Influence of individual learning styles in online interaction: a case for dynamic frequently asked questions (DFAQ)

Although current literature on learning styles shows that matching a teacher’s instructional style with the learning styles of students affects performance in a classroom environment, little is known about the influence of learning styles in online interaction. The paper argues that students’ individual learning styles influences how students interact online and that rather than adapt to user’s learning styles, online environments tend to force behavior change on users’ learning styles. The paper discusses a project in which students with varying learning styles used an online consultation (DFAQ) tool for collaborative knowledge sharing, and reports on how learning styles influenced online interaction and the use of DFAQ changed rather than adapted to users’ learning styles. The paper concludes that for online environments to be educationally efficacious, sensitivity to different learning styles is desirable though the implementation of such sensitivity is non-trivial.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A critical discourse analysis of students' anonymous online postings

It is difficult to understand students’ social practices from artifacts of anonymous online postings. The analysis of text genres and discursive types of online postings has potential for enhancing teaching and learning experiences of students. This article focuses on analysis of students’ anonymous online postings using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The article argues that social practices reproduce during online interaction and artifacts embody such reproduction. A study involving more than 300 commerce students at a higher education institution (HEI) using a special purpose anonymous online consultation tool, the Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (DFAQ), and social practices embodied in the artifacts is analyzed using CDA. The analysis used the three dimensions of CDA—description (text genres), interpretation (discursive type), and explanation (social practice)—and insights into students’ social practices were inferred. The article concludes that CDA of anonymous postings provided insight into social practices of students and, in particular, highlighted the tension between perceptions of inflexibility of traditional teaching practices and student demands for flexible learning. Finally, CDA, as described in this article, could be useful in analyzing e-mail communications, short message service (SMS) interactions, Web blogs, and podcasts

Towards a knowledge sharing framework based on student questions : the case for a dynamic FAQ environment

Includes bibliographical references.This study investigates the impact of anonymous computer mediated interaction on question-driven knowledge acquisition among students. A growing concern for educational institutions in general and educators in particular has been to augment what students are formally taught and what they informally learn from one another. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students consult one another informally. However, informal consultations suffer from three limitations: a) they are limited to clusters of friends; b) shared information is not retained; c) educators have no access to informal knowledge. My argument is that knowledge shared informally among students is a potential knowledge resource for both students and educators. As a student resource, it allows students to reconstruct their own understanding as they share their knowledge with each other. As an educators' resource, it serves as a diagnostic tool about students' knowledge levels hence identifying areas of misunderstanding or misconceptions

Bridging distance between actual and potential development: a case of using ICT mediated consultation tool

It is an ongoing challenge in higher education context to design appropriate learning tasks for students that balances the diversity in student knowledge and variable skills with student's potential to learn under guidance. Obtaining feedback from students on what they know is made more complicated when students are passive during learning activities. In this paper we report on a project that ran over 2 years in which 67 students (28 in 2005; 39 in 2006) from culturally diverse socio-historical backgrounds used an anonymous knowledge sharing tool, the dynamic frequently asked questions (DFAQ) to engage with authentic learning tasks in an Organisational Learning Module. The module was part of the Organisational Psychology honours degree programme at a higher learning institution. The students used the DFAQ tool to consult with both peers and faculty staff. DFAQ is a special purpose web-based tool with a Short Message Services (SMS) interface. A thematic analysis was conducted on students' experiences gathered from focus group discussions. Artefacts from DFAQ are also analysed. The paper reports that DFAQ mediated the educator's access to the students' level of understanding and the potential to learn under guidance. The DFAQ tool therefore allowed the educator to provide students with appropriate guidance that met individual students' knowledge gaps. The paper concludes that DFAQ mediated access to the gap between actual and potential development, stimulated knowledge sharing, peer learning and impacted on pedagogical designs of learning tasks

Exploring the use of digital gaming to improve student engagement at a resource poor institution in South Africa

Although student engagement has potential to enhance learning and student retention, the use of digital games to achieve this learning outcome remains a challenge in higher education. while the role of gamification is highly predicated in horizon reports to enter mainstream education, the popularity of game-based learning has remained marginal. in this paper we report on the use of game-based learning at a higher education institution where students are pre-disposed to play games outside formal educational settings. this is further compounded by the challenging nature of designing learning activities that fully exploits students' capacity to engage. this paper reports on a case study using game based learning as a tool to mediate engagement for students enrolled in health science education at a resource poor higher education institution in south africa. the aim of this study was to examine the role of a digital game to enhance student engagement within the classroom. by means of mixed methods, this study utilised a design-based enquiry using a case study of sport science curricula. design-based research was used as part of the design and implementation of an interactive learning environment using a technology (gaming) innovation within an education setting. sixty-four students from a sport science department volunteered to participate in this study. quantitative and qualitative data was collected. results indicate that even though 89% if participants indicated that they have played digital games, only 46 % indicated that they have engaged with a digital game for the purpose of learning. baseline data prior to intervention suggested that students did not learn well in groups (70.3%, m=1.91; sd=0.938). however, in post-intervention focus group interviews students expressed that the introduction of a digital game for learning in the classroom aided co-construction of knowledge in a fun and meaningful way. this study concludes that the use of digital games is a valuable mediating tool in sport science education as it strengthens collaborative learning and improves engagement. this paper recommends a strategy to improve engagement and ultimately student retention. this study offers new insight into understanding student engagement within a game based learning environment

