Assignment # 11 Completed Research Paper

Introduction
As we all know, technology is the key to the future. The age of technology is vastly approaching. One day soon, technology will be a necessity for all people, adults and children alike. There will no longer be a need for daily postal service or daily chats via telephone, as email will soon take its place. Over the past few years, the use of technology has more than tripled in size, especially in the field of education. Instructors of all age levels have succumb to the world of technology where lap tops and LCD projectors are a must have, and the use of smart boards and interactive pads are essential. The days of chalk boards are gone. So where does this leave the new learners that are not so new in age?
A research project was created by California State University, San Bernardino’s Instructional Technology Department Research Methods Course to explore adult learning and new media in online education.

Literature Review

This review explores literature relating to adult learning and andragogy, new media in online education, and social presence and learning with new media. According to CNN.com, the popularity of distance education has spread from colleges to earlier grades, as students in more than one-third of U.S. school districts take courses over the internet or through video conferencing. Distance learning has definitely become part of many students’ lives. From adults to elementary aged students, the use of technology is becoming more relevant in education.

Adult Learning and Androgogy
According to Burge (1988) andragogy is a set of principles for helping the learning process of adults (adult learning). Distance learning provides flexibility in scheduling and independent studies. Eduscape.com says distance learning can also address barriers of time, distance, physical disabilities, personal, and professional responsibilities. Adults are in different stages of their lives and have various responsibilities. The need for diverse instruction is very much apparent. “The majority of adult learners express a desire for more but not complete partnership in planning, organizing, delivering, and evaluating of courses. The basic premise of the learner-centred approach proposed by the principles of androgogy rest a great deal on the cognitive maturity of adult learners”(Burge, 1988). There is no specific difference in adult learners’ learning or cognitive styles and variations of psychosocial, intellectual, or moral and other development continua. Clearly there is a need for differentiation.
Burge gives examples of the four R’s to guide adult learners into the world of distance education. Responsibility, both the learner and facilitator have responsibilities. Relevance as it applies to content, process, past experience, and learning outcomes. Relationships operate in three dimensions: interpersonal, integration of cognition and affect, and relativistic and contextual nature of higher order thinking. Rewards, facilitators need to discuss with the learners potential rewards.

New Media in Online Education
There are several different electronic tools that are being introduced in distance learning courses. Technology continues to evolve on a daily basis and so does online courses. From online notebooks, blogs, podcasting, streaming video and audio, instant messaging, and wikis, the world of technology has emerged in today’s classrooms.
According to Williams & Jacobs (2004) blogging is a contraction of the term ‘web logging’. Blogging has become firmly established as a web based communication tool. Blogs have been widely used in online courses as a tool for students to communicate their views and ideas of specific issues. Blogging allows you to share information in a relaxed setting wile others are able to comment on your thoughts. “The efficiency of the blog with the associated hyperlinks, RSS syndication and comment features provides a model for communication that can fit into the very busy lifestyle of academics and technologist who are engaged in this field.”(Schroeder, 2003).
A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndicated feed for playback on personal computers or portable media players. “Podcasting is a part of the so-called Web 2.0 that depends on push technologies to deliver content” (Morales, 2006). Morales and Moses go on to say that podcasting has revolutionized education by enabling up-to-date content, addressing multiple intelligences and allowing for anytime/anywhere delivery of instructional content. The main advantage of using podcasting in educational courses is that it allows for immediate availability for large audiences via downloads or subscriptions notification systems. The only downside I see to podcasting is that it does not allow for visual components of lectures.
Outside of education, podcast are used for enjoyment. Many people are now downloading talk shows and commentaries via podcast. Information is made easily available through podcastings. Students are able to use portable media devices such as MP3 players and I-Pods to listen to educational podcast allowing flexibility and mobility to instruction.
Technology had definitely evolved over the years. Podcasting and blogging have provided an excellent delivery method for instructors, students, and staff. These technological tools have made designing online courses much easier. New media has definitely made taking online courses a lot more flexible and enjoyable for students.

Social Presence and Learning with New Media
New media has revolutionized online courses. With the use of podcasting, blogs, and wikis, the need for social presence has faltered. The days of having to sit in a classroom and listen to lectures, or work in small groups has transformed. Through the use of blogs, students are able to communicate in a setting that allows for anonymity. Students can openly share their thoughts and opinions without being scrutinized publicly. Blogs have allowed for more student centered involvement. When sitting in a face to face lecture, not all students participate, and not all students fully understand the topic being lectured on. Through podcast and blogging, you have the flexibility to talk to the class and ask questions for clarification without feeling embarrassed. Social interaction is now taking place via the web. Online courses are allowing flexibility to take in all of the information and the ability to work at a pace that is comfortable for the learner.


