Robb Annotated Bibliography Thomas Robb Ed Tech 504 Implications of Selected Constructivist Ideas in the Design of Successful Online

Courses: An Annotated Bibliography Introduction Distance education programs, particularly, web based learning has often come under criticism for failure rates. Research has been conducted that indicates that many online programs are, at times, more effective than face to face instruction. The articles selected in this bibliography were intended to investigate some of the learning theories that are seen in more successful distance education programs. The focus of the articles include examples of approaches that are unrealistic, reasons for common program failures revealing the need to examine more successful teaching practices used in distance education courses, as well as implications for online course design that lead to more successful learning environments. Rovai, A., & Downey, J. (2010). Why Some Distance Education Programs Fail while Others Succeed in a Global Environment. Internet and Higher Education, 13(3), 141-147. Retrieved from ERIC database. doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.07.001 This article outlines seven factors that lead to successful distance education programs while explaining those that are successful look more at a business model balancing the traditional academic framework of traditional educational institutions. These seven factors include planning, marketing and recruitment, financial management, quality assurance, student retention, faculty development, and online course design and pedagogy. While a good portion of the article analyzes the implications of all seven

factors, those that are relevant to this research include the need for quality faculty development that provides both full and part-time faculty with assistance with online course design and pedagogy. The investment in this faculty development is essential for delivering quality online learning programs. The focus here is on the learning that is taking place by students as opposed to teaching that is facilitated upon students. This stresses the need for effective faculty development programs that encourage peer relationships to continue outside of the formal faculty development environment. These involve mentoring components, especially for adjunct faculty and a realignment of curriculum that is always developed with the notion that it will be delivered online. The article also stresses the need for a clear understanding of the differences between online and face to face classes summarized by the increased time investment in creation of course materials, moderating discussions, responding to student emails, tutoring, interactions that change dramatically as a result of the changes in communication mechanisms, assessment practices, time management skills, and technologically competent faculty. Faculty need to spend less time teaching and more time designing learning experiences for students. In addition to these fundamental differences in online

courses, the need to offer an active learning environment in which students are actively engaged fully in the learning process must become part of the equation. The article raises important questions relative to how learning is structured and evaluated. Barab, S. A., & Duffy, T. M. (2000). From Practice Fields to Communities of Practice. In D. H. Jonassen, & S. M. Land, Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments 25-51. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

This article supports the theory of constructivist practices in online course design and delineates a distinction between the design of learning contexts in constructivism and situativity; although, it outlines similar principles for similar context in learning. The authors concede that in order for the realization of these learning theories to come into practice that a systemic change in the schools is required to fully realize the transition from practice fields commonly seen in more constructivist learning context to communities of practice they argue is necessary to address the current dissatisfaction with teaching practices prevalent in todays schools. The authors advocate for learning to be situated within an authentic community of learners as opposed to commonly held constructivist beliefs that the situated learning can be obtained within a fictitious environment or with fictitious circumstances commonly seen in what they call practice fields. These practice fields include problem based learning, anchored instruction, and cognitive apprenticeships. The community the authors are striving to create will help students self-identify their place within the community, and where the community is not solely within the school context, but drawing from people within the actual field relevant to the learning taking place in the classroom. The article outlines common constructivist learning environments in practice fields and argues against the non-authentic aspects of the context of learning that is not situated within a community of learners. They provide an argument for what characteristics are necessary within the community for it to be effective including a creation of or having a common cultural/historical heritage, an interdependent system, and a reproduction cycle. They provide several examples of exemplary learning communities including the NGS Kids Network and Teleapprenticeships, INSITE, I*EARN, and Community of Teachers and how these

