Creating a System of Flow, Constructivism, and Motivation for E-Learning

Creating a system of flow, constructivism and motivation for e learning

Creating a System of Flow, Constructivism, and Motivation for E-Learning /
Creating a System of Flow, Constructivism, and Motivation for E-Learning /
Sloane Devoto /

Abstract

This paper aims to create a model that utilizes the advent of e-learning in an innovative and productive way. It blends three major theories of learning: constructivism, flow, and motivational, and looks to recent innovations and future innovations in technology to develop personalized learning systems that become self-perpetuating for a myriad of different learning environments. By pulling outside of the arena of education towards new systems, then seeing how they can be applied to education, new models of learning that are more specific to individuals are managed and maintained. Using recommender systems, software management systems and models of game simulations, positive outcomes from traditional theory can be improved upon.

In countries where education has not been readily accessible, E-learning offers opportunity. It is at the beginning stages to take over as a major platform for education worldwide. According to the E-learning Africa 2012 Report, the key findings of their survey “believes that Africa will achieve universal access to ICT in education over the next five years.”(ELAR 2012 p.10). At the time of this report, over1.5 million students were engagedin ICT learning (ELAR 2012 p.17). In China, from 2006-2007, online education grew 20.7% (Global, 2010). In 2007 there were 12 million students learning through online education. As it is a cultural belief in China that education leads to a higher standard of living, families are willing tocontinue to investheavily in education. China’s demand for educational institutions and infrastructure cannot be met with either their means or the capacity of the global educations industry, thus they are looking towards e learning as a solution.(Duan et al., 2010 p. 238) India’s online education market is expected to grow to 40 billion by 2017 according to the 2010 ICTs for Education in India and South Asia, Extended Summary. It is still a work in progress to provide ample opportunity and access to elearning in the diverse areas of the country. This survey states that “The IT@School project was initiated by the Government of Kerala in 2000 to provide ICT enabled education in the state and has achieved the status of the World’s largest simultaneous deployment of FOSS based ICT education.” (ICT4E p12). And in countries where education is more readily available, online educations is also increasing. In the U.S. a 2011 study by the Sloan Consortium found that 6 million students in the US are taking at least one online course, nearly one third of all those enrolled in higher education. Enrollments in online courses are outpacing those of higher education as a whole, with a 10% increase in online students between 2010 and 2011 compared

to a just 2% rise overall. In response, 65% of higher education institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy. (ICEF Monitor, 2010)

E-learning is defined as “using network technologies to create, foster, deliver, and facilitate learning, anytime and anywhere (Liaw, 2008). As technological applications continue to expand, e-learning lends itself to a huge potential for innovation (Duan, et al., 2010 p.237). Whether being structured as a for-profit business as in China or an answer to the development of enriched not-for-profit educational programs, e-learninghas the opportunityto offer something that the traditional model does not (Duan, et al., 2010). To improve upon traditional learning, e-learning can apply technology to the best practices of learning theory. For practicality, e-learning offers an economic advantage. E-programs can be done at the convenience and location of the learner. This reduces the costs of books, facilities, housing, transportation, instructors. A lesser aspect of current e-learning is there are many low quality online programs available wherein the program is more of a “pay for you degree” standard. Ase-learning enters the mainstream, more and more highly respected universities are implementing online programs and degrees. The demand isfor higher standards. The use of online learning as an innovative tool to increase and improve our capabilities to learn is the impetusto online learning becoming avalid learning community.By incorporating the relevant criteria and strategies of applicable learning theories and providing a blended approach that motivates and enhances the learner experience, e-learning will continue to move to the forefront. This paper will look at how the theory of flow can be combined with constructivism and motivation learning theories to create a valuable and dynamic e-learning environment.

Literature Review

Driscoll states five conditions for constructivist learning (Driscoll, 2005, p. 393). They are:

1. embed learning in a complex, realistic, and relevant environment
2. provide social negotiations as an integral part of learning
3. support multi perspective and use of multiple modes of representation
4. encourage ownership
5. and nurture self awareness of the knowledge construction process

Csikszentmihalyi (1996, 1993) defines nine dimensions of flow state:

1.clear goals

2.immediate feedback

3.personal skills well suited to given challenges

4.merging of action and awareness

5.concentration on the task at hand

6.a sense of potential control

7.a loss of self-consciousness

8.an altered sense of time

9.experience which becomes autotelic.

Rogers (1983) lists five attributes that need to be present for an innovation to be adopted and diffused:

1. relative advantage
2. compatibility
3. complexity
4. trial ability
5. observability

E-learning can both improve upon and encourage the educational process by weaving the characteristics of these three areas together; constructivist strategies, motivational influences and the sustaining, positive consequences of flow.

