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ACTIVE AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: THE IMPACT ON STUDENT OUTCOMES

PAGE 1 Martin de Tours School of Management and Systems department at MSME have been more complex picture. What kinds of activities are Economics (MSME Business School) was innovating with the use of educational technology best for active learning? What is most effective? established 50 years ago as the flagship unit of to enhance teaching and learning and how they set What is the best balance between passive and Assumption, the first international university of up the introduction of a new e-learning resource to active learning? While there is already a huge Thailand. With students from over 80 countries, formally evaluate its effectiveness and in doing so body of research into the theory of active learning MSME provides a rich, multi-cultural environment add to the national conversation in Thailand about by internationally renowned educational theorists in which to develop the leaders of the future. educational reform. and cognitive psychologists such as John Dewey, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, what is perhaps MSME strives to offer a range of diverse and But what is active learning? We see an early still needed, particularly within national contexts, is practical undergraduate business curricula in an example of it in ancient Greece in the form of the further investigation of the specifics in an attempt enriched international learning environment. They Socratic method - learning through “cooperative to answer those broad questions. The study place great emphasis on nurturing their students argumentative dialogue between individuals, based conducted last year at MSME adds to the empirical to be business practitioners with an entrepreneurial on asking and answering questions to stimulate and anecdotal picture specifically around the use of spirit and solid English communication skills, as critical thinking...” Rather than the passing down technology to create active learning opportunities well as providing a strong network of alumni, of absolutes from one generation to the next, both in and out of the classroom. entrepreneurs and industries. active learning sees education as something that allows students to evaluate, question and connect Students at MSME are encouraged to develop a thoughts and ideas - to apply their own minds global mindset and they are supported to develop to learning rather than simply having learning 1. John Dewey, Experience & Education, 1938, First Touchstone the well-rounded skills they will need to adapt and Edition 1997 p17 imparted to their minds. thrive in the ever-changing business environment. 2. Bonwell, Charles; Eison, James (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. Information Analyses There is no doubt that traditional transmission - ERIC Clearinghouse Products (071). pp. 3. ISBN 978-1-878380- teaching has its value too, after all, what is 08-1. ISSN 0884-0040. education if not the passing along of established knowledge, frameworks and rules from one generation to the next? In Experience and Education, 19381, renowned educational theorist John Dewey writes: “The history of educational INTRODUCTION theory is marked by opposition between the idea that education is development from within and that Though ‘active learning’ is a well-established system of Higher Education must strive to be on the it is formation from without.” Calling for less ‘either- pedagogical approach, well supported by a body same footing as that from other countries if their or’ thinking, Dewey was nevertheless a leading of research and more enthusiastically embraced citizens are to be competitive in the international proponent of active learning, seeking to answer the at lower levels of education in many countries, the market. This level of risk is not conducive to question: “How shall the young become acquainted integration of active learning principles has been creative experimentation in the design of Higher with the past in such a way that the acquaintance much slower in Higher Education globally. This Education courses. Traditional education methods is a potent agent in the appreciation of the living may be explained by many factors both cultural are appealing because we know they work – well present?” In other words, how can we nurture and practical. It is difficult to enact large-scale enough, at least. young minds so that they are not only able to change across institutions that are completely take on board the learning of the past but also independent from one another and free from the Nevertheless, we are seeing a ‘new education,’ have the skills and abilities to build upon it for imposition of prescribed direction by government. where active and experiential learning are the future? It is also risky to enact large-scale change when emphasised, gain strength as universities around 2 students’ achievements in Higher Education – the world adapt to some of the big global trends Bonwell (1991) offers a very simple definition more accurately the perception of the standard that are shaping society in the 21st century, of active learning: “In active learning, students of their education by employers – are linked so particularly the growth of technology and the participate in the process and students participate explicitly to their future career potential. Even changing ‘skills’ picture. In this paper we look when they are doing something beyond passively more so in a global environment when a national at how faculty in the Management Information listening.” Beneath this simplicity of course lies a

PAGE 2 PAGE 3 Educational technology is a practical and cost- which aims to ensure that the educational system effective way to include more opportunities for is fit for the 21st century and the challenges and experiential learning in the classroom. While opportunities presented by the mega global trends INTRODUCING SIMNET we know that many universities are building of rapid technological advancement, globalization relationships with local business and industry to and demographic change. This national plan for build into their courses opportunities for real-life education, which is both outward looking and AT MSME work experience, technology allows educational forward looking, is very much in keeping with It is against this backdrop that Dr. Vasa Buraphadeja quickly. When I found out about SIMnet it was institutions to bring authentic ‘virtual’ learning the MSME’s mission to: ‘educate graduates with and his team in the Management Information like a light bulb moment. Here was a ready-made experiences into the classroom instantly and entrepreneurial spirit, global competency, and Systems faculty at MSME have been working in solution that did everything we needed it to, and on a massive scale, giving students frequent social responsibility.’ Moreover, one of the four recent years to build on traditional methods of which we could roll out straight away.” opportunities to turn theory into practice – to move pillars of the school’s strategic plan to 2023 is teaching and learning to improve student outcomes from passive learning to active application. focused on the ‘increased utilization of ICT in and provide them with authentic workplace A curriculum change in 2018 offered the perfect MSME’s core functions by integrating digitalization and business experiences that will set them up opportunity to introduce something new, while the Indeed, greater integration of technology in into MSME operations and building an ICT for success in their careers. A member of the professor also realized that it presented a good education is one of the central themes of the innovative culture in MSME.’ opportunity to scientifically evaluate the impact latest national plan for education in Thailand – the Assumption faculty since 2001, Dr. Buraphadeja of blended e-learning – a mixture of online and National Scheme of Education (2017-2036) – had already begun looking into how he could blend online and offline in a way that was beneficial for classroom learning – versus traditional face to the setting, and had been experimenting with the face teaching and learning. He found that there use of technology to enhance students’ learning. had been very few in-depth studies evaluating the He and a colleague had started to build their own potential of blended e-learning in the context of in-house web-based virtual learning environment. Thailand, and none that he could find that offered a “But it wasn’t very user friendly!” he says. “It took a direct comparison of outcomes of students taught lot of work to set up tasks for students. We wanted with and without a blended approach. a way of being able to disseminate tasks more

WHAT IS SIMNET?

SIMnet is an online learning system that provides Each interactive tutorial has three stages – learning and assessment solutions for Microsoft ‘show me’, ‘guide me’ and ‘let me try’. In the first Office, Windows OS, Computer Concepts, File stage, students watch a video demonstration Management and Internet Browsers, which can of the operation; at the second stage they try it be integrated with other Learning Management themselves, with supportive prompts; and finally, Systems. With a clear and intuitive user interface, at the third stage they try the operation unaided. students can easily navigate lessons, resources, This learn, practice, and apply model is perfect for projects, exams and SIMbooks. SIMbooks are active learning, enabling students to learn by doing electronic textbooks through which students and allowing them to build procedural knowledge receive interactive tutorials at a granular level through experiential learning. on the functionality of the individual software programs.

PAGE 4 PAGE 5 significantly more freedom to dictate their own pace of learning, either from the lab or elsewhere, THE TRIAL practicing individual skills more, or less, depending on their individual needs before attempting When it came to designing the research, great care exercises. The instant and detailed feedback they and attention was given to ensuring that students received through SIMnet enabled the students to in both the trial and control groups shared similar learn from and correct mistakes in the moment, characteristics with no major discrepancies in attