Developing a Virtual Education System Model

In recent years, new information technologies have emerged and many educational institutes have been seeking various ways of incorporating these advanced technologies into their system to improve two-way interactivity and thus to ensure the quality of education. One of the most popular ways of incorporating the technologies is developing a virtual education system, such as virtual classroom, virtural campus, and cyber university. This study is an attempt to conceptualize a virtual education system model, focusing on the teaching-learning process. From the modeling of common traditional education practice a virtual education model emerged. The following is the visualization of the conceptual system model. Detailed system components which belong to various sub-systems were described and discussed at the practical level. Suggestions for further research on the improvement of virtual education system model were made.이 논문은 1997년도 서울대학교 사범대학 발전기금의 지원에 의해 이루어졌음

The Effect of Picture Relevancy on Text Understanding and Learner Satisfaction in Web Based Instruction

웹 기반 학습환경에서 텍스트와 그림자료를 함께 제시하는 것은 대단히 자연스러운 것으로 받아들여지고 있다. 이 경우, 텍스트와 그림 자료가 상호 관련성 있어 보이는 것들도 있지만 그렇지 않은 것들도 다수 포함된다. 텍스트만을 제시하는 것이 학습자에게 지루할 것을 고려하여 텍스트 내용과 관련 없이 그림자료를 무작위로 선정.배치하는 경우도 있다. 관련이 없더라도 그림자료가 학습자들의 주의를 환기시키고 학습동기를 유발 시킬 수 있다면 학습에 긍정적인 영향을 미칠 것이라는 전제를 하기 때문이다. 본 연구에서는 웹 기반 학습에서 그림 자료와 텍스트 내용의 관련성 정도가 학습에 미치는 효과를 검증하고자 하였다. 본 연구의 독립변인으로는 '텍스트 내용과 함께 제시되는 그림자료의 관련성 정도'와 '학습시간의 통제 여부'였으며 관련성 정도는 '기본 텍스트, 텍스트와 관련 그림자료, 텍스트와 비관련 그림자료, 텍스트와 방해 그림자료'의 네 수준으로 나누어졌다. 종속변인으로는 내용이해도, 학습 만족도가 설정되었다. 본 연구의 피험자는 초등학교 5학년 학생 243명이었으며, 이들은 웹 학습자료의 4가지 유형(기본 텍스트, 테스트와 관련 그림자료, 텍스트와 비관련 그림자료, 텍스트와 방해 그림자료)과 학습시간의 통제 여부에 따라 여덟 개의 집단으로 무선 배성되었다. 실험처치 후 곧바로 내용이해검사와 학습만족도 검사가 실시되었다. 연구결과 웹 학습자료 유형에 따라 텍스트 내용기억에 있어 집단 간 유의한 차이( F=11.80, p=.00) 가 나타났다. 사후검증(Tukey HSD) 결과 '관련 그림자료'와 '기본 텍스트 및 비관련 그림'유형 간에 유의한 차이가 있음이 밝혀졌다. 텍스트 내용파악에 있어서도 집단 간 유의한 차이( F=89.80, p=.00) 가 나타났으며, '관련 그림자료 및 방해 그림자료'와 '기본 텍스트'간에 유의한 차이가 나타났다. 그러나 학습시간의 통제여부는 내용기억과 내용파악에 유의미한 차이를 가져오지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 학습 만족도에 대하여 x²검증을 실시한 결과, 웹 하급자료 유형에 따라 그림자료의 활용에 대한 학습자들의 내용이해(x²=19.10, p=.014), 내용기억(x²=38.09, p=.000), 위치정보파악 효과(x²=37.10, p=.000)에 대한 만족도에 유의한 차가 나타났다. 결론적으로 텍스트와 관련성 있는 그림자료는 전체적인 학습내용 및 부분적인 학습내용을 기억하거나 내용을 파악하게 하는데 도움이 될 것으로 나타났으며, 관련성이 없더라도 그림자료가 들어가 있는 것이 아무런 그림이 없는 것 보다는 학습동기나 만족도 수준을 높여 주는 것으로 볼 수 있었다. Using pictures mixed with text is an obvious common Web design trend. The pictures are known to be helping readers to read the text by inducing dual coding ability of human brain. It is easy to understand that the relevant pictures help readers to understand the text. However, in many Web pages finding pictures with no relevance to the text is not difficult. It seems that the pictures are used by designers with variety of different purposes ranging from artistic, decorative purposes to the effective learning and remembering purposes. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of the degree of relevance of pictures to text on effectiveness and satisfaction of learning in the WBI environment. The independent variables are 1) types of Web material represented by the degree of relevance of picture to text; text, text+relevant picture, text+neutral picture, text+distracting picture, and 2) learning time. The dependant variables are text recall and understanding, and learning satisfaction. Participants were 243 elementary school 5th graders. They were randomly assigned into 8 groups by types of learning contents and learning time. The experimental design was two way complete randomized factorial design(CRF4.2). After studying the respective Web contents, students' academic achievement and satisfaction tests were administered. The data were analyzed by means of ANCOVA, two-way ANOVA, and Chi-square. Results show as follows: In recalling the text, text+relevant picture was statistically superior (F=11.80, p=.00) with other types. In understanding the text, text+relevant picture and text+distract picture were statistically superior (F=89.80, p=.00) to the other types. The variable of learning time was statistically non-significant. In the learning satisfaction, learners feeling on effectiveness(x2=19.10, p=.014), efficiency(x2=38.09, p=.000), and satisfaction(x2=37.10, p=.000) were all significantly different among the treatment groups. Further analysis shows that the pictures regardless of the relevance, were improving learners satisfaction. Consequently, we could conclude that the relevancy of the picture' is the most effective and efficient factor to improve recall and comprehension of the text. And also the study suggested that the pictures increase learners satisfaction level regardless of the relevancy to the text

Effective Strategic Directions for Improving the Quality of a Tertiary Level Introductory Course in Education

This study is an attempt to explore effective strategies for improving the quality of a tertiary level, introductory course in education, called "Understanding Education". The course has been offered every semester as one of humanities courses at Seoul National University and average 220 students are enrolled in this course each semester. Due to the large number of enrolled students, this course is divided into three sessions under the same course name. The sessions are taught by different instructors. For the study, document analysis, observation, and statistical analysis methods were adopted. Official documents at the university, college, and department levels were analyzed. During the period of 2001 Spring semester, all three sessions of the course were also observed. In addition, course materials including syllabi and handouts from three sessions were reviewed. Moreover, three instructors of the course were interviewed. Lastly, student evaluation results of the three sessions were statistically analyzed. The results of the study first revealed that there were confusions among the instructors regarding the nature of the course. Even though the course was officially offered as one of the humanities courses, it was expected to be a professional development course for the College of Education students. Second, all the instructors shared core concepts and issues in education during their teaching even though their syllabi looked clearly different from each other. Unfortunately, the instructors did not have opportunities to discuss the contents or methods of their sessions officially. Third, it was observed that each instructor adopted a variety of teaching methods for his or her teaching. Those methods were not shared among the instructors. Lastly, no sessions were developed based on the students' learning needs or preferences even though one instructor asked students' needs and preferences at the beginning of the course. It appeared that all the sessions were designed as instructor-centered. Based on the results, several strategic directions were suggested along with further research topics