Methods
Dr. Brian Newberry, an instructor in the Instructional Technology Department at California State University San Bernardino has assigned a research study for his 543 class. The research study is on investigating new media in online learning. Subjects for this study were recruited by members of the 543 class. Each student in class was required to recruit at least five volunteers to participate. The method of recruitment was each student’s own choice. Several students recruited volunteers by asking family members and colleagues through face-to-face contact and via telephone. Other students opted to recruit volunteers via emails. The volunteers were told that the survey related to online learning and would take less than 15 minutes, and that it was completely anonymous. After completing and reviewing several literature review articles, the students in the ETEC 543 class were ask to submit several possible research questions. After a thorough review, Dr. Newberry narrowed down the list of questions to a final three:
1) Is there a relationship between the amount of portable media (podcasts) a student consumes and their desire for portable media use in online learning?
2) What level of involvement in planning, organizing, and making media choices do adult learners desire?
3) Is the use of collaboration to comment on other students’ work viewed as beneficial by online students?

The online survey consisted of questions that volunteers answered using a 1 to 5 scale with 5 rating the highest. The volunteers each received a URL address to access the survey via the internet. This survey was completely anonymous and allowed for a significant amount of participation.

Results
Once the survey for the research study was completed, Dr. Newberry collected the data and eliminated subjects who did not respond to all survey items. The data was then analyzed by a statistical analysis program called SPSS. The findings for each key question are as follows:

Research Question 1: Is there a relationship between previous non-musical portable media consumption and receptiveness for portable media use in online learning?

In order to answer research question 1, the analyzers examined the correlation between item 2 and the three items directly related to using podcasts in courses items 3, 6 and 9.


Correlations

V2 V3 V6 V9
V2 Pearson Correlation 1 .609(**) .465(**) .293(*)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .019
N 64 64 64 64
V3 Pearson Correlation .609(**) 1 .656(**) .463(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 64 64 64 64
V6 Pearson Correlation .465(**) .656(**) 1 .407(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .001
N 64 64 64 64
V9 Pearson Correlation .293(*) .463(**) .407(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .019 .000 .001
N 64 64 64 64
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).




Reporting the correlations:

Correlation coefficients were computed between the items related to respondent prior use of non-music podcasts and use of portable podcasts for course related purposes. All three correlations were significant at the .05 level. The correlations between prior non-music podcast use and instructional use of podcasts were positive meaning that as respondents reported more use of non-music podcasts they also reported higher preference for use of podcasts in classes. The results of the correlations are presented in table 1.

_____________________________________________________________________
Podcast/Tasks Player Enhanced
_____________________________________________________________________

Prior Use .609* .465* .293*

* P<.05
_____________________________________________________________________

Table 1 Correlations Between Prior Non-Music Podcast Use and Preference for Portability in Class Podcast Use (N = 64)


Research Question 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?

In order to answer Research Question 2, the analyzers examined the mean results for items 11-52 which were the items we developed for the use of different technologies for common course related communications.

Descriptive Statistics

N Min. Max. Mean Std. Deviation
V11 64 1 5 4.70 .749
V12 64 1 5 2.77 1.244
V13 64 1 5 3.03 1.391
V14 64 1 5 2.48 1.098
V15 64 1 5 2.95 1.290
V16 64 1 5 3.33 1.209
V17 64 1 5 2.75 1.234
V18 64 2 5 4.36 .932
V19 64 1 5 2.91 1.281
V20 64 1 5 3.41 1.269
V21 64 1 5 2.58 1.152
V22 64 1 5 2.80 1.143
V23 64 1 5 3.55 1.272
V24 64 1 5 2.78 1.253
V25 64 3 5 4.72 .519
V26 64 1 5 2.56 1.344
V27 64 1 5 2.73 1.312
V28 64 1 5 2.31 1.220
V29 64 1 5 2.56 1.355
V30 64 1 5 2.70 1.422
V31 64 1 5 2.48 1.272
V32 64 2 5 4.75 .563
V33 64 1 5 2.50 1.380
V34 64 1 5 3.00 1.480
V35 64 1 5 2.13 1.106
V36 64 1 5 2.33 1.261
V37 64 1 5 3.14 1.500
V38 64 1 5 2.14 1.180
V39 64 1 5 4.22 .967
V40 64 1 5 2.67 1.346
V41 64 1 5 3.41 1.477
V42 64 1 5 2.33 1.183
V43 64 1 5 2.58 1.295
V44 64 1 5 3.67 1.381
V45 64 1 5 2.36 1.252
V46 64 1 5 4.11 1.170
V47 64 1 5 3.22 1.453
V48 64 1 5 3.34 1.300
V49 64 1 5 3.17 1.340
V50 64 1 5 3.55 1.356
V51 64 1 5 3.39 1.410
V52 64 1 5 2.66 1.263



Another way to look at this is to look at the means for each technology across all the items.

Email items 11, 18, 25, 32, 39, 46
Video Conference items 12, 19, 26, 33, 40, 47
Blog items 13, 20, 27, 34, 41, 48
Podcast (audio only) items 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49
Podcast (enhanced) items 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 50
Threaded discussion items 16, 23, 30, 37, 44, 51
Voice over internet items 17, 24, 31, 38, 45, 52


Descriptive Statistics

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 1.02118Valid N (listwise) 64


Reporting these data:

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 2.
_____________________________________________________
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 2 Means and Standard Deviations of Technologies Used for
Course Related Communication (N=64)

Research Question 3: what level of involvement in planning, organizing, grading and making media choices do adult learners desire?

