This is the presentation for my Exit Interview for the RCOE Clear Credential Program.
Exit Interview Presentation
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
"Assignment 11, Completed Research Paper"
New Media in Online Education:A research study conducted for ETEC 543.
Introduction
The following study pertains to new media in online education. It was conducted by many researchers within a research methods instructional technology course at the California State University of San Bernardino. The study was conducted over several weeks during the fall of 2007. Many research questions were posed but only a few remained as a framework for this study. They included three research questions. The first one pertained to a relationship between previous non-music portable media (podcasts) consumption and receptiveness for portable media use in online learning.
The second research question was about what media types the student’s preferred to use for different course activities related to instructor-student interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction. The third research question related to what level of involvement in planning, organizing, grading and making media choices did adult online learners desire. The data within this study was found via surveys which were conducted via an online link. Those participants were highly educated professionals. They answered many questions pertaining to the use of technology within online education. The data found that users preferred portable media learning, e-mail communication as a means to discuss all information, and having a lot of choice about the type of media or communications technologies they used in the class.
Literature review
This literature review will examine three ideas pertaining to new media in online education. They include adult learning and andragogy, new media in online education and social presence and learning with new media. Adult learning and andragogy is another way of stating that adults have diverse learning styles. Everybody has their own niche to grasp information and as one gains experience in life they become aware of techniques to comprehend and use new ideas. New media in online education has been a reoccurring trend over the years as technology advances are made daily. Some of the media includes blogs, podcasts, instant messaging, wikis, and Mp3 players. These forms of media can assist communication amongst adults by allowing asynchronous communication.
In order to understand how to use new media users have different ways of learning. Some use a hand’s on approach, others use a visual or written example to comprehend. The Social presence within the use of new media takes time to build due to the complexity and regularities of the particular media being used. Thus, it is crucial to for users to become accustomed to using the media so that the communication can be smooth and informative.
Adult Learning and Andragogy
The term andragogy was created by Malcolm Knowles refers to the approaches of instruction. As adults become skilled at new information the most crucial aspects are time, feedback, and assistance. Time keeps on going and with regularities of living life there doesn’t seem to be enough of it. Thus, within learning the amount of time one needs to put forth into gaining a skill or knowledge is important. One aspect to saving time is to cut corners or find simple and easier ways to understand a topic. Thus, asynchronous communication can be crucial for a user to comprehend an idea in a quicker more efficient time. The feedback aspect of learning information can be crucial because in order to fully comprehend the knowledge one has gained one must receive feedback to clarify that the knowledge gained is truthful. Thus by receiving assistance from a professor or classmate one be reassured that the knowledge that they gained via a medium is satisfactory.
New media in online education
There are several forms of media that can be used to assist adults in learning. I will specifically elucidate podcasts, blogs, wikis, instant messaging, and MP3 players.
Blogging is a synchronous tool that is used in the real world to express ideas and communicate with users via an online forum which users can respond in delayed time. There are several popular blogging services those included are Blogger, Typepad, blog.com, Blogstream, and Squarespace. Users utilize blogs as a means to share their personal experiences, opinions, share news, and post pictures. If a user allows for other users to comment then their can be an ongoing discussion. The strong points of the medium are that users can communicate in delayed time. Users can post comments and respond on a forum. Similarly to messaging blogging is very user friendly; users can set up their account and submit posts in minutes. Thus, anybody in the class could look at other user’s comments and respond. As in an article in the Australian Journal of Educational Technology stated that blogging is “Easy to use, from any Internet connection point” (Jacobs, 2004 P.232).
The weakness of the medium is that since the users are communicating in delayed time then the user doesn’t know when a response has been posted. This can be frustrating because a user might become discouraged if no responses have been posted when they check their blog. Also, One of the criticisms of blogs, and especially student blogs, is that the students write about nothing but trivia (Downes, 2004). Thus, this is an accessible form of communication because users can post comments anytime and they don’t have to be communicating in real time. Furthermore, “Many blogs have large and dedicated readerships, and blog clusters have formed linking fellow bloggers in accordance with their common interests” (Jacobs, 2004 P.232). Furthermore, “Faculty members who have used little instructional technology in the past, have been pleased with their experience and plan to use blogs in future classes (Glogoff & Hudson, 2005).
Instant messaging is an asynchronous tool that is used in the real world to communicate with friends, family, and anybody you want to chat with. There are many messenger services, such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Google Talk; just to name a few. The user can use this service to send messages, and pictures to whomever they are chatting with. At times people use the messenger service to communicate with users all over the world. It is an inexpensive form of telecommunications. The strong points of this medium are that a user can communicate with other users around the world in real time, which is cheaper than calling someone. It is easy to obtain. You just go to the website, download it, set it up on your computer, add users, then you log in, and you are ready to chat. So instant messaging is user friendly because after you obtain it and begin chatting in minutes.
