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Online Students' Perceptions of Interactive Tools to Support Postgraduate Learning of Mathematics
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Prieto, Elena Holmes, Kathryn |
| Copyright Year | 2014 |
| Abstract | With the advent of new technologies, methods of blended learning are used in online mathematics classrooms to facilitate interactions and provide a richer experience for students. This paper analyses data obtained from practising teachers during their participation in two postgraduate mathematics courses. We conclude that discussion forum interactions are students’ preferred way of online learning. Also, although high levels of interaction do not necessarily correlate with success, they are essential for some students to persist with difficult content. Emerging technologies are increasingly enabling new ways of interacting in both the physical and the virtual classroom, allowing higher education instructors to redesign their delivery methods. Planning instruction using a variety of delivery modes is often referred to as ‘blended learning’ (Bonk & Graham, 2012). In a blended learning environment, learners can access course content and activities in a variety of ways, for example, videos, blogs and online assessments, while interacting with each other and with the instructor in synchronous and/or asynchronous fashion (Holmes, 2005). The project we report on in this paper was designed to evaluate the impact of methods of blended learning and assessment in a series of online courses, part of a postgraduate retraining program for teachers. The student cohort we focused on for this study consisted of a group of 60 practising teachers re-training to be high school mathematics teachers. The backgrounds of the students were diverse, but generally they were secondary school teachers who specialised in areas other than mathematics during their training but found that re-training in mathematics would provide better career prospects. The project concentrated on two concurrent semester-long courses in the postgraduate program. These courses had traditionally been taught online asynchronously by sending students material to work on and asking to submit two written assignments and sit a final exam. Students were able to communicate via email and online discussion boards with the university educators to ask questions and request feedback. With this project we aimed to provide a wider range of blended learning experiences for students, including frequent targeted online assessment, which we thought could steer the asynchronous nature of the online teaching of these courses from a traditional self-directed approach to one in which interaction with the university educators and other students was more akin to face-to-face. The ultimate goal of the project was to ascertain which factors contribute to a quality learning environment in online mathematics teaching. In this paper we aimed to answer the following research question: What factors do postgraduate students identify as contributing to a quality online learning environment? |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download/uon:17599/ATTACHMENT02 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED572584.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
