Assessing the efficacy of online teaching with the Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey

Taylor, Peter and Maor, Dorit (2000) Assessing the efficacy of online teaching with the Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey. In: Teaching and Learning Forum, 2-4 February 2000, Perth, Australia.

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Abstract

Teachers of science, mathematics and technology Australia wide are being required to transform their established epistemologies of practice in order to engage learners as active conceptualisers within socially interactive learning environments. Many teachers are enrolling in postgraduate distance education programs to assist them with this challenging task. Curtin University is responding by using computer mediated communication to speed up the exchange of distance study materials and to provide online interactive learning environments (via chat groups, bulletin boards and email). For the past three years, we have been using the Internet to teach online Masters degree students studying at a distance from Curtin. Our major pedagogical goal is to engage our students (professional teachers) in reflective and collaborative learning. Our web sites provide Activity Rooms in which we engage students in frequent and focused discourse with each other and with their online tutors. As reflective teachers, we are keen to evaluate our own innovative practices and constantly improve them. To this end, we have designed the Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment Survey (COLLES), an electronic questionnaire that enables us to readily monitor each student's preferred online learning environment and compare it with her/his actual experiences. In this presentation, we outline the rationale of the questionnaire and present some preliminary analyses that illustrate its usefulness. The COLLES is the subject of ongoing research and development funded by a 2000 ARC Small Research Grants Scheme award.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Educational technology > Case studies on the effectiveness of teaching methods Educational technology > Collaborative learning, social learning
Depositing User:	Elizabeth Dalton
Date Deposited:	14 Dec 2016 05:51
Last Modified:	14 Dec 2016 05:51
URI:	http://research.moodle.org/id/eprint/132

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