Engaging Students with Constructivist Participatory Examinations in Asynchronous Learning Networks

The online participatory exam transforms the traditional exam into a constructivist, cooperative and engaging learning experience. Students learn from designing and answering exam questions, from evaluating their peers’ performance, and from reading questions, answers and evaluations. This paper, aimed at faculty who teach online and at researchers interested in online learning, describes the procedures, advantages, and disadvantages of this new approach to the examination process. Five semesters of participatory exam research are analyzed. A majority of students preferred the participatory exam and believed that it increased their learning

Acceptance of Educational Technology: Field Studies of Asynchronous Participatory Examinations

This research examines asynchronous participatory examinations, a new technology-mediated assessment strategy especially suitable for online courses. The participatory exam innovation utilizes information technology to support engaging students in the entire examination lifecycle, including creating and solving problems, and grading solutions. These learning processes enable students to not only gain new knowledge but also to strengthen their assessment skills. A five-semester field study in the U.S., supplemented by a small scale replication in Austria, investigated how participatory exams can facilitate higher-order learning and what explains students’ acceptance of the innovation. An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), adapted to the educational context, predicts acceptance based on three key constructs: “perceived enjoyment,” “perceived learning,” and “recommendation for use.” The study results support the premises that participants perceive learning from all stages of the cooperative exam process, and that the innovation acceptance is a function of both intrinsic motivations (e.g., enjoyment of the experience) and extrinsic motivations (e.g., perception that one has learned from the process)

Benefits, Limitations and Best Practices of Online Coursework…Should Accounting Programs Jump on Board?

The evolution of online teaching has evolved as quickly and vivaciously as the adoption of the World Wide Web. While there were and are skeptics, research shows that not only is online learning more convenient and makes educational available anytime and anywhere, it has the potential, in some cases, to be an improved tool for educating. To ensure maximized learning outcomes, and to experience the blessing and not the curse of online coursework, it is critical that universities embrace it wholeheartedly and follow online pedagogical best practices in developing and executing online courses. In addition, there are some courses where special forethought should be made to ensure online learning is effective. Courses that are more computational necessitate this consideration. This document serves to provide strategies and best practices on how to obtain excellence and maximized outcomes from online education. It examines research to date and outlines: the benefits and challenges of online learning, strategies and best practices for online educating, and considerations for online accounting coursework

Deeper Learning by Putting Students in Charge of the Problem Lifecycle

Participatory Learning actively engages students in every stage of the problem lifecycle (including crafting problems for peers, providing solutions, peer grading, and disputes involving self-assessment). This brief motivates and describes the emerging Participatory Learning approach. The discussion then focuses on several issues concerning motivating students, guiding them in conducting the various problem lifecycle tasks, and evaluating participation and learning

Constructivism and distance education : meeting the needs of adult learners in distance education

This review addresses literature regarding how the implementation of constructivist principles in designing online learning environments can meet adults\u27 needs. This literature review identifies the specific characteristics and concerns associated with distance learning environments. It also explores the usefulness of using constructivism as a means to meet the unique needs of adult learners in distance learning courses. Resources consist primarily of books and articles published from 1995 to the present, dealing with issues of constructivism, andragogy, and distance education. The topics covered include constructivism, adult learners, and constructivist-based strategies integration with particular attention being paid to the problem-based learning model, scaffolded discussions, dynamic learning communities, and WebQuests. The collaborative nature of problem-based learning, scaffolded online discussion boards, and dynamic learning communities, address many of the needs of adults. The flexibility, authenticity and autonomous nature of the WebQuest address the needs of adults as well. Changes in available technologies and responsibilities of 21st century adults give educators and researchers cause to revisit the founding precepts of andragogy and distance learning. Educators and scholars continue to develop effective and innovative methods of meeting the needs of adult learners

Digital Transformation of Education for Quality Sustainability-Reference Based

Digital transformation (DX) is the adoption of digital technology by an organization to digitize non-digital products, services or operations. The goal for its implementation is to increase value through innovation, invention, customer experience or efficiency. Digital transformation entails considering how products, processes and organizations can be changed through the use of new, digital technologies. Digital transformation can be seen as a socio-technical programme

Virtual Instructor-Student Interaction: A New Method for Stimulating Class Participation in an Asynchronous Learning Network

The goal of this paper is to describe a new virtual form of instructor-student interaction that can enable students to interact with their instructors without the pressures inherent in a traditional setting where they must face other students. Virtual instructor-student interaction (VISI) is a new pedagogical technique, developed by the author, which involves the transformation of an online survey into a medium that can simultaneously present course material, ask questions, obtain feedback and deliver responses. The interaction takes place asynchronously in a private space between the student and the instructor. By using this method instructors can enable students to grow their knowledge of subject material through brainstorming and direct communication with the instructor, in an intellectual space that is devoid of the peer pressure that pervades both traditional face-to-face interactions as well as the public interaction that takes place in online courses on open access websites

