Here I give you my final and completely revised paper, where I break down from beginning to end how I formulated my thesis, the steps I took to research it, my sources, my primary data, and everything is included.
Intro
For decades, academic scholars have
argued over the use of technology in post-secondary education and over the
question if critical thinking skills are developed along with online courses.
Thus, I found this issue to be an important field of study, especially because
I currently am enrolled in both traditional and online classrooms. What my
paper adds to this current conversation, however, is more recent research and
to fill in the gap missing in this argument. Those researchers against online
methods often mention how these classes lack proper administration, they do not
allow students to socialize face-to-face to construct ideas, and it is said
that it would take too much funds to transfer fully to online courses and
teachers would be out of jobs if classes were computer-based.
Lit Review
Within the past decade, many
academic conversations have involved the issue of implementing online writing
courses for college freshmen, and these scholars, teachers, and students argue
what effects are brought and what skills are given or taken with the use of
this technology. The main issue here is between modern and online teaching and
how they compare against each other to prove which method is more efficient.
This is also important because depending on which teaching method proves
better, then colleges could potentially change how writing courses are
administered. However, in my research and in developing my paper, I hope to
learn more about the mental skills students acquire and the arguments they have
to include into the academic journals and conversation taking place.
I have many sources that are in
favor of online writing courses and they include the articles of: “First-Year
College Student Beliefs About Writing Embedded in Online Discourse: An Analysis
and Its Implications For Literacy Learning.” , “Online Synonym Materials and
Concordance for EFL College Writing.” , “Virtual Academic Community: Online
Education Instructors: Social Presence in Association with Freshmen Composition
Students’ Critical Thinking and Argumentation.” , “Project Vision: An Online
Learning Initiative for College Freshmen.” , “An examination of At-Risk College
Freshmen’s Expository Literacy Skills Using Interactive Online Writing
Activities.” , “Out of class – out of mind? The use of a virtual learning
environment to encourage student engagement in out of class activites.”
Also, my articles against the idea
of using technology for writing courses include: “Examining the Influence of
Multimodal New Media Texts and Technologies on First-Year Writing Pedagogies.”
, “Do ICT Competences Support Educational Attainment at University?”
Alternately, I found articles that
contain a neutral perception or a way to infuse both positive and negative
means in mind for a solution: “Promoting Engagement For All Students: The
Imperative To Look Within. 2008 Results.” , “Moving First-Year Writing Online:
Applying Social Cognitive Theory To An Exploration of Student Study Habits and
Interactions.”
What the first group of sources adds
to my paper is the advantages of using online writing courses bring to a
student’s education. Most of these sources involve the concepts of
constructivism and how this idea strengthens students’ awareness and
communication skills. It was also researched and proven on how online
discussion boards enhance conversation between peers which helps bring together
varied ideas and form into one greater idea. Another argued that online writing
courses could easier focus on getting rid of common adjectives and phrases to
emphasize a stronger base of vocabulary words for college freshmen. Despite the
rigorous coursework, students in sample groups reported that these online
modules do help and their higher GPAs reflect the difference. (Handzic, 2012).
The second set of sources inserts
along the negatives of using technology. One of the popular arguments includes
how online writing courses wouldn’t be able to properly teach the rules and
functions of grammar, spelling, organization, and punctuation to students.
Scholars also feel that there is no problem with modern teaching and argue many
teachers will lose their jobs due to the switch to more computer-based classes.
Another concept was that researchers felt, compared to modern teaching, online
writing courses had little to no effect on students’ educational attainment. (Handzic,
2012).
In specific, the positive group of
sources varies little by little if put under subcategories. “First-Year
College…Implications for Literacy Learning,” brings to my paper specifically
about online discussion boards and key skills derived from using these online
modules. This article is also highly credible due to the author being a
professor from University of Northern Iowa and their judgment is quite
even-handed. “Online Synonym…College Writing,” brings into the argument how
online modules can also help foreign college freshmen and how it can broaden
these students limited vocabulary. Through a research project, this is proven
as credible and is also un-biased. “Virtual Academic Community…Critical Thinking
and Argumentation,” explains the theory of how critical thinking is linked with
communication skills, which are all involved in online courses. This is then
tested and students are evaluated to prove that a relationship does exist. Despite
little credentials, the author seems credible, however she does seem rather
prejudicial, in favor of technology for writing classes. “Project Vision…For
College Freshmen,” this source brings the constructivism theory and brought an
actual project focused on finding the precise communication skills developed
from these online classes. Still, this source cannot be proven as credible due
to lack of credentials and it seemed to be pretty un-biased. “An examination
of…Online Writing Activities,” this adds that students acquire improved
awareness as well as their literacy skills. This group of authors proves to be
credible and their argument is even-handed. And finally, “Out of Class…Out Of
Class Activities,” fully analyzes different types of learning and conducts one
project split up in two groups of online and modern teaching and found that the
web-based students progressed quicker and better. This author was credible and
by far proved to be the most persuasive due to the extensive research and
side-by-side comparisons with modern teaching.
