Online Educational Technology Research Articles

Pre-service Teachers First Time Experiences With A New Course Management System

From a students perspective, course management systems are a step above a classroom website. Information sharing is no longer static; these systems utilize tools that allow information to be passed in many directions and in a number of different ways. They have the most important task - addressing the needs of the ultimate end user, the learner. This study investigated 71 pre-service teachers first time experiences and satisfaction from a pilot test of a new course management system (Moodle) implemented during an online educational technology course.

The effects of different instructor facilitation approaches on students’ interactions during asynchronous online discussions

This study compared the impact of three different facilitation approaches on elementary teacher candidates’ interactions in an asynchronous discussion board as well as their satisfaction with an online educational technology course. These participants were enrolled in three different sections of the same online course. In the first section (Group 1), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message regarding the discussion question and then required students to respond to at least two of their classmates’ postings. In the second section (Group 2), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message to the discussion question, but did not require students to respond to other classmates’ postings. Instead, it was the student’s voluntary choice. In the third group (Group 3), the instructor did not respond to each student’s initial message on the discussion question, but required students to respond to at least two classmates’ postings. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, by using ANOVA, social networking analysis (SNA) and content analysis. The results indicated that in Group 2, voluntary interactions among students rarely occurred, resulting in the instructor primarily providing feedback to the students, with a low number of cues for social presence. In comparing Groups 1 and 3, when students were required to respond to one another, too much instructor intervention did not lead to more interactions among the students. Rather, when the instructor’s intervention was minimal, students tended to more freely express their thoughts and opinions, with a large number of cues for social presence. However, more interactions among students, occurring in a required setting, may not have correlated with student satisfaction with the online course ratings and the instructors’ ratings.

Technology Acceptance in an Academic Context: Faculty Acceptance of Online Education

The authors surveyed faculty from a college of business and a college of education regarding their attitudes toward online education. Results of the survey were examined to determine the degree to which the technology acceptance model was able to adequately explain faculty acceptance of online education. Results indicate that perceived usefulness is a strong indicator of faculty acceptance; however, perceived ease of use offers little additional predictive power beyond that contributed by perceived usefulness of online education technology.

The production of ‘proper cheating’ in online examinations within technological universities

This paper uses poststructuralist theories of governmentality, agency, consumption and Barry’s (2001) concept of Technological Societies, as a heuristic framework to trace the role of online education technologies in the instantiation of subjectification processes within contemporary Australian universities. This case study of the unintended effects of the adoption and usage of an online educational technology (WebFreedom) for online examinations in an Australian university setting is analysed using poststructuralist theories of governmentality, agency and consumption. The analysis demonstrates how techniques of governing the learning practices of students via online educational technologies intersect with the agentive capacity of students who are relocated as consumers in the higher education marketplace. In particular the paper focuses on the production of unintended localized online examination behaviours resulting in a form of ‘subterranean ethics’ or cheating in online exams. The results from this case study raise critical questions concerning the ways in which both students and tertiary educators are constituted within neoliberal governmental thought, as well as the ways in which students produce themselves in practice as autonomous agents and educational consumers within tertiary education. Suggestions on the focus of future research in the area are discussed.

The Adoption of Multiple Modes of Delivery in Australian Universities

This paper reports the findings of a major national research project examining the use of multiple modes of delivery in Australian universities. A variety of factors including the increased use of online educational technology has pushed Australian universities in recent years to extend the ways in which they deliver learning and teaching. However, the extent of the uptake of these modes of delivery has remained somewhat unclear as have the precise reasons why universities have adopted multiple modes. The paper reports the result of a survey which clarifies the extent of the use of multiple modes of delivery in Australian universities and case study research that attempts to unpack the reasons for adoption. The research finds that traditional face to face delivery is still the dominant form of delivery but universities are experimenting with a surprisingly wide variety of alternatives.

The adoption of multiple modes of delivery in Australian universities

This paper reports the findings of a major national research project examining the use of multiple modes of delivery in Australian universities. A variety of factors including the increased use of online educational technology has pushed Australian universities in recent years to extend the ways in which they deliver learning and teaching. However, the extent of the uptake of these modes of delivery has remained somewhat unclear as have the precise reasons why universities have adopted multiple modes. The paper reports the result of a survey which clarifies the extent of the use of multiple modes of delivery in Australian universities and case study research that attempts to unpack the reasons for adoption. The research finds that traditional face to face delivery is still the dominant form of delivery but universities are experimenting with a surprisingly wide variety of alternatives. This journal article is available in Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice: http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol3/iss2/2 Jour na l o f Un ive rs i t y Teach ing and Lear n ing Pr ac t i ce The Adoption of Multiple Modes of Delivery in Australian Universities

Applying multimedia instruction in e‐learning

The trend towards the use of the Internet in academia is clear with a number of courses using the Web for the delivery of course material. Flexible access to information and resources are key attributes of online educational technologies, and learner choice is at the heart of the concept of flexible access. This incorporates the facility to access subject matter content and support at a time, place and pace that is suitable and convenient for the individual learner. In this paper we describe the designing of multimedia instruction in a Slovenian context. Some practical advice for structuring and designing are given. The advantages of such instruction are described and students' opinions about studying with the help of multimedia instruction are presented.

Teaching as performance in the electronic classroom

New developments in online educational technology have a profound effect on notions of intellectual property. Theories of the social construction of technology explain the extremely unstable nature of new technologies. Walter Ong’s theory of the alphabet effect provides insight into the ways in which knowledge changes as media of communication change. Shoshana Zuboff’s ideas on how managerial knowledge is transformed by technology help us understand how certain kinds of knowledge resist being textualized. These ideas help us understand the effects of new teaching technologies in terms of a long–standing struggle between two views of knowledge: knowledge as performance and knowledge as thing.