Improving online interactivity and learning: a constructivist approach.

Abstract

This article discusses how I used constructivist theory to teach the online graduate "Research Methods In Education" course. Because interactivity has been reported as a major issue in most online courses, I focused more on strategies of using constructivist theory to enhance interactivity, knowledge sharing, and building in the online course. These strategies included (1) individual weekly essay assignments/peer evaluations and (2) group projects, discussions, and collaborations via the bulletin board on WebCT. The results of the students' positive learning performances and evaluations indicate that online constructivist strategies will have significant implications for future online courses.

Introduction

Online education is increasing rapidly at all levels of education worldwide (Kearsley, 2000). Much research on online education has accumulated in recent literature. However, much current research has reported that online interactivity among students and teachers, as well as among students themselves has been reported as a major issue in most online courses (Arsham, 2002; Macdonald, 2001; Muirhead, 2001). According to recent research, constructivist theory, which proposed that learners could learn actively and construct new knowledge based on their prior knowledge, has been reported to be useful for improving interactivity in online learning (Rudestam & Schoenholtz-Read, 2002). According to Bruning, Schraw, and Ronning (1999), most constructivists agree on these four essential characteristics which influence learning: (1) learners construct their own learning, (2) new learning depends on current understanding, (3) learning is facilitated by social interaction, and (4) meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks.

Based on my recent online teaching experience, this article discusses how I used constructivist theory to teach the graduate "Research Methods In Education" course online. In this article, I focus more on strategies of using constructivist theory to enhance interactivity, knowledge sharing, and building in that online course. The article includes the following four major components: (1) a brief introduction of the course studied; (2) a brief discussion of the individualized online instructional and learning strategies; (3) a focus on constructivist online instructional and learning strategies; and (4) students' major outcomes in the course.

An Introduction Of The Course Studied

As one regular course assignment, in spite of no related institutional training or external incentives for an online course, I was asked to teach the graduate "Research Methods In Education" course online in fall 2001. Based on constructivist theory and my recent research experiences in distance education, I successfully delivered the course to 28 students online. Prior to this, I taught the same course in the traditional face-to-face environment. Based on my previous experience of teaching the course in the traditional classrooms, I retooled the course content and delivery strategies before the online delivery of the course. Before the start of the semester, I designed a very detailed syllabus for the course including all assignments' guidelines, due dates and my virtual office hours. In order to reduce learner's learning anxiety and to maximize learning efficiency, two face-to-face on-campus orientations were conducted in the first two weeks of fall 2001. During those two orientations, each student completed a series of the following tasks: introduced himself/herself to the class and exchanged contact information; learned how to use the common functions of the course delivery software-WebCT; learned how to use the library resources for the course, such as searching for research articles in online databases and how to request interlibrary loan services; selected group members (3-member group) based on the mutual interest and experiences for a group project; and had photos taken. The photos were posted on WebCT to facilitate further virtual communication throughout the semester.

Individualized Online Instructional And Learning Strategies

In order to facilitate and assess students' individual learning, I used several individualized online instructional and learning strategies. The first strategy was the use of online chapter/topic presentations on WebCT, which were developed and prepared by me. The second strategy was the use of weekly chapter and supplemental material readings on WebCT posted by me and completed by the students. The third strategy was the use of online weekly quizzes on WebCT. Each of these open-book quizzes covered 20 objective application items and had to be completed within 30 minutes each time. These quizzes were prepared by me and were designed for automatic grading. In order to improve online learning, students were allowed to individually complete each quiz two times (one time for practice and one time for final grading). Only the higher quiz score for each chapter was counted toward the final grade. Thus, students got immediate feedback on chapter quizzes. The fourth strategy was the use of individualized personal e-mail communication and phone contact. If students had additional content inquiries and technical consultation, ! had to answer each student individually via e-mail communication.

Constructivist Online Instructional And Learning Strategies

Because interactivity has been reported as a major issue in most online courses (Muirhead, 2001), I focused more on using constructivist theory mentioned previously to enhance interactivity, knowledge sharing, and building in the online course. Specifically, the interactivity strategy is related to the content in the course. Thus, it is helpful to present the content of the course first. The major topics in the course included the following:

1. Introduction to educational research

2. Selection of a research topic

3. Preparation and evaluation of a research plan

4. Sampling and participants

5. Instrument selection

6. Qualitative research including features, data collection, and data analysis

7. Quantitative research including various designs, descriptive, and inferential statistics 

8. Preparation and evaluation of a research report

In order to align with the above topics (excluding the first topic) and to reinforce the learning content in each topic, every student was required to complete an individual project (the completion of a sequence of weekly individual essay assignments) and a collaborative group project (the production of a formal collaborative group research proposal) throughout the semester. Most of the above content topics were discussed for one week, such as topics 2-5 and 8; for topics 6-7, each topic was discussed for two or three weeks. Both individual essay assignments and group projects were based on the four essential characteristics of constructivist theory described previously. The details of both individual and group projects are described below.