The negative sources include,
“Examining the Influence…First-Year Writing Pedagogies,” which portrayed
another comparison of different teachings similar to “Out of class – out of
mind? The use of a virtual learning environment to encourage student engagement
in out of class activities; however this source shows the downsides of online
courses by explaining how teachers won’t always be present and students taking
online classes need guidance while taking these classes. It is also credible,
yet it does seem the author is biased towards modern teaching. The last
negative source is, “Do ICT competences…Educational Attainment At University?”
This source puts to the test of using online and ICT practices, but the test
results show that the students’ literacy rates show little to no effect to SAT
scores and GPAs. Also, this source is highly credible by having a
doctorate-educated author and having references and links to the SAT board and
ACT. This last source was also the more persuasive and valued reference due to
it having more information to better signify the negatives of online teaching
and showing them through results and test scores.
Overall, all of my sources grant me many
perspectives to fully assess the skills, advantages and disadvantages, and
ideas associated with using online
learning for writing courses with college freshmen. However, previous
works were missing academic factors gained from both schools of education, and
they also only took into account certain group of people such as only the
teachers.
Methodology
In order to add to this academic
conversation, a goal was created to analyze the differences between online and
traditional classrooms and distinguish which may be better, if any. Also, it
was beneficial to research into the writing skills developed alongside with
each form of learning.
For data, a survey containing 8
questions was made and distribute randomly to 20 UCF students around campus.
The survey asked participants to answer the following questions on a scale of 1
to 5, with 1 being “not likely/highly disagree” and 5 being “highly agree”. An
example of one of the questions asks students, “Is social interaction crucial
for your learning?” With this data, I then calculated the averages, or average
score for each question to find how the “regular student” would feel on each
question. Still, the reason I chose this method was because many studies or
researchers involved in this academic conversation had done the same, just yet
on a bigger scale, so I thought it would be accurate to do the same.
Like said before, the research
participants were chosen at random and I felt this would be the best method for
a random sampling to increase accuracy of my results and to not allow any bias
in my data at all.
Overall, I applied the average
scores for each question and it applied it to previous studies to compare if
the results remained the same, and other questions such as, “Do you feel online
courses stimulate critical thinking skills?” allows to go into other fields not
explored in this academic conversation. However, the flaws in my methods would
probably only be that I had such a small sampling. If this survey were remade I
would most likely gather a random sampling of about 50 students maybe to see if
my results still stay around the same levels. Also, this method seems to prove
extremely helpful and better compared to full-on experiments that some studies
conducted, plus the survey doesn’t require as many months as experiments,
keeping it convenient as well.
Data Analysis
First off, the main objective of the
created survey was to measure how college freshmen feel about using technology
being incorporated in their studies, if they feel comfortable with the vast
complications of technology, and other means such as a preference in either a
traditional or online classroom. This was conducted to find similarities or
differences between past studies and my hypothesis for this survey was for
students to be generally more comfortable with using technology.
In my results, the first question asks
students if technology has aided them in writing courses and the average score
was a solid 4 out of 5. The next question asks if students feel that their
professors aid their college studies and the mean response was 3.5. Third,
students gave an overall 3.75 on their opinion of traditional classrooms being
beneficial. Following this question, a 2.8 was how students reflected on the
ability to develop critical skills with online courses. However, on the fifth
question a 3.85 was the average for students on whether social interaction is
necessary to learn. The sixth question asked if students were comfortable or
able to easily access technology and they responded with an average of 4.1.
Students highly agreed with the seventh question with a mean of 4.7, which
asked if they felt time management was a huge factor in their academics.
Lastly, a 3.7 was given for if students thought their writing courses involved
research topics/papers.
