Online Learning Environments and
International Education:
Identifying Research Agendas and
Developing Reflective Practice
Cynthia White
Massey University
c.j.white@massey.ac.nz
The Context of International Education
• technological and social transformation
• equip students with the communicative skills to
participate in particular academic and cultural contexts
• becoming proficient in English today means to manage
multiple memberships and navigate in more than one
world, demonstrating horizontal expertise (Engeström et
al., 1995, Leander, 2002)
• use of virtual learning environments such as
Blackboard, webCT, Virtual U, First Class
Asynchronous CMC
• offers students a model of academic communication
• offers a framework of learning approaches valued in
tertiary settings
• facilitates self-directed learning
• promotes student reflection on course content and
critical thinking
• encourages students to take responsibility for their
learning
Claims for CMC
“threaded discussions can represent an important forum for
opening up new learning possibilities that might not be
achievable in face-to-face classrooms alone.
Especially for non-native speakers in university ESL
courses, who need to gain greater flexibility and fluency in
academic language skills, this medium provides both the
interactive features and the reflective qualities that oral face-toface interaction cannot provide”
Weasenforth et al 2002, p. 76
Online Learning Environments
What potential is there in online environments
to develop reflective interaction, self-directed
learning and metacognition?
First year student ….
Have you used webCT?
Used it once or twice, but just for down load
lecture notes and study materials.
Not as a way of asking questions?
Not to ask question, because I prefer face-to-face
communication. I think one of the reasons is
my writing is not good enough. I’m not sure
lecturers or tutors can understand or not.
Students may…
• lack the skills to be able to participate or be
reluctant to participate
• prefer vicarious interaction
• perceive threaded discussion as busy work
• experience information overload
• be reluctant to have their name and
contribution posted as a permanent record
Lang, 2000
Is it possible in class to make connections with other students?
Yes, try to, also I can enter in webCT. My friend they tell me a lot
of the tutors put their lecture note in the webCT. Also have some
message from other student, they will talk about the lecture.
Have you asked questions on webCT?
But they will have the name. I remember one student in our class,
he write in the webCT, he ask the tutor, can we just ask question
and no name down there. And the tutors said he already talked to
the university but that’s the system. Can’t change. But sometimes
some questions, yeah, the student ask, that’s what I want to ask, so
I found out the answer.
Further realities …
• social presence vs cognitive presence
• tend to see others as experts, relying on one
person as having a more informed perspective
than the rest
Subject: Hello!
Message no. 248
Author: Tienshu
Date: Monday, March 22, 2004 11:50am
My name is Tienshu. I come from China. I am a first year internal
student who studies in Palmerston North. I will have a text next
week. I have got lots of questions, but I do not know how I can ask
somebody to help me. So when you see my message, could you
answer it for me?
There is one question: What is Pragmatic competence? It can be
seen in the page 92 of lecture book. I do not understand the given
example.
I hope everybody will understand what I wrote. ( It may contain
grammar mistakes) Thank you!
Subject: Re: Hello!
Message no. 250 [Reply of: no. 249]
Author: Tienshu
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 8:45am
Hello! Fiona! Thank you for the answer! It is
really helpful!
But--- Dose the case contain Contextualization
cue? ( I mean that the mother meant " Now",
but use a indirect way to ask the child to have
a action.) What do you think?
have a good day!!!
Online learning environments
What potential is there in online environments
to develop reflective interaction, metacognitive
knowledge and self-management?
Reflective interaction
in an online environment
Critical reflection
Contingent interaction (van Lier 1996)
Messaging Activity
- monologues
- social conversations
- reflective conversations
Lamy and Goodfellow 1999a, 1999b
Metacognitive knowledge and beliefs
How do learning settings shape learners’
knowledge and beliefs?
How do beliefs and knowledge change over time?
From one learning context to another?
To what extent do learners’ active involvement in
the regulation of their learning lead to changes
in their beliefs and metacognitive knowledge?
Wenden, 1999
Knowledge and beliefs in a new setting
“Now I see it basically as me and the
language – I’m there with the materials in
a sort of raw form. I somehow have to
make them come alive for me. I guess I
hadn’t thought of it that way at first …. I
have to make the first move, to create a
sort of dynamic between me and the
materials. That’s really what it is all about.