differ in their real-world authenticity of learning where students can identify where they are situated within this learning community. While the authors make a strong case and provide real world classroom examples of learning communities, the reality is that many practices, funding, and statues make this sort of shift somewhat difficult in many states where the daily realm of educators center around measurable learning outcomes ground in behaviorist theories. The authors provide a good framework for modeling existing assessment practices around these communities to help students focus more on problem solving and less on isolated learning. The call for these types of approaches are what should be an integral part of distance education programs to create active learning both within and beyond the program both within professional development of online faculty as well as educational practices utilized when focusing on the design of online instruction. Lee, K. (2009). The intersection of the scholarship of teaching and learning with online course design in teacher education. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 477-85. Retrieved from ERIC database. This article thoroughly describes a course redesign by critically examining the feedback provided by learners where students within the course were situated in a real world community for their learning. More specifically, this course taught teacher education candidates in a graduate program different instructional strategies ranging from behaviorist approaches with guided questions, true/false and multiple choice quizzes, to the field experience where students were in a classroom observing and utilizing various instructional strategies. This study was essentially an examination of a survey provided to the students asking them to rate specific strategies employed in the online course as a means to redesign the activities within the course. The goal was to identify factors that

would produce learners that had a greater sense of satisfaction with the learning aspects involved within the scope of the course. Overwhelmingly, students selected the field experience, situated within the context of learning, as their most beneficial learning activity. Specific comments made by students were published in the article ranging from those addressing behaviorist or traditional approaches involving quizzes, responses to guided questions, and other seemingly non-anchored approaches to those that were constructivist in approach. All comments as to the behaviorist end tended could be characterized as mostly negative or suggesting that the instructor should move away from these approaches. Those comments towards the field experiences and student centered approaches were relatively positive where students suggested more time within these situated contexts. The instructor was seeking a way to redesign the course and as a result, decided to change to a more student centered approach with more constructivist type projects as opposed to multiple choice type examinations. This approach to course redesign is an essential factor in creating success. It also demonstrates how a practice field to a more authentic approach discussed in the previous article can produce more student satisfaction within a program, thus leading to higher success rates and a greater potential for creating a successful distance education program. Ellozy, A. R., & Mostafa, H. M. (2010). Making learning visible: using e-maps to enhance critical reading skills. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 634646. Retrieved from ERIC Database. This article describes a study on the use of concept maps to assist students with critically analyzing textbook materials by creating what they call an E-mapping assignment. Emapping is done by students constructing a map with icons and shapes representing the

ideas they read about. The process of students constructing the knowledge is considered a constructivist approach to critically examining the text. In the study, students were surveyed and asked whether this constructivist-based assignment helped them understand the main ideas within the reading and whether it required them to more critically examine their textbook reading assignments. The overall goal was to find ways to ensure students are doing the reading in the course so students were ready to be active participants during in class discussions. The study found that this approach is a potentially powerful tool because it forces students to engage with reading their text and allows instructors to see into the students minds and how they are connecting the ideas from their reading. Much of the mapping was completed online using the learning management system to guide students in their use of the electronic mind mapping tool. Students came to class more prepared to be active learners, an argument that is considered one aspect of distance education programs failing. While this approach is not necessarily situated within the context of an authentic community described by Barab and Duffy (2000), this practice was very much like the practice fields in constructivist learning that is evident in constructivist, learner-centered environments. Using this type of approach in distance education hybrid courses, while noted as time-consuming by the students surveyed, is one way to create a more learner centered-environment, thus leading to greater success. Abedin, B., Daneshgar, F., & Ambra, J.D. (2010). Underlying factors of sense of community in asynchronous computer supported collaborative learning environments. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 585-596. Retrieved from ERIC Database.

This article overviews the current research on how to build a sense of community in asynchronous or fully online courses. It defines sense of community as the opposite feeling of the sense of isolation commonly associated with students in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Previous research in this area reveals that it is important that asynchronous CSCL environments have a strong sense of community to prevent this feeling of isolation or separation as there exists a positive relationship between the sense of community and learning outcomes. This sense of community creates a number of successful aspects of online courses. This particular study breaks down and explains that this sense of community has both input and output components as described in Brandon and Hollingsheads (1999) Model of CSCL Theory. The inputs include characteristics of learners and instructors, plus those of the course and the technical aspects. The outputs are students knowledge and satisfaction which arise through their participation, group activities and cognitive processes. The study also suggests that it reveals additional aspects of the sense of community not previously revealed that include a sense of cohesion and awareness of others as two underlying dimensions of sense of community. This article further argues for course design that includes components that are intuitive and include ways in which to build this sense of community. Identification of deterministic characteristics will be useful in future CSCL designs for improving students perceived sense of community. The community can be created if online classes have the technical support needed for students to interact and participate in these environments. When learners are aware that others are in the course, a sense of community can then be more fully realized. This suggests a need for course tasks to be clear, suggesting that the course navigational structure should consider the

