Integrating Cognitive with Affective learning in Online Education

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Integrating Cognitive with Affective
learning in Online Education

• WANG Heng
• Beijing Foreign Studies University

2
Overview

• Background
• Purpose of the Study
• Review of the Literature
• Methods and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations

3
Background Online Learning
4
Perspectives on e-learning A framework for
analysis
5
Purpose of the Study

• The present paper aims
• -- to emphasize and address the affective
  issue in the online education.
• -- to provide recommendations in integrating
  cognitive with affective learning in online
  education so as to help instructors create
  effective and positive online learning
  environments.

6
Review of the Literature

• Affective
• Affective means having to do with emotion. It is
  most commonly used in psychology and psychiatry
  to describe emotions. The word affective is
  something of an opposite to cognitive.
  Psychological theory is that one half of the
  brain is affective or emotional. The other half
  of the brain is cognitive, logical, and
  language-oriented(Encyclopædia Britannica).
• Affective functions and cognitive ones are
  inextricably integrated with one another in
  language learning (Picard et al 2004) .

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Review of the Literature

• Teacher Immediacy Behavior
• From the field of communication education based
  on Mehrabian Wiener (1968) in psychology,
  immediacy can be defined as the amount of
  perceived physical and/or psychological
  closeness between people (Christophel, 1990, p.
  325).
• Studies of immediacy behaviors gave rise to the
  concept of social presence, from social
  psychology (Short, Williams, and Christie, 1976).
  
• Social presence is the degree to which a person
  is perceived as a real person in mediated
  communication (Gunawardena, 1995, p.151).

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Social Presence
Definition The degree to which a communication
medium is perceived to be socio-emotionally
similar to a face-to-face conversation. (Rogers,
1986) Bipolar pairs Impersonal Personal Distant
Close Dehumanizing Humanizing Expressive In
expressive Emotional Unemotional Insensitive
Sensitive
8/34
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• Studies have shown that users of computer
  networks are able to project their identities
  whether real or pseudo, feel the presence of
  others online, and create communities with
  commonly agreed on conventions and norms
  (Gunawardena, 1995, p. 151).

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Changing roles (Hiltz et al)

• From Facilitator to Moderator leading to
  learning
• Cognitive role
• Two way learning process
• Engaging in a deeper level of mental processing
  thinking, reasoning, analyzing
• Persistent communication leads to more reflective
  and high quality responses accuracy becomes very
  important
• Affective Roles
• More nonverbal communication
• More intimacy
• More formal, less humor
• Managerial roles
• More course planning
• More course administration and organization
  leading, controlling
• Searching for a new persona smiley faces are
  not my thing

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E-Moderator

• Refers to online teaching and facilitation role.
  Moderating used to mean to preside over a meeting
  or a discussion, but in the electronic world, it
  means more than that. It is all roles
  combinedto hold meetings, to encourage, to
  provide information, to question, to summarize,
  etc. (Collins Berge, 1997 Gilly Salmon, 2000)
  see http//www.emoderators.com/moderators.shtml.

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Methodology

• Both quantitative and qualitative research
  methods were employed in the research.
• Questionnaire survey (distributed to 56 online
  learners) and face-to-face structured interviews.

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Findings (1) Problems Faced

• Pedagogical
• Difficulty in performing lab experiments
  online.
• Lack of appropriate models for pedagogy.
• Time-related
• More ideas than time to implement.
• Not enough time to correct online assign.
• People need sleep Web spins forever.

• Administrative
• Lack of admin vision.
• Lack of incentive from admin and the fact that
  they do not understand what we need.
• Lack of system support.
• Little recognition.

