Investigation of Support and Barriers That Influence Interaction Between Students And

Investigation of Support and Barriers that Influence Interaction between Students and Educational Websites

Hua Geng, Wing Au School of Education, University of South Australia, Australia [email protected]

Abstract: This paper aimed to identify different support and barriers in relation to the interaction between students and educational websites in an online learning context. The results of the study showed that students reported that all the identified support helped them achieve more productive usage of educational websites and communicate with teachers and other students. Websites designers and online teachers may find these results useful in enhancing the effectiveness of online teaching as well as designing and using instructional programs. Keywords: educational website, online interaction, online learning

Introduction To understand the interaction between students and educational websites, it would be useful to investigate the theoretical basis of educational websites because the theory of learning which designers have adopted as a basis for development of websites might have a critical influence on website quality (e.g., Irele, 1999). The websites which emphasise personal expression and exploration, with opportunities for students to pursue their own approaches to learning can be called constructivist educational websites (Preece, Rogers & Sharp, 2003). Such websites have delegated much control to students. The relationship between students and website designers is an indirect static link; anything the designers wish to provide has to be implicit in the design as normally designers will not have the opportunity to interact directly with students. Irele (1999) states that the website designs should provide a platform for interaction between designers and students. Designers may have laudable and innovative ideas, but unless the website is accessible and easy to use by students, the designers’ ideas will have little impact on students. However, it is also possible to consider the ways in which students use websites in a general functional way. Website designers can provide different support for both general and atypical students. When online learning activities are designed and used, concern needs to be taken of the particular needs of different students. The investigation of the interaction between student and educational websites is concerned essentially with the issue: How students’ success in online learning can be improved by using these websites. A key concept in describing student interaction with websites is filtering (Ryder & Hughes, 1997). To interact with educational websites requires students to access the learning materials, and filter the information of websites. In an online learning context, the students, not the teachers or the designers, control the flow and access to information in most circumstances. Students have to decide what learning materials to access, the usefulness of those materials, and ultimately either drawing upon that materials or navigating the other sources. When filtering the information of websites, students are required to have an objective in mind, to examine various information, to select information relevant to the objective, to discard or gloss over information not relevant to the objective, to synthesise information that assists in accomplishing the objective, and then reacting or responding to the objective (Moore, 1989; Northrup, 2001; Northrup, Lee & Burgess, 2002). Ryder and Hughes (1997) state that unlike retrieval of information, filtering information involves higher-level thinking, problem solving, drawing conclusion, and generating hypotheses. To interact with educational websites requires online students to have necessary technological competencies as well. Irele (1999) states that online students need to acquire basic computer literacy skills. They need to be able to interact with computers through the keyboard and to move within an online environment. Wehmeyer (1997) and Reid (1997) further state that good readings and typing skills are crucial for online learning, and the technological competencies are the ability to navigate the Internet and locate information quickly and how to keep track of it. To interact with educational websites, students are also required to improve their learning skills to be able to use the support provided by the websites. Researchers (e.g., Arbaugh & Duray, 2002; Bevan, Werner & McDowell, 2002; English & Siviter, 2000; Guinee, Ealgeton & Hall, 2003) point out that the more experienced students use context clues more frequently and effectively than the less experienced students. Leung and Ivy (2003) emphasise that less experienced students require more complete instructions to interact with the educational websites. They need to know how, where, and when to use the learning strategies and the support provided by educational websites. In summary, research has shown that the support provided by educational websites is important to the interaction between students and the websites, and to the improvement of the students’ online success level. There is a need to investigate further to what extent the support may help students to achieve successful online interactions and improve their online learning results. Meanwhile, the barriers that may influence the online interaction need to be investigated as well.

The Study In an attempt to build upon the previous research, the present study investigated the support and barriers from educational websites that may influence the interaction between students and the websites. Although much existing research has been undertaken about the interaction between students and educational websites, further research is required to investigate the support provided by the websites and barriers, which may influence online interaction and students’ success in online learning. As far as the support is concerned, little research has been conducted about its usefulness in the online interactions. For example, which support is more useful to the students’ online interaction and students’ success in online learning has not been studied within existing research. Further research is required to examine the influence of the barriers from the websites; moreover, there is a need to investigate further to what extent the support may be found useful by the students for their online interactions and the reasons why the supports are useful to students’ success in online learning.

