Supporting peer interaction in online learning environments

This paper reports two studies into the efficacy of sentence openers to foster online peer-to-peer interaction. Sentence openers are pre-defined ways to start an utterance that are implemented in communication facilities as menu’s or buttons. In the first study, typical opening phrases were derived from naturally occurring online dialogues. The resulting set of sentence openers was implemented in a semi-structured chat tool that allowed students to compose messages in a freetext area or via sentence openers. In the second study, this tool was used to explore the students’ appreciation and unprompted use of sentence openers. Results indicate that students hardly used sentence openers and were skeptical of their usefulness. Because both measures were negatively correlated with students’ prior chat experience, optional use of sentence openers may not be the best way to support students’ online interaction. Based on these findings, alternative ways of using sentence openers are discussed and topics for further research are advanced

Assessment of the minimalist approach to computer user documentation

The minimalist approach (Carroll, 1990a) advocates the development of a radically different type of manual when compared to a conventional one. For example, the manual should proceed almost directly to procedural skills development rather than building a conceptual model first. It ought to focus on authentic tasks practised in context, as opposed to mock exercises and isolated practice. In addition, it should stimulate users to exploit their knowledge and thinking, as opposed to imposing the writer's view and discussing everything that users should see or know.\ud \ud In the first part of the paper the construction of a tutorial based on the minimalist principles is described. A parallel is drawn with constructivism with which minimalism shares important notions of instruction. In the second part, an experiment is described in which the minimal manual was tested against a conventional one. The outcome favoured the new manual. For example, minimal manual users completed about 50% more tasks successfully on a performance test and displayed significantly more self-reliance (e.g. more self-initiated error-recoveries, and fewer manual consultations)

Unraveling the influence of domain knowledge during simulation-based inquiry learning

This study investigated whether the mere knowledge of the meaning of variables can facilitate inquiry learning processes and outcomes. Fifty-seven college freshmen were randomly allocated to one of three inquiry tasks. The concrete task had familiar variables from which hypotheses about their underlying relations could be inferred. The intermediate task used familiar variables that did not invoke underlying relations, whereas the abstract task contained unfamiliar variables that did not allow for inference of hypotheses about relations. Results showed that concrete participants performed more successfully and efficiently than intermediate participants, who in turn were equally successful and efficient as abstract participants. From these findings it was concluded that students learning by inquiry benefit little from knowledge of the meaning of variables per se. Some additional understanding of the way these variables are interrelated seems required to enhance inquiry learning processes and outcomes

Implementing Innovative Technologies Through Lesson Plans: What Kind of Support Do Teachers Prefer?

Lesson plans are a potentially powerful means to facilitate teachers’ use of technology in the classroom. This study investigated which supplementary information is preferred by teachers when integrating a new technology into the classroom. Forty-six high school biology teachers (23 pre-service and 23 in-service) received a technology-infused lesson plan and were asked to choose between two sets of support materials that differed with regard to the extensiveness and integration of pedagogical and content information. Based on the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework, pre-service teachers (n = 23) were expected to prefer the appendix containing extensive and separate information, whereas in-service teachers (n = 23) were predicted to prefer the succinct and integrated version. Teachers’ responses to a forced-choice question confirmed the latter expectation, but lent insufficient support to the former. Semi-structured interviews further showed that the justifications of in-service teachers were generally consistent with the TPACK framework. Most pre-service teachers, by contrast, were future-oriented and preferred support that would help increase their proficiency rather than consolidate their existing knowledge base

Finding out how they find it out: an empirical analysis of inquiry learners' need for support

Inquiry learning environments increasingly incorporate modelling facilities for students to articulate their research hypotheses and (acquired) domain knowledge. This study compared performance success and scientific reasoning of university students with high prior knowledge (n=11), students from senior high-school (n=10), and junior high-school (n=10) with intermediate and low prior knowledge respectively, in order to reveal domain novice's need for support in such environments. Results indicated that the scientific reasoning of both groups of high-school students was comparable to that of the experts. As high-school students achieved significantly lower performance success scores, their expert-like behaviour was rather ineffective; qualitative analyses substantiated this conclusion. Based on these findings, implications for supporting domain novices in inquiry learning environments are advanced

Scaffolding learning by modelling: The effects of partially worked-out models

Creating executable computer models is a potentially powerful approach to science learning. Learning by modelling is also challenging because students can easily get overwhelmed by the inherent complexities of the task. This study investigated whether offering partially worked-out models can facilitate students’ modelling practices and promote learning. Partially worked-out models were expected to aid model construction by revealing the overall structure of the model, and thus enabling student to create better models and learn from the experience. This assumption was tested in high school biology classes where students modelled the human glucose-insulin regulatory system. Students either received support in the form of a partial model that outlined the basic structure of the glucose-insulin system (PM condition; n = 26), an extended partial model that also contained a set of variables students could use to complete the model (PM+ condition; n = 21), or no support (control condition; n = 23). Results showed a significant knowledge increase from pretest to posttest in all conditions. Consistent with expectations, knowledge gains were higher in the two partial model conditions than in the control condition. Students in both partial model conditions also ran their model more often to check its accuracy, and eventually built better models than students from the control condition. Comparison between the PM and PM+ conditions showed that more extensive support further increased knowledge acquisition, model quality, and model testing activities. Based on these findings, it was concluded that partial solutions can support learning by modelling, and that offering both a structure of a model and a list of variables yields the best result

Automated Feedback Can Improve Hypothesis Quality

Stating a hypothesis is one of the central processes in inquiry learning, and often forms the starting point of the inquiry process. We designed, implemented, and evaluated an automated parsing and feedback system that informed students about the quality of hypotheses they had created in an online tool, the hypothesis scratchpad. In two pilot studies in different domains (“supply and demand” from economics and “electrical circuits” from physics) we determined the parser's accuracy by comparing its judgments with those of human experts. A satisfactory to high accuracy was reached. In the main study (in the “electrical circuits” domain), students were assigned to one of two conditions: no feedback (control) and automated feedback. We found that the subset of students in the experimental condition who asked for automated feedback on their hypotheses were much more likely to create a syntactically correct hypothesis than students in either condition who did not ask for feedback