I think its a good idea for me to keep a blog entry of the research papers I read. In this blog I am attempting to put together the research findings of Steven Lonn and Stephanie D. Teasley on the effectiveness of using Learning Management System (LMS) in a university set up.
This research article is titled "Saving time or innovating practice: Investigating perceptions and uses of Learning Management Systems". It was uploaded for my EDHI 9040 class. The paper can be found here: Computers & Education 53 (2009) 686–694 The research was conducted in a US university setup consisting of a heterogeneous group of people with respect to their computer/IT expertise. Their research took into account these differences and attempted to inform the readers about the preceived advantage of using an online learning management tool in promoting student learning.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Learning Management Systems (LMS) is a web-based system that allows instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online.
Although most LMS are used for the distribution, management, and retrieval of course materials, these systems can also incorporate functionality that supports interaction between students and instructors and among students to provide opportunities for enabling institutional innovations in learning and education.
These tools provide opportunities for using LMS that are consistent with constructivist approaches to learning rather than simple transmission of knowledge models. Specifically, LMS can facilitate a shift from ‘‘the transmission of information towards the management and facilitation of student learning”
Aim of Research:
The authors looked at two years of survey data to learn whether LMS was changing instructors’ pedagogical practice and the new online methodology affected student's learning preferences. This peper investigated the survey responses focusing on items relating to efficiency vs. interactive-teaching and learning practices of the students.
Research Findings :
- About 39% of the instructors agreed to an improved communication to their students. While 45% of the students reported that LMS improves efficiency (saves time).
- About 26% of instructors chose ‘‘efficiency (saves time)” indicating that efficiency is important to many instructors as well as their students.
- Very few instructors or students chose teaching or learning improvements as the most valuable benefit from using IT in their courses, nor did many respondents choose the items about student-to-instructor communication
or student-to-student communication.
This suggests that these systems are valued most by faculty and students for the ways they improve instructors’ ability to push out information to students rather than general support for teaching and learning, and for opening up
communication from the students to the instructor or from the students to their peers.
- Interestingbly among 95% of the users, the document management and broadcast-oriented communication tools (Content Sharing, Assignments, Announcements, Schedule, and Syllabus) were used heavily. By contrast, tools that are more interactive (Chat, Discussion, and Wiki) are not used as much (5% of all user actions) and more instructors and students rated them as Not Valuable.
- For Sending/Receiving an announcement, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students. With the passage of time and regular use of the LMS system both instructors’ and students’ ratings increased over time.
- For Posting/Accessing online readings and supplementary course materials, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students.
- For students posting questions after lecture, more instructors rated this activity as Valuable than did students.
Concluding Remarks:
As long as students fail to see the relevance of interactive tools for their learning or for instructors’ teaching, they are likely to continue to view IT as merely a quick and accessible means to retrieve course documents and get messages from instructors.
This survey results indicate that while both instructors and students agree that information technologies improve learning, students do not agree as strongly as
instructors that such technologies do improve instruction. These ratings suggest that students, in particular, may be responding not to whether these tools are used, but rather how they are used.
Using tools to scaffold more interactive forms of instruction and learning may be required for success of LMS/on-line systems.
This research article is titled "Saving time or innovating practice: Investigating perceptions and uses of Learning Management Systems". It was uploaded for my EDHI 9040 class. The paper can be found here: Computers & Education 53 (2009) 686–694 The research was conducted in a US university setup consisting of a heterogeneous group of people with respect to their computer/IT expertise. Their research took into account these differences and attempted to inform the readers about the preceived advantage of using an online learning management tool in promoting student learning.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Learning Management Systems (LMS) is a web-based system that allows instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online.
Although most LMS are used for the distribution, management, and retrieval of course materials, these systems can also incorporate functionality that supports interaction between students and instructors and among students to provide opportunities for enabling institutional innovations in learning and education.
These tools provide opportunities for using LMS that are consistent with constructivist approaches to learning rather than simple transmission of knowledge models. Specifically, LMS can facilitate a shift from ‘‘the transmission of information towards the management and facilitation of student learning”
Aim of Research:
The authors looked at two years of survey data to learn whether LMS was changing instructors’ pedagogical practice and the new online methodology affected student's learning preferences. This peper investigated the survey responses focusing on items relating to efficiency vs. interactive-teaching and learning practices of the students.
Research Findings :
- About 39% of the instructors agreed to an improved communication to their students. While 45% of the students reported that LMS improves efficiency (saves time).
- About 26% of instructors chose ‘‘efficiency (saves time)” indicating that efficiency is important to many instructors as well as their students.
- Very few instructors or students chose teaching or learning improvements as the most valuable benefit from using IT in their courses, nor did many respondents choose the items about student-to-instructor communication
or student-to-student communication.
This suggests that these systems are valued most by faculty and students for the ways they improve instructors’ ability to push out information to students rather than general support for teaching and learning, and for opening up
communication from the students to the instructor or from the students to their peers.
- Interestingbly among 95% of the users, the document management and broadcast-oriented communication tools (Content Sharing, Assignments, Announcements, Schedule, and Syllabus) were used heavily. By contrast, tools that are more interactive (Chat, Discussion, and Wiki) are not used as much (5% of all user actions) and more instructors and students rated them as Not Valuable.
- For Sending/Receiving an announcement, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students. With the passage of time and regular use of the LMS system both instructors’ and students’ ratings increased over time.
- For Posting/Accessing online readings and supplementary course materials, more instructors rated this activity as Very Valuable than did students.
- For students posting questions after lecture, more instructors rated this activity as Valuable than did students.
Concluding Remarks:
As long as students fail to see the relevance of interactive tools for their learning or for instructors’ teaching, they are likely to continue to view IT as merely a quick and accessible means to retrieve course documents and get messages from instructors.
This survey results indicate that while both instructors and students agree that information technologies improve learning, students do not agree as strongly as
instructors that such technologies do improve instruction. These ratings suggest that students, in particular, may be responding not to whether these tools are used, but rather how they are used.
Using tools to scaffold more interactive forms of instruction and learning may be required for success of LMS/on-line systems.
I like this. Having summaries of scientific papers that you want to read in a blog :)
ReplyDeleteNow I just need to make sure that you read the article before I do.. and then I have to bookmark this page on Delicious.com !!!