Method Participants One hundred and fifty-two English language-major students in Changzhou University, China, participated in the questionnaire survey. Of the 152 participants, 129 (85%) were female, and 23 (15%) were male. The age range was from 19 to 25 years old. All the students were full-time students. Instruments The students’ demographic background and their self reports about their liking of traditional classroom learning and online learning and their success in traditional classroom learning and online learning were investigated prior to the current study. The students’ reports on the usefulness of support and barriers from educational websites were investigated. The identified factors in the support and barriers were obtained from a pilot study. A 4-point scale was used to investigate the support: Not useful, somewhat useful, very useful, and essential. The scale used the following: 1 = not useful, 2 = somewhat useful, 3 = very useful, and 4 = essential. The participants were then asked to rate how each of the factors hindered students’ interactions with educational websites: Not a barrier, minor barrier, sizeable and very strong barrier. The scale had these response options: 1 = not a barrier, 2 = minor barrier, 3 = sizeable barrier, and 4 = very strong barrier. 3.3 Procedures The questionnaire survey was administrated with the assistance from the course coordinator and program directors, and the survey lasted about 20 to 30 minutes in duration. Survey instruments were handed out to the students with the consent forms by the researcher and course coordinator. In the letter to the participant, they were informed about the purpose of the study, how long the survey was, and how the data would be stored and accessed. The survey was undertaken quietly in four classrooms at Changzhou University, China.

Findings Percentages of support provided by educational websites Clear evidence was found that students described the identified support provided by educational websites as the one that was useful to the students’ success in online learning. Students who rated themselves as successful in their online learning rated the support as more relatively useful. Table 1 presents the means and standard deviations of the ratings of the usefulness of support provided by educational websites. Table 2 presents the percentages of the barriers from educational websites. Table 1 Usefulness of support provided by educational websites (percentages) Support 1 2 3 4  Electronic security measures such as how to secure your ID and 1.3 13.8 30.3 54.6 other personal information  Provision of search engine 2.0 25.0 40.8 32.2  Tips on how to use electronic reference materials 1.3 19.7 46.1 29.6  Provision of access to technical (IT) assistance and responses about 3.3 19.1 48.7 28.3 technical issues  Navigation guide of the website 0.7 29.6 38.2 31.6  Back-up support using telephone and faxes 1.3 36.8 34.9 27.0  Instructions on whom to approach for help 4.6 28.3 45.4 20.4  A guide/help on using e-mail 3.3 50.7 23.0 23.0  A guide/help on participating in a discussing group 10.5 52.0 27.0 9.9  A guide/help on participating in a bulletin board 10.5 57.9 21.7 9.2  A guide/help on participating in a chat room 13.8 56.6 21.1 7.2  Other tools set up for communicating, e.g. video-conferencing 28.9 46.1 17.8 7.2  The provision of multimedia teaching aids, such as use of graphics, 0 11.2 55.3 33.6 sounds, video, etc, to the learning materials  The provision of the online library and recommended resources 0.7 11.8 61.2 26.3 from other websites to support learning  Opportunities to answer questions and think about solving problems 2.0 17.8 53.9 25.7  Opportunities to consolidate learning 2.0 21.7 54.6 21.1  The provision of organizational aids: overview, key points, and 2.6 23.7 53.3 19.7 summaries  Information about copyright obligations 5.9 33.6 28.3 32.2  Provision of glossaries to inform me about difficult words 4.6 31.6 50.0 13.8  Guidance for evaluating information on the Internet 11.8 56.6 23.0 7.9  Access to other services, such as Ombuds services and online 2.6 32.2 43.4 21.7 counselling  Access to student administration, such as enrolment, registration, 5.9 32.2 40.8 21.1 and assignment submission Note: (a) All above figures represents percentages within each item. (b) 1=not useful, 2=somewhat useful, 3=very useful, and 4=essential.

Table 2 Factors that may assist interactions which lead to collaboration in the online learning context (percentages) Factors that may assist interactions in collaborative online learning 1 2 3 4  Developing trust relationships between students and teachers and 1.3 23.0 51.3 22.4 among students  Ease of use of communication technologies 0.7 25.7 52.0 21.1  Other students' willingness to work collaboratively, e.g., regular 2.0 30.3 53.3 13.8 contribution and/or participation in group discussion  Requirements from assessment system 5.3 39.5 38.8 15.1  Other students' willingness to share opinion 0.7 40.8 55.3 2.6 Note: (a) All above figures represents percentages within each item. (b) 1=does not assist, 2=assist me a little, 3=assist me a great deal, and 4=assist me very strongly.

Students’ online success level (OSL) and the support and barriers from the websites In Table 3, correlations between OSL and ratings of some support from educational websites are to be reported. No significant correlations between OSL and ratings of the barriers from the websites were found, p=ns.

