Vol. 27 No. 1 (2013)
Research Articles

Developing Asynchronous Online Courses: Key Instructional Strategies in a Social Metacognitive Constructivist Learning Trajectory

HTML ePub
  • Margaret Niess,
  • Henry Gillow-Wiles
Margaret Niess
Oregon State Univrsity
Bio
Henry Gillow-Wiles
Oregon State University
Bio

Published 2013-07-20

Keywords

  • distance education,
  • online learning,
  • educational technology,
  • instructional design

How to Cite

Niess, M., & Gillow-Wiles, H. (2013). Developing Asynchronous Online Courses: Key Instructional Strategies in a Social Metacognitive Constructivist Learning Trajectory. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education Revue Internationale Du E-Learning Et La Formation à Distance, 27(1). Retrieved from https://ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/831
Copyright Notice

Abstract

This qualitative, design-based research effort describes an empirically supported proposal for a comprehensive set of best instructional practices immersed in a learning trajectory, outlining the tools, processes and the content development for online asynchronous, text-based learning graduate level professional development courses. The study provides a rich description of essential instructional strategies for merging the tools, processes and the content development in a social metacognitive-constructivist instructional framework. The empirically-supported learning trajectory is an explanatory framework interweaving social, teaching, and cognitive presences that engages a virtual community of learners on expanding their individual and shared knowledge through learning tasks and tools that move from “informal ideas, through successive refinements of representation, articulation, and reflection towards increasingly complex concepts over time” (Confrey & Maloney, 2012).
HTML ePub

