Facilitating a Hybrid College-level Course Using Microblogging: A Case Study
A dissertation presented to the faculty of
The Patton College of Education of Ohio University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Tian Luo August 2014
©2014 Tian Luo. All Rights Reserved.
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This dissertation titled
Facilitating a Hybrid College-level Course Using Microblogging: A Case Study
by
TIAN LUO
has been approved for the Department of Educational Studies and The Patton College of Education by
David R. Moore
Associate Professor of Instructional Technology
Renée A. Middleton
Dean, The Patton College of Education
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Abstract
LUO, TIAN, Ph.D., August 2014, Curriculum and Instruction, Instructional Technology Facilitating a Hybrid college-level Course Using Microblogging: A Case Study (290 pp.) Director of Dissertation: David R. Moore
Social media has become an increasingly growing phenomenon that arouses mounting interest as well as heated discussion concerning its varied definitions and practices for academic use. Recently, a common type of social media, microblogging tools such as Twitter, has garnered researchers and educators' mounting attention due to its prevailing usage among the younger generation. This study seeks to both examine student learning in the Twitter-supported learning environments and to understand the potential factors affecting student perceptions and participation.
The researcher incorporated three major Twitter-based instructional activities into a hybrid course, namely, Exploring Hashtags, Discussion Topics, and Live Chats. Twitter was employed as a backchannel to enhance classroom interaction during lectures and student presentations in face-to-face settings. The participants were 24 college-level Teacher Education program students enrolled in a technology course at a large Midwestern University. Major data sources included student posts on Twitter, end-of-the course survey, and in-depth semi-structured interviews.
The findings of the study suggest that Twitter, serving as an instructional technology platform to facilitate student learning, was able to engage student in reflective and meaningful knowledge creation. Student participation was active and relevant, especially in guided environments. Student perception on different activities was overall
4positive with slight variations in the Live Chat activity. The four dimensions of factors in the TAM model laid out an appropriate framework, which denoted the critical factors that potentially affect students' perception and participation. Students' prior knowledge and experience with Twitter stands out to be the most prominent factor influencing their perception and participation in these tweeting activities.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to first gratefully acknowledge my advisor and dissertation chair Dr.
David Moore, for your unwavering support and unflinching belief in me throughout my PhD study. The same gratitude goes to Dr. Teresa Franklin and Dr. Fei Gao. Over these years, the three of you have always been on my side to support and advise me on numerous questions and concerns I have throughout this seemingly endless Ph.D. journey. I can still clearly picture those uncountable struggling and desperate moments when the only thing that soothed me was to reach out to one of you, either by striking up a conversation on Googlechat or Skype, stopping by your office, or writing you an email to express my thoughts. Being a person who have the inclination to ruminate and perhaps over-think, I cannot recall how many times I have done that, but the three of you have always been extremely responsive to my concerns. Your insightful words have always been comforting and illuminating as if an oasis in the middle of a desert. There is no way this intractable, long-lasting Ph.D. journey would complete without the three of you.
I would also like to thank many other professors, for your time, expertise and attention on my research as well as the mentoring and guidance you provided at different stages of this dissertation work. This name list includes, but not limit to, Dr. John Hitchcock, Dr. Kris Machtmes, Dr. Greg Kessler, Dr. Seann Dikkers, and Dr. Danielle Dani. You are among the most supportive faculty members that I have seen and I am deeply indebted to all of you for your contribution to my doctoral study.
My gratitude also goes to the students of the EDCT 2030 class. Despite some momentary bitterness, you guys have been a group of wonderful research participants as
6well as students who constantly stimulate my thoughts on teaching, learning and research. I thank all of you for your willingness to participate in my research, your helpful feedback and insights on my research inquires, and the teacher-student as well as researcher-participant relationship that we together built and experienced.
I would also like to thank my family and friends. I would thank my parents for your continuous support as well as pressure. I am grateful that I am capable enough to handle the pressure and successfully translate it into a form of intrinsic drive and motivation. My friends, especially the cohort with whom I joined the doctoral program, have supported me a great deal and accompanied me to survive through those days and nights in face of stressful presentations, tests and exams. To some other friends, names omitted here, I want to thank you for your unique presence in my life and those unforgettable memories we had during my Ph.D. journey. I thank all of you to make this journey enlightening and memorable, and to make me a stronger and better person.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge that some portions of Chapter 2 of this
dissertation were published in the article - Tweeting for learning: A critical analysis of research on microblogging in education published in 2008-2011 from British Journal of
Educational Technology. I would like to thank British Journal of Educational Technology and my coauthors, Dr. Gao Fei and Dr. Ke Zhang.