Regarding the individual project, according to the individual assignments' guidelines provided in the syllabus, each student had to post his/her essays and peer critiques within each week. Specifically, each student had to select a current researchable problem in schools based on his/her own interest/experience, starting topic 2 mentioned previously; then he/she was asked to write an individual essay to align with each of the topics from topics 2-7 according to the guidelines given in the syllabus. For instance, when topic 2 was discussed, each student was required to identify a current researchable problem in schools. Likewise, when topic 4 was discussed, each student was required to find an appropriate sampling strategy for his/her research topic identified. Since the same research topic could be approached sequentially and differently (either by qualitative research or quantitative research), students' weekly individual essay assignments could be carded over during the rest of the semester. This individual essay process was primarily based on three of constructivist key features described previously: (1) students construct their own learning, (2) new learning depends on current understanding, and (3) meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks.

In addition, each student had to participate in weekly peer evaluations and critiques by replying to each posting on the bulletin board on WebCT within each week. For instance, each student had to consistently critique his/her pre-assigned partner's individual essay assignments each following week. Additionally, two students could not critique each other. This type of online individual posting, peer editing, and critiques are great interactive learning activities because these activities provide additional feedback for online learners. In addition, according to Ko and Rossen (2001), these activities are intrinsically beneficial to the learners. First, these activities require the learner to view the evaluation criteria for an assignment with fresh eyes. This helps them critically review their own work. Second, learners can obtain a different perspective from peers, rather than from me. This critiquing process is primarily based on one of constructivist key features described previously: learning is facilitated by social interaction.

Regarding the group project, all students had to complete three stages: prepare, perform, and evaluate the project. In the online course mentioned previously, as soon as all groups selected the topics for their group projects, they had to think about how to (1) prepare and plan for the project, (2) collaboratively collect/gather information or materials needed for the project, and (3) evaluate their own and other groups' projects, as well as revise the project according to the group project evaluation rubric. The rubric included the specific percentage and requirements for each major component of the group project such as Title Page, Problem Statement, Method, Plan For Data Analysis, Time Schedule, and References) provided in the syllabus. During these three stages, I consistently guided and facilitated the entire process of each group's project.

Specifically, each three-member group had to select a mutually interesting researchable topic and produce a formal written research proposal at the completion of the course. Students could transfer their individual assignments to their own group project if their individual assignments were related to their own group topic. For instance, one of a student's individual assignments was to state a research problem such as the effects of technology use on students' learning performance. If that student's group project was related to this same topic, that student's individual assignments could be transferred to his/her group project. In order to complete this group project, each group member had to post his/her individual contributions to the group project under his/her own group thread on the bulletin board. All group members were required to collaboratively participate online in all the components of the whole research proposal on a regular basis. Major contributions from each student were required to be posted on the bulletin board for information sharing and exchange. In order to facilitate the completion of the group project, students also used other online synchronous and asynchronous methods, such as personal e-mail, chatroom, and phone contact. This collaborative group process was primarily based on all four features of constructivist theory described previously: (1) students construct their own learning, (2) new learning depends on current understanding, (3) learning is facilitated by social interaction, and (4) meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks.

In addition, during the online delivery of the above course, I consistently guided all students' active learning throughout the course. Meantime, I used various guidance and/or scaffolding (instructional assistance) strategies including: online instructional materials, asynchronous personal e-mail, public bulletin board discussion, synchronous chatroom, and phone contact.

Indications of Learning Outcomes

The result of the students' learning outcomes was a crucial factor that was used in deciding whether the online course was successful or not. For the majority of the students, this was their first time taking an online course. Five students (3 had technological problems and 2 had family issues) dropped out during the semester, and 23 students successfully completed the online course. Students' grades were completely based on their own performances in three major areas, rather than based on the normal curve: (1) chapter quizzes--30% of the final grade, (2) individual essay assignments and critiques--35%, and (3) group projects--35%. Regarding chapter quizzes, 20 students got an average of over 90% of the items correct and 3 got an average of 80% of the items correct. Regarding individual assignments and critiques, 21 got an average of an "A" and 2 got an average of a "B". Regarding group projects, 21 students (7 groups) got an "A" and 2 students (1 group) got a "B" based on the research proposal's completeness, structure, appropriateness, clarity, and references which were all described in the syllabus. According to the above grading policy, 21 students did extraordinary work and received an "A" and two others received a "B" for their final grades.

