Assignment 11, Complete

I apologize for not sharing my process but it mostly involved inappropriate words spoken in inaudible mutterings alternating with head banging and howling 'no, No, NO!!' as my computer locked up not once, but three times in succession. Below I have posted the three new sections to the research paper, but wait, there's more!
Please link to my web page for the entire research paper.

http://geocities.com/pitmandarlene/papers.html

Link to: Learning in New Media research paper

I'm wishing a fabulous Thanksgiving to you and your families.

Assignment 11, Introduction

Members of a graduate level online course in instructional technology conducted a research study that explored people’s attitudes towards new media in education. The availability of online courses and the impact that they are having on education can not be underestimated. While the availability and ease of online classes attracts students who might not otherwise have access to education, ‘unfortunately, attrition from these programs is reaching epidemic proportions and, if educational institutions are to fulfill their commitment to offer courses equivalent to their traditional counterparts, they must investigate ways to address the learning needs and styles of different types of learners.’ (Terrell, 2005)

In an effort to address the learning need and styles this study examined the importance of experience and familiarity with students’ preferences in online education particularly as it related to podcasts. The study examined choice preferences for other types of media including email, enhanced podcasts, voip, blogs, and threaded discussions. Finally, the importance of choice itself was examined as it pertained to androgogical preferences.

These are important questions as we address the needs of all students, and attempt to relieve the high attrition rates online classes are prone to. This survey was rather informally done due to the nature of the class and the selection of participants, but the implications may well be critical to the future of new media in education.

Assignment 11, Results

Table 1: Correlations (will not paste into Blog)

1) Is there a relationship between previous non-music portable media consumption and receptiveness for portable media use in online learning?

In table 1 above, the correlation between prior non-music portable media consumption (item 2) and a preference for listening to educational podcasts while engaged in other activities (item 3) is statistically significant at .609. Correlation decreases when compared to listening to audio only podcasts on a portable media player (item 6), and the use of podcasts that include visual aides such as charts, graphs and images on a portable media player (item 9) but all are statistically significant. Some conclusions might be drawn as to the increase in familiarity with listening to podcasts, and the availability of viewing enhanced podcasts and how that might be reflected in preferences. Another factor could be how comfortable students are with the material being presented. It might be assumed new information might require increased attention and outside activities be perceived as a distraction.

2) What media types do students prefer to use for different course activities related to instructor-student interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction?

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
email	64	1.67	5.00	4.4766	.61926
video	64	1.00	5.00	2.7708	1.03489
blog	64	1.00	5.00	3.1536	1.13712
pod_audio	64	1.00	4.83	2.5000	.92820
pod_enhanced	64	1.00	5.00	2.7943	1.04051
threaded	64	1.00	5.00	3.2969	1.09813
voip	64	1.00	5.00	2.5286	1.02118
Valid N (listwise)	64

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics Preferences in Interaction

The order of preferences goes from email, threaded discussion, blog, pod-enhanced, video, voip, to pod-audio. It should be noted that the top three preferred means of interaction are email, threaded discussion, and blog. The others range from a close 2.50-2.79.

_____________________________________________________

Technology Mean Standard Deviation

_______________________________________________________________________

Email 4.45 .62

Threaded Discussion 3.30 1.10

Blogs 3.15 1.13

Enhanced Podcasts 2.79 1.04

Video Conferencing 2.77 1.03

Audio Only Podcasts 2.50 .93

Voice Over Internet 2.52 1.02

_______________________________________________________________________

Table 3 Means and Standard Deviations of Technologies Used for

Course Related Communication (N=64)

Means were computed for each of the technology items across the various course related communication tasks. Email was rated as most preferred (M=4.45, SD=.62), threaded discussion was next preferred (M= 3.30, SD =1.10) with blogs almost being rated almost as highly (M=3.15, SD=1.13) and near the middle of the scale. Enhanced podcasts (M= 2.79, SD=1.04), video conferencing (M=2.77, SD=1.03), audio only podcasts (M=2.50, SD=.93) and voice over Internet (M=2.52, SD=1.02) were below the middle of the 5 point Likert scale indicating that they were not preferred for course related communication. These means are reported in table 3.

3) What level of involvement in planning, organizing, grading, and making media choices do adult online learners desire?

Choice	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
Assignments	64	1	5	4.28	.983
Grading/Evaluation	64	1	5	3.77	1.165
Due Dates	64	1	5	3.80	1.198
Technologies used	64	1	5	4.41	.886
Valid N (listwise)	64

Table 4: Descriptive Statistics Preferences in Androgogy Choice

Means were computed for each of the andragogy choice preference items across the various course related requirements. Choice in type of media or communications technologies used in the class was rated as most preferred (M=4.41, SD=.88), choice about the assignments that are done was next preferred (M= 4.28, SD =.98) with choices about the due dates (M=3.80, SD=1.20) and choice regarding how assignments are graded or evaluated coming close behind (M=3.77, SD=1.17). All were well above the median of the 5 points Likert scale indicating that they were highly preferred when engaging in the education process at the graduate level.