As a study by Scott Nicholson from
A wiki is a webpage which allows users to modify its content. A user can post questions, answer questions, place content, and post media. The most popular form of this medium is wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia that users modify to give details pertaining to everything imaginable. The positives of wiki’s include the ability to post information anytime. One of the negatives of wikis is that any user can alter the wikis content and it could cause problems. Thus, students would be able to correspond with each other seamlessly although they might have to be aware that some its content could have been altered.
An Mp3 player is a compact music player that can be taken anywhere and is usually listened to by using earphones. There are many companies who create MP3 players. The most popular Mp3 player is the iPod. “The rise in iPod enthusiasm is evident on most university campuses these days. A simple observation of student traffic confirms that within the student population iPod popularity rivals cell phone usage.” (Fose & Mehl 2007). A user can store several hundred or thousands of audio files, movie files, or pictures and listen to them on pre-arranged play lists. The main downfall of using mp3 players are that the battery can die on the device when a user might need to listen to an important audio file. The importance of Mp3 players amongst adult learning would be that they could here a class lecture podcast, educational audio or visual podcast to help assist in learning.
Podcasts are an inexpensive, user friendly, fun, and great way to reach listeners in any time of subject audio file. Podcasts can be created by making an audio file, and converting it to Mp3 format. The strengths of the podcast include the ease of creating and editing, their attainability, the wide array of topics, and their easiness to listen to. I feel that there are little weaknesses to using and producing podcasts. Thus, incorporating podcasting into the classroom during a lesson or lessons can be beneficial for students to gain knowledge. As in a study conducted in 2007 by Berger found that “Students strongly favored the podcasting content” (Berger, 2007).
Social Presence and learning with New Media
Social presence is a crucial aspect to uncover a user’s satisfaction within an online setting. The more users participate within an online populace then the echelon of social presence is heightened. As the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology stated as more users participate, Motivation is also crucial when supporting users to take on the task of participating within an online community. Thus, the understanding of social presence helps one understand the use of mediums within education by allowing a user to realize that if people participate then they will feel a higher level of community and will be more willing to take part in communication. Some mediums including creating or listening to a podcast are forms of social learning theory because the user is deciding whether the media is enjoyable. Thus, “there are many possible benefits from collaborative activity related to learning, modeling the workplace, and creation of new knowledge, but these may be weighed down by the overload and overexposure associated with online learning” (Haythornthwaite, 2006). Thus time, feedback, and assistance in an online community by a professor and classmates can be crucial in social presence theory.
Methods Section
This quantitative study pertaining to new media in online education was conducted for an ETEC course from CSUSB in 2007. It was conducted under the guidelines administered through the university. This section will discuss the various methods used to implement and conduct the research needed to justify results within the study. The following three subsections will explain in detail how the participants were recruited, what instruments were assembled, and how the instruments were utilized
Participant Recruitment
The enlisting of contributors to a study is crucial. Thus, for this study the subjects needed to be directly knowledgeable about the education field. The subjects needed were preferably highly educated. The means to contact individuals was informal. Contact was made with subjects via e-mail, and face to face requests. The first form of contact was e-mail because educators are very busy people and occasionally e-mail responses are the easiest from of communication in this busy world. Within this e-mail a link to a survey was provided as well as a message that stated that this survey was completely voluntary and anonymous. The participants were thanked them for taking the time to view the e-mail and that the survey would take fifteen minutes of their precious time. The second form of contact with subjects was via face to face discussion which explained the surveys importance and possible outcomes within the study on new media in online education.
