Master Thesis: Outline

New

• Title
Development of Self-Direction Through Self-Reflection in a Webcourse

• Introduction
The work to create this Master´s Thesis began when I was asked to do my study about an eLearning-course which has took place in spring 2008. I was asked to collect material written by the students in their weekly reflections.

After I collected the reflections from the students´ blogs to excel-files I started to look different relations between the answers. I´ve got interested about the students self-direction when participating courses myself and I feel that it is quite essential for the success of the student in online learning. I wanted to find out how and also how teachers could support it. This is why I focused to different elements of self-direction also with the materials of this precise course.

Studying the self-direction also brought up the usage of tools, so I studied the relation between them. The more familiar the student is with the tool/tools he/she uses the easier it is to be self-directed. But the usage of the tools is just one part. In this process I noticed that the essence what I would want to find is how to help teachers/tutors to keep the students in the courses and studying actively. Self-direction is a big part of it.

• -existing work
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• -research question
Does self-direction develop in time? Is it so that who is self-directed stays so, who not does not develop? What is the identification of self-direction in self-reflections?
• -hypothesis
Self-direction can develop in time. Most students self-direction doesn´t develop. Self-direction can be seen in self-reflections through choices of student, developing of ideas and use of schedules.
• -goal
The goal is to find out how self-direction might develop in time and how self-direction is identified from self-reflections.

• Main part
• -method
Quantitative datacollecting, qualitative analyzing, focus groups
• -description of media project
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• -synthesis and analysis of material/data
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• Conclusions
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• -outcomes
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• -evaluation of the outcomes against the hypothesis
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• -evaluation of the outcomes against the goal
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• -implications
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Literature & other:

Brockett, R. G. and Hiemstra, R. (1991) Self-Direction in Adult Learning. Perspectives on theory, research and practice, London: Routledge.

Brookfield, S. (ed.) (1985) Self-Directed Learning. From theory to practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Candy, P. C. (1991) Self-direction for Lifelong Learning. A comprehensive guide to theory and practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hayes, C. (1998) Beyond the American Dream. Lifelong learning and the search for meaning in a postmodern world, Wasilla: Autodidactic Press.

Jarvis, P. (1992) Paradoxes of Learning. On becoming an individual in society, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Knowles, M. (1975) Self-Directed Learning. A guide for learners and teachers, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall/Cambridge.

http://www.tash.org/mdnewdirections/selfdirection.htm
http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-selfdr.htm
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr200.htm

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 10

What was your personal impression of participating such a course?
I enjoyed the course very much :)
I think the materials were very good and carefully chosen. Also this way of working, doing an actual course with a group is excellent choice. BUT to activate students and keep them working and most importantly together is VERY hard. To create the feeling that things are happening all the time is one key, but to show it.. Somehow it should be more clear to the students where is the actual "home" and from there you should have clear links to EVERY source needed and "see" others too (for example the feeds from blogs). Just ONE place where to go every day and check the current situation and do what is to be done.

I indeed learned also something new about collaboration. I´ve always been the hyperactive member of all the groups I´ve participated. I´ve done the tasks even alone if others didn´t do anything. It was quite a surprise to have another kind of role, more normal one I think ;) But I did feel I wasn´t doing enough and felt quite frustrated for not being able to do more - it was too difficult to jump in. Some of my tryings were even deleted which of course didn´t give much a courage.. But this was an important lesson. As was also this thing with being visible; how important it would be to have a certain place where all the group members / students can see that something IS actually happening all the time, the course is still going on.

I am used to taking responsibility for my own learning. It suits me, but I do need the contact with fellow students also. The discussions in the forums (or commenting and receiving comments like in this course) are very important. I need to reflect with others, get some support and see that I´m not alone doing stuff.

This really was a good experience. Maybe I´ll do my Master´s thesis about how to activate web students..

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 9

How well could I fulfill my goals?
Well, I was sure I would do more; create, write and "fuzzaround" making the group members to work.. But I ended up only commenting. Heh, I did try to do an actual evaluation plan but it was deleted (twice). So there was no plan done, just some questions. There were two hyperactive guys in our group who did almost everything - and deleted things they didn´t like. Good point was that they really did things and we others commented but I believe all of us would have enjoyed also the actual doing. They started out with force when I was still wondering the life of a mother, so I didn´t manage to jump in to their pace.

