It also explores the role of blogs in self-reflection and improving personalized learning. ... And as technology evolves, educators and learning designers should think how these tools best serve ..... Australian Journal of Educational Technology.
Enhancing Learning Through Discussion Forums and Blogs: Personalized Learning & Self-Reflection Elham Arabi Educational Technology and Production Department SIM University, Singapore
Abstract Online learning has become an integral part of education in today’s world. One of the growing aspects of online learning is online collaboration and learning through e-communities. E-communities are webbased collaborative tools which allow for sharing and enhancing knowledge amongst their members [1](Bradshaw, 2012). This paper argues including online collaboration and discussion as a learning object is essential for an online course. It also explores the role of blogs in self-reflection and improving personalized learning. Included are guidelines that have evolved from the study’s results for designing interactive learning environments from an alternative perspective. The course studied for this research was ‘Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language’ (TESOL), consisting of 75 students. Students were in their second year of undergraduate study. The course was conducted using blended approach with one face-to-face session in a week. A qualitative approach was applied for this study to ensure the reliability and validity of findings. Discussion forums and all students’ blogs were studied and analyzed. Focus groups as well as surveys were other means of data collection for this study. Findings demonstrated building an online community with sufficient scaffolds can enhance students’ learning. Moreover, using blogs for self-reflection and personalized learning helps reinforce positive learning experience.
Keywords: Online collaboration, Learning community, Discussion forum, Blogs, Personalized learning, Self-reflection, instructional design
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INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, online learning has significantly increased in popularity among educators and students. With the increasing demand for e-learning, learning designers and instructors have to ensure the rapid changes in technology tools and platforms are to offer a better learning experience for learners. In other words, learners have to always be the focus of teaching and learning designs. And as technology evolves, educators and learning designers should think how these tools best serve learners to learn, and learn about learning. Having access to a rich information source and the freedom for learners to determine their own pathways through is only half of the equation [2]. Students need to be able to collaborate in the learning process and this is the feature that is most commonly missing in many current online courses. Brown states, in order to come to know, learners need to construct their knowledge by acting upon it, reformulating it, making their own personal interpretation of it, sharing it with others and building upon these ideas and concepts through reactions and responses of their peers.
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BACKGROUND
The course, which was studied for this research, was ‘Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language’ (TESOL), consisting of 75 students. Students were in their second year of undergraduate study. The course was conducted using the blended approach. The class would meet once a week and the rest of the days they were to collaborate and communicate in the virtual online classroom on Blackboard. They used weblogs and forum to communicate and reflect on their learning. For this course, they were assigned to participate in online discussions and create their own blogs to reflect on their learning on a weekly basis.
Data was collected through content analysis of discussion forum and students’ blogs. A focus group with students was also conducted to learn more about the students’ experience. Surveys were used at the beginning of the course to learn about students’ technology skills, and at the end of the course to determine their progress.
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ONLINE COLLABORATION
Online education offers a potentially rich social learning platform which can enhance active learning [2]. Collaborative learning is supported by engaging discussion topics, timely scaffolds, and regular feedback to motivate students for more active participation. Discussion forum is an integral part of elearning, which can be considered as a learning object [3]. To optimize active and collaborative learning, the instructor would pose questions in relation to lessons covered once a week and the class were to share their views. Discussion forums were graded and students’ participation was compulsory. The overall assessment of the course contained 20% for discussion forum. Students were not only to respond to the instructor, but comment on their peers’ posts to build more critical thinking skills. Students demonstrated high depth of understanding of the topics, which was one of the reasons for their being motivated in participating in discussions. One of the most important factors in facilitating online discussions is posing well-structured questions, which can relate to real-life situations. Students find tangible topics more interesting to discuss. Questions posed for the class involved problemsolving as well, and students were asked to share their views on the best possible solutions for the issues. The topics posed merely related to pedagogical approaches in teaching languages, challenges faced by teachers, integration of technology to enhance learning, and assessment. I specifically found the topic related to technology integration useful, as it directly related to what the students were experiencing in their class. In other words, they shared their views based on their own personal experience. Below is one of the questions posed on the forum along with a student’s response: How can you use an e-portfolio in your teaching? “An e-portfolio helps learners achieve metacognition skills. We can ask them to record their learning progress, learning strategies and reflection on their own learning in a digital platform.” Another major factor which affected high participation in discussion forums was timely interjection of the instructor to ensure students’ posts were directly addressing the issues raised. On the other hand, the instructor’s social presence further motivated the students to both respond and actively get engaged in the discussions. Students were notified in case they were off the topic or if they ideated useful solutions to challenges raised in the topics. The instructor also shared useful reading resources related to discussion topics. To further stimulate engagement by participants, the instructor would pick certain posts to discuss in the face-to-face sessions, which would give a sense of recognition to students who posted them. The other remarkable strategy in moderating the discussion forum used by the instructor was summarizing the points discussed either online or in class. This was perceived a useful strategy by students as the high volume of posts could be daunting for some to follow or organize. Students admitted they had a great experience participating in discussion forum since they could feel they were learning both from their peers and instructor. Students who were taciturn in particular found the discussion forum more effective, as they could think and respond on their own time. Brown [2] states the asynchronous nature of online discussion allows learners to respond at a time that best suits them. It allows students time to reflect on and further research the topic before responding. They also highlighted the discussion topics gave them the opportunity to learn different teaching strategies using technology, which they can practically apply in their own teaching.