In order to answer Research Question 3, analyzers examined means for items 53-56 which were the items they developed related to andragogy.

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
V53 64 1 5 4.28 .983
V54 64 1 5 3.77 1.165
V55 64 1 5 3.80 1.198
V56 64 1 5 4.41 .886Valid N (listwise) 64


Reporting the date:

Means were computed for each of the items relating to andragogy (questions 52-56). Having a lot of choice about the type of media or communications technologies used in the class rated the highest (M= 4.41, SD= .983). Having a lot of choice about the assignments that I do for the class rated second highest (M= 4.28, SD= .983).Having a lot of choice about the due dates for assignments in the class (M=3.80, SD= 1.198) rated third highest, and having a lot of choice about how assignments that I do for the class are graded or evaluated (M= 3.77, SD= 1.165) rated fourth.

Discussion

Online learning may not be for everyone, but it is needed in today’s growing society. The results from the research conducted allows for several different conclusions. First it is apparent that there is a strong correlation between prior experience with non-musical podcasts and a preference for portable media in online learning. Students with a background of using non-musical podcast are more likely to be aware of all its value and enjoy the mobility that it allows. It is likely that the idea of listening to lectures while performing other tasks is very desirable for online learning students.
Second, the results showed that email is the favored method of interaction in classes between peers and instructors. Email has been around for quite some time, and is now the most common form of communication in the work place. Almost all professionals communicate via email, therefore the level of comfort is adequate. With time, other forms of communication such as blogs, video conferencing, voice over internet, and threaded discussions will become more popular. It is just a matter of familiarity at this point.
Third, the results of the research showed that adult learners preferred having a lot of choice about the type of media or communications technologies used in the class, organization, and grading. Most adults were not introduce to a high level of technology while in school the first time and are not too comfortable with using it. Adult learners are entering school with a strong feeling of importance with the information they are learning and have a strong desire to understand the material being presented. Adult learners are more likely to have outside responsibilities such as family and work and do not have adequate time to become experts with new and different forms of media or communication technologies.
Further research should be conducted on graduate students in all academic fields, this may limit the number non-answered items. Questions should include the reasons behind using certain media devices such as for enjoyment, business related, school related, etc.
Online learning is a necessity for many working students. It offers the flexibility and convenience that face to face lectures lack. Researching new media in online learning empowers students with knowledge that several of their colleagues may not have. Technology is the key to the future, without it, you will be left in the dark.




References:
Burge, L. (1988). Beyond andragogy: some explorations for distance learning design. Journal of Distance Education, 3(1), 5-23.

CNN.com retrieved on 10/18/07

Glogoff, S.(2005). Instructional blogging: promoting interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. Innovate 1, 1-6

Morales, C. & Moses, J.(2006). Podcasting: recording, managing, and delivering the classroom experience. Educause Evolving Technologies Committee.

Schroeder, R. (2003). Blogging online learning news and research. University of Illinois at Springfield.

Sparks, P. & Mentz, L. (2006). Electronic note passing: enriching online learning with new communication tools. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2(4), 1-6.

Williams, J. & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247.

Appendix
list of the survey items:

1 Do you own a personal media player (iPod etc.)?

2 Listen to non-music podcasts on a portable media player.


3 Listen to course podcasts while I engaged in other tasks such as commuting, working, walking etc.

4 Read a transcript of a course podcast on my computer instead of listening to the audio version.

5 Print a transcript of a course podcast to use as a listening guide and to help me focus on the podcast content.

6 Listen to an audio only podcast on a portable media player.

7 Listen to an audio only podcast on a computer.

8 Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images to help illustrate the content of the podcast.

9 Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images on a portable media player.

10 Use a podcast that included visual aides such as charts, graphs and images on a computer.


Communicating with the instructor about problems in class:

11 Email
12 Video Conference
13 Blog (Text Based)
14 Podcast (Audio Only)
15 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
16 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
17 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


Communicating with other students to learn more about them:

18 Email
19 Video Conference
20 Blog (Text Based)
21 Podcast (Audio Only)
22 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
23 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
24 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


Receiving grades and instructor evaluations of my work:

25 Email
26 Video Conference
27 Blog (Text Based)
28 Podcast (Audio Only)
29 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
30 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
31 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


Submitting my assignments to the instructor for grading:

32 Email
33 Video Conference
34 Blog (Text Based)
35 Podcast (Audio Only)
36 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
37 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
38 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


Sharing my assignments with other students for peer review:

39 Email
40 Video Conference
41 Blog (Text Based)
42 Podcast (Audio Only)
43 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
44 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
45 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


Receiving course lectures and course related content:

46 Email
47 Video Conference
48 Blog (Text Based)
49 Podcast (Audio Only)
50 Podcast (Enhanced with Graphics)
51 Threaded Discussion or Bulletin Board (Text Based)
52 Voice Over Internet (Example: Skype, Audio Only)


53 Having a lot of choice about the assignments that I do for the class.

54 Having a lot of choice about how assignments that I do for the class are graded or evaluated.

55 Having a lot of choice about the due dates for assignments in the class.

56 Having a lot of choice about the type of media or communications technologies used in the class.