Once you get the dynamic going, you’re
well on the way and the whole thing
begins ….”
White, 2003
Learner
Context
Interface
Key:
Interactions
Strands of the interface
Features of the Interface
• constructed, reconstructed
• individual process: the learner as key agent
(Esch and Zähner, 2000)
• guides and informs learning experiences
• personally meaningful and viable
• dynamic
• mutually interactive effects
• takes time, involvement, initiative, commitment,
confidence, trial and error …
White, 2005
The influence of learning sites
“Learning online you have to spend a lot
of time managing your immediate
environment and yourself so that you
can work with the course. Teachers
don’t really see this – but it’s a big thing
for us. That’s the big issue when you
study online”
White (in press)
Relationship between learner and context
“I have studied in two online language courses
and they were really different. But the process
was the same for me – and I expect it will be
in any future online language courses. It
involved deciding how to use with the materials
and how to interact with other people. I had to
decide how to shape the course for myself, and
how I was going to let the course direct me
and my language learning and what I wanted.
This was a real issue in the online course.”
White (in press)
Potentialities and realities
“there are lots of new things you can try
out and work on in a course, but they
take time to explore – and I found that
time was taking me away from actually
learning the language. Lots of things
may be possible but … much that was
there didn’t really fit with the other ways
in which I was learning.”
White (in press)
Collaborative virtual learning
environments
•
•
•
•
entry into the new environment impacts on learners’ views
of themselves – their roles and responsibilities
need for self-direction requires them to develop a
comparatively high degree of self-knowledge as a basis for
devising their own means of learning and of managing
their learning
not all learners appear to have the metacognitive
knowledge required to draw on learning strategies
appropriate for that environment
aim to explore how task design based on Strategies Based
Instruction (Cohen 1998) can be used in virtual learning
contexts
Hauck and Hampel, 2005
Research Agendas
• What metacognitive knowledge and strategies are
required to participate in and derive benefit from
asynchronous online learning?
• How can we develop metacognitive knowledge and
reflection online?
• What is the ‘added value’ of CMC?
Developing Reflective Practice
• online learning environments - a new focus for
reflective practice
• need to move beyond ‘technical reflection’ i.e.
decisions about immediate behaviour and skills
• need to balance concerns with external control of
the learning environment (e.g. development of
interaction and collaboration) with concerns about
the development of metacognitive knowledge and
self-management
The fundamental challenge
…language learning in the online context is
concerned with developing the ability to engage with,
participate in and derive benefit from learning
environments which are not always directly mediated
by the teacher.
References
Cohen, A. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language. New York: Longman.
Esch, E., & Zähner, C. (2000). The contribution of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) to language learning environments or the mystery of the secret agent. ReCALL, 12(1),
5-18.
Hauck, M., & Hampel, R. (2005). The challenges of implementing online tuition in distance
language courses: task design and tutor role. In B. Holmberg, M. Shelley & C. White (Eds.),
Distance education and languages: evolution and change (pp. 258-277). Clevedon, UK:
Multilingual Matters.
Lamy, M.-N., & Goodfellow, R. (1999a). 'Reflective conversation' in the virtual language
classroom. Language Learning and Technology, 2(2), 43-61.
Lamy, M.-N., & Goodfellow, R. (1999b). Supporting language students' interactions in web-based
conferencing. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 12(5), 457-477.
Lang, D. (2000). Critical thinking in web courses: An oxymoron? Syllabus, 14(2), 20-24.
VanLier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy and
authenticity. London: Longman.
Weasenforth, D., Biesenbach-Lucas, S., & Meloni, C. (2002). Realizing constructivist objectives
through collaborative technologies: threaded discussions. Language Learning and
Technology, 6(3), 58-86.
Wenden, A. (1999). An introduction to metacognitive knowledge and beliefs in language learning:
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White, C. (2003). Language learning in distance education. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
White, C. (2005). Towards a learner-based theory of distance language learning: The concept of
the learner-context interface. In B. Holmberg, M. Shelley & C. White (Eds.), Distance
education and languages: Evolution and change (pp. 55-71). Clevedon: Mulitlingual Matters.
White, C. (in press). Autonomy, independence and control: mapping the future of distance
language learning. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Self-access, distance learning and language
advising. Dublin: Authentik.