Online teaching in networked learning communities: A multi-method approach to studying the role of the teacher

Authors: Laat, Maarten¹; Lally, Vic²; Lipponen, Lasse³; Simons, Robert-Jan⁴

Source: Instructional Science, Volume 35, Number 3, May 2007 , pp. 257-286(30)

Publisher: Springer

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $47.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to study the online teaching styles of two teachers who each tutor a networked learning community (NLC), within the same workshop. The study is undertaking empirical work using a multi-method approach in order to triangulate and contextualise our findings and enrich our understanding of the teacher participation in these NLCs. We apply social network analysis (SNA) to visualise the social structure of the NLC, content analysis (CA) to identify learning and teaching processes, critical event recall (CER) to gather the teacher's personal experiences and intentions. This paper reports some of the current findings of our work and discusses future prospects. This study is part of a continuing international study that is investigating networked collaborative learning as a way to develop a rich descriptive body of evidence of tutoring and learning processes in e-learning.

Keywords: computer-mediated-communication; CSCL; learning communities; multi-method; networked learning; online teaching; online tutoring; timeline analysis; triangulation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-006-9007-0

Affiliations: 1: Email: m.f.delaat@exeter.ac.uk 2: Email: v.lally@sheffield.ac.uk 3: Email: lasse.lipponen@helsinki.fi 4: Email: p.r.j.simons@ivlos.uu.nl

Publication date: 2007-05-01