Online Learning Environments and International Education:

Identifying Research Agendas and Developing Reflective Practice

Cynthia White Massey University

c.j.white@massey.ac.nz

The Context of International Education

• technological and social transformation• equip students with the communicative skills

to participate in particular academic and cultural contexts

• becoming proficient in English today means to manage multiple memberships and navigate in more than one world, demonstrating horizontal expertise (Engeström et al., 1995, Leander, 2002)

• use of virtual learning environments such as Blackboard, webCT, Virtual U, First Class

Asynchronous CMC

• offers students a model of academic communication

• offers a framework of learning approaches valued in tertiary settings

• facilitates self-directed learning• promotes student reflection on course

content and critical thinking• encourages students to take

responsibility for their learning

Claims for CMC

“threaded discussions can represent an important forum for opening up new learning possibilities that might not be achievable in face-to-face classrooms alone. Especially for non-native speakers in university ESL courses, who need to gain greater flexibility and fluency in academic language skills, this medium provides both the interactive features and the reflective qualities that oral face-to-face interaction cannot provide”

Weasenforth et al 2002, p. 76

Online Learning Environments

What potential is there in online environments to develop reflective interaction, self-directed learning and metacognition?

First year student ….

Have you used webCT?Used it once or twice, but just for down load

lecture notes and study materials.

Not as a way of asking questions?Not to ask question, because I prefer face-

to-face communication. I think one of the reasons is my writing is not good enough. I’m not sure lecturers or tutors can understand or not.

Students may…

• lack the skills to be able to participate or be reluctant to participate

• prefer vicarious interaction• perceive threaded discussion as busy work• experience information overload • be reluctant to have their name and

contribution posted as a permanent recordLang, 2000

Is it possible in class to make connections with other students?

Yes, try to, also I can enter in webCT. My friend they tell me a lot of the tutors put their lecture note in the webCT. Also have some message from other student, they will talk about the lecture.

Have you asked questions on webCT?

But they will have the name. I remember one student in our class, he write in the webCT, he ask the tutor, can we just ask question and no name down there. And the tutors said he already talked to the university but that’s the system. Can’t change. But sometimes some questions, yeah, the student ask, that’s what I want to ask, so I found out the answer.

       

Further realities …

• social presence vs cognitive presence

• tend to see others as experts, relying on one person as having a more informed perspective than the rest

Subject: Hello!

Message no. 248

Author: Tienshu

Date: Monday, March 22, 2004 11:50am

My name is Tienshu. I come from China. I am a first year internal student who studies in Palmerston North. I will have a text next week. I have got lots of questions, but I do not know how I can ask somebody to help me. So when you see my message, could you answer it for me?

There is one question: What is Pragmatic competence? It can be seen in the page 92 of lecture book. I do not understand the given example.

I hope everybody will understand what I wrote. ( It may contain grammar mistakes) Thank you!

       

Subject: Re: Hello! Message no. 250 [Reply of: no. 249]Author: TienshuDate: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 8:45am

Hello! Fiona! Thank you for the answer! It is really helpful!

But--- Dose the case contain Contextualization cue? ( I mean that the mother meant " Now", but use a indirect way to ask the child to have a action.) What do you think?

have a good day!!!

   

       

Online learning environments

What potential is there in online environments to develop reflective interaction, metacognitive knowledge and self-management?

Reflective interaction in an online environment

Critical reflectionContingent interaction (van Lier 1996)Messaging Activity

- monologues - social conversations- reflective conversations

Lamy and Goodfellow 1999a, 1999b

Metacognitive knowledge and beliefs

How do learning settings shape learners’ knowledge and beliefs?

How do beliefs and knowledge change over time? From one learning context to another?

To what extent do learners’ active involvement in the regulation of their learning lead to changes in their beliefs and metacognitive knowledge?