Podcasts for expansive learning: a case of reflective student stories

Most educational opportunities offered by mobile devices which are used by students for entertainment, such as iPods and mp3 players, have not been fully exploited. Although social uses of mobile devices among students is increasingly common, there has been little evidence to demonstrate how socially pervasive devices contribute to student learning. One of the phenomenons changing the higher education landscape is podcasting. However, despite the growing adoption of podcasting in education, not much is known about effective integration of podcasts at pedagogical level to have meaningful impact on student learning. This paper reports on a two-year project that explored the use of podcasts to mediate reflection. The paper draws on expansive learning as espoused by Engestrom to illustrate how podcast mediated tasks escalated learning among students at a higher education institution. The paper analyzed students' reflective stories using deconstruction analysis. The paper concludes that effective educational uses of podcasts require that learning activities are designed for reflection and podcasts used to scaffold the reflection process

Leveraging informal leadership in higher education institutions: A case of diffusion of emerging technologies in a southern context

In the last decade, emerging technologies and transformative practices have diffused into higher education social systems in ways that formal leadership styles are increasingly stretched to both keep abreast of and to manage. While many scholars have argued for the importance of the role of leadership styles in shaping the strategic direction of institutions, there is a paucity of research on the role that informal leaders, and more particularly opinion leaders and change agents, can play in enabling wide-scale adoption of innovations in higher education institutions. This paper focuses on the ways in which leadership in higher education can best extend their influence to accelerate the diffusion of transformational educational practices using emerging technologies by leveraging informal leaders. To illustrate how this could be achieved, we report on a study of 22 public higher education institutions in South Africa involving 259 participants who responded to an online survey. The survey focused on the uses of emerging technologies to transformthe teaching and learning practices and the nature of institutional support such initiatives received.The findings reveal that for emerging technologies to be diffused in institutional social systems, more transformative and less transactional leadership is required. The paper proposes a model for accelerating the diffusion of emerging technologies in higher education institutions and concludes that leveraging informal leadership is particularly critical in accelerating the uptake of emerging technologies practices.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Converging institutional expertise to model teaching and learning with emerging technologies

There is an increasing disjuncture between the use of technologies and the impact that this has on teaching and learning practice. This challenge is compounded by the lack of institutional preparedness to support emerging practices that harness transformative potential in higher education (HE). Most staff development initiatives have tended to focus on skills acquisition, which have often not translated into pedagogical change. In the previous two years (2011 and 2012), four higher education institutions (HEIs) in Cape Town, South Africa, convened a collaborative short course on ‘Emerging Technologies for Improving Teaching and Learning’, which was targeted at 43 educators at the four HEIs over the two years it was offered. The objective of the course was to empower educators from the four HEIs with pedagogical knowledge for teaching with emerging technologies by modelling authentic practices. The course provided a unique opportunity for academics to come together in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere to learn, discuss and benefit from valuable experiences of peers and expert facilitators from the four HEIs in our region regarding the use of technologies for improved teaching and learning. This article draws on the theory- based design framework for technology enhanced learning (TEL) to reflect on the two-year inter-institutional facilitation of a course aimed at empowering educators to teach with emerging technologies through modelling practice.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Influence of individual learning styles in online interaction: a case for dynamic frequently asked questions (DFAQ)

Although current literature on learning styles shows that matching a teacher’s instructional style with the learning styles of students affects performance in a classroom environment, little is known about the influence of learning styles in online interaction. The paper argues that students’ individual learning styles influences how students interact online and that rather than adapt to user’s learning styles, online environments tend to force behavior change on users’ learning styles. The paper discusses a project in which students with varying learning styles used an online consultation (DFAQ) tool for collaborative knowledge sharing, and reports on how learning styles influenced online interaction and the use of DFAQ changed rather than adapted to users’ learning styles. The paper concludes that for online environments to be educationally efficacious, sensitivity to different learning styles is desirable though the implementation of such sensitivity is non-trivial.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

The role of ICTs in higher education in South Africa: one strategy for addressing teaching and learning challenges

One of the most common problems of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education is to base choices on technological possibilities rather than educational needs. In developing countries where higher education is fraught with serious challenges at multiple levels, there is increasing pressure to ensure that technological possibilities are viewed in the context of educational needs. This paper argues that a central role of educational technology is to provide additional strategies that can be used to address the serious environmental and educational challenges faced by educators and students in higher education. The educational needs manifest in South African universities include addressing general lack of academic preparedness, multilingual needs in English medium settings, large class sizes and inadequate curriculum design. Using case studies from one higher educational institution, this paper shows how specific and carefully considered interventions using ICTs can be used to address these teaching and learning concerns. These examples serve to demonstrate some ways in which teaching and learning may be enhanced when uses of educational technology are driven by educational needs. The paper concludes that design of educational technology interventions should be driven by educational needs within the context of a broader teaching and learning strategy which requires buy-in of both educators and learners