Csikszentmihalyi first introduced the “flow experience” in 1975. It is defined as “the psychological state in which an individual feels cognitively efficient, motivated, and happy” (Moneta & Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p277). Achieving the state of flow can create intrinsic satisfaction with whatever activity one is engaged in. Hoffman and Novak (1996) proposed that “flow has a number of positive consequences, including increased consumer learning, exploratory behavior, and positive affect.” Increased consumer learning….this concept is a wonderful match for ICT. We do not know how far the e- learning phenomenon will take us. Currently China is creating an educational system that is for profit and puts the “students” in the role of “consumer” (Global 2010). This may or may not be the beginning for change with the perception of “student” worldwide. There are economics with this model and the cash strapped status of many educational institutions may become the motivation for new models of educational economics. The lines between the definitions of “client”, “consumer” and “student” may eventually merge together with delineations between the three dropping away. “Since flow may lead to peak performance and self-actualization (Maslow, 1971,1968) one would expect to find higher learning motivation, more positive learning behavior, more creativity, and increased self-esteem…” (Chen, 2004).Whether it be early education training, higher education training, corporate training or life-long learning, an effective e-system of learning that produces flow has the characteristics to contribute to increased learning outcomes.

Biasutti’s article on collaborative e-learning presents the development of collaboration in a virtual community and the student satisfaction with them. She concluded that the organization of the facilitation of the communication with regards to online duties, quality of submission of discussion questions, rotation of group members and tutor feedback, including the use of Wiki, were the most important strategies in achieving student satisfaction. When these areas were addressed and supported in ways that allowed students to share to the degree that they were able to feel a part of a team, they were able to experience the positive benefits of social negotiations. Biasutti’s findings support situated cognitive theory in that “learning is affected by experience. Individuals learn from the consequences of their own and others actions and develop new cognitive structure and behavioral routines.” (Biasutti, 2011) Through the appropriate use of ICT methods an instructional design can support a Community of Learning.

In Wan, Wang & Haggerty’s research on “Why People Benefit from E-learning Differently”, the authors used social cognitive theory to test the influence of prior experience and virtual competence on positive outcomes with regard to use of ICT. “Understanding learners’ psychological processes is crucial for institutions to provide effective e learning programs” (Wan, Wang & Haggerty, 2008). Wan looks at IT, instructional strategy, the psychological processes and contextual factors as influencing learning outcomes.They acknowledge the ability that e-learning offers the learner to personalize and self-pace the content. But only through an understanding of a learner’s internal state and their computer use competencies, can a learner be successful with e learning. Their findings did not show that virtual competencies or those “more experienced in communication via ICT” (Wan, Wang & Haggerty, 2008, p.518) directly supported a positive ITC experience. They did discover, however, that learners with higher

virtual competencies “learned more and had a more satisfying, sometimes more enriching experience”. (Wan, Wang & Haggerty, 2008, p.518). Communication is an importantfactor of SCT, but the authors put forth that it was possible that the results in the area of communication were from an instructional design that did not request the learners utilize those experiences.

Traditional classrooms have historically strived to present lessons that address individual learning styles, for the purpose of maximizing the processing of information. Constructivism includes the support of multi perspectives and multi modes of representation (Driscoll, 2005, p. 394). Recommender Systems (RS), widely used for product pushing and marketing, are beginning to find their way into education. Santos and Boticario ( 2010) discuss two approaches for the use of Education Recommender Systems (ERS); A top- down formal approach where domain professionals maintain and control the learning plans and materials, and bottom up informal approach where the learner participate in a shared network, interacting with information and self directing their learning. Santos also discusses the use of -TORMES- Tutor-Oriented Recommendations Management for Educational Systems., a knowledge and rule based recommender to help select appropriate recommendations.(Santos and Boticario, 2010, p.2794). Like the seemingly mind reading aspect of recommenders to suggest product purchase that would interest the individual, the goals of these educational recommenders would be to enhance both the ability of the teacher to provide personalized information to the learner, but also to enhance the learner’s experience by addressing their personal learning styles and interests while setting and achieving their learning goal. Just as Amazon tracks its clients’ interests to the degree that many feel Amazon knows one’s thoughts better than they do (!) the use of recommenderssystems can create a sense of compatibility with the learner, as will the ability to match them into an online community of learning.

Klasnja-Milicevic, et al., designed an intelligent web based tutoring system named ProtusProgramming Tutoring System (Klasnja-Milicevic, et al., 2011 p. 888 ) that uses RS and hypermedia to create recommendations for “sequences of learning activities in a pedagogically effective order.” The purpose of this program is to test learning styles to formulate personal learning patterns then use this information to form similar groups of learners. Ozpolat and Akar (2009) suggest the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) that use learner participation thought forums, chat rooms, mail systems, etc, to “diagnose a learner’s learning style”. The information could be used to create”learner profiles” based on Felder and Silverman’s learning style model (FSLSM) (Felder & Silverman, 1998)that list four dimensions of learner preferences:sensing/intuitive;visual/verbal;active/reflective;sequential/global. Using this information an instructional online program could morph itself to the unique learning styles of the user as it tailors its design, through use, to the learner. Protus, a programming tutorial systems, is currently being used to “automatically adapt to the interests and knowledge levels of learners.” (Klasnja-Milicevic, et al., 2011). The model of this system has implications for further use for E-learning personalization.