In addition, since the final official students' evaluations administered by the university are primarily related to the major technical features of WebCT and are not related to students learning outcomes or my online instruction, the mid-term students evaluations administered by myself on WebCT are important. The overall result of the mid-term students' evaluations showed very significant positive learning outcomes. One of the three open questions in the mid-term evaluation was "What have you learned so far?" The students' answers to that question were all positive. This was a surprise to me since most students took an online course for the first online course. The following excerptions from a few students indicate very positive specific learning outcomes.

Student 1: "This course has helped refresh my memory on constructivist learning theory. It has also helped build my computer skills to a level of comfort. I was relatively new to the library research methods on this campus, that was a bonus! It has provided valuable information about writing research proposals."

Student 2: "Well, first of all, this is my first on-line class experience. I am very pleased to note it has been positive ... proper format of research proposals. All of this information has been presented in the text and reinforced in the individual and group assignments."

Student 3: "So far I have learned the basic principles for writing a research proposal along with all of the different types of analysis. I have learned that something that may sound simple could in fact be very complicated when all of the possible factors are considered. I look forward to finishing our group project."

Student 4: "I have learned an exceeding amount of information about writing my final paper. I didn't even know where to start ... This class has helped me to set up 2 papers. By the time I am ready to write mine, I will have the confidence to write it knowing that I have experience in this area. I was very hesitant about research. I learned that researching on line is not as difficult as I thought. I know that sources have to be checked from online searches, but journals etc. that are on line make my life so much easier. The online search for testing instruments was a huge surprise to me. Never did I realize the wealth of information available. Learning to navigate the WebCT has been an enjoyable experience. What a way to take a class. It is a little overwhelming at first, but once I got familiar with the program, I loved it......"

Student 5: "There have been many interesting things that I have learned so far in this class ... Our studies on qualitative and quantitative research has really helped me focus in on what type of research do I want to complete in my study. Before taking this class I thought that a research report involved creating a hypothesis, gathering data, and then reaching some sort of conclusion. I have learned the proper way to write a research report that includes the design, procedure, instruments used, and many other aspects. In chapter eleven I learned a lot about group design. I had no idea that there were so many ways to set up a research study. This information has better prepared me to complete "real life" research."

Student 6: "I have learned a large amount about the steps that are needed to conduct a research project as well as the different types of research models available. I have learned how to conduct research on the internet, use e-mail more regularly, and how to participate in a chat room. I had never used a chat room prior to this course. I have also learned about my personal learning strengths and weaknesses."

Student 7: "I have learned a lot about different research designs and terms. I also have a better understanding of research studies when I read about them in my educational magazines. I never realized how much work goes into each research topic. I will really appreciate that in the future......"

Summary

The above outcomes have met or exceeded in some aspects the expectations of the online course preset at the beginning of the semester. The positive learning performances may be related to the interactive individual essay assignments and peer critiques, as well as to the interactive group projects involving authentic topics in schools. Thus, students' positive learning performances and evaluations indicate that constructivist online instructional and learning strategies such as individual essay assignments, peer critiques, and collaborative group projects are very effective in improving interactivity and learning in the online course. In all, the results in this study will have significant implications for other online courses in the future.

Note

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Online International Conference of Teaching Online in Higher Education (TOHE), Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, United States in November 2002 (Available http://www.ipfw.edu/as/2002tohe/).

References

Arsham, H. (2002). Impact of the Internet on learning and teaching. United States Distance Learning Association Journal, 16(3). Retrieved January 1, 2003 from http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/MAR02_Issue/article01.html.

Bruning, R. H., Schraw, G. J., & Ronning, R. R. (1999). Cognitive psychology and instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kearsley, G. (2000). Online education: Learning and teaching in no cyberspace. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2001). Teaching online: A practical guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Macdonald, J. (2001). Exploiting online interactivity to enhance assignment development and feedback in distance education. Open Learning, 16(2), 179-89.

Muirhead, B. (2001). Interactivity research studies. Educational Technology & Society, 4(3), 108-12.

Rudestam, K. E., & Schoenholtz-Read, J. (2002). Overview: The coming of age of adult online education. In K. E. Rudestam, & J. Schoenholtz-Read (Eds.), Handbook of online learning (3-29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Yuliang Liu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 

Yuliang Liu, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of instructional technology. His major teaching-research agenda includes distance education and research methodology.