USING FACEBOOK AND WHATSAPP TO LEVERAGE LEARNER PARTICIPATION AND TRANSFORM PEDAGOGY AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

Facebook (FB) dan WhatsApp (WA) telah menjadi "portal komunikasi" untuk jaringan sosial, yang telah dengan cepat mengubah cara orang berkomunikasi dan tetap terhubung. Dari perspektif pendidikan, situs jejaring sosial telah menerima ulasan ambigu. Beberapa penelitian telah menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan FB menjadi lebih luas dalam pembelajaran bahasa dan dapat menjadi alat yang efektif. FB tidak hanya mudah digunakan, tetapi juga membantu mendorong belajar mandiri dalam lingkungan sosial bagi siswa dan menempatkan kontrol untuk belajar ke tangan siswa. Artikel ini berfokus pada situs jejaring sosial FB, dan aplikasi WA dalam konteks UT. Ia mencoba untuk menjelaskan kegiatan berbagi informasi dilakukan melalui diskusi online menggunakan FB dan kelompok WA dan melibatkan siswa pembelajaran jarak jauh. Penelitian ini meneliti partisipasi siswa dalam diskusi online dan umpan balik mereka pada penggunaan FB dan forum WA sebagai platform untuk activity. FB dan WA diadopsi untuk mendukung tutorial online di Universitas Terbuka Indonesia dengan tujuan untuk meningkatkan guru-murid dan partisipasi rekan-berbasis, dan meningkatkan pengiriman pedagogis dan pembelajaran inklusif di ruang formal dan informal. Temuan menunjukkan FB dan WA berubah pedagogi dengan meningkatkan lingkungan sosial konstruktif untuk guru-siswa dan rekan-berbasis co-konstruksi pengetahuan. Peran guru berubah dari instruktur untuk fasilitator dan mentor memberikan bimbingan pada permintaan. Peran mahasiswa juga berubah dari penerima informasi ke generator informasi, kolaborator, organizer informasi / pencari / pemberi, pemikir kritis dan pemimpin kelompok. Namun tantangan menggunakan Facebook dan WhatsApp termasuk guru 'kebencian penggabungan akademik dan keluarga hidup disebabkan oleh konsultasi WhatsApp setelah jam.   Facebook (FB) and WhatsApp (WA) have become the communication portal for social networking, which has rapidly transformed the way people communicate and stay connected. From an educational perspective, social networking sites have received ambiguous reviews. Some studies have shown that the use of FB is becoming more widespread in language learning and it can be an effective tool. FB is not only easy to use, but it also helps encourage autonomous learning within a social environment for students and puts control for learning into the students hands. This article focuses on the social networking site, FB, and WA application within the context of UT. It attempts to shed light on an information-sharing activity conducted via online discussion using FB and WA groups and involving distance learning students. This study investigated students participation in the online discussion and their feedback on the use of FBs and WAs forums as the platform for the activity.FB and WA were adopted for supporting an online tutorial at the Open University of Indonesia with a view to heighten tutorstudent and peer-based participation, and enhance pedagogical delivery and inclusive learning in formal and informal spaces. The findings suggest FB and WA transformed pedagogy by fostering social constructivist environments for tutorstudent and peer-based co-construction of knowledge. The teachers role was transformed from an instructor to a facilitator and mentor providing guidance on demand. Student roles were also transformed from information receivers to information generators, collaborators, information organizer/seekers/givers, critical thinkers and group leaders. However, the challenges of using Facebook and WhatsApp included tutor resentment of the merging of academic and family life occasioned by WhatsApp consultations after hours

Collaborative examinations in asyncronous learning networks : field experiments on collaborative learning through online assessments

With the proliferation of computer networks and the emergence of virtual teams, learning and knowledge sharing in the online environment has become an increasingly important topic. Applying constructivism and collaborative learning theories to assessment, the collaborative online exam is designed featuring students\u27 active participation in various phases of the exam process through small group activities online. A participatory online exam process is designed featuring similar procedures except that students\u27 involvement in each phase of the exam is individual. The collaborative online exam and the participatory online exam are investigated regarding student exam study strategies, group process, exam outcomes, faculty satisfaction, and exam efficiency. A 1*3 field experiment was conducted to compare three exam modes: the traditional exam, the participatory exam, and the collaborative exam. Results show that the collaborative examination significantly enhanced interaction and promoted higher order learning. In particular, small group activities in the online learning process significantly increased interactions among students which enhanced their sense of an online learning community. Active involvement in the online exams significantly reduced the use of surface learning in exam study. Overall, students reported significantly higher perceptions of learning in the collaborative exam than the other exam modes