Minutes of Working Group 6, Tartu University, 25-28. February, 1998

Tempus (S_JEP-11202-96) Project

Minutes of Working Group 6, Tartu University, 25-28. February, 1998

WG 6 Web based Learning methods and evaluation

Present

Heli Ruokamo TUT (Chair)

Walter Middleton SU

Ellen Redi TPU

Frederic Vichmann TTU

Sander Hannus TU

WG6 hold 4 meetings during 25-28. February, 1998 in Tartu.

Objective: The purpose of the working group 6 is to develop distance learning methods and evaluation criteria and arrange teaching experiments in co-operation with other working groups.

Activities and outcomes

1. Members of the WG6 have been selected during project meeting in Tallinn, 6.-10.10. October 1997

2. WG 4, 5, and 6 received from the chair a couple of papers concerned pedagogical issues and evaluation of technology based learning environments. Papers are: "Pedagogical Issues for the Design of a HBLE" [1] and "Pedagogical Principles for Evaluation of Hypermedia-Based Learning Environments in Mathematics" [2]. Design and evaluation principles presented in these papers were intended to quide project members who are developing or evaluating learning material for the project.

3. and 4. The pedagogical design issues were presented during Supervisory board meeting in Tampere, December 1997. The pedagogical design issues and evaluation criteria already existing were presented during project meeting in Tartu 25.-28.2.1998, and some evaluation of already existing learning environments of TUT were presented (see Slides and Table 1). Further development of these criteria was discussed during project meeting in Tartu. Issue of assesment in web-based learning environment was seen as one important area. Presented pedagogical criteria can be used by the members of the project's working groups in the process designing and developing learning material for this project, and pedagogical evaluation criteria can be used in the process of evaluating material being developed on this project.

5. WG6 will use the new criteria to evaluate already existing material of the project and will aim to support the activities of WG4 and WG5 as well as working groups that will develop learning materials for the third year of the project. This work will be done during Summer Workshop in Lahemaa, 6.-12.7.1998, because materials of the WG1 and WG2 will be presented and available on that time. Materials of the WG4 and WG5 will be evaluated if they are finished on that time.

6. Results of the evaluation will be presented at the project evaluation meeting in Lahemaa, and later on if materials of the WG4 and WG5 are not finished on that time.

Plan for the project's second year

During project's second year two courses - 4. Harmonic Analysis (Fourier Methods) and Theory of Approximation (TTU, TUT, TPU, TU) - will be developed by working group 4 and working group 5. WG6 will design a teaching experiment for the third year using these courses developed by WG4 and WG5 as teaching material.

Teaching experiment will be arranged in three Estonian Universities at same time so that collaboration between the students from different universities is possible. Third year is reasonable timing - we suppose that in that time network connections should be good enough for using WWW as a learning environment.

The Estonians teachers of WG6 will have short visits to the UK and Finland. They may observe new teaching methods both in the UK.

Project Evaluation Meeting

Project evaluation meeting will be held in Lahemaa, Estonia during 6.-12.7.1998. In this meeting the courseware produced by courseware groups will be evaluated and final plans for teaching experiments and evaluation criteria will be presented. Feedback will be collected during the third year teaching experiments and results will be presented during the project's last summer meeting 1999.

References

[1] Ruokamo-Saari H. & Pohjolainen, S. (1997). Pedagogical issues for the design of a Hypermedia-Based Learning Environment (HBLE). D. Dicheva & I. Stanchev (Eds.) Proceedings of the IFIP WG 3.3 Working Conference, Human Computer Interaction and Educational Tools (HCI-ET), Sozopol, BULGARIA, May 27-28, 1997, 82-91. http://matriisi.ee.tut.fi/~alaranta/papers/hble/hci1-e.html.

[2] H. Ruokamo & S. Pohjolainen, (1998). Pedagogical Principles for Evaluation of Hypermedia-Based Learning Environments in Mathematics. JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science, 4 (3), 1998, 292-307. http://www.iicm.edu/jucs

Slides (wg625280298.ppt)

Web-based Learning Methods and Evaluation

WG6

Heli Ruokamo TUT (Chair)

Walter Middleton SU

Ellen Redi TPU

Frederic Vichmann TTU

Sander Hannus TU

(S1)

Seven Qualities of Learning

Active - Learners' role in learning process is active, they are engaged in mindful processing of information and they are responsible for the result.

