for more research that is designed to to teach us how to use the appropriate use of technology and pedagogy to make distance education benefical for students Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

25. Content - Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003). ”Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning” • Introduction • Method • Results • Discussion Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

26. Introduction • ”An advanced information society is taking shape, in Western countries, in which knowledge will be the most critical resource for sosial and economic delvelopment and where self-organized teams and networked activities, more and more, will characterize the emerging type of work” • Educational institutions are required to find better pedagogical methods that guide students to collaborate for advancment of their ideas. • Lethinen and his colleagues arguedd that one of the most promising approches to improving learning and instruction with the help of modern information and communication technologies is provided by the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

27. Introduction cont. • In the beginning educators was worried that CSCL would reduce the social interaction • Was a breakthrough of network and mobile technologies, which facilitate a synchronous social interaction • These innovative learning enviroments are likely to improve quality of education as well as the equality of educational opportunity by fostering female students`participation in computer-supported learning Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

28. Introduction cont. • The objective of the study was to intensivly examine the patterns of female and male students`participation in computer-supported collaborative learning in two classrooms • There are significant differences between male and female students in their attitudes towards, knowledge about, or use of computers (Durnell & Thompson, 1997, Hakkarainen et.al, 2000, Scott, Cole &Engel, 1992) • Male students are generally more enthusiastic about the use of information and communication technologies • Female students experience computer phobia or tend to minimize the use of their computers Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

29. Introduction cont. • Mixed gender pair perform less well than singel-gender pairs (Fitzpatrick &Hardmann, 2000) • There are some evidence that new pedagogical methodes, such as cross-age tutoring and peer tutoring , may facilitate the development of female students`computer skils (Bromfield, Clarke & Lynch, 2001) • Male students are intrested in using ICT redardless of the nature of the application, while young girls are very intresting in interactive technology that encourages collaborative learning, solving of comlex social dilemmas, intensive writing and flexible pursuit of problem solving Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

30. The Study • The patterns og male and female students`participation in collaborative learning were studied by comparing inguiry processes in to computer-supported elementary school classrooms • The technical infrastructure was provided by the Computer-supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) • CSILE is a network environment for buliding, articulating, exploring and structuring knowledge Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

31. The Study cont. • Three features of the learning environments are essential; • Students themselves are responsible for producing all knowledge entered in the system • A shared virtual database that allows the users to produce knowledge, categorize it by using their own kewords, conduct searches for finding relevant knowledge, and connecting linkages between associated ideas. • The design of CSILE relies of a pedagogical model of progressive inquiry (Hakkerainen, 1998; Scardamalia &Berieter, 1994, 1996) taht have been developed together with innovative teachers. A crucial aspect of this kind of inquiry is students`engagement in collaborative effort aimed to improve shared ideas and thoughts instead of merely attempts to assimilate bodies of pre-existing knowledge Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

32. The Study cont. • The study examined the epistemic nature of written comments provided by the student • Focus on analyzing the pattersn of CSILE students´ participation by applaying a method of social network analysis • Examined the relations among students commenting on each others` productions within CSILE`s databse • Examined the degree of centralization of the students`interaction Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

33. Method • Participants; Classrooms A and B • Classroom A, 19 female, 9 male • Classroom B, 10 female, 20 male • Study material; The CSILE database • Qualitative analysis of teh students`written comments posted to the database within one academic year • The comments was first partitioned into ideas • Then the comments were classified according to type of communicative idea (agreement, neutral or disagreement) Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

34. Method cont. • Study material; The CSILE database cont - Communicative ideas within a comment were analyzed by specifying the object of inquiry; Linguistic form, Research question, research methods, information, explanation, other or unspecified Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

35. Results Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

36. Results cont. Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

37. Results cont. • Patterns of interaction • The analysis indicated that CSILE students`network of interaction was rather dense in both of the classroms • Also indicated that the students preferred to communicate within their own gender group. This was stronger in classroom A than classroom B Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

38. Results cont. Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

39. Results cont. • Interaction in classroom A was less centralized than in classroom B • Table 5 presents means and standard deviations for centrality of classroom A and B students`participation as function of their gender Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

40. Results cont. • Analysis indicates that within classroom A, female students`pattern of participation differd considerably from that of male students Hara, N., Kling, R.(1999) Students’ Frustrations with a Web-based Distance Education Course

41. Discussion • Classroom A students`peer interaction focused on advancing the students` own explanations wheras classroom B students pursued more traditional learing tasks • Classroom A; Gaining theoretical understanding. Female students carried out the main responsibility for pursuing deeper kind of inquiry • Classroom B; Acquiring factual knowledge and empirical generalizations • Female students dominated discourse interaction within classroom A wheras male students dominated interaction within classroom B Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

42. Discussion • The relative intensity of female and male students` participation appeared also to be associated with the kind of pedagogical culture • Collaborative advancement; Encourage female students • A special effort is often needed to engage female students,since male students often dominate discourses (as seen in classroom B) • Key for sucessfull implementation of CSCL (especially for females); build a supporting social infrastructure around the technical infrastructure • Focus not only on collaborative technology but also examine soscial settings that support the meaningfull implementation and use of technology • To conclude; essential to build a culture of collaborative learning supported by the whole organization and structure of pedagogical activities (as in classroom A) rather than being added to prevailing practices (Classroom B) Hakkarainen, K. & Palonen, T. (2003) Patterns of Female and Male Students' Participation in Peer Interaction in Computer-supported Learning

43. Questions?