A Summary of a Comparative study

Blending classroom instruction with online homework: A study of student perceptions of computer-assisted L2 learning

This study was conducted by NURIA SAGARRA and GABRIELA C. ZAPATA. It was published by the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning.

The purpose of the study:

was to investigate the effect of using an online workbook on the attitudes of second language (L2) Spanish learners toward this pedagogical tool over two consecutive semesters.

The Participants of this study:

were 245 second language (L2) Spanish learners between 18

and 25 years old.

The instruments used in this study were:

• A Language background questionnaire and language proficiency test
• Language assessment tests (quantitative measures)
• Survey on student perceptions (qualitative measure)

The Treatment:

During the third week of second-semester, the participants were given a language background

questionnaire and proficiency test to measure their knowledge level. The treatment consisted of the participants attending four hours of classroom instruction and completing one online homework per week, for a total of 24 weeks, during two following semesters. Classroom instruction included communicative activities, discussions, audio and video, and cultural readings. The online workbook contained of listening ,grammar and vocabulary activities, a content-based reading and immediate feedback. Language assessment tests were given to the participants as a final exam to measure the effect of the instructional treatment on participants through the two semesters of the study. Finally at the end of the treatment , the participants completed a computerized survey to conclude their perceptions concerning the electronic workbook.

The results:

• the tests indicated a significant increase in grammar scores.
• In addition, the results of the Survey on student perceptions Shows positive findings of student perceptions about the online workbook, emphasizing its benefits in terms of accessibility to the material, user-friendliness and instant feedback.
• Also, most students like the usefulness of the online workbook for language learning, particularly in the areas of grammar and vocabulary acquisition.
• Although, the survey also revealed some negative aspects of the use of the online workbook, such as the amount of time needed to complete the online exercises.

Advantages :

• The most beneficial aspect of this study is that it does not just focus on comparing
• students’ attitudes in blended instructional learning, in which, it also considers the improvement of students’ performance and learning outcomes.
• Another advantage is that the researchers ruled out any sources of bias and sample contamination by using the Language background questionnaire and language proficiency test.

Disadvantages:

• Although, the study has some limitations such as it toke a long period of time (three semesters) to complete the treatment which makes the study threaten of losing participants due to illness, travel and death…etc which can negatively effect the study results..

Blind Scores in a Graduate Test: Conventional Compared with Web-based Outcomes

by Sloan-C
AUTHORS:
M. Hosein Fallah, Ph.D.Executive-in-ResidenceWesley J. Howe School of Technology ManagementStevens Institute of TechnologyHoboken, NJ 07030

This is non comparative study.

Problem: While the published literature suggests that there is little or no difference in the outcomes of student results when online learning is compared with conventional classroom instruction.

Purpose and question:
Are there any differences between the outcomes of student results when online learning and conventional classroom instruction?


Instrument:
The study is applying midterm exam to assess the grades of the learners and the differences between two types of learning ( to compare two graduate school environments-one in a conventional setting and the other in a web-based "virtual classroom)." The two classes were taught by the same instructor who delivered the same content to both groups. The "blind" study was performed at Stevens Institute of Technology, a technical and business university that provides undergraduate and graduate education to approximately 4,000 students at its Hoboken, NJ main campus and at some 30 other sites in New Jersey and six other states.


Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
Eliminate potential instructor bias the instructor grade the midterm examinations from both classes without knowing from which class the exams originated.
It is showing that there is no difference between face to face instruction and virtual classroom.
no evidence of any kind that categorically proves that technology does not impact learning in some way, positively or negatively.

Disadvantages
the way of teaching in both types of learning may faced some differences and can effect students achievement .

FINDINGS
The test results for each group are shown in Figure 1. The WebCampus class had seven students whose test grades ranged from 57 to 94 (out of 100 points). The on-campus class, with 12 students, received midterm grades ranging from 35 to 87

From a quick inspection of the raw data, it is not immediately clear which class did better. The distribution of the grades in Figure 2, however, shows that while the means of two samples are close, the on-campus class has a bimodal distribution with some students scoring high and some low. We will discuss this difference in our observation.

REFERENCES
1. Russell, Thomas E., The No Significant Difference Phenomenon, North Carolina University, 1999. Available: http://nova.teleeducation.nb.ca/nosignificantdifference/
2. Brock, Gerald W., Telecommunication Policy for the Information Age: From Monopoly to Competition, Harvard University Press, 1998.


http://www.aln.org/publications/magazine/v4n2/fallah.asp

Research and Evaluation Needs for Distance Education: A Delphi Study

Research and Evaluation Needs for Distance Education: A Delphi Study
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall33/rockwell33.html
Kay Rockwell, Professor, Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication
Jack Furgason, Program Evaluation Assistant,
David B. Marx, Professor, Biometry

Overview:
Distance learning programs rapidly expanded so distance education is now defined as "the acquisition of knowledge and skills through mediated information and instruction, encompassing all technologies and other forms of learning at a distance".
Distance educators were asked to participate in a Delphi study to identify and rank future research and evaluation needs/issues. Four themes emerged:
Cooperation and collaboration among institutions
Designing the educational experience for the distance learner.
Teacher preparation
Educational outcomes.
The approach:
This study is a combination of scientific and social approach because it is related to the educational study.

Research design
CIPP Model: (context, input, process and product) .
Modified Delphi process: By utilizing the knowledge of experts, combining it and redistributing it, the study opens up doors and forces new thought processes to emerge .
Study participants : Three groups of distance educators participated.
Steering committee.
Delphi panel – First round ,Delphi panel – Second round. ,Distance education conference participants – Third round

Levels of the evaluation
Some of the researchers have been interested in the learner – their attributes and perceptions, interaction patterns and how these contribute to the overall learning environment. Others researchers addressed administrative and organizational issues. Many researchers have addressed operational issues relating to networking, cooperation, coordination and collaboration. Still others have addressed faculty issues.
So, this study is in project level.