Besides commenting I also did comment other group member´s blogs, used a whole lot of not-so-familiar tools (Google Groups, Doodle Polls, Zoho...), put some links to the del.isio.us -account, wrote something about wikis as learning environments, did a lot of evaluation on other groups´courses and wrote a lot to this blog.

So I can say that I achieved quite much but would have done more also. Luckily I´ve studied quite a lot of eLearning (e.g. Mediapedagogy in university level for 25 ECTS points) so I don´t feel so left out. I do know that mostly it was up to me; I could have been more active but I know also that I would have done more if there wasn´t these guys who did almost everything. But it was good for the group that there were these active guys since I had my baby back then when it would have been time to be more active. It just happened that my baby got first :) She is little only once and she really needed me. And I enjoyed being with her so much. I still am with her all the time, now I just am more used to this situation and have more energy to study also. So I just have to settle for this what happened with this course, even tough I´m used to always do 110%.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 14 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
It´s been very quiet week.. With our group. Last week I evaluated the group 5, this week the groups 2, 3, 4, 6 & 9. Others (7, 8, 10) were not ready or didn´t have any place to evaluate.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
It was very interesting to see what other groups had made :) The courses and the evaluation polls.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and our wiki. For evaluating others: their wikis, Google Groups and polls.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
I commented some of the team member´s blogs and the "global" blogs of this course. And did a lot of different polls, using wikis, blogs, getFAST.ca and GoogleDocs polls.

(This is here just to keep these in mind :)
Group works
Group1 course design
Group1 evaluation page
Group2 course design
Group2 evaluation page
Group3 course design
Group3 evaluation page
Group4 course design
Group4 evaluation page
Group5 course design
Group5 evaluation page
Group6 course design
Group6 evaluation page
Group7 course design
Group7 evaluation page
Group8 course design
Group8 evaluation page
Group9 course design
Group9 evaluation page
Group10 course design
Group10 evaluation page

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 13 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
There were some interesting ways to collect evaluation, nice to learn about polls.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Evaluation of other groups.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Lot´s of reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and our wiki. For evaluating others: their wikis, Google Groups and polls.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In our wiki with the participants (it was very quiet week), I also commented some of the team member´s blogs and the "global" blogs of this course.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 12 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
Evaluation planning..

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Evaluation planning.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Lot´s of reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and our wiki.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In our wiki with the participants, I also commented some of the team member´s blogs.

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 8

How to formatively evaluate e-learning course designs?
I was starting to make a plan; who to ask, how many different people, what.. I know that the people who are going to answer / evaluate are our "classmates" but still it would have been nice to make such a plan. It´s close to (usability) testing which is one of my favorite subjects.

But seems like in our team we just make some questions, maybe to Doodle as a poll. Now I´m trying to be a part even to that. Seems like I´ve missed all the other action, just made some comments.

BUT to this subject. Evaluation should be planned well; who is going to evaluate, what kind questions to make (open / selective / both), what are the actual questions and so on.

A Doodle poll is of course OK, at least it´s easy to realize.

I´ve made some evaluations of other team´s courses and it was interesting to use different polls; with wikis and Google Groups.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 11 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
What a process this really have been!

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Our wiki really is an excellent place :)

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Lot´s of reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and our wiki. And now we got even a Zoho-account!

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In our wiki with the participants, I also commented some of the team member´s blogs.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 10 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
I enjoyed the conversations about people´s experiences - again II ;)

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Our group is really active in our wiki I´m proud :)

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Lot´s of reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle, our wiki and del.icio.us account.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In our wiki with the participants, some emailing also.

EMIM / E-Learning / Personal Contract II

My objectives: Why I wish to learn/do something, what is meaningful for me/for my group as part of the assignment I am responsible of?

I want to deepen my knowledge, eLearning is familiar to me, but there is always something to learn more. Meaningful is my experience, maybe the courses I have done give something to this team too. Especially the wiki courses I´ve made.

What I would like to add is the pedagogical aspect: that is what I need to learn the most! Different technologies to set up a course are quite familiar and I think the management side is easy to me :)

What resources will I need: What software tools and resources I am going to use? Resources can be people, different artifacts, materials.

I most definitely need my team! I have already done one group work almost alone in the autumn ;) I will need my laptop, Internet connection, Firefox, Word, Excel, Photoshop..

Peer evaluation and discussions are to be important.

What is also needed: blogs, wikis, Skype, email, Doodle (a new thing for me, making polls).

How will I do it: What is my strategy to achieve my objectives? What is the order of my actions? How will I use different resources in my actions?