inclusion of the tasks needed to bring about learner awareness of others as well as the technical support needed to bring about participation in this awareness of others. Caplow, J. (2006). Where do I put my course materials?. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 7(2), 165-173. Retrieved from Professional Development Collection database. This article overviews a research study in the trends of where instructors place their course materials in Blackboard. The study found that there are trends in where instructors place materials in preset labels as opposed to instructor made labels depending upon whether the course was a face to face course that was web-enhanced, a hybrid format where a majority of content was delivered via the web with limited course meetings, or a fully online course where no face to face meetings occur. The study provided a matrix depending upon which type of course and provided merely four recommendations based on the trends of instructors within these courses. Because Blackboard limits the navigational structure to some degree, and given the differences in navigational structures in other content management systems such as Moodle, Sakai, Desire to Learn, Web-CT, Angel, and many others, the results of these recommendations are limited and offer little general guidance in overall navigation. The article does suggest the need to have consistency and intuitiveness in design of the navigation scheme to allow students less cognitive time processing the navigation and more time focusing on course content. The article suggests more research is needed in placement of course materials including those materials that would build community including a sense of awareness of others.

Hsu, Y. (2006). Better educational website interface design: the implications from genderspecific preferences in graduate students. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(2), 233-242. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00532.x. This article reviews past research on gender differences between younger student genderbased preferences in educational website interface design, seeking to explore similarities amongst graduate students. The study looked at student preferences with the intention to find whether there were gender considerations when designing web based instruction. The study used three features essential to website design including color value, major navigation button placement, and navigation mode. The research determined no significant differences in any three aspects; although, they did discover a significant preference for a darker button color. Previous research discovered color differences in younger populations in terms of preference with females preferring lighter and males preferring darker; however, this study found no significant preference on way or another. Button placement on the top or on the left side tended to favor females on top with males on the left; however, it was not significant enough to make recommendations or have implications for designers. Finally, both males and females had a tendency to prefer a non-linear navigation style as opposed to linear. These findings, while more research might be needed, that non-linear navigation styles with darker colors for buttons are possible considerations when designing online courses. It does not; however, provide considerations for placement of tools that could be used for community, suggesting that perhaps it must be clear in the course environment how students should utilize these tools. Also, other factors need consideration for engaging students in the use of tools that

can be used to lessen the feelings of isolation in online courses, become active learners, create a sense of community, and result in greater successes in these environments. Zajac, M.(2009). Using learning styles to personalize online learning. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 26(3), 256-265. This article suggests a concept by which to design online courses with learning style preferences in mind. The concept is to develop a learning style questionnaire to base the dynamic creation of course content that suits a learning style (visual, aural, physical, verbal, and logical). Course content would need to be duplicated. For example, text approaches would suit verbal, but need to be converted with graphical elements for visual, auditory elements for aural, practical projects or simulations for physical, and so on. The results of the learning style questionnaire would provide learners with a personalized learning environment where they would see course content based on their responses. This is opposed to a learner being presented with choosing their path, which is arguably more time consuming and, in terms of learners understanding of how they gain knowledge, not practical in terms of the time it would take for them to determine which path to take. Not only could this be an argument against this method, but it also puts a huge and impractical demand on educators in terms of course content creation. This article suggests that cognitive approaches to education are likely impractical lending more weight for creating more constructivist-based environments. These environments would likely entail more focus on content as opposed to creating community. It could isolate learners from each other based on their chosen paths, which is somewhat unrealistic. Placing too much demand on a learner in terms of time spent selecting content as opposed to participating in a community and constructing their own

knowledge is a more realistic approach to education that is ground in constructivist thought.