The techniques:
This study is used confidence logs as an instrument.
Distance educators said it is most important to identify highly effective strategies for successful distance learning including assessing "innovative" instructional processes to identify what best helps distance students learn.Therefore the study use a confidence logs with the scales of
1 = Very important 2 = Important 3 = Neither important nor unimportant 4 = Unimportant 5 = Very unimportant

Conducting a quantitative and qualitative analysis

Course of dissemination of the innovation
Doctor : kumar laxman

Done by :
Ghadah AL-Shanfari (57762)
Marwa AL-Ibrahim (58688)
Youmna AL-Yafai (59738)


overview about the environment/course:
This course a bout dissemination of the innovation and provided with on-line discussion board that allow and support the students to discusses and learn with each other by discussion forum . our purpose is to analyze this discussion forum to know the degree of discussion , interaction and Cognitive and content-related .
. Moreover, The content of the dissection forum is a bout problems or difficulties associated with the dissemination of an educational innovation. Students should post some of these problems and how they can be overcome. Each student will have to post and describe at least one problem and Talk about the reasons for the problem(s) to arise and why it is a barrier to diffusion and implementation of an educational innovation Each student will also have to respond/reply at least once to the ideas posted by another student in the forum.

Our participants and evaluation instruments is discussion content analysis indicators.

Degree of Discussion
· The total number of messages per student in the course:

As shown in Table1, all 33 students have participated in the course forum but with some distinct variations in the amount of their participations.

this table shows that the total messages from all the students are 298 messages and the average number of message participation per student was around 6 messages; in addition, it also shows that the minimum of participation was at least one message per student, while the maximum was 25 messages per student.

The Bar Graph clearly indicates that around 3% of the students have contributed at least once in the course forum and another 3% participated 25 times, whereas approximately 6% have participated 22 times, with about 12% participated from 6 – 7 times.

· The total number of messages per student in each Topic:

The course forum has 48 threads, and some threads had a lot of replies from students such as the last thread which received 14 replies. In the other hand, some threads did not receive any replies. Most students did not reply more than once in a single topic, although, some have replied a number of times such as a specific student who replied 7 times in the same topic thread.

· Early and Late Messages:
The graph below shows that the degree of participation in the course forum started slow and peaked later on, but then the participation slowed again soon after.

interaction :

A relatively high percentage of students (48.1%) responding to accept or reject others’ views and opinions with more explanation. However, around (21.7%) of the students were comments on messages sent by others. Regarding interaction with the tutor, (13.3%) of students responded to the tutor’s requirements or demands. More than (7%) of students were Repeating information in another message. About (10%) of the statements were related to students’ own experience and showed that they had worked independently to find answers or solve problems
The above analysis shows that although the tutor emphasized the importance of thinking and adding personal thoughts (e.g., each student will have to post and describe AT LEAST one problem (by clicking on new discussion topic) you are aware of or forsee in the dissemination and adoption of an educational innovation. Talk about the reasons for the problem(s) to arise and why it is a barrier to diffusion and implementation of an educational innovation. You can see one example of a problem that I have put up for a sample. Each one of you similarly will have to come up with AT LEAST one problem.’)
( "Each student will also have to respond/reply AT LEAST ONCE to the ideas posted by another student in the forum. You can respond by saying whether you agree or disagree with the views expressed by the other students. You could also propose solutions to the problems posted by other students")
One of the important features noticed in students’ responses was accepting other ideas" I agree with you. I strongly agree with your point, you are right, I believe this idea…" . A large proportion of students (48%) adapted what others said in their messages, instead of using their own points of view or expressions. However, although this result has a negative side, it indicates that students, at least, read and interacted with what others said and communicated with them to some extent.
About social interaction, students attempted to create a sense of social presence by referring to each other by name and to some elements in the learning rather than interacting with the tutor. In other words, students preferred student-student interaction rather than student-tutor

Cognitive and content-related

As we see that all students have post one post related to the main topic but 8 students have post more than 1 and 1 post was non-related topic.

Analyzing content of 25 posts
The results of the content analysis showed that 96% of the overall number of statements posted by students was related to the main topic. The majority of problem which posted were between 3 to 10 lines and responds to that problem were as short responds. Also, all students have posted at least one problem (100%). However, only 1.4% was the Number of related asked questions provided by responders. But, there weren’t any asked questions for clarification provided by responders to get more explanation of the discussion problem. In addition, it was found that 9.6% of the responds were repeated by students.

Figure : Pattern of students’ responses in terms of cognitive and content-related

The above results indicate that the majority of students have understand the actual purpose of on-line discussions, and responded to discussion problem as they would respond to if this problem stated by instructor or student in face-to-face course . In addition, some students had clarify there problem and state reasons for that problem E.g. the student Bayan AL-Rawas said: (students and staff ” teachers ” prefer the traditional way of learning and still want text book and written materials because they don’t trust on the digital education). Also, some students who responds to the discussion forum had state some solutions for some posted problems E.g.: as the student Ameena Alrawahi said that: (we can solve this problem by adapting the innovation to the environment intended to use the innovation...).

Advantages of this technology:

It’s an interactive technology that encourages learners to be more a active and open mind.
It encourages learners to discuss his/her opinions with each other.
It transfer the way of learning from face-to-face class room to on-line class.
They can post any number of messages as much as they want and whenever they want.

Limitations of this technology:
some times students go out from the main topic of the course e.g. ( social chat ,, _
Some students don’t give there opinion E.g. they just say I agree.
Most student rely to others responses.

Refrences:
http://moodle.squ.edu.om/mod/forum/view.php?id=38645