The ability to transfer what you know to new and different contexts is a sign of successful learning. While students often graduate from college with the required number of courses many lack the skills necessary to apply appropriate strategies to solve problems in different contexts, to reason, and think critically. More than a decade ago the Boyer Report (1995) pointed to this fact as a sign that Universities were falling short in adequately supporting their undergraduate populations. As a result, it is not uncommon to see educational institutions introducing new courses and programs geared towards helping students learn better. This study explores learner experiences and the impact on self-regulated learning within a distributed learning setting when motivated by problem-based learning, game play, and computer-based instruction. In this study the instructional design of the course introduced undergraduate students to authentic learning experiences in which students engaged in collaborative problem solving and learning activities framed within the narrative of an alternate reality game. Fifteen self-regulated learning constructs were examined. The comparison group engaged with problem solving tasks and computer-based instruction. Additionally, the study used the theory Learning and Teaching as Communicative Action and its four communicative actions as a lens to understand the full range of student interactions and how they constructed knowledge. The research design employed computer-mediated discourse analysis to examine qualitative data. Data was triangulated through constant-comparative coding of student communication in the form of web logs, emails, student assignments, and semi-structured interviews. Review and consensus building was embedded in the process of identifying emerging codes and categories, and used to support emergent inferences before the final themes were identified and mutually agreed upon. Finally, to evaluate the outcome of the instructional design, pre and posttest measures were used among groups using a two-sample t-test. Statistical significance was used to determine changes in learning outcomes while select qualitative codes were examined and reviewed to gauge student satisfaction with the instructional approach. Results indicated substantial qualitative and quantitative differences among the three versions of the course related to self-regulated learning practices and communicative action in particular in terms of student interaction, and knowledge construction. Additional, findings revealed differences in epistemic beliefs about learning, which in turn influenced how students chose to learn. These outcomes are presented and discussed along with the implications for instructional design.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc500031 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Najmi, Anjum A. |
| Contributors | Warren, Scott, Lin, Lin, Whitson, Kathleen |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Najmi, Anjum A., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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