Lecture Notes in Computer Science- P82 pptx

Another Dimension of Web-Based Learning: Psychological Bestirring 395 positive psychological bestirring makes the p bigger.. 3 The Restriction of Psychological Distance and the Utilizati

Fig 2 Logistic Curve of the Learning Performance Model

The increasing of parameter p means the enhancement of psychological bestirring Fig 3 shows the curve variation because of different p [6] The variant i usually means information delivering or stimulating and therefore takes up learning time (E0, i0) means the starting point of the particular learning of a course or a unit Learner usually has some basic subject information, so starting point could be not zero

Fig 3 Logistic Curves with different parameter p

Actually, this model will also adapt to traditional school education, where factor of psychological bestirring has been naturally immersed into conventional class/group organization and instruction model In the situation of non-face-to-face learning, the

Another Dimension of Web-Based Learning: Psychological Bestirring 395

positive psychological bestirring makes the p bigger Learner could make more pro-gress in the same learning process or time If the p is too small, more learners may lose willpower and effort, probably give up learning Only the people with very good learning ability or extreme tenacity can insist on to success

3 The Restriction of Psychological Distance and the Utilization of Psychological Bestirring

3.1 Negative Effects of Psychological Distance on Distance Learning

It is a pity that the existence of psychological distance might be a serious restriction to the potential of distance education including web-based learning

First, the benefit of massive-scale of distance education, which had been over-estimated before, should not be expected as before If we only consider the factor

id, the success of modern ICT (Information and Communications Technology) did break up the boundary of the course scale, no matter based on whether TV or Network Once course materials are ready (broadcast or put on the internet), unlimited-number of learners can be allowed to access these materials theoretically But, if we take the pd into account, the scale of effective learning will surely be limited due to limited scale of effective psychological interaction between learner and his (her) instructor and learning peers

Second, the benefit of asynchronous learning should also be re-estimated Web-based courses and VOD do allow learners to access and learn whenever and wherever Popularity of Email and BBS forum makes fast and low-cost communication possible But learning without explicit schedule or progress chart could loose learners’ tension, and the non-realtime interaction could also weaken instructor’s bestirring and the implicit peers’ pressure It does not mean that more pressure and tension are always better for learning However, for most online subject contents and most non face-to-face learners, necessary tension and pressure are definitely the guarantee of effective learning

3.2 Potential of Web-Based Learning Framework to Enhance Psychological Bestirring

Then are there any possible means to shorten this psychological distance in non-face-to-face learning situation? Fortunately, it is the web-based learning frame-work that provides the highest potential among different forms of non-face-to-face learning Now browser has integrated original static web pages closely with BBS, chat room, email, instant messaging, blog and other growing internet-based applications Most of these Internet vogues can be actively used to provide interaction between learners and then help shorten the psychological distance If we consciously and properly make use of them, a very positive psychological bestirring can be achieved to support web-based learning and obviously promote learning performance However, positive effects will heavily depend on the flexible and state-of-art technical platform

developing, compact learning community organization, delicate instructional design including adequate interaction, as well as adept online instructor

3.3 Suggestions about Utilization of Psychological Bestirring

Here are some suggestions to make better use of psychological bestirring in web-based learning situation Some of them have already practical evidence based on our experimentation

We should be aware of taking the advantage of proper learning community Actu-ally, the history of education can give some hints Before modern schools and classes, there were education, but only the original education without efficiency Distance education (non-face-to-face education) without good organizations based on learners and courses would also stay at its original stage Even the size of the basic unit (class, group) should be smaller than those in traditional schools From computer-based learning to web-based learning, there is a distinguishability to make sense, which is the main interaction manner The former absolutely depends on human-machine interac-tion while the latter shift return to inter-human interacinterac-tion again Similar difference even has been observed on the comparison of online game vs video game

Non-face-to-face learning depends on communication so deeply that the reliable communication mechanism establishment is at the top of the priority Beside email address, sometimes the short message function of mobile can be a very suitable com-plement, because of its popularity, low cost, and the momentariness

Here we take special attention to psychological rather than subject matter interac-tion If possible, we should demand synchronal learning instead of asynchronous ones Synchronal learning scope can include online reading, BBS discussing, and video or audio broadcasting As a function of the learning platform, instructor and every logined learner should be able to “see each other” from an attendee list

For automatic assessment exercises or tests, there could be a top n rank to encourage learners more actively and seriously taking part in Human-made comments should be timely mixed in somewhere to make the maximum of the effects

Instructors still should make effort to show their personality attractions as much as possible There can also be daily life interaction besides the subject matter between learning peers ant let them know each other Instructors should try to have personal talk

to every learner even if only a few minutes, to let his personal concern reach everyone Online learning materials of one course needn’t be put on the web one time, and then let them stay persistent without updating and even any changing Progressive presen-tations sometimes are much better It also needs support of the course platform func-tion, with which course material could be controlled more easily and flexibly