Table 3 Correlation table of self-reported online success level (OSL) with ratings of supports from websites Item r p  Back-up support using telephone and faxes 0.22 0.007  A guide/help on using e-mail 0.20 0.014  Access to student administration, such as enrolment, registration, and 0.18 .03 assignment submission Note: N = 152

The variable “Success2” was created by categorising the 6-point scale into two groups: 1 = less successful (from 1 to 3 in the 6-point scale), and 2 = successful (from 4 to 6 in the 6-point scale). Ninety-six students who reported 1 to 3 in the 6-point scale were less successful students in their online learning; while 55 students who reported 4 to 6 in the 6- point scale were successful students in their online learning (see Table 4).

Table 4 Frequencies of Success2 Success in online learning n Group 1: Less successful 96 Group 2: Successful 55 Note: N=151

Despite the correlations between the ratings of the supports from teachers and the students’ self-reported OSL were not significant, the relationship between the rating of the factor “guidance on effective online learning” and the variable “Success2” was found related significantly by using one-way ANOVA, (see Table 5). Table 5 Variables and Success2 Success2 Mean of less Mean of F Variable successful successfu (1,148 p students l students ) ( n = 96 ) ( n = 55 )  Guide/help on using email 2.52 2.91 7.24 0.008  Back-up support using telephone and faxes 2.75 3.11 6.90 0.010  The provision of the online library and 3.03 3.31 7.10 0.009 recommended resources from other websites to support learning  Access to student administration, such as 2.66 2.96 4.67 0.032 enrolment, registration, and assignment submission

Discussion This section addresses research questions about the influence from the support and barriers from educational websites, and the differences between the reports of more and less successful students in relation to the identified support and barriers. The findings showed that all the identified support provided by educational websites was rated above “somewhat useful” to students’ online interactions. This aspect of results is consistent with other research on the support. For example, Ayersman (1995), Fung (2004), McGuire (1996); Miller and Miller (2000), and Ryder and Wilson (1996) stated that the usefulness of support helped the students to undertake the online learning effectively. Moreover, clear evidence was found that the students described the barriers as the ones that might hinder interactions. In each case, the modal rating made was “sizeable barrier”. These results mirror Alessi and Trollip’s (2001) opinions that the factors such as cultural differences, different time zones and living habits may hinder the online interactions. The findings also imply that these factors emphasise the importance of considering online learning experiences as the ones which are influenced by the cultures and familiarity of technologies (e.g., Almeda, 1999; Hara & Kling, 1999; Kennedy, 2000). The ratings of two factors (guide/help on using email and back-up support using telephone and faxes) were found related significantly with the students’ online success level and these factors were found significantly different in groups of the less successful students and the successful students. This aspect of results is consistent with the suggestions from Almeda (1999), Leask (2001), NCVER (2004), and Preece et al. (2003) that the support may include asynchronous and synchronous access and the quick responses to the technical issues are necessary to students’ success in online learning. The ratings of factor (access to student administration, such as enrolment, registration, and assignment submission) were found related significantly to the students’ online success level, and were found significantly different in the groups of the less successful students and the successful students. This aspect of results is consistent with the recommendations in NCVER (2004) that the administrative support need to be merged into online learning context and used to provide a wide range of services for students, and for functions such as enrolment and information provision. Two factors (use of unfamiliar technologies and language differences) from the barriers were rated as substantial barriers in students’ collaborative online learning. This aspect of the results is consistent with the statements of other researchers (e.g., Almeda, 1999; Hara & Kling, 1999; Kennedy, 2000) that a lack of skills of using technologies can be obstructive that students may quit the online course, and students can be frustrated easily with failures in the use of technologies. As far as language differences are concerned, the results support Wang’ s (2001) statement that language differences are major challenges in students’ online learning.

Conclusion and Recommendation Technical support can improve the students’ technological competencies, and they also support the whole learning process. Security measures are essential in the students’ online learning, and back-up support are necessary when online learning is difficult for online students. Academic support helps the students to undertake online learning effectively. Teachers can assist students by using instructional resources such as graphics, sounds, and animations. Online libraries provide a platform for digital knowledge resources that suits the needs of information seekers. Flexibility of access and smooth administrative support is important to the students’ online learning. Such administrative support needs to be merged into the websites and used to provide a wide range of services for the students. Students were able to identify a range of factors that represent significant barriers to online learning. The following were identified: Different time zones, living habits, cultural factors and students’ lack of technological competencies. Further research is needed to investigate teachers’ understanding about student’s motivational factors and attitude towards the factors which may influence their online interactions and success in online learning, so that students can be involved actively in the online interactions. Investigating the support and barriers from educational websites can be undertaken in future research to assist online teachers and students in enhancing the effectiveness of online scaffolding and online learning.

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