Research Annotations

Records: 322

Defining, Detecting and Promoting Student Engagement in College Learning Environments

Chris Garrett

APA Citation

Garrett, C. (2011). Defining, detecting and promoting student engagement in college learning environments. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 5, 1-12.

Annotation

As it is difficult to define and recognize student engagement, the author polled students and faculty. Results suggest that engagement tends to be thought of as some mixture that involves student involvement and active learning. Perhaps easier to note habits of the disengaged, absences and tardies, sleeping, side conversations, reading outside materials, not turning in assignments, not contributing to class discussions. Garrett suggests engagement is “the interactive space, or lack of space, . . . between student and the subject, and we, as teachers, hope that, as an outcome, deep learning arises or is produced from that interaction” (p. 7). The author then suggests 6 strategies for increasing engagement, (1) show your engagement, (2) class discussion on engagement, (3) give students a variety of options to show their engagement, (4) have students periodically reflect and report on their engagement, (5) create memorable moments, & (6) solicit feedback from students to identify significant activities that were engaging (pp. 8-9).

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Designing Online Learning Modules in Kinesiology

Brian McFarlin     Randi Weintraub     Whitney Breslin     Katie Carpenter     Kelley Strohacker

APA Citation

McFarlin, B. K., Weintraub, R. J., Breslin, W., Carpenter, K. C., & Strohacker, K. (2011). Designing online learning modules in kinesiology. Journal of educational technology & society/endorsed by IEEE Learning Technology Task Force, 14(2), 278.

Annotation

This article is more of a how-to of course design then an empirical study. The authors describe the different types of design they use when designing their online courses including learning games, formal assessments and lectures.

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Developing an Instrument to Assess Student Readiness for Online Learning: A validation study

Barbara Dray     Patrick Lowenthal     Melissa Miszkiewicz     Maria Ruiz-Primo     Kelly Marczynski

APA Citation

Dray, B. J., Lowenthal, P. R., Miszkiewicz, M. J., Ruiz?Primo, M. A., & Marczynski, K. (2011). Developing an instrument to assess student readiness for online learning: A validation study. Distance Education, 32(1), 29-47.

Annotation

An attempt to develop a more current instrument that combined learner characteristics and technology capabilities and to employ a methodologically rigorous approach to the development of the instrument.
developed a survey that consisted of two subscales: learner characteristics and technology capabilities.
Analysis of student responses to the item analysis overall revealed that students were responding to questions on the basis of their personal life experiences in general rather than within . . . the educational context of online learning. As a result an overall prompt to each item was added, ‘Please answer the following questions in the context of your experiences as a college student in an online program,’ to clarify the context in which questions should be answered.
Based on results of the survey, a new subscale was created called the ICT subscale.

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Distance Education: A systems view of online learning

Michael Moore     Greg Kearsley

APA Citation

Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2011). Distance education: A systems view of online learning. Cengage Learning.

Annotation

Not available

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Distance Education: A systems view of online learning (What’s new in education)

M. G. Moore     G. Kearsley

APA Citation

Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (2011). Distance education: A systems view of online learning (What’s new in education). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Annotation

This piece looks at wide-ranging aspects of distance education, ranging from the history of distance education to how to create current administrative policies. Moore and Kearsley begin by laying basic ground work and defining basic terms to have fruitful discussions on distance education. They continue by looking at different forms of education can take from for-profit instructions, corporate trainings, military education, and K-12 telecourses. As there are a variety of types of courses being . . . discussed in this book, Moore and Kearsley also look at different medias education can take place in and how instructors can effectively design courses including the role of the instructor. They finish the book by looking at the global reach of distance education and looking at how distance education may change in the coming years.

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Facebook’s Potential for Collaborative e-Learning

Francesca Cerda     Neus Planas

APA Citation

Cerda, F. L., & Planas, N. C. (2011). Facebook’s potential for collaborative e-Learning. Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento (RUSC), 8, 197-210.