Instrument development
At the beginning of the development of this research study all of the researchers provided several research questions created from their findings within their literature base. The research questions were categorized and broken down based on validity and realization of completion. From the initial slew of research questions one was chosen as the primary focus. The question was new media in online education. After this the research needed an instrument to find data. Thus a survey was chosen by the researcher group due to its simple form of responses and time completion. The survey was comprised of questions pertaining to technologies that could be used in an online setting. Those technologies included Email, video conferencing, blogging, podcasting, a threaded discussion or bulletin board, and voice over the Internet communication. Before the survey is conducted subjects will read a front page that describes each of these technologies briefly. Also, a disclaimer is provided stating that the survey is voluntary and absolutely anonymous. The survey front page also states that it will take approximately 15 minutes, and that the subject must be 18 or older to participate. Specifically the survey included yes or no questions: Do you own a personal media player? and Listen to non-music podcasts on a portable media player. The next series of questions allowed the subject o choose on a likert scale of 1(you don’t like it all)-5 (you like it a great deal). The questions included: Listen to course podcasts while I engaged in other tasks such as commuting, working, walking etc. ; Read a transcript of a course podcast on my computer instead of listening to the audio version.; Print a transcript of a course podcast to use as a listening guide and to help me focus on the podcast content.; Listen to an audio only podcast on a portable media player.; Listen to an audio only podcast on a computer.; Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images to help illustrate the content of the podcast.; Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images on a portable media player.; and Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images on a computer. The next series of questions asks the subject to answer questions based on a reality that they were to take an online course. The questions were answered on a likert scale of 1 (meaning that you do not like it at all) and 5 (you like it a great deal). The questions included were Communicating with the instructor about problems in class; Communicating with other students to learn more about them: Receiving grades and instructor evaluations of my work; Submitting my assignments to the instructor for grading; Sharing my assignments with other students for peer review; Receiving course lectures and course related content. All of these questions included a series of technologies that are specifically directed to the question provided. An example is provided:
Video Conference
Blog (Text Based)
Podcast (Audio Only)
Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
Implementation section
When the online survey is conducted via an e-mail link or by giving the actual webpage address to a subject, they are informed that it will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Upon arrival on the webpage there is a disclaimer thanking them for agreeing to participate in this survey for ETEC 543, how the survey will be used to integrate and manage technologies during an online course, a statement specifying that the survey is voluntary and anonymous, and a statement with a button that asks whether the subject is 18 or older. The front page of the survey also gives some explanations about technologies included within the survey. The technologies and explanations include: Email - Text based asynchronous communication. Video Conference - Video based synchronous conversation. blog - Student 'owned' web space for posting text, graphics, and documents. podcast - Audio file that is downloaded and played on a portable media player (iPod) or computer. podcast enhanced with graphics - Audio and visual file that is downloaded and played on a portable media player (iPod) or computer. A threaded discussion or bulletin board - Text based asynchronous communication that stores threads or posts for everyone to view and respond to. voice over internet - Synchronous audio conversation, similar to a phone call but using the Internet and computers instead of phones. For example, Skype is a form of voice over internet.
Once the surveys are completed the difficulty of waiting to see how many subjects participated in the survey can be nerve racking because these results are what yields results to further the study and find conclusions and recommendations.
Results Section-
The following data was obtained from the survey provided to participants within the research study. The data was first obtained from the server and then placed within a statistical analysis program called SPSS. The three questions this study was formulated to resolve were
- Is there a relationship between previous non-music portable media (podcast) consumption and receptiveness for portable media use in online learning?
- What media types do students prefer to use for different course activities related to instructor-student interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction?
- What level of involvement in planning, organizing, grading, and making media choices do adult online learners desire?
The data for the first question in the research study was obtained by viewing items in the survey 2,3,6,9 which were directly related to podcasts. While looking at table 1 you can see that .609% of the participant’s prior experience with non-music podcasts and fondness information driven for transferable podcasts subsists. This specifies that prior experience with informational podcasts is desired or the inclination for hearing an instructional podcast while occupied in other activities.
Table 1-Correlations
| | Podcasts/Tasks | Player | Enhanced |
| Prior use | .609* | .465* | .293* |
_____________________________________________________________________
Table 1 Correlations between Prior Non-Music Podcast Use and Preference for Portability in Class Podcast Use (N = 64)
The data for the second question in the research study was obtained by viewing items 11-52 in the survey. The specific technology questions in the survey pertained to
Email-11, 18, 25, 32, 39, 46
Video Conference items 12, 19, 26, 33, 40, and 47
Blog items 13, 20, 27, 34, 41, and 48
Podcast (audio only) items 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49
Podcast (enhanced) items 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 50
Threaded discussion items 16, 23, 30, 37, 44, 51
Voice over internet items 17, 24, 31, 38, 45, and 52
All of the questions were adjusted to their mean score. Specifically Items 11 to 17 are connected to communication with instructor about problems in the class. Items 18 to 24 are about communicating with other students to learn more about each other. Items 25 through 31 are compared to the question about receiving grades from the instructor and other evaluations. Items 32 to 38 are related to submitting assignments for instructor for grading. Items 39 to 45 pertain to sharing my assignments with the other students for peer review. Items 46 to 52 are about receiving course lectures and course related content.
