No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Exploring the Fully Online Learning Community Model: Comparing Digital Technology Competence and Observed Performance on PBL Tasks
Abstract
The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model is intended to operate within a co-created Digital Space to (a) reduce transactional distance, and (b) incorporate newcomers into an established learning community. An operationalized version of the General Technology Competency and Use (GTCU) framework was used with a convenience sample of Ontario Tech University students to determine readiness to work in the Digital Space. Initial findings confirm the results of an earlier study, which found positive correlations between self-reported scores and overall performance quality at the high and low ends of the continuum. We suspect that while the GTCU aids in the identification of a threshold-based approach to identifying readiness to work in the Digital Space, the instrument is insufficiently granular to identify a precise readiness point. This led the team to continue to develop a more sophisticated version of the GTCU, the current Digital Competency Profiler (DCP), and its companion, the Fully Online Learning Community Survey (FOLCS).
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
The integration of digital technologies at institutions of higher education are profoundly influencing formal learning on a global scale. Social-constructivist models of fully online learning are well-positioned to address the demands of government, and economic and social-development organizations for civically-engaged individuals with strong problem-solving, critical-thinking and collaboration competencies. With an established record of performance at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada, the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) is one such model. This paper theorizes FOLC as a response to several problematics, including (a) the aforementioned demand for greater educational focus on higher-order competency development, (b) the deficiencies of distance education and MOOCs as learning models, and (c) a quest for new learning models that strengthen deliberation skills and deepen democratic experience. As a divergent fork of the Community of Inquiry model, FOLC describes collaborative learning as a symbiosis of social and cognitive interactions amplified through effective use of synchronous and asynchronous digital affordances. Furthermore, it models democratized learning communities that reduce transactional distance between learners and educators, incorporates authentic assessment, and encourages negotiated technology affordances and cognitive outcomes while distributing responsibility for constructive criticality. Having positioned FOLC conceptually, and addressed current limitations, a research agenda for extending its empirical foundations, and leveraging UOIT's EILAB affordances, is presented. The underlying argument is that self-regulating and transformative learning communities can be established and sustained in fully online environments, and that such communities (a) produce a diversity of beneficial learning outcomes, and (b) deepen the democratic functioning of learners and their social contexts.
Depuis plusieurs années, dans la littérature, on peut sentir un besoin de préciser l’ensemble de connaissances et de compétences relatives aux ordinateurs nécessaires à l’enseignement et à l’apprentissage. Dans ce contexte, cette recherche vise à développer un modèle global qui permettrait de classer à la fois les outils, leurs usages, leurs incidences ainsi que les connaissances et compétences impliquées dans l’intégration des TIC en éducation de façon à pouvoir comprendre les diverses relations qui existent entre chacune de ces composantes. Une première opérationnalisation de ce modèle a donné lieu au développement d’un instrument permettant de recueillir les représentations des enseignants quant à leurs compétences. Cet article présente le modèle élaboré, le questionnaire qui en a découlé et les résultats des premières analyses statistiques des profils recueillis auprès de plus de 600 enseignants francophones de l’Ontario.
This mixed-methods study explores a digital-competencies survey tool for probing the readiness of higher-education students for digital learning, in three steps.
Grade Increase: Tracking Distance Education in the United States Wellesley MA: The Babson Survey Research Group
- J E Seaman
- I E Allen
- J Seaman
Seaman, J.E., Allen, I.E., and Seaman, J. (2018) Grade Increase: Tracking Distance
Education in the United States Wellesley MA: The Babson Survey Research Group.
New enrolment data for online learning in Canadian universities and colleges
- T Bates
Bates, T. (2018). New enrolment data for online learning in Canadian universities and
colleges. Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2018/11/09/new-enrolment-data-foronline-learning-in-canadian-universities-and-colleges/
Motivating and Retaining Online Students: Research-Based Strategies That Work
- R M Lehman
- S C O Conceição
Lehman, R.M. & Conceição, S.C.O. (2014). Concerns and Opportunities for Online Student
Retention. In Lehman, R.M. & Conceição, S.C.O. (2014). Motivating and Retaining Online
Students: Research-Based Strategies That Work. San Francisco: Wiley & Sons.
What are the key online learning markets over the next few years
- T Bates
Bates, T. (2019a). What are the key online learning markets over the next few years.
Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2019/05/19/what-are-the-key-online-learningmarkets-over-the-next-few-years/
Rethinking the purpose of online learning for developing skills for a digital society
- T Bates
Bates, T. (2019b). Rethinking the purpose of online learning for developing skills for a
digital society. Retrieved from
https://www.tonybates.ca/2019/04/30/rethinking-the-purpose-of-online-learning-4-developing-skills-for-a-digital-society/