Afendi Hamat

Patterns of discourse in online interaction: seeking evidence of the collaborative learning process

Asynchronous communication by means of discussion forums plays an essential role in supporting collaborative learning. Online forums allow learners to ask questions, express their thoughts, share resources, and justify their opinions beyond the four walls of the classroom. Proponents of collaborative learning claim that this type of learning can lead to enhanced educational outcomes for students. This article examines data from an online discussion forum involving a group of students from Malaysia and the Middle East, who are working toward masters degrees at a tertiary institution in Malaysia. The purpose of the study is to understand how the students interact and collaborate in the process of learning topics that had previously been discussed in a face-to-face mode. The findings identify collaborative learning behavior among the students, including contributing, exploring, providing information, and giving feedback. Additional findings indicate that even with minimal intervention from the lecturer, the students participated actively in the online forum.

Using iREAD in understanding online reading strategies applied by science and technology students

This article describes how with the growth of online learning, reading hypertext materials requires both online reading and navigational strategies. This article was conducted as part of a pilot study on qualitative data collection into reading of Science and Technology hypertexts that focuses on reading and navigational strategies of five university students enrolled in undergraduate Engineering programs. It presents the application of iREAD; Interactive Reading for Academic Disciplines that integrates various e-literacy tools to facilitate reading of academic hypertexts. Students participation was within iREAD through the use of annotation tool and discussion forum. The two-phased data collection was conducted qualitatively through semi-structured interviews, screen records, and retrospective interviews. The results show that the participants mainly used a global reading strategy, serial, and mixed overview navigational strategies in the online reading environment. In addition, the article concluded that iREAD assists students to understand and organize hypertexts materials better with the use of e-tools.

The Application of Learning Theories to the Design of Course Management Systems

Abstract Course management systems (CMSs) are increasingly used by institutions of higher learning to spearhead their institution-wide forays into the world of e-learning, so much so that the ‘face’ of e-learning in these institutions is represented by such systems. But how much ‘learning’ is there in these systems? Although scholarship in this area is still in its infancy, one good question that should be asked is who decides what makes up the systems and how. If the vendors are the ones deciding things, are we allowing ourselves to be led by people whose primary consideration is financial gain? Should educators take comfort in vendors’ assertions that they are ‘merely providing the platform’ and that we should just pour content into these platforms? That would merely result in accidental pedagogy as educators scramble to fit their content into the platforms. By contrast, this paper discusses what we know of human learning, viewed through the three major theories of learning, and how we could apply the principles from these theories to the design of a CMS. The learning-driven approach to the design of CMSs would hopefully be more beneficial to the students and teachers using such systems.