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 Increasing
Students' Participation via
Multiple Interactive Media Chris Dede and Audrey L. Kremer |
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© Copyright 1998-99 by Chris Dede (cdede@gmu.edu) and Audrey L. Kremer (kremer@mitretek.org) . The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author. |
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Section Five:
Many students appreciated the richer, more inclusive types of interchange that occur in an asynchronous medium. Some learners found a voice they lacked in face-to-face settings, and everyone had a chance to say more since air-time was not limited. However, this deeper educational experience consumed more time and was less social than classroom or virtual synchronous settings, leading to diminished motivation for many students despite a sense of having learned more. Instructional design must carefully balance synchronous and asynchronous experiences to ensure that learners’ affective and social motivation is sustained over a course or series of courses. Also, students felt this mixed-media learning experience called into question the seat-time-based methods by which educational institutions quantify the amount of learning and determine a sufficient level of credit-hours for matriculation. Many students engaged in substantial virtual synchronous and asynchronous interactions well beyond the requirements of the course or what would likely have occurred in a conventional learning experience. The three academic credits each received toward graduation were a poor measure of their true educational achievement. As we increasingly use multiple interactive media for instruction, performance-based measures will be central not only for assessing learning, but also for accurately assigning appropriate amounts of academic credit. Next Section:Analysis of the Discussion Forum Previous Section: Insights: More Powerful Learning |