I believe some planning is to be done with Word and Excel, but maybe we also will use wiki or something (LATER EDIT: Google Groups). Laptop is the artifact to work with and I need Internet connection and Firefox to keep contact, deliver material and so on. With Photoshop I most likely do some pictures or something.

I will read the course materials, join the discussions with my team, do all the weekly assignments and with the help of these join the design of our team´s own course.

Evaluation criteria: How do I know that I was successful? Develop measurable criteria to evaluate your activities in respect of your objectives.

Well, the team will give feedback. And I´m quite harsh to myself as usual ;) I will rely on straight feedback, I will give myself points or something.

The peer evaluation will hopefully be lively :) And I believe the facilitator will guide me.

Self-reflection: Did I achieve my objectives? Use the criteria what you developed to assess how well did you work. Reflect, what worked and what did not?

For now we have been doing some planning. Of course I suspected a bit more activity, but as it has been seen so many times it´s so damn difficult. Maybe I should really study how to activate people to do group works via Internet / webcourses. Finding some successful ways would really help many!

The current situation is better, I´ve managed to get a babysitter on daytime :) These first months with a baby have shown me that there is no planning anymore.. Just have to do things when it´s possible. Evenings seem to be the hardest (the baby is in her most demanding), at daytime I have time to study since the baby usually sleeps a long nap. I would have enjoyed doing more, but I just have to settle with this I´ve got. The guys have been so hyperactive that I have troubles following them and that is really new to me!

Google groups didn´t work that well, somehow it was very plastic or something. Wiki has worked out much better even though they are not that much different. Little things count :) Doodle´s polls are easy, del.icio.us got me confused at first, Skype has worked well as usually. We´ve really used a lot of different softwares and services!

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Based on the comments

At the beginning of the course I felt I´d do a lot as usual, be the one who does things when others don´t have time or loose interest or something.. The surprise was quite big when I noticed that I don´t have the time to be the one anymore. Luckily in this group there are two very active fellows :) And I ended up kind of being late and fell back, I lost the sense of "what is the current situation". After that I´ve been more or less confused, trying to catch up. Still am.

My objective to the group was to participate a lot, be in the middle of the actual thing. I ended up commenting to GoogleGroup/wiki/blogs, adding some links to del.icio.us, collecting something about wikis.. Those (wikis) are kind of what I was planning to give to this group and I actually did write something about my experiences, but so much more could have done.. But I will rise again! There are still weeks left so now my objective is to give as much as possible to this next task, evaluating.

EDIT:
Well, you can see that I tried, check the history of Formative evaluation page in the wiki.. All deleted what I tried to put in there. Well, at least I created one page to there.

So I´ll stay as a commentator, try to suggest things to every part of the course. Discuss. And try to find some useful materials and so on.
I just have to settle for the grade I get.

EDIT II:
Well, now I´m trying to make our course visible and be part of the gang to produce the evaluation poll / questions.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 9 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
I enjoyed the conversations about people´s experiences - again ;)

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Our group is really active in our wiki :)

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Lot´s of reflecting about other´s experiences.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle, our team´s Google group (mainly just reading since we´ve moved to a wiki), wiki and now we have also a del.icio.us account.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In wiki with the participants, email.

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 7

From the perspective of my tasks in our workgroup, what did I learn from theoretical materials, how to make/use the course materials/activities/assessment/tools?
Well, have to say that we are still in process so much that I have to get back to this subject later..

Later:
My tasks ended up to be more of a commentator, link collector, wiki-specialist.. I thought I would have been maybe the pedagogical "expert" or something but.. Maybe I should have been more offensive.. But that is not my style. Well, luckily I have studied eLearning quite a lot, 25ECTS points in university level + around 10 in lower level, so I don´t feel that I missed now something important.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 8 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
I enjoyed the conversations about people´s experiences.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
It was very nice to chat with the group! And also to see that in our Google group we have some discussion all the time.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
This week we discussed a lot of the group work itself, about the use of blogs and wikis and so on.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle, our team´s Google group and Skype. Now we also have a wiki

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In Google group with the participants. We also had a Skype-chat on Sunday 20.4. :)

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 6

Explain, which type of learning environment is best suitable for your e-learning course?
Our group/team decided to use wikis and blogs. Wiki would be the "home", where are all the materials and so on and the students will have personal reflection in blogs. The topic of our course is blogs and how to use them, that is why the students also need to actually use a blog. So the course is about basic concrete skills in setting up and using blogs and also skills to use these technologies in a pedagogically correct manner.

