Enhance adult students' online knowledge construction: Exploring effective instructional designs and addressing barriers.
Background Study: Asynchronous online discussions are vital venues for collaborative knowledge construction. However, the lack of appropriate instruction designs poses challenges in promoting deep and substantive engagement with the core subject matter. This paper explores how to enhance adult stude...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 1675 - 1690 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Aug2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=178531916&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 178531916 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 02664909 6M1 jtl: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning issn: 02664909 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2024 vid: 40 iid: 4 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 178531916 178531916 178531916 10.1111/jcal.12983 178531916 ppf: 1675 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Enhance adult students' online knowledge construction: Exploring effective instructional designs and addressing barriers. aug: au: Ho, Yujen affil: Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Open University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan sug: subj: Students, Non-Traditional Taiwan Student Knowledge Online Education Discussion Human Taiwan Multimethod Studies Content Analysis Open-Ended Questionnaires Interviews Focus Groups Thematic Analysis Problem Solving Outcomes of Education Teachers Critical Thinking Funding Source ab: Background Study: Asynchronous online discussions are vital venues for collaborative knowledge construction. However, the lack of appropriate instruction designs poses challenges in promoting deep and substantive engagement with the core subject matter. This paper explores how to enhance adult students' knowledge construction in the context of asynchronous online discussions at an open university in Taiwan. Objectives: This study explores instructional designs aimed at promoting online knowledge construction among adult students and overcoming barriers to this process. Methods: This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to collect concurrently both quantitative data from the students' online discussion postings for content analysis and qualitative data from the focus group and individual interviews, the online open‐ended questionnaire, and the instructor's observation logs for thematic analysis. Then the results were merged in the interpretation stage. Results and Conclusion: The research highlights the significance of instructional designs in influencing students' level of knowledge construction during online discussions. The findings suggest that instructional designs that provide teacher‐led interim summaries, pose Socratic questions, and incorporate problem‐solving projects can promote higher‐level knowledge construction. However, time constraints, cultural influences, and unfamiliarity with peers negatively affected higher‐order knowledge construction. To address these challenges, culturally responsive and technologically inclusive instructional designs that take into account the specific challenges faced by adult learners are proposed to enhance learning outcomes through active participation. Limitation: The study's limited sample size warrants further research with a larger and more diverse cohort to validate the effectiveness of the proposed instructional designs. Another limitation is the lack of a robust theoretical base for the instructional strategies presented by the current action‐research study. Further examination and broader exploration in online education are needed to prop up proposed pedagogical approaches. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic: Online discussions are essential for collaborative knowledge construction among adult students.Existing research primarily indicates that online knowledge construction often remains at a basic level, predominantly involving the sharing and comparing of information. What this paper adds: This study explores instructional designs aimed at elevating online knowledge construction among adult students at an open university in Taiwan.It identifies specific instructional strategies, such as teacher‐led interim summaries, the use of Socratic questioning, and the integration of problem‐solving projects, as effective in promoting higher‐level knowledge construction.The paper also sheds light on the challenges hindering higher‐order knowledge construction, including time constraints, cultural influences, and unfamiliarity among peers. Implications for practice and/or policy: The findings underscore the need for culturally responsive and technologically inclusive instructional designs. These should be tailored to the unique challenges faced by adult learners, particularly in asynchronous online environments.The paper suggests that such instructional designs can significantly improve learning outcomes by fostering more active and deeper participation in online discussions.It also highlights the importance of further research to validate these strategies, given the study's limited sample size and the need for a more robust theoretical foundation for the proposed instructional methods. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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