Annotation

The purpose of this article is to review the potential pros and cons of using Facebook in an educational context. The authors suggest that “the platform’s [Facebook] power for sharing resources and linking content on the Internet to user profiles, as well as its evolution towards livestreaming and microblogging, enable it [to] provide support for complex, continuous interaction experiences and, consequently, to structure collaborative-learning processes” (p. 197). The primary benefit of using . . . Facebook is that interactive Web 2.0 technologies “foster active participation and student-centered learning” (p. 199). The particular strengths of Facebook for collaborative learning include its pervasiveness, the simplicity of use, the ability to chat, microblog, and message others, the ability to expand the potential of the interface through various add-ons and plug ins, and ease of use for mobile devices. (pp. 202-203). The authors suggest that even though education wasn’t the original intent of Facebook, the benefits of the use of Facebook as a learning tool include the use of innovative learning approaches including informal and collaborative learning. They suggest that since students are active in the process of generating and discussing content on Facebook, this could also potentially increase motivation levels. Ultimately, they argue that the biggest strength of Facebook in pedagogy is its ease, immediacy and ubiquitous nature.

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Higher Education Sub-cultures and Open Source Adoption

Shahron Williams van Rooij

APA Citation

van Rooij, S. W. (2011). Higher education sub-cultures and open source adoption. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1171-1183.

Annotation

This study examines two different subcultures in higher education (namely technologist sub-culture and academic sub-culture) and how they affect adoption of open source software (OSS). Using survey from Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) collected in 2006 and 2009, the author observed robust growth in adoption of OSS between 2006-2009. Also, he revealed difference in values attached to OSS between CAOs and CIOs. While CAOs prioritized student support and active . . . learning as primary purpose of OSS adoption, CIOs focused on reducing software license fees. However, both sub-cultures deemed total cost of ownership as primarily criteria for OSS incorporation.

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Self-regulation of Motivation when Learning Online: The importance of who, why and how

Carol Sansone     Tamra Fraughton     Joseph L. Zachary     Jonathan Butner     Cecily Heiner

APA Citation

Sansone, C., Fraughton, T., Zachary, J. L., Butner, J., & Heiner, C. (2011). Self-regulation of motivation when learning online: The importance of who, why and how. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(2), 199-212.

Annotation

This study uses the Self-regulation of Motivation (SRM) model which suggests that reasons for motivation might change between goals-defined and experience-focused. Goals-defined motivation is described as providing a personal outcome whereas experience-defined provides a more work applicable approach. The authors suggest that a student can being as goals-defined and move into experience-defined as their interest in the topic increases. In this study, 108 undergraduate students were first . . . surveyed and then asked to come in-person to a computer lab to give feedback via a post-activity survey on a potential online course module (a lesson from an actual HTML course). Results suggest that individual student interest in the topic did not affect motivation, performance or engagement in the required components of the online module. However, student interest did correlate with completion of optional components of the module suggesting that interested students were more active (and experience-focused) learners. Students higher in individual interest performed higher when the material was framed as providing personal outcomes whereas uninterested students were more motivated when the material was framed as work related. The authors suggest these findings indicate that both goals-defined and experience-focused approaches to motivation need to be considered in the development of online courses.

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Social Learning Spaces and Student Engagement

Kelly E. Matthews     Victoria Andrews     Peter Adams

APA Citation

Matthews, K. E., Andrews, V., & Adams, P. (2011). Social learning spaces and student engagement. Higher Education Research & Development, 30(2), 105-120.

Annotation

This qualitative study was part two of a research project looking at social learning spaces (SLS), physical places for peer interactions, outside of college in-class time. Results from the first study (quantitative) indicate that students who use informal SLS “report significantly higher levels of engagement” (p. 108) than students who do not. Results from this study suggests students using SLS “view each other as academic resources and seek each other out to discuss assignment ideas and get . . . clarification around difficult concepts” (p. 111). This article is included in this annotated bibliography as SLS correlate with higher levels of engagement, and therefore how the benefits of SLS can be effectively replicated in online forums should be considered.

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Student Course Evaluations In Traditional And Blended Courses: A case study

Gadis Nowell

APA Citation

Nowell, G. (2011). Student course evaluations in traditional and blended courses: A case study. American Journal of Business Education, 4(1), 13.

Annotation

This study examined student course evaluations from an Introduction to Management course taught at Howard University in the Fall of 2007. No difference between student satisfaction between blended and traditional F2F courses, the majority of students rated both courses as “satisfactory.” The authors suggest that even though the results do not indicate that students are more satisfied with blended than F2F courses, their findings support the viewpoint that blended courses are “at least as . . . effective as traditional learning” (p. 17).

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