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SELF-REFLECTION
Yet another type of assignment lists the immediate factors that enabled the students to learn more through self-reflection, metacognition, and peer-to-peer collaboration. Requiring learners to capture a couple of personal reflections is valuable, and the coupling of personal thoughts in a specific context is a powerful combination [4]. Students were assigned to set up their own weblogs and reflect on their learning process on a weekly basis, sharing what they learned and what challenges they encountered in their learning or assignments. They were tasked to record their learning experience, observations, opinions, and comments. Below is a student’s post on what she learned on a day in class: “Today we learned about Gardner, Desuggestopedia approach, and Fish philosophy. I’m a big fan of Fish philosophy, which is play, be there, make their day, choose your attitude. I believe interactivity is important in facilitating students’ learning. I will always be aware of this and will try to create activities that enhance students’ engagement… Also according to Krashen, I understand that lessons should be comprehensible, while a bit beyond learners’ ability. My main concern is ‘adaptation’ and ‘discovery learning’, which are proposed in Piaget’s learning theory and Vygotsky’s constructivism. Also Bandura’s theory, which highlights children learn best through the process of modeling, observing, and doing. I’m thinking how can lessons be delivered using these approaches and theories.” The class was required to view each other’s blogs, at least two, and give comments on their peers’ posts. It was viewed that students not only gave comments, but also tried to help their classmates when they had shared about their challenges. Below is an excerpt of a student’s post and his peer’s comment: “A teacher is the key factor in class. No matter how advanced the technology tools in a classroom are, the teacher should control and guide the students. There’s no way that technology can replace the teacher’s role.” “Yes, teachers do play a crucial role in class; however, in my point of view, using technology is really beneficial in enhancing teaching and learning. Meanwhile, teachers should be well aware of the fact that it mostly depends on them, not the technology tool.” The most interesting observation was when they gave reassuring comments to those who encountered challenges in learning or coping to balance between their work and study. They empathized with each other on their challenges, which helped them feel they were not alone. Receiving moral support from their peers and instructor as well as genuine feedback made the students more motivated in their learning by demonstrating more progress. The positive reinforcement had a significant impact on learners’ motivation. Students received feedback on their posts from their peers as well as their instructor. They were given feedback on their style and quality of writing, information shared, and interface design including images/graphics. These four elements were listed as the evaluation criteria in the rubric shared with students. The instructor would give timely feedback which supported the learner’s progress and offered motivation to go even further. On the other hand, the learning weblog gave the instructor the opportunity to learn about the students’ feelings, impressions, weaknesses and strengths. In another way, the weblog served as a platform to connect to students and get to know them more. Learning blogs and journals provide a way of capturing part of what is in the mind of a learner and their responses to learning experience [5].
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PERSONALIZED LEARNING
In recent years, there has been growing appreciation for personalized learning, in which instruction is tailored to students’ individual needs. Personalized learning recognizes that the quality of learning is shaped by learners’ experiences, characteristics, interests and aspirations [6]. Contextualization and personalization help learners link information to prior understanding resulting in enhancing their learning [7]. One way to elaborate information is for learners to connect it to their own experience or intended practice [4]. Slade states the skill of teaching is knowing your students and adapting your teaching to meet best their needs. Personalized learning can increase the value of learning. Motivationally effective teachers make learning experience meaningful in two fundamental ways: cognitively, by enabling students to learn the content, and motivationally, by appreciating the value of what they have learned and its application in their lives [8]. To build students’ knowledge it is important to engage them in collaborative learning, which allows more effective interaction with each other.
For this course, both assignments, i.e. discussion forum and weblogs, gave the students the opportunity to interact with each other and their instructor. These tools helped develop students’ needs for sharing and constructing new perspectives and increasing reciprocal understanding [8].
In addition, the instructor allowed students to recommend topics they were interested to discuss in the forum. This gave the learners more sense of responsibility for their learning, while getting more engaged.