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Table of Contents
Page
Abstract............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables .................................................................................................................... 13 List of Figures................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................... 16
Statement of Problem.................................................................................................... 19 Purpose of the Study..................................................................................................... 21 Research Questions....................................................................................................... 23 Definition of Terms ...................................................................................................... 24 Limitations.................................................................................................................... 28
External validity........................................................................................................ 28 Subjectivity of data. .................................................................................................. 29 Researcher bias. ........................................................................................................ 30
Delimitations................................................................................................................. 30
Chapter 2: Literature Review............................................................................................ 32
Introduction................................................................................................................... 32 Learning Theories......................................................................................................... 33
Constructivism. ......................................................................................................... 33 Social constructivism................................................................................................ 35 Situated learning ....................................................................................................... 37 Connectivism ............................................................................................................ 39
Online Learning ............................................................................................................ 42
Characteristics of online learning ............................................................................. 43 Different format of online learning........................................................................... 45
Online course. ....................................................................................................... 46 Hybrid course........................................................................................................ 47
Best practices in online learning............................................................................... 47
An Introduction to Twitter and Microblogging ............................................................ 49
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How Twitter works? ................................................................................................. 50 What can Twitter do?................................................................................................ 51
To search............................................................................................................... 52 To connect............................................................................................................. 52 To share................................................................................................................. 53
Twitter use outside of education............................................................................... 53
Educational Use of Microblogging............................................................................... 54
Formal learning......................................................................................................... 55 Informal learning ...................................................................................................... 58 Use in online course settings..................................................................................... 59
Benefits and Advantages .............................................................................................. 60 Learning community..................................................................................................... 60
Participation and engagement................................................................................... 61 Social presence.......................................................................................................... 63 Collaborative learning............................................................................................... 64 Reflective thinking.................................................................................................... 64
Challenges and Constraints........................................................................................... 65
Difficulty in promoting deep learning ...................................................................... 66 Information overload ................................................................................................ 67 Participants' unfamiliarity with microblogging. ....................................................... 67 Participants' unwillingness to participate.................................................................. 68 Mobile device accessibility....................................................................................... 69
Guidelines for Microblogging Implementation ............................................................ 69 Backchannel Communication....................................................................................... 71 Providing Instructional Guidance ................................................................................. 74 Use of four Underlying Constructs in the TAM Model................................................ 80 Summary....................................................................................................................... 83
Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 86
Introduction................................................................................................................... 86 Research Design ........................................................................................................... 87 Research Setting ........................................................................................................... 87
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Course objectives...................................................................................................... 88 Content...................................................................................................................... 88 Format....................................................................................................................... 89 Technology demands ................................................................................................ 89
Participants.................................................................................................................... 90 The Researcher and Her Suppositions.......................................................................... 90 IRB Procedures............................................................................................................. 96 The Implementation of Twitter-supported Activities ................................................... 96
Operationalization of microblogging integration...................................................... 96 Operationalization of instructional guidance ............................................................ 98
Mode of learning................................................................................................... 99 Type of guidance................................................................................................. 100
Instructor's use of Twitter ....................................................................................... 103 Students' use of Twitter........................................................................................... 103
Data Collection ........................................................................................................... 105
Observation............................................................................................................. 106 In-depth interviewing.............................................................................................. 107 Documents .............................................................................................................. 111 Surveys.................................................................................................................... 112
Instrumentation ........................................................................................................... 113 Development of a New Coding Scheme..................................................................... 116 Data Collection Procedures ........................................................................................ 122 Data Saturation and Sampling .................................................................................... 122 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................. 124 Enhancing Trustworthiness, Validity and Credibility of the Data.............................. 128
Triangulation........................................................................................................... 128 Researcher reflexivity ............................................................................................. 129 Prolonged engagement............................................................................................ 130 Member checks ....................................................................................................... 131 Transferability......................................................................................................... 131
Pilot Study................................................................................................................... 132
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Summary..................................................................................................................... 133
Chapter 4: Results........................................................................................................... 134
RQ1: Student Participation and Interaction................................................................ 134
Overall participation ............................................................................................... 134 Volume of participation. ......................................................................................... 134 Backchannel communication.................................................................................. 137 Tweeting activities.................................................................................................. 139 Relevancy of participation. ..................................................................................... 141 Levels of interaction. .............................................................................................. 144 Types of interaction. ............................................................................................... 147
Exploring Hashtags............................................................................................. 147 Discussion Topics............................................................................................... 148 Live Chats. .......................................................................................................... 150 Tweeting in face-to-face meetings...................................................................... 153
Summary................................................................................................................. 154
RQ2: Student Perceptions........................................................................................... 159
Twitter use and pre-perception. .............................................................................. 160 Technology comfort levels. .................................................................................... 161 Perceptions of Exploring Hashtag activity. ............................................................ 162 Perceptions of Discussion Topics activity. ............................................................. 164 Perceptions of Live Chats activity. ......................................................................... 166 Perception of Twitter use in face-to-face settings................................................... 168 Perceptions of instructional guidance. .................................................................... 170 Other perceptions and future use ............................................................................ 171
RQ3: Potential Factors................................................................................................ 172
Individual difference............................................................................................... 172
Prior use. ............................................................................................................. 173 Prior perceptions. ................................................................................................ 174 Mobile ownership. .............................................................................................. 175 Technology comfort level and familiarity. ......................................................... 175 Personality........................................................................................................... 176
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Social influence....................................................................................................... 178 Facilitating conditions............................................................................................. 178 System characteristics............................................................................................. 180
Chapter Summary ....................................................................................................... 184
Chapter 5: Discussions.................................................................................................... 187
Analysis of Student Participation in Twitter-supported Learning Environments....... 187
Quantity of participation......................................................................................... 187 Relevancy of participation ...................................................................................... 188
Analysis of Student Interaction Demonstrated by the Knowledge-Construction Process through Twitter ........................................................................................................... 189