Wenden, 1999

Knowledge and beliefs in a new setting

“Now I see it basically as me and the language – I’m there with the materials in a sort of raw form. I somehow have to make them come alive for me. I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way at first …. I have to make the first move, to create a sort of dynamic between me and the materials. That’s really what it is all about. Once you get the dynamic going, you’re well on the way and the whole thing begins ….”White, 2003

Learner Context

Interface

Key: Interactions

Strands of the interface

Features of the Interface

• constructed, reconstructed• individual process: the learner as key agent

(Esch and Zähner, 2000) • guides and informs learning experiences• personally meaningful and viable• dynamic• mutually interactive effects• takes time, involvement, initiative,

commitment, confidence, trial and error …White, 2005

The influence of learning sites

“Learning online you have to spend a lot of time managing your immediate environment and yourself so that you can work with the course. Teachers don’t really see this – but it’s a big thing for us. That’s the big issue when you study online”

White (in press)

Relationship between learner and context

“I have studied in two online language courses and they were really different. But the process was the same for me – and I expect it will be in any future online language courses. It involved deciding how to use with the materials and how to interact with other people. I had to decide how to shape the course for myself, and how I was going to let the course direct me and my language learning and what I wanted. This was a real issue in the online course.”

White (in press)

Potentialities and realities

“there are lots of new things you can try out and work on in a course, but they take time to explore – and I found that time was taking me away from actually learning the language. Lots of things may be possible but … much that was there didn’t really fit with the other ways in which I was learning.” White (in press)

Collaborative virtual learning environments

• entry into the new environment impacts on learners’ views of themselves – their roles and responsibilities

• need for self-direction requires them to develop a comparatively high degree of self-knowledge as a basis for devising their own means of learning and of managing their learning

• not all learners appear to have the metacognitive knowledge required to draw on learning strategies appropriate for that environment

• aim to explore how task design based on Strategies Based Instruction (Cohen 1998) can be used in virtual learning contexts

Hauck and Hampel, 2005

Research Agendas

• What metacognitive knowledge and strategies are required to participate in and derive benefit from asynchronous online learning?

• How can we develop metacognitive knowledge and reflection online?

• What is the ‘added value’ of CMC?

Developing Reflective Practice

• online learning environments - a new focus for reflective practice

• need to move beyond ‘technical reflection’ i.e. decisions about immediate behaviour and skills

• need to balance concerns with external control of the learning environment (e.g. development of interaction and collaboration) with concerns about the development of metacognitive knowledge and self-management

The fundamental challenge

…language learning in the online context is concerned with developing the ability to engage with, participate in and derive benefit from learning environments which are not always directly mediated by the teacher.

References

Cohen, A. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language. New York: Longman.Esch, E., & Zähner, C. (2000). The contribution of Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) to language learning environments or the mystery of the secret agent. ReCALL, 12(1), 5-18.

Hauck, M., & Hampel, R. (2005). The challenges of implementing online tuition in distance language courses: task design and tutor role. In B. Holmberg, M. Shelley & C. White (Eds.), Distance education and languages: evolution and change (pp. 258-277). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Lamy, M.-N., & Goodfellow, R. (1999a). 'Reflective conversation' in the virtual language classroom. Language Learning and Technology, 2(2), 43-61.

Lamy, M.-N., & Goodfellow, R. (1999b). Supporting language students' interactions in web-based conferencing. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 12(5), 457-477.

Lang, D. (2000). Critical thinking in web courses: An oxymoron? Syllabus, 14(2), 20-24.VanLier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy and

authenticity. London: Longman.Weasenforth, D., Biesenbach-Lucas, S., & Meloni, C. (2002). Realizing constructivist objectives

through collaborative technologies: threaded discussions. Language Learning and Technology, 6(3), 58-86.

Wenden, A. (1999). An introduction to metacognitive knowledge and beliefs in language learning: Beyond the basics. System, 27(4), 435-441.

White, C. (2003). Language learning in distance education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

White, C. (2005). Towards a learner-based theory of distance language learning: The concept of the learner-context interface. In B. Holmberg, M. Shelley & C. White (Eds.), Distance education and languages: Evolution and change (pp. 55-71). Clevedon: Mulitlingual Matters.

White, C. (in press). Autonomy, independence and control: mapping the future of distance language learning. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Self-access, distance learning and language advising. Dublin: Authentik.