New Learning Design in Distance Education: The impact on student perception and motivation

Abstract

Many forms of e-learning (such as online courses with authentic tasks and computer-supported collaborative learning) have become important in distance education. Very often, such e-learning courses or tasks are set up following constructivist design principles. Often, this leads to learning environments with authentic problems in ill-structured tasks that are supposed to motivate students. However, constructivist design principles are difficult to implement because developers must be able to predict how students perceive the tasks and whether the tasks motivate the students. The research in this article queries some of the assumed effects. It presents a study that provides increased insight into the actual perception of electronic authentic learning tasks. The main questions are how students learn in such e-learning environments with "virtual" reality and authentic problems and how they perceive them. To answer these questions, in two e-learning programs developed at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) designers' expectations were contrasted with student perceptions. The results show a gap between the two, for students experience much less authenticity than developers assume.

How does desktop virtual reality enhance learning outcomes? A structural equation modeling approach

“…Constructivist learning model has been proposed by Reigeluth (1999). It is a philosophy of learning that believes knowledge is constructed by learners through experience and activity (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999;Martens, Bastiaens, & Kirschner, 2007;Reigeluth, 1999). Constructivist learning is student-centric and focuses on meeting the learners' needs and helping them to construct and build on their own knowledge based on their prior experiences and knowledge (Mergel, 1998;Roblyer, 2003).…”

Collaborative Learning Using Integrated Groupware: A Case Study in a Higher Education Setting

“…For example, in one study, well defined scripts are used to foster collaborative activity to understand the process of collaborative learning in CSCL contexts [7]. There are also studies that look at social learning networks which occur in a mobile learning environment as well as in distance learning [8]- [13]. Also, there are recent studies that look at patterns in social interaction for effective learning in a CSCL [14].…”

“…A widely used definition of collaboration states that it is "a construction of shared knowledge through activities with others, where the participants are committed to or engaged in shared goals and problem solving" [7]. Collaboration, development of higher order skills, and engagement in authentic tasks are some of the important key ideas in constructivist learning theory which bases its philosophy on the idea that knowledge is constructed by the learner through activity [8]. According to this theory, collaboration fosters deep learning by exposing students to different perspectives and allowing opportunity for negotiation to occur [9], [10].…”

“…He is currently a lecturer at School of Media Science, Tokyo University of Technology located in Tokyo, Japan; and at Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University located in Kanagawa, Japan. His recent works include "The mechanism of sensing interestingness in metaphorical expressions" (The Japanese journal of psychology, 80(1): [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]2009). …”

Program of Sarjana Mengajar to Improve the Quality of Education on Vocational High School

“…Teachers act as facilitators and mediators that allow the creation of conditions conducive for students to learn and be responsible for the achievement of learning outcomes [15] [16]. Teachers have a very important role in the learning process, although it has been developed distance learning with technology [17], however, the teacher's role is still needed. Given the role that is so important, then teachers are required to have an understanding and ability to comprehensively about his competence as an educator.…”