Assignment 11, Discussion

It is clear that prior experience with non-music podcasts is associated with a preference for portable media in learning. It is logical to assume that some efficacy with a particular type of media is preferable in any learning environment, not just online. The experience of taking higher education classes is stressful as students strive to convey their new understanding and knowledge in a format that the professor can judge the extent of their learning. The essence of the educational process is to deliver information in an effective way for each student to gain knowledge, and then allow a format for the student to demonstrate mastery of the skills and content learned. It is enough to master the new content, but to be faced with a new system of delivery and communication which must be learned in addition can be a daunting task. It is no surprise that a student would wish to rely on the most familiar delivery system even if it is less effective.

In the online instructional technology class in which this research was conducted, students generally had some experience with various forms of communications technology. The level of comfort in using technology can be assumed to be higher than the average students’. The other variable which must be considered is the perceived costs associated with using various technologies. The high speed connections and web cams required for video conferencing come at a price where email and blogs can be accessed effectively through dial up connections with hardware most students already have available. Another aspect is convenience. Anyone who has struggled through the addition of a reluctant piece of computer hardware can relate to the feeling of frustration as the peripheral is commissioned. Once the hours of troubleshooting are over and the piece is actuated it might be easy to appreciate the added functionality, but new media phobias are understandable.

While it might be assumed that students have an increased familiarity with the top three choices email, blog, and threaded discussion, it can be argued that they are also the most interactive providing a blend of social contact and control. While many students had familiarity with podcasting, it may have been less desirable because it lacked social presence and feedback. Voip and video conferencing have a high level of social interaction, but in exchange you sacrifice the flexibility of being able to access content at any time, a prime attractor for online learning.
The final question regarding control in organizing, grading and media choice also seems to reflect a preference for the known. Most college students have experienced classes in which the teacher practiced differentiated instruction and this choice had the highest rating. Students are familiar with choosing a project or delivery method they feel either best demonstrates their depth of understanding, or would be the most enjoyable to complete. Fewer students have experience choice in deciding how the project should be graded and evaluated and might be uncertain what that is like, preferring to work in the way they are accustomed and this choice had the lowest score, but still showed a definite preference in favor of choice.

Further research is required to construct a more complete understanding of the results of this survey. Student familiarity with podcasts was the only reference explored. Familiarity with each of the other new media should be established to calculate a correlation between them. A qualitative survey could ask questions through the use of an interview exploring not just prior experience, but the reasons students state a particular preference. A more organized method of participant recruitment must be followed and it might be advantageous to group participants by age. It might be argued that there are generational differences in attitude regarding communication. Students who regularly utilize social networking sites such as ‘MySpace’ or ‘Facebook’ may have different attitudes than students who prefer more privacy. Communication and a level of social presence is a personal choice that can be influenced by many factors. Privacy, familiarity, and cost being just a few.

Assignment 10, Method Section

This research study targets the uses of new media in education. Subjects were recruited by students enrolled in an online research class as part of the class participation requirements. Students were instructed to find a minimum of 5 adult learners who would be willing to complete a 10 minute online survey. Each student was left to their own devices on recruiting those volunteers through informal contacts focusing on adults with higher education and the participants were diverse, but anonymous.

The online survey used a Likert psychometric response scale to rate participants opinions on various types of new media in learning on a 1 to 5 scale. The first draft list of questions was chosen by the instructor based on written dialog gleaned from online discussions in student blogs and guided by his own experiences with new media and education. Some consideration was given to information discussed in the available research papers pulled from a prior research assignment.

The original 17 items were grouped by topic like type and use of new media. These groupings sorted into two general categories:

available options and choice of media

andragogy and online learning

Questions were then refined and reduced to eliminate redundancy and choose a manageable number of questions for this limited survey. It was previously decided this survey would be of a quantitative rather than qualitative nature and questions were eliminated accordingly. The instrument was subjected to peer review that included all class members with a description of the final survey. Students were asked for input and several of the questions were altered and the Likert scale adjusted to use the phrasing “very much like me” and “not very much like me”.

The final survey determined to answer the following questions:

Is there a relationship between the amount of portable media (podcasts) a student consumes and their desire for portable media use in online learning?

What level of involvement in planning, organizing, and making media choices do adult online learners desire?

Is the use of collaboration to comment on other students’ work viewed as beneficial by online students?

What media types to students express a preference for using for a variety of activities related to instructor-student interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction.

The subject factors that were used for sorting variable were the following two items:

Do you own a Portable Media Player Y/N

I frequently listen to podcasts on a portable media player

One of the reason that these limiting factors were chosen is that many students might have experience listening to portable media players like the ubiquitous iPod, but might not have experience in listening to podcasts for informational purposes. The assumption was that some experience with this media would affect the comfort level in using new media and influence the responses. Participants were instructed to assume they were beginning on online class utilizing each one of several new media delivery methods. There were forty eight items on the survey grouped into similar questioning of attitudes towards the use of technology in education. The new media included were podcasts, blogs, email, threaded discussions, online video, and voice over internet protocol. The final four items explored preferences in androgogy.

The use of the online survey method to gather information probably affected those adults who chose to participate. It would limit voluntary participants to those with easy access to a high speed internet connection, efficacy with surveys, and perhaps some affection for the requestor. It might be assumed that each of the students enrolled in the class also took the survey if only to experience it from a different perspective. Actual survey items are available in the appendix located on my home computer. For purposes of brevity, this article has had an appendectomy!