We will use behavioristic way of learning in the beginning since we want everybody to be at the same level with knowledge and skills. Then we will also use the constructivistic approach since part of the course is about letting people to learn through experience.

From our team´s Skype-chat:
"I think what we could say about the latter iterations would be that we'd give the learners some basis which they could found their learning process to obtaining these skills and also try them out to find out the ways that suite them"

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 7 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
Selecting a suitable learning environment. We already have chosen to use blogs, but in general.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Different learning environments though Moodle, WebCT and some others are already familiar to me.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
Blogs and wikis can also be used as learning environments. In a way. You just need to have some other ways to for example measure the activity and give rates and so on.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and our team´s Google group.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
In Google group with the participants.

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 6 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
How to use Google´s groups ;)

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Finally our team really starts to work!

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
I told about my experience with wikis to my team. Now we are going to test blogs as a way of learning.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle and Skype and Google group.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
Via Skype with Ani i Lyubo and one thought with Kai Pata ;-) And in Google group with the participants (discussion, editing materials).

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 5

What are the best ways of finding a social network of your interests?
At least it´s a big job to do ;) You could start with Google, search for for example articles and blogs about the subject. Through this you get at least some idea of the situation. From one blog you most likely find links to some others and soon you have a kind of social network; at least you know who writes about the subject. Then just get familiar with them. Maybe even Facebook could be helpful?

From this week´s materials:

"Online learning is at the cusp of a transformation that ought as well to inform social networking: the transition from a centralized, institution-based system depending on a top-down structure and rigid standards to a decentralized, grassroots system of creation and sharing based on informal and ad hoc standards."
Source

Sounds good, let´s do that! :) ;)

Social networking websites
Web2.0 tools
(Thank you Kai!)

EMIM / E-Learning / Personal Contract

• My objectives: Why I wish to learn/do something, what is meaningful for me/for my group as part of the assignment I am responsible of?
• I want to deepen my knowledge, eLearning is familiar to me, but there is always something to learn more. Meaningful is my experience, maybe the courses I have done give something to this team too. Especially the wiki courses I´ve made.
  
• What resources will I need: What software tools and resources I am going to use? Resources can be people, different artifacts, materials.
• I most definitely need my team! I have already done one group work almost alone in the autumn ;) I will need my laptop, Internet connection, Firefox, Word, Excel, Photoshop..
  
• How will I do it: What is my strategy to achieve my objectives? What is the order of my actions? How will I use different resources in my actions?
• I believe some planning is to be done with Word and Excel, but maybe we also will use wiki or something (LATER EDIT: Google Groups). Laptop is the artifact to work with and I need Internet connection and Firefox to keep contact, deliver material and so on. With Photoshop I most likely do some pictures or something.
  
• Evaluation criteria: How do I know that I was successful? Develop measurable criteria to evaluate your activities in respect of your objectives.
• Well, the team will give feedback. And I´m quite harsh to myself as usual ;) I will rely on straight feedback, I will give myself points or something.
  
• Self-reflection: Did I achieve my objectives? Use the criteria what you developed to assess how well did you work. Reflect, what worked and what did not?
• For now we have been doing some planning. Of course I suspected a bit more activity, but as it has been seen so many times it´s so damn difficult. Maybe I should really study how to inactivate people to do group works via Internet / webcourses. Finding some successful ways would really help many!
  

EMIM / E-Learning / Week 5 Reflection

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?
About personal contracts, I´ve never done one before :)

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
To read about other´s personal contracts.

3. Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more about it?
Noup.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
I have to use these contacts more often! They should especially be used with group works..

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (e.g. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
This blog & Moodle.

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
Well, this week was quite quiet ;) This blog and Moodle were the tools to work alone and keep up to date.

EMIM / E-Learning / Assignment 4

How can a conversational personal contract improve self-directed learning?
Very shallow, but it makes you more committed :) Somehow you have promised these things for real, you have it "on paper", you need to have good reasons to slip. Well, at least this is how I feel it.

Web 2.0 has provided us some social spaces which include self-manageable tools, learning at personal spaces, continuous invasion to new spaces, distributing one’s personality between spaces, community as an identity and publishing artifacts to define communities and ourselves. Because of these we need self-direction and self-management.

A personal contract is a tool to this, with it you can make decisions and manage yourself. A conversational contract means that you update the contract, especially according to facilitators comments. It helps to sustain self-conversation with oneself about learning, it also externalizes learning conversation for the learner, passes the control back to the learner.