Source: The Christian Harmony (Compiled by Wm. Walker - 1873 ed.)
The Application of
Constructivist
Techniques to an Online
Graduate Music
Education Course
By
Dan A. Keast
Rationale for Study
James & Voigt (2001): “online courses can
access out-of-town experts for discussions and
guest lectures.”
1883 – 1st distance course at U.W.
1932 – U. Iowa used TV’s in distance ed
1997 – Harvard had 10% of its $1.5 billion
budget from online education
Dyrud (2000) “virtual universities are popping up
like mushrooms and that distance education
offerings in traditional venues are multiplying like
rabbits.”
Rationale (continued)
University of Phoenix Online
1997 – 4,700 students
2002 – 49,400 students
40% minority students
Average age is 34
70% undergraduate
26% graduate
65% graduation rate!
Related Literature
Phipps & Merisotis (1999) “it seems clear
that technology cannot replace the human
factor in higher education.”
Chickering & Ehrmann (1996) “good
practice uses active learning techniques”
WebQuest
Dodge (1996) “an inquiry-oriented activity in
which some or all of the information that learners
interact with comes from resources on the
Internet.”
Six Step Cookbook-Style Recipe
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Introduction
The activity or task at hand
The process of the activity
Resources or information sources
Evaluation of the learner’s project
Conclusion
Salmon (2002)
E-tivities
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Access and motivation
Online socialization
Information exchange
Knowledge construction
Development
Jonassen (1999)
Constructivist Learning Environment
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Problem or project
Related cases
Information resources
Cognitive tools
Conversation and collaboration tools
Social / contextual support
Perkins (1992)
Components for a constructivist activity
online should include:
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Information banks
Symbol pads
Construction kits
Phenomenaria
Task Managers
Research Questions
What services or resources would the participants use?
Can this method of JavaScript be used to track and
accurately represent a grad student’s research process?
What resources are most popularly used in the
participants' research process?
How often and what time of day do these graduate
students typically access course materials?
Is the method of delivery an issue for the students or is it
transparent enough to allow full investigation of the
course material instead of learning the technology?
Teacher-Research Design
Collage page is a metaphor as the entrance for
the class to explore their classroom
42 Tunebooks, 40+ listening examples, 30 web
pages, tons of hyperlinks, anchors, built-in
interaction, communication tools, and a checklist
JavaScript tracking of participants’ pages visited
and times the pages were opened
In class presentations were the culminating
activity
Triangulation through tracking logs, pre- and
post-surveys, and grade from presentation
1. What services or resources
would the participants use?
Tunebook.html - 19.22% of time (66 hits)
Lesson.php - 3.65% of time (61 hits)
Gather.html - 1.51% of time (32 hits)
Present.html - 4.14% of time (23 hits)
External links - 1.30% of time (21 hits)
Library homepage - 3.52% of time (17 hits)
Classroom.html - 1.84% of time (12 hits)
Google.com - 2.39% of time (10 hits)
Mailto links - 1.68% of time (9 hits)
Music Index Online - 0.36% of time (8 hits)
ERIC Database - 2.53% of time (7 hits)
Individual tunebooks - 13.54% of time (50 hits)
2. Can this method of JavaScript be used to
track and accurately represent a grad student’s
research process?
Researched the topic before viewing the
primary sources
Many did not complete the required
readings before going into the activity
Bonk (2001) “future studies of web-based
conferencing and other forms of online
learning can benefit from computer logs…
[and] surveys.”
3. What resources are most popularly used in
the participants' research process?
Search pages accounted for 12.8%
Viewing primary sources accounted for
13.5%
Focus group pages accounted for 32.7%
Activity-based pages accounted for 28.8%
Assigned readings accounted for 6.5%
Communication pages accounted for 2%
4. How often and how much time do these
graduate students typically access course
materials?
Total time logged was 28 hours with 482
pages viewed
Doctoral (2.3 hours) v. Masters (4.2 hours)
Average pages viewed by the 8
participants was 60
Inter-rater reliability of the presentations
was r = .843 between the two graders
5. Is the method of delivery an issue for the
students or is it transparent enough to allow
full investigation of the course material instead
of learning the technology?
Technology is an extension of the lesson,
not a replacement for the educator
Russell (1999) “learning is not caused by
the technology but by the instructional
method embedded in the media.”
No participants accessed help via the
IATS logo on the classroom page
1 participant downloaded Adobe 6.0
Implications for Educators
Less pages with more content
Offer several places for students to utilize search
engines
Assigned readings were not correlated to grades
nor time heavy by these participants
More scaffolding on each focus group page
instead of the classroom metaphor page
Primary sources were not viewed until they had
researched about the sources first
Suggestions for Future Research
JavaScript issues
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Disable back button on the browser
Hyperlinks do not open in new windows
Logging out is essential
Pacing of activities
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Lock topics to be claimed until a certain point
Login page should direct to a personalized checklist
page instead of the metaphor page
Presentations
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Less directed and constructivist in nature
Tie to standards in music
Emphasize the transfer to their current classroom
Larger sample size to corroborate these findings
Thank you for attending
this dissertation defense!
What questions may I answer for
you about this study?