Self-Regulation in a Web-Based Course: A Case Study

Little is known about how successful students in Web-based courses self-regulate their learning. This descriptive case study used a social cognitive model of self-regulated learning (SRL) to investigate how six graduate students used and adapted traditional SRL strategies to complete tasks and cope with challenges in a Web-based technology course; it also explored motivational and environmental influences on strategy use. Primary data sources were three transcribed interviews with each of the students over the course of the semester, a transcribed interview with the course instructor, and the students’ reflective journals. Archived course documents, including transcripts of threaded discussions and student Web pages, were secondary data sources. Content analysis of the data indicated that these students used many traditional SRL strategies, but they also adapted planning, organization, environmental structuring, help seeking, monitoring, record keeping, and self-reflection strategies in ways that were unique to the Web-based learning environment. The data also suggested that important motivational influences on SRL strategy use—self-efficacy, goal orientation, interest, and attributions—were shaped largely by student successes in managing the technical and social environment of the course. Important environmental influences on SRL strategy use included instructor support, peer support, and course design. Implications for online course instructors and designers, and suggestions for future research are offered

Review on learning orientations

The need has arises towards the consideration of individual difference to let learners engage in and responsible for their own learning, retain information longer, apply the knowledge more effectively, have positive attitudes towards the subject, have more interest in learning materials, score higher and have high intrinsic motivation level. As regard to the importance of individual differences, Martinez (2000) has grounded a new theory, which is Intentional Learning Theory that covered individual aspects of cognitive, intention, social and emotion. This theory hypothesizes that the fundamental of understanding how individual learns, interact with an environment, performs, engages in learning, experiences learning, and assimilate and accommodate the new knowledge is by understanding individual’s fundamental emotions and intentions about how to use learning, why it is important, when the suitable time, and how it can accomplish personal goals and change. The intent of this theory is to focus on emotions and intentions of an individual regarding why, when and how learning goals are organized, processed, and achieved. In conclusion, Learning Orientations introduced by this theory describes the disposition of an individual in approaching, managing and achieving their learning intentionally and differently from others

A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia

Learning is more than knowledge acquisition; it often involves the active participation of the learner in a variety of knowledge- and skills-based learning and training activities. Interactive multimedia technology can support the variety of interaction channels and languages required to facilitate interactive learning and teaching. A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia can support the development of such multimedia systems. Such an architecture needs to embed multimedia technology into a coherent educational context. A framework based on an integrated interaction model is needed to capture learning and training activities in an online setting from an educational perspective, to describe them in the human-computer context, and to integrate them with mechanisms and principles of multimedia interaction