e-learning research in action

E-Learning Research in ActionMark Bullen, Nargis Abraham, Glenn Pellegrin

TEK Initiative

• Technology-enabled Knowledge• $25 million project to enhance teaching and learning

• Use e-learning to change and improve teaching

• Includes an applied educational research program

• Supports institutional strategy to stimulate applied research

Applied Educational Research

• Goals of the program:– To encourage faculty to reflect on their teaching and thus engage in continuous improvement by researching their own practice and the implementation of e-learning technologies and innovative teaching approaches.

– To sow the seeds of an e-learning research culture in an institution that does not have a tradition of educational research.

Challenges

• Getting buy-in and institutional support for applied educational research

• Creating a research culture• Establishing and maintaining support systems to enable research

Action Research Examples

• Community of Practice Action Research Project– Nargis Abraham

• “Clickers” Action Research Project– Glenn Pellegrin

Community of Practice (CoP) Action Research Project

• CoP website to provide collaboration opportunities for English teachers in BCIT's pipeline programs in China and English teachers in Chile

• Action research objective: to explore Wenger's "communities of practice" concept using e-technologies

• Technology used - Quickplace

Developing the Materials

• Building the website– Deciding on content –

•subjects of interest to participants•where find materials

• Creating Video materials– Video to enable participants to observe a ‘typical’ BCIT class

– Created and posted on the CoP site– Initial problems with access.

Inviting Participants

• English teachers from China– Email addresses were entered in the CoP members’ list– Invitations to participate were sent via the CoP; no

response was received– Follow up via regular e-mail prompted some teachers to

access the CoP

• English teachers from Chile– 20 English teachers from Chile were included, to expand

the membership and widen the discussion on English teaching

– Two teachers responded

• BCIT PELD instructors– BCIT instructors were invited to serve as ‘experts’ – Two instructors posted their introductions on the CoP.

Lessons Learned

• Individual Needs– Motivation to participate– Time available– Directed discussion

• Technological challenges– Access to participants

• creating user names and passwords for the CoP• identifying e-mail alerts from junk mail

– Navigating the CoP – need for familiarity and expertise.

“Clicker” Action Research Project

• Peer Instruction … what and why?– interactive instructional strategy– large class sizes


• Clickers … what and why?– Technology supports instructional strategy


• “Concept Questions” … what and why?– Questions that challenge student understanding

Challenges to Constructivist Method

– paradigm shift in learning / teaching– efficiency– encourage engagement / participation– quality and effectiveness of questions

• Problem – quality of concept questions– Investigation methodology

•Multiple sessions•Variations / Reflection•Item Response Theory

What’s to learn…

• study quality / effectiveness of questions

• identify student weaknesses• identify question weaknesses• reflect on minor variations of implementations

• identify most useful “engagement” questions based on IRT

• characteristic(s) of challenging questions what makes a discussion question “good”?

Initial Findings

• Participation / engagement

• Feedback to student / instructor

• Keep it simple– Technology should be transparent

•Minimize load on student re: learning the technology

• Instructional reflection

Lessons Learned• Engagement

– Motivation to participate– Value of anonymity – back of class

• Difficulty of questions ordering

• Repeating questions

• Ready to adapt– Feedback provides valuable information on when students need additional guidance

• IRT provides view of question quality in terms of discrimination, difficulty and guessing