While looking at table 2 you can see that e-mail communication had the highest average mean score at 4.45. The threaded discussion obtained a 3.30, while blogs got a 3.15, enhanced podcasts got a 2.79, video conferencing got a 2.77, audio only podcasts got a 2.5, and voice over internet got a 2.52.
| Technology | Mean | Standard Deviation |
| E-mail | 4.45 | .62 |
| Threaded discussion | 3.30 | 1.10 |
| Blogs | 3.15 | 1.13 |
| Enhanced Podcasts | 2.79 | 1.04 |
| Video Conferencing | 2.77 | 1.03 |
| Audio Only Podcasts | 2.50 | .93 |
| Voice Over Internet | 2.52 | 1.02 |
Table 2 Means and Standard Deviations of Technologies Used for
Course Related Communication (N=64)
The data for the third question in the research study was obtained by viewing items 53-56 in the survey which are directly related to participants desire to obtain and choose course technologies and criteria. Item 53 pertained to participants desire to choose assignments, item 54 pertained to participants willingness to choose grading methods, item 55 pertained to participants allowing to choose due dates, and item 56 pertained to participants choosing media being used.
Table three shows that participants desire to choose their on media within the course received a mean average of 4.41, having a choice about assignments received a 4.28, having a choice about due dates of assignments received a 3.80, and having a choice about grading received a 3.77.
| Question | Mean | Standard deviation |
| Having a choice about media being used | 4.41 | .886 |
| Having a choice about assignments | 4.28 | .983 |
| Having a choice about due dates | 3.80 | 1.198 |
| Having a choice about grading | 3.77 | 1.165 |
Table 3 Means and Standard Deviations of participants desire to obtain and choose course technologies and criteria
Course Related preferences (N=64)
Discussion section-
After concluding the research the data for question 1 verified that it was clear the prior experience with non-music podcasts was associated with a preference for portable media in learning. This finding was not surprising due to the popularity and expanding realm of online podcast material. There are several sites that deliver non-music podcasts for users listening pleasures. There are also many MP3 portable players that are available for users to transfer and listen to their podcasts while on the go. Thus the participants were easily introduced to podcasts from their ease of availability.
In the survey data for question 2 e-mail was clearly the preferred technology for all interactions in class. One potential explanation for this is familiarity. I'm guessing that e-mail is the most common telecommunications technology that our participants are used to and when in doubt, people will prefer what they are used to. Participants in the education field are also used to having their networks set up so that email communication can be easily obtained via Microsoft Outlook. Some firewalls might not allow Video Conferencing, blogging, podcasting, or using threaded discussion or Bulletin Boards on their networks because of the district firewall protection. Thus is a participant is not allowed to access such communication media amongst their colleagues then it is less likely that they would prefer it.
The survey data for question 3 found that it was obvious that adults preferred more control in organizing, grading, and choosing media classes. This was not a significant finding because as adults we like to have the choices to make our own decisions. Thus is a course would allow adults to pick the organization, grading, and media it would be a welcoming and mature decision. The only problem with this preference would be that choosing the organization of a graduate course would be difficult.
These results should help developers and instructors of future online courses by giving them a clear guideline to build a course. The course should include podcasts, e-mail communication, and be open to students having options on assignments. This will probably assist the student population with enjoying the course more, although in reality students would probably be more willing to communicate via other forms of communication such as blogging if given the chance to learn the process.
This study should be conducted with more participants who are in or have been in graduate courses. This might help alleviate non responses. This study would also be great to conduct with other online courses outside of education which use online course formats.
Citations:
Berger, E (2007, October). Podcasting in engineering education: A preliminary study of content, student attitudes, and impact. Innovate Journal of Online Education, 4, Retrieved October 14, 2007, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php? view=article&id=426&action=article
Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), 14-26. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0450.pdf
Haythornthwaite, C. (2006). Facilitating collaboration in online learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7-24.http://www.sloan- c.org/publications/jaln/v10n1/pdf/v10n1_2haythornthwaite.pdf
Hudson, L., Glogoff, S., (Summer 2005) Extending instructional uses of blogs to the campus: A case study. Learning Technologies, 1-5. http://download.101com.com/syllabus/conf/summer2005/PDFs/W15.p
Luanne F., Martin M., (May 2007). Plugging into Students’ Digital DNA: Five Myths Prohibiting Proper Podcasting Pedagogy in the New Classroom Domain. Vol.3, No 3.
Nicholson, S. (2002). Socialization in the "virtual hallway": Instant messaging in the asynchronous Web-based distance education classroom. The Internet and Higher Education 5(4). 363-372. http://bibliomining.com/nicholson/nicholsonpdfs/virthall.pdf
Williams, J. B. & Jacobs, J (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. http://www.jeremybwilliams.net/AJETpaper.pdf
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