Exhibiting learners’ progress and works is also an impactful way to enhance learning process in most cases It’s another important superiority of web-based learning among various learning schema including non-face-to-face learning and traditional class-based learning

Personalized psychological distance couldn’t be totally overcome by automatic human-machine interaction, but proper and limited utilization of technology surely has good chance to promote the efficiency of psychological interaction and bestirring

Another Dimension of Web-Based Learning: Psychological Bestirring 397

All the mentioned improvements depend on more conscious and skillful e-learning instructors

4 Conclusion

Comparing to physical distance or distance of space and time, a concept of psycho-logical distance can be abstracted in the distance (or non-face-to-face) learning domain

to independently express the social and spirit communication between learner and his

or her instructor and learning peers in the learning process Introducing this parameter into distance learning performance model can help explain some unexpected but ever-present phenomena in the practice of online learning Positively shortening of this distance means enhancement of psychological bestirring to learners in the learning process and promotion of learning performance This new dimension may also provide

a new angle of perspective to design of platform, course materials, learning model, as well as management and assessment of distance learning

In distance learning, proper organization of the learning community to establish closer relationship between learners and instructors or among peer learners, can effec-tively enhance learning bestirring to learners, construct positive learning atmosphere and therefore promote learning proficiency and success rate From this perspective, web-based learning framework provide the most potential in the history of distance education

Effects of psychological bestirring on learners may be very personalized, but further research on some characteristics categorized by age group, sex, profession, educational

or cultural background, etc may currently make more important sense

References

1 Bar-Anan, Y., Liberman, N., Trope, Y.: The Association between Psychological Distance and Construal Level: Evidence from an Implicit Association Test Journal of Experimental Psy-chology: General 135(4), 609–622 (2006)

2 Cocking, R.R., Ann Renninger, K (eds.): Development and Meaning of Psychological Dis-tance Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah (1993)

3 Wheeler, S.: Student Perceptions of Learning Support in Distance Education: Quarterly Review of Distance Education vol 3(4), pp 419–429 (Win 2002)

4 Glossary of basic terms in TEFL studies, http://www.finchpark.com/courses/glossary.htm

5 Item Response Theory,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Item_response_theory#IRT_Models

6 Derong, F., Huimin, Z.: Educational Information Processing Beijing Normal University Press, Beijing (2001)

F Li et al (Eds.): ICWL 2008, LNCS 5145, pp 398 – 404, 2008

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008

Bin Li1, Congwu Tao2, and Fei Li1

1 Educational Technology Institute, Tsinghua University,

Beijing 100084, P.R China

2 Aisino Corporation Inc., No.18A, Xingshikou street, Haidian District,

Beijing 100097, P.R China binli@tsinghua.edu.cn, skyely@126.com, lifei@tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract At present, most universities had completed the basic facilities and

ser-vices of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and installed e-learning system What should be done to facilitate teachers’ transition to employ

ICT to their new teaching practices? We believe that virtual communities for Teacher Professional development (TPD) and socialization are supposed to be an excellent solution We also deem that e-learning system could be a place for TPD

as well as assisting teaching In this paper, we present our past attempts, and the rationale behind the design of the Zjiao.Com virtual community

Keywords: Information and Communication Technology, Teacher Professional

Development, Virtual Community, Open Educational Resources

1 Introduction

The survey (2004) of computing and information technology in China higher education showed that almost all universities had completed the basic facilities and services of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for teaching, research and man-agement Nowadays ICT has gradually become a part of teaching and learning, and has changed the mode of them largely This is a great challenge for teachers Teachers have better gain the knowledge of ICT to facilitate their teaching and professional develop-ment as well as have to learn the current evolvedevelop-ment of their specialty

The data (2004) also displayed that 41 percent of the schools had installed e-learning system and 46 percent would do in two or three years E-learning system is playing the central role on incorporating ICT into teachers’ teaching, and more and more teachers would like to use it to improve their teaching However, there exist many factors that stand in the way of the adoption of e-learning system For instance, most teachers have little time to develop and test new ideas, create resources that reflect new teaching practices; ICT could bring some negative effects if used irrele-vantly In order to accelerate the step on applying ICT to education, it is very impor-tant to pay more attention on teacher professional development (TPD) Traditional ways of TPD, such as seminar or workshop, is expensive and inefficient, and it is difficult to maintain support and encourage sustained discourse among participating teachers, so that teachers have little chance to discuss new ideas, co-construct and publish resources What should be done?

Some education technology advocates (Guzdial & Weingarten 1996) suggest that virtual communities for TPD and socialization could help teachers learn new skills