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DISCUSSION
A pedagogical method of instructional design should bring sound balance in the use of different elements in the design of a course. Allowing a more flexible, student-centered environment leads to more student engagement in their learning experience. It is important that learning designers strive to build learning environments which enable learners to stay abreast and comfortable with new technology, constant change, and continual improvement [9]. Martinez highlights traditionally, designers have focused on cognitive factors, which often overlook other sources for individual learning differences. As a result, instructors have unintentionally created a learning dependence that detracts from learner’s ability to self-motivate, self-manage, and self-assess online learning. Employing effective strategies in designing collaborative learning can help increase learners’ motivation in participation. The strategies proposed are as follows [10]: 1) Transparency of expectations 2) Clear instructions 3) Appropriateness of task for group work 4) Meaning-making/relevance 5) Motivation for participation embedded in course design 6) Readiness of learners for group work 7) Timing of group formation 8) Respect for the autonomy of learners 9) Monitoring and feedback 10) Sufficient time for the task
In addition, developing effective discussion questions has a direct impacto n students’ participation. Developing questions should follow the constructivist learning principle [11] in that learners think deeply about what they know because they integrate new incoming knowledge with what is already in their heads. If they do not think deeply, they are likely to temporarily grab hold of content and then release it when the course is over.
To improve online collaboration, learner engagement and learning recommendations based on the research conducted and are outlined below:
enhancement,
the
Design Guidelines 1
Create a roadmap for students, which clearly illustrates the linkage between materials used for online and class platform.
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Use online collaborative tools to encourage interaction among students and instructor.
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Learn about learners’ need to propose nature of questions for discussion forums.
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Questions don’t need to be sound academic. Authentic and real-world topics provide motivation for collaborative learning.
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Use questions that encourage divergent thinking at the beginning of discussion, and convergent thinking towards the end of discussion.
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Have the question asked by students ‘Why do I have to do this’ in mind when designing activities or assignments.
Learner Engagement Strategies 1
Share the assessment rubric or assessment criteria with students to provide clear expectations.
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Provide scaffolding to build the expected skills in learners and increase participation.
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Acknowledge students who participate and share their views.
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Award students by marks and recognition. Being recognized for one’s work is a motivating factor.
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Ask students to share their objectives and use different strategies to help them meet their objectives.
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Monitor online discussions closely, and interject as required to keep discussions on track.
Learning Enhancement Strategies 1
Encourage higher order thinking rather than merely understanding content.
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Encourage knowledge sharing and peer evaluation among students.
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Ask students to reflect on their own learning and share with the class and instructor.
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Use additional learning resources in discussion forums.
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Use videos, and graphic organizers to make discussion forums more interesting.
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Provide clear guidelines and expectations for learners for each task and assignment.
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CONCLUSION
The aim of this study was to identify the impact of asynchronous online learning on students who were experiencing blended learning for the first time. While some students took time to feel comfortable, the majority of them seemed thrilled with this new experience. The passive learners who were more reserved in participating in discussion forum and do the blog assignment, eventually showed interest because of the ongoing support they received from their peers and instructor. It is concluded that online collaboration is an essential component of online learning. The surveys and focus group interviews with students showed students experienced an engaging and positive course. They embraced the challenges with a positive attitude due to full support they gained from their instructor and classmates. In addition, having undergone technology application in learning, they were given the opportunity to experience authentic learning and sense the impacts of technology on their own learning.
Qualitative approach and content analysis were used to validate data. Findings demonstrate that Online learning tools, instructor’s timely scaffolds, students’ collaboration and self-reflection helped the students achieve the learning objectives of the course. The instructor played a vital role in building the students’ personalized learning and enhancing their enthusiasm in the course as well as technology integration into their future profession.
The study suggests that technology by itself cannot be effective in teaching and learning unless it is coupled with sound pedagogy and learning design. In terms of a course design, it is important that instructional designers make use of the tools to encourage more collaboration among students.
REFERENCES [1] Bradshaw, S. (2009). Creating Collaborative e-Communities: Forums, Blogs, and Wikis http://www.ibo.org/ibap/conference/documents/SheldonBradshawCreatingCollaborativeeCommunities.pdf
[2] Brown, A. (1997). Designing for Learning: What Are the Essential Features of an Effective Online Course? Australian Journal of Educational Technology. 13 (2). 115-126.
[3] Harman, K. & Koohang, A. (2005). Discussion Board: A Learning Object. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 1(1), 67-77.
[4] Quinn, C. N. (2011). Designing mLearning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer
[5] Armstrong, L., Berry, M. & Lamshed, R. (2009). Blogs as Electronic Learning Journals. RMIT University and Binary Blue. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ejist/docs/Vol7_No1/CurrentPractice/Blogs.htm
[6] Diamond, I. (2004). Pesonalized Learning. ESRC. http://www.tlrp.org/documents/personalised_learning.pdf
[7] Slade, S. (2013). Improving Schools: Relationships, Personalization, Learning. http://www.wholechildeducation.org/blog/improving-schools-relationships-personalization-learning
[8] Jarvela, S. (2006). Personalizing Education. (Chapter 2). Finland: OECD
[9] Martinez, M. (2001). Key Design Considerations for Personalized Learning on the Web. Educational Technology & Society, 4 (1). 1436-4522.
[10] Brindly, J. E., Walti, C., Blaschke, L. M. (2009) Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/675/1271
[11] Boettecher, J. V. (2013). E-coaching Tip 3: Developing Effective Questions for Online Discussions http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tips/tip3.html