. Ozpolat and Akar tap into the dimensions of flow’s aspect of providing “personal skills well suited to given challenges”(Ozpolat and Akar, 2009, p. 355) in their statement, “a desirable characteristic for an e learning system is to provide the learner the most appropriate information based on his requirement and preferences.” Ozpolt and Akar state the need for a web based LMS that will assess learner styles. The multi-faceted offerings of LMS can become a buffet of data objects for the learner to select from. For learning preferences, Ozpolt and Akardescribe FSLSM’s four dimensions “to distinguish between preferences of the learner”:

1. Learners perceive information either by sensing via physical sensations, obvious facts or intuition vie theoretical, abstract approaches, memories
2. Learners like learning either using visual materials, illustrations or using verbal material like listening or narrative texts
3. Learner learn either actively via experiments and with collaboration or reflective by themselves, and without trying things
4. Learners get the concept either sequentially by following step by step or globally by starting from the overall picture of eh concept and then going into details

These preference can be used to create and determine units of design for individual learners.

Keramati, AFshari-Mofrad and Kamrani’s (2011) research on readiness factors in E-learning outcomes divides readiness factors into three main groups; technical, organizational and social to draw a relationship between a learner’s readiness and competency with ICT and the learning outcomes. They find the need ‘to shift the learning environment to teacher centered to student centered the first step is to train teachers and clarify advantages of this new paradigm for them.”(p.1927)Their findings coincide with Selim (2007)thatprovides four factors in determining successful E-learning outcomes. In order of importance, a self-confident and highly motivated student; teacher competency with ICT and a positive attitude towards it; appropriate use of IT with course content; and support of top management who knows how to use the system to its best advantage. Employing the use of a team based approach to use highly trained teachers

to instruct students to develop student confidence will lead to motivation. The creation of a student centered learning environment will support the elements of constructivism.

To encourage learner ownership Wang goes on to emphasize the importance of self-directed learning as a critical component of e-learning .Wang states in his research on web based assessment strategies for facilitating junior high school student to preform self-regulated learning in an e-learning environment, “the main advantage of e-learning is that it overcomes the limits of time and space and provides learners opportunities to perform self-directed learning”(Wang, T., 2011, p. 1801). Though he points out that a consequence of this can be a learner who feels “isolated and disconnected” from the learning environment, thus he suggests more time be spent on supporting and instructing students on how to become self-regulating.Pintrich’s (1999) indentification of three metacognitive and self-regulatory strategies: planning monitoring and regulating, can be taught to allow for improving the skills for self-regulating.

Ownership for the process of learning comes out of self-efficacy. How can the e-learning environment foster this? Learner readiness is tied to self-efficacy. Wen, Wang and Haggerty (2008) point out that learners can self-direct a lot of their online learning and individualize the content and the time lines. In examining how the individual experiences online learning they found that ICT learning did not have a direct positive effect on the e-learning outcome but that there was a relationship between virtual competency and outcome satisfaction. Since the quality of online education is dependent upon the “quality of electronic knowledge sources”(Keramati et al.) a learner ability or readiness to utilize the ICT system is relevant to positive outcome. Their

results of their study found that “teachers’ motivations and training factor plays the most important role.”

To address motivation, Rogers (1983) lists in his Diffusion of Innovation Theory five attributes that influence the adoption of e-learning:

1. relative advantage wherein learners perceive the innovation has an advantage to them over the traditional way.
2. compatibility wherein the learner believes the innovation is compatible with their current values
3. complexity or the perception of difficulty of use and necessity of prior knowledge and skills
4. trial ability wherein the learner feels they will have the opportunity to try out the innovation before its adoption
5. observability; Rogers found that it is easier for learners to adopt an innovation when the result are visible to themselves and others.

Out of these 5 attributes from Duan’s (et al.) survey it was found that perceived compatibility had the most influence on whether or not a learner became open to innovation in e-learning. Roger’s Diffusion theory weaves together the staples of constructivism with the sum total being the creation of flow. The strategies for creating an effective online program lies in the development of combining strategies building upon one another to create the final experience.Setting up the context with which learners have the competencies, at least enough to begin engagement of the process, is one of the first steps. Putting in place the strategies that will create user satisfaction will provide continual motivation. Once these are in place a structure of networking is inserted. Finally, a simulation type activity/unit that engages and interacts with the learner is developed and put into place. Like icing on the cake, Csikszentmihalyi’s theory creates an umbrella under which these strategies, applied to ICT, can produce a dynamic and novel improvement in learning outcome.

Discussion and Conclusion

Imagine a group of trained instructors, instructors that not only know the limits of what an advanced ELS can accomplish, but have vision and skills to improve upon it and tweak it as they see fit for its growth. They create a program unit for students that can use ERS based on Felder and Silverman’s learning style model to assess and identify student styles. The instructors comprise a series of basic self-directed activities that assess and provide the necessary schemata. A network of similar learners from all over the world, across age/grade levels, is created. Through the joining of innovative models of ID, a new model of ID is created to address a whole new level of learning.