To
decipher my results, I cannot still guarantee a defined answer on my topic,
however it does seem that the students tend to lean in favor of online courses
because of its benefits. For the first question, it clearly exemplified that
students are already using some type of technology for their writing courses,
whether it be a pencil or laptop, these count as forms of technology. This
question also shows that students agree that these tools aid them in their
writing classes. The second question was almost an undecided answer, so it may
seem that it truly depends on the individual student whether they require a
professor to learn, yet some prefer to learn by themselves, therefore leaning
towards an online instruction. The third question gave an overall response
roughly above average, showing that students don’t really have an influence
whether they have a traditional or online class. The fourth question reflected
a slightly below average score and it portrays that the sample group of
students felt that critical skills are not highly stimulated within online
communities, thus showing a good amount of doubt in the rigor of online
courses. The fifth question had an overall agreement that social interaction is
crucial for academic advancement, which ties into a later reference. The sixth
question gave a solid reply with students fairly agreeing that they do have
readily access to technology and they are relatively comfortable enough to
manage various means of technology. The seventh question gave the highest
feedback of agreement to portray how significant a factor that time management
is within a college freshmen’s academic lifestyle. Finally, the eighth question
poses the response that students slightly agree that research is a primary
topic within their writing courses, which relates to the coursework compared to
traditional and online courses.
My
data compares to a lot of previous studies and experiments, which truly
supports both their and my arguments. The second question relates to preceding
studies such as one of my sources, which created an experiment that produced an
online environment that forced a sample group of college freshmen to work only
within their own groups. The only administrative help students were given was
technical assistance or extremely urgent questions with the online guidelines.
The results were that students performed well without the aid of a teacher and
students actually motivate themselves within their groups to work harder
(Mongillo, 2009). Another source created a similar learning module, with the
purpose of removing teachers from the environment and students felt more
comfortable to work, “without the nagging out teachers about coursework”
(Leese, 2009).
The
fourth question relates to studies about stimulation of critical thinking such
as one example where a professor conducted various surveys and interviews to
find that every 2 out of 4 students felt that critical thinking skills weren’t
developed with online modules while the other 2 felt the other way, which
correlates to my data because the average answer was roughly 3 which is the
middle response. Thus, it seems students can not truly answer this theory, it
would have to be tested (Rendahl, 2011). However, an actual experiment was
administered, by a group of Education majors, to a sample of first-year
transfer foreign college students. The test consisted of a computer-based
program named TANGO, which created 5 units based on vocabulary use, and the
results proved that the students’ learning skills greatly increased as well as
their vocabulary use (Yeh, Yuli, Hsien-Chin, Liou, 2007).
Also,
another source supports the results matched along with the seventh question.
The researcher in this source also uses an online environment in his experiment
to later bring up a theory of “educational attainment” which has to do with a
student’s persistence in study choice, time management, study efficiency, and
GPA. It was resulted that neither an
online or traditional classroom alters one’s attainment, however, it is still
reported that this factor of educational attainment can really make an impact
in a student’s grades. The researcher found it also varies upon
person-to-person but time management does play a crucial role on how a
student’s GPA fluctuates (Meliha Handzic, 2012).
Overall, what my data adds to this
ongoing conversation is that online modules are more successful but not simply
because it is more convenient. This new form of teaching truly develops social
interaction amongst students in a stronger manner than traditional means; it
also subconsciously forces students to become more independent and more
responsible when it comes to academics. Also, this data would allow for not
only college students, but for all types of students to enroll in full-time or
part-time online courses. Different students learn in different ways and this
study would add another alternative for certain students to practice their
knowledge.
Works Cited
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Meliha Handzic, et al. "Do ICT Competences Support
Educational Attainment At
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Mongillo, Geraldine1, and Hilary Wilder. "An Examination Of
At-Risk College
Freshmen's Expository Literacy Skills Using Interactive Online
Writing Activities." Journal Of College Reading & Learning 42.2
(2012): 27-50. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 28 Sept. 2012.
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Media Consortium (2007). 2007 Horizon Report, retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf
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Rendahl, Merry A. "Moving First-Year Writing Online:
Applying Social Cognitive Theory To An Exploration Of Student Study Habits And
Interactions." Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The
Humanities And Social Sciences 71.7 (2011): 2396. MLA International
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Yeh, Yuli, Hsien-Chin Liou, and Yi-Hsin Li. "Online Synonym
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Concordancing For EFL College Writing." Computer Assisted
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K. (2001). The Effective Deployment of e-Learning. Industrial and Commercial
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