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To Cope with the Interpersonal Machine, We Need
Instructors Loving Support!!!
Findings Problems Faced
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Findings

• Problems
• e.g. The total experience (p vii viii ibid)
  
• what engages students the most -
• course design (41)
• staff (25)
  
• support (10)
• outcomes
• (knowledge/skills) (4)
• e.g. Interactive face to face methods are
  rated most highly or the best for this group of
  95,000 students as learning remains a profoundly
  social experience (p x ibid)

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Findings

• The research results demonstrate that compared
  with the intellectual needs, online learners have
  as much as, or even more affective requirements
  in their online learning.
• Interpersonal relations and social support can
  increase their persistence in online learning,
  and enhances their group commitment,
  collaboration, and learning satisfaction.

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Suggestions

• 1) Emails. Tutors are encouraged to begin their
  online teaching by creating a class email box, a
  place for students and tutors to communicate
  easily. And students personal discussion folders
  may be established if possible. The messages
  might be two to three sentences long and include
  general words of encouragement, caring or
  support. All these could help students overcome
  feelings of remoteness in online learning.

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2) Discussion "forums".

• Forums could be another good way to build up
  communication. In order to increase psychological
  closeness with learners, tutors may use verbal
  immediacy in their response. They may cite their
  personal experiences or give the affective
  response just as a friend. Here, emoticons may
  help a lot. Emoticons are graphic accents or
  textualized icons created by a series of standard
  keyboard characters combined to produce a picture
  (e.g., -) ). These nonverbal cues bring facial
  expressions used in face-to-face settings to the
  internet, conveying affection and emotions.

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3) "Live chat".

• Students often felt that the lack of timely
  feedback from tutors discouraged them from
  participating in the online learning and
  discussions. "Live chat" can address this issue
  and help reduce perceived interaction difficulty
  associated with time-independent posting and
  replying. 4) Phone Calls. In our survey, it is
  surprising to find out what a personal phone call
  can do to enhance a sense of connectedness with
  students. In the interview, off-campus students
  felt as though they learned more when their tutor
  used phone calls to express caring and provide
  specific feedback.

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4) Phone Calls

• In our survey, it is surprising to find out what
  a personal phone call can do to enhance a sense
  of connectedness with students. In the interview,
  off-campus students felt as though they learned
  more when their tutor used phone calls to express
  caring and provide specific feedback.

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Conclusion

• Results of the study concluded that affective
  factors are as important as cognitive factors in
  online education. It builds connectedness and
  promotes learning. Online education should given
  adequate consideration to affective domains.

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• Flow
• belongingness
• exchange
• interaction
• joyfulness

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• Selected Bibliography
• Scott G (2005) Accessing the Student Voice. Using
  CEQuery to identify what retains students and
  promotes engagement in productive learning in
  Australian higher education. Report DEST
• Smith P Sadler-Smith E (2006) Learning in
  Organisations - Complexities and Diversity.
  Routledge, Oxon NY
• Dede, C. 2005, Planning for 'Neomillennial'
  learning styles implications for investments in
  technology and faculty, in D. Oblinger J.
  Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation,
  EDUCAUSE, available online http//www.educause.ed
  u/educatingthenetgen
• Staron M (et al) (2006) Life Based Learning. A
  strength based approach to capability
  development. Report ICVET
• Wenger E (1997) Communities of Practice
  Learning, Meaning Identity. Cambridge
  University Press
• Glasser W (1998) Control Theory in the Classroom.
  Harper Rowe New York
• Ramsden P (1991) (2nd ed) Learning to Teach in
  Higher Education. RoutledgeFalmer
• Carrick Teaching Awards Forum (templates) May
  2007
• Further Reading
• Schön, D (1983) The Reflective Practitioner,
  Basic Books, New York.
• Atkinson T Claxton G (eds) (2000) The
  Intuitive Practitioner On the value of not
  always knowing what one is doing. Open University
  Press, Buckingham
• Sanchez E (2006) Fuzzy Logic and the Semantic
  Web. Elsevier B.V.
• Biggs J (2003) (2nd ed) Teaching for Quality
  Learning at University. Open University press

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• Thank you for your attention!!!