References

  1. Akyol, Z., & Garrison, D. R. (2008). The development of a community of inquiry over time in an online course: Understanding the progression and integration of social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), 3-22.
  2. Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2010). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(3), 80-97.
  3. Bandura, A. (1982). Self efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 27(2), 122-147.
  4. Barab, S., & Squire, K. (2004). Design-based research; Putting a stake in the ground. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 1-14.
  5. Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(3), 3-15.
  6. Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex intervention in classroom settings. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(2), 141-178.
  7. Bybee, R. (2009). The BSCS 5E instructional model and 21st century skills. Colorado Springs, CO: BSCS.
  8. Chiu, M. M. (2008). Flowing toward correct contributions during group problem solving: A statistical discourse analysis. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(3), 415-463.
  9. Chiu, M. M., & Kuo, S. W. (2010). From metacognition to social metacognition: Similarities, differences and learning. Journal of Education Research, 3(4), 321–338.
  10. Chyung, S. (2007). Invisible motivation of online adult learners during contract learning. The Journal of Educators Online, 4(1), 1–22.
  11. Cobb, P., diSessa, A., Lehrer, R., Schauble, L. (2003). Design experiments in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 9-13.
  12. Collins, A. (1999). The changing infrastructure of education research. In E. C. Lagemann, & L. S. Shulman (Eds.) Issues in Education Research: Problems and Possibilities, (pp. 289-298). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
  13. Collins, A., & Halverson, R. (2010). The second educational revolution: Rethinking education in the age of technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(1), 18-27.
  14. Confrey, J., & Maloney, A. (2010). The construction, refinement, and early validation of the equipartitioning learning trajectory. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – Volume 1, 968-975.
  15. Conrad, D. L. (2008). From community to community of practice: Exploring the connection of online learners to informal learning in the workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.
  16. Darling-Hammond, L., Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. Stanford, CA: National Staff Development Council. Retrieved from http://www.nsdc.org/news/NSDCstudy2009.pdf
  17. Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process, D.C. Heath, Boston.
  18. Dunlap, J., & Lowenthal, P. (in press). The power of presence: Our quest for the right mix of social presence in online courses. In A. P. Mizell & A. A. Pina (Eds.), Real Life Distance Education: Case Studies in Practice. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
  19. Edelson, D. C. (1999). Addressing the challenges for inquiry-based learning through technology and curriculum design. The Journal of Learning Sciences, 8(3&4), 391-450.
  20. Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology-supported inquiry activities. Journal for Research in Science Teaching, 38(2), 355-385.
  21. Gabriel, M. A. (2004). Learning together: Exploring group interactions online. Journal of distance education, 19(1), 54-72.
  22. Galusha, J. M. (1997). Barriers to learning in distance education. Interpersonal Computing and Technology, 5(3-4), 6-14.
  23. Garrison, D. R. (2006). Online collaboration principles. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(1), 25-34.
  24. Garrison, D. R., & Akyol, Z. (2012). Toward the development of a metacognition construct for communities of inquiry. The Internet and Higher Education, 17, 14-89.
  25. Garrison, D. R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework For Research and Practice. London: Routledge Falmer.
  26. Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87-105.
  27. Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7-23.
  28. Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is not enough. American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133-148.
  29. Good, T.L., & Brophy, J. E. (2004). Looking in Classrooms, Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
  30. Groth, R., Spickler, D., Bergner, J., & Bardzell, M. (2009). A qualitative approach to assessing technological pedagogical content knowledge. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(4), 392-411.
  31. Guilar, J. D., & Loring, A. (2008). Dialogue and Community in Online Learning: Lessons from Royal Roads University. Distance Education, 22(3), 19-40.
  32. Hacker, D. J. (1998). Metacognition in educational theory and practice. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), The educational psychology series. (p. 407). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  33. Hershkowitz, R., Hodas, N., Dreyfus, T., Schwartz, B. (2007). Abstracting Processes, from individuals constructing of knowledge to a group’s “shared knowledge”, Mathematics Education Research Journal, 19(2), 41-68.
  34. Hill, J., Song, L., & West, R. (2009). Social Learning Theory and Web-Based Learning Environments: A Review of Research and Discussion of Implications. American Journal of Distance Education, 23(2), 88-103.
  35. Ho, C., & Swan, K. (2007). Evaluating online conversation in an asynchronous learning environment: An application of Grice’s cooperative principle. The Internet and Higher Education, 10(1), 3-14.
  36. Hoadley, C. M. (2004). Methodological alignment in design-based research. Educational Psychologist, 39(4), 203-212.
  37. Hodes, C., Pritz, S., Kelley, P., & Foster, J. (2011). Developing an online community of in-service teachers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(3), 313-323.
  38. Kinsel, E., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2005). Student Role Adjustment in Online Environments: From the Mouths of Online Babes. uwex.edu, 1-5.
  39. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press, 138.
  40. Magnusson, S. J., Palincsar, A. S., & Templin, M. (2004). Community, culture, and conversation in inquiry based science instruction. In L. B. Flick & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Scientific inquiry and nature of science implications for teaching, learning, and teacher education (pp. 131-155). Science and Technology Education Library.
  41. Meyers, J. D., Chappell, A., Elder, M., Geist, A., & Schwidder, L. (2003). Re-Integrating the research record. Computing in Science and Engineering, 5(3), 44-50.
  42. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for integrating technology in teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
  43. Niess, M. L. (2005). Preparing Teachers to Teach Science and Mathematics With Technology: Developing a Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, 509-523.
  44. Niess, M. L. (2008). Knowledge needed for teaching with technologies – Call it TPACK, AMTE Connections, Spring, p. 9-10.
  45. Niess, M. L., & Gillow-Wiles, H. (2013). Advancing K-8 teachers’ STEM education for teaching interdisciplinary science and mathematics with technologies, Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching (JCMST), 32(2), 219-245.
  46. Pierson, M. E. (2001). Technology integration practices as function of pedagogical expertise. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33(4), 413-429.
  47. Preece, J., Maloney-Krichmar, D., & Abras, C. (2003). History of emergence of online communities. Encyclopedia of Community. Berkshire Publishing Group, Sage, 1-11.
  48. Puntambekar, S. (2006). Analyzing collaborative interactions: divergence, shared understanding and construction of knowledge. Computers & Education, 47(3), 332-351.
  49. Richardson, V. (2003). Constructivist pedagogy. Teachers College Record, 105(9), 1623-1640.
  50. Rienties, B., Tempelaar, D. T., & Lygo-baker, S. (2013). Redesigning teaching presence in order to enhance cognitive presence, a longitudinal analysis. In Z. Akyol & D. Garrison (Eds.), Educational Communities of Inquiry: Theoretical Framework, Research and Practice (pp. 109-132), Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
  51. Riverin, S., & Stacey, E. (2008). Sustaining an online community of practice: A case study. Journal of Distance Education, 22(2), 43-58.
  52. Roberts, B. (2002). Interaction, reflection and learning at a distance. Open Learning, 17(1), 39-55.
  53. Rourke, L., Anderson, T., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (1999). Assessing social presence in asynchronous, text-based computer conferencing. Journal of Distance Education, 14(3), 51-70.
  54. Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a community of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. Computer and Education, 55(4), 1721-1731.
  55. Shea, P., Li, C. S., Swan, K., & Pickett, A. (2005). Developing learning community in online asynchronous college course: The role of teaching presence. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9(4), 59-82.
  56. Song, L., Singleton, E. S., Hill, J. R., & Koh, M.H. (2004). Improving online learning: Student perceptions of useful and challenging characteristics. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(1), 59-70.
  57. Swan, K. (2001). Virtual interaction: Design factors affecting student satisfaction and perceived learning in asynchronous online courses. Distance Education, 22(2), 306–331.
  58. Swan, K., & Shih, L. F. (2005). On the nature and development of social presence in online course discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9(3), 115-136.
  59. Sung, E. & Mayer, R. E. (2012). Five facets of social presence in online distance education. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1738-1747.
  60. Swan, K., Shen, J., & Hiltz, S. R. (2006). Assessment and collaboration in online learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(1), 45-62.
  61. Sztajn, P., Confrey, J., Wilson, P. H., & Edgington, C. (2012). Learning trajectory based instruction: Toward a theory of teaching. Educational Researcher, 41(5), 147-156.
  62. The Design-Based Research Collective. (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5-8.
  63. Thompson, A. D. & Mishra, P. (2007). Breaking news: TPCK becomes TPACK! Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 24, 38, 64.
  64. von Glasersfeld, E. (1991). Abstraction, re-presentation, and reflection: An interpretation of experience and Piaget’s approach, in L. Steffe (ed.), Epistemological Foundations of Mathematical Experience (pp. 45-67), Springer-Verlag, New York.
  65. Wheatley, G. H. (1992). The role of reflection in mathematics learning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 23(5), 529-541.
  66. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System. Cambridge University.
  67. Yukawa, J. (2006). Co-reflection in online learning: Collaborative critical thinking as narrative. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 1, 203-228.