Constructive - Learners construct new knowledge on the basis of their previous knowledge.

Collaborative - Learners work together in building new knowledge in co-operation with each other and exploiting each other's skills.

(S2)

Seven Qualities of Learning

Intentional - Learners try actively and willingly to achieve a cognitive objective.

Contextual - Learning tasks are situated in a meaningful real world tasks or they are introduced through case-based or problem-based real life examples.

(S3)

Seven Qualities of Learning

Transfer - Learners are able to transfer learning from the situations and contexts, where learning has taken place and use their knowledge in other situations.

Reflective - Learners articulate what they have learned and reflect on the processes and decisions entailed by the process.

(S4)

TABLE 1: Evaluation of Solver, Matrix algebra, EnvironmentNet, Pythagoras and the Prototype of open learning environment (OLE) in respect to the seven qualities

Qualities	Solver	Matrix algebra	EnvironmentNet	Pythagoras	Prototype of OLE
1. Active	students have made proposals for what kind of real life problems they would like to solve and would be interesting for them students have an active role in whole problem-solving process and in the construction of the solution students are responsible for constructing the solution via solution trees and for the whole problem-solving process including the final result.	students have an active role in navigating and in selecting the order of the material they are studying (e.g. a student may study the theory directly from problems) the student may study parts of the material using various forms of media: text, video tutorials, tool programs, or as a combination of them students are asked to solve numerical exercises that the computer checks	students are able to make decisions of what kind of learning projects they would like to do and the subjects that would be interesting for them students gather information that is related in the subject of their learning project students have an active role in the whole project learning process students are responsible for their work during the whole project learning process including: selection of a subject using the Media Center, working with their project in the Studio, and they are responsible for the final result that might be presented in the Gallery.	Students have an active role in navigating and in selecting the order of the material they are studying (e.g. a student may study statistics either beginning from the case and the theory or directly from the exercises) students may work out a plan, realize, publish and examine their own statistical inquiry	students are able to make decisions what kind of courses they want to study and would be interested in students have an active role in the whole learning process and in the construction of knowledge students are responsible for their whole learning processes and for the final results of their studies
2.Constructive	students construct solutions via solution trees with cognitive tools students construct the solutions on the basis of their previous knowledge in interaction with other students	students construct new knowledge by studying the theory and by solving carefully selected problems Matlab scripts are used as cognitive tools in the construction of knowledge	Students construct their learning projects using cognitive tools: tools for discussions (bulletin board, chat), mind mapper, web editor Students construct their knowledge on the basis of previous knowledge and construct their learning projects on the basis of gathered information, discussions with other students, teachers and specialists, and created mind maps, and use web editor to make their own multimedia presentations	Students construct new knowledge by studying the theory and by solving carefully selected problems, they might construct their knowledge on the basis of their own inquiry Students use cognitive Tools made by Java scripts in the construction of knowledge	students construct their knowledge with cognitive tools students construct knowledge on the basis of their previous knowledge in interaction with other actors in the OLE including other students, teachers, tutors, experts, researchers and administration of the course they are participating, students are also able to communicate with visitors
3.Collaborative	all the students collaborate with their student partner and other students via bulletin board students may also collaborate with the teacher. The teacher's role is to guide and support students' problem-solving processes	students collaborate with other students using bulletin board students collaborate with teacher using email	all the students collaborate with other students, teachers and experts via cognitive tools of communication (e.g. bulletin board, chat), of mind mapper and web editor	all the students collaborate with other students, teachers and experts via cognitive tools of communication (e.g. bulletin board, chat)	students are able to collaborate with all the other actors in the OLE (other students, teachers, tutors, experts, and researchers of the courses they are participating and the visitors of the course, too students are able to collaborate with other actors via cognitive tools: communication tools (bulletin board, chat, email, video conference), collaboration tools (mind mapper, white board) and course specific tools like other applications (eg. Matlab), Java applets, calculator, tool for modeling in math., etc.
4. Intentional	problem situations were designed taking into account students' age and interests of different genders students may solve problems that are anchored in real world problem situations students may see that skills to solve these problems are useful in their every-day life	the engineering students may solve problems that are related with their field of interest mathematics students may see how mathematics can be applied	proposed learning project subjects are designed taking into account environmental questions that might be interesting for the students students may construct learning projects that are anchored in real world environmental issues and problem situations students may see that paying attention to environmental issues is important in their every-day life and the future	students can study statistics by data collected by themselves: subjects arise from their own real-world situations and issues students may construct statistical inquiries that are anchored in the real world students may see that being aware of statistical questions is useful in the in their every-day life and the future	all the courses and learning situations should be designed taking into account students' age and interests, aims and backgrounds (for example taking into account interests of different genders, aims to participate for the course, previous knowledge base etc.) learning should be anchored to real world problem situations and everyday life students should be able to see that the skills achieved during these courses are useful in their every-day life and in the future
5. Contextual	contexts and the problem-situations - that might be interesting for students - were chosen on the basis of the student inquiry problem situations were anchored to real life contexts: e.g. home party each of the six problem situations consists of six word problems connected to each other titles for the situation elements can be used as hints in constructing the solution tree hint tool provides context sensitive hints by comparing the model solution with the student's solution hints are related to the situation where students are in their problem-solving process	mathematical applications in engineering and other fields of science are presented. video clips of the use of mathematics in everyday life are given to present real-life situations.	Contexts and the proposed learning project subjects - that might be interesting for students - were chosen on the basis of the real world environmental contexts and problem situations the subject areas have arisen from real-life: earth, water, air, organism, culture, energy and news contextual hints can be presented by other students, teachers and experts during whole project learning process via tools for communication (bulletin board, chat)	case study subjects might arise from the real world (see "Veikko's car and bag") inquiries are connected to the students' everyday life and to the real-world	contexts and the learning situations should be chosen on the basis of what might be motivating and interesting for students learning situations, contexts and the contents of the courses should be anchored to real world examples OLE is provided by the guiding properties that ensures that students are able to receive "context sensitive" quiding during their learning processes, (eg. how to progress in the course material, navigating etc) other actors of the OLE should be able to give context sensitive quiding for the learners during their learning processes OLE should be provided be the tools that make it possible for the students to share their own knowledge construction processes with other actors (not only discussion tools but also tools for knowledge construction)
6. Transfer	problem-solving process can easily be transferred from one problem situation and problem to another situation and problems and to real world	randomised numerical data in interactive exercise makes it easier for the student to learn the essence of the method or algorithm under study and separate it from its numerical presentation. problems related in mathematical applications in engineering help the students to apply their skills in practice	project learning process can easily be transferred from one project issue to another issue and to real world	inquires and methods to analyze the data can easily be transferred from one issue to another and to real world, students are able to apply their skills in practice	learning processes should be easily transferred from one learning situation and the course to other learning situations and courses and to real world, too
7. Reflective	students articulate while problem-solving with other students either directly with student partner or by using the bulletin board with other student pairs students may articulate with teacher also students have to understand their processes to be able to articulate with others, they can utilise these articulations in guiding their processes further students may evaluate and compare their final results from the solution spaces and model solutions, or they might use saved files, log-files, or print outs after the lessons couple of student pairs? participated in STRI-interviews where they evaluated their problem-solving processes on the basis of taped videos (including their faces and computer screens) during their problem-solving	theoretical problems are presented with two hint levels. The hint levels needed in the solution reflect the learner's skills. interactive exercises form a way for the learner to gain feedback about how well (s)he is able to solve numerical problems.	students discuss while project learning process with other students, teachers and experts either directly or by using the bulletin board and chat tools students have to understand their processes to be able to discuss with other actors, students can utilise these discussions in guiding their project learning processes further students may evaluate their project issues and their works in the Studio students may evaluate, compare and vote some of the final project works in the Gallery selected by the teachers and experts	students discuss while studying the statistics with other students, teachers and experts either directly or by using the bulletin board and chat tools students have to understand their processes to be able to discuss with other actors, students can utilise these discussions in guiding their learning processes further students may evaluate their performance students may evaluate and compare some of the final inquires in the Gallery	students should be able to articulate while learning process with other actors either directly or using so called communication tools students have to understand their learning processes to be able to articulate with other actors, they can utilise these articulations in guiding their learning processes further students should be able to evaluate their learning processes during they are studying in the Class and they should also be able to evaluate final results of their courses in the Exhibition hall