Discussion Forums in a Blended Learning Approach: The Influence of Cognitive Learning Styles on Attitudes towards Asynchronous Collaboration
Presenter: Gilles Doiron
In this study, discussion forums were used as a replacement to traditional face-to-face tutorial discussions in a social studies class. The research subjects (n=147), health psychology students at a South East Asian university, completed a Felder Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire before being assigned to online discussion forum groups of 8 or 9 students per group. During the 9 weeks of the tutorial assignment activity, student interactions in the discussion forums were monitored and transcripts of their postings and replies were analysed and coded. The findings showed that students who were identified as having a moderate to strong ‘Sequential’ cognitive learning style preference said they had a difficult time working in the discussion forums, and students who were identified as having a moderate to strong ‘Active’ cognitive learning style preference made significantly fewer postings than other students.
Description of the presentation:
Introduction
Rationale for the study
Setting
Research sample
Cognitive learning styles
A background to learning styles especially in light of a review by Coffield et al who identified many flaws and limitations in a number of popular models. (Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E. & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning Styles and Pedagogy in Post16 Learning: A systematic and critical review. : Learning & Skills Research Centre, Electronic citation: www.lsda.org.uk/pubs/dbaseout/download.asp?code=1540
Description of the Felder and Soloman Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILS)
Issues relating to the validity and reliability of the ILS
The test-retest of the ILS in this study
The study
ILS results of the research sample and comparison with other research findings
The design
Replacing the traditional face-to-face tutorial discussion with small-group peer moderated online discussions.
Methods & Data collection
Pre & post attitude survey questionnaires
Discussion forum usage data
Performance measures (grades, peer ratings & posting frequency)
Discussion forum posting contents
Data analysis
Correlations and factor analysis
Discriminant function analysis
The findings
Sequential learners favour the traditional face-to-face tutorial discussion format over online discussions and feel disadvantaged when required to use discussion forums for understanding and communicating ideas.
Because Sequential learners are dependent on step-wise linear structures in order to build up their understanding of a subject, without such structural aids, they “learn the facts, but seem to have difficulty in understanding the information” (Dünser & Jirasko, 2005). The discussion forum environment does not provide Sequential learners with any logical sequence from which to organise the facts, thoughts and opinions presented in the postings, and therefore it is understandable that when working in discussion forums these students have difficulty making sense of the information posted.
Active Learners were the least involved in the online discussions.
Contrary to other research suggesting that Active learners would tend to favour interaction with people and therefore enjoy sharing their ideas in discussion forums (Felder & Silverman, 1988; Schaller, Borun, Allison-Bunnell & Chambers, 2007; Jeong & Lee, 2007), the findings from this study strongly suggest the opposite. A discriminant function analysis calculation showed that Active learners made fewer postings than other students.
The conclusions
According to Graham (2006), it is apparent that the learners will be the ones making the decisions about the extent to which the ‘blending’ suits their needs, and it will be up to the institutions and course instructors to make these options available to them. Having this flexibility in ‘blending’ would enable students to negotiate the degree to which discussion forums would be used, while still maintaining the objectives of this learning activity.
Hawk and Shah (2007) point out that the use of learning style diagnostics would allow students and faculty to be aware of, and carefully consider, the circumstances and activities that would be most conducive to effective and deeper learning experiences. To help compensate for any mismatch or clashes between the requirements of the learning activity and a student’s particular learning style, students should be consulted on devising other activities for achieving the same learning goals by using their learning preference to their best advantage.
J. A. Gilles Doiron
For the past 20 years Gilles has been a project leader and instructional designer creating state-of-the-art educational technology solutions for industry and tertiary education. He has presented papers at many international conferences, and has also been a referee for ASCILITE and ICALT conferences. Gilles has also been a reviewer for the iNEER Special Volume publication, the AACE Journal of Interactive Learning Research and the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives. He left Canada in the early 1990 to take up a Senior Lecturer position at Singapore Polytechnic and later became Principal Educational Technologist in the Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning at the National University of Singapore. Presently, Gilles is an instructional designer for the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He holds an M.A. in Educational Technology from Concordia University and is about to receive a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree from the University of Durham, U.K. His research interests include the effect of cognitive learning styles on peer collaborative learning in CMC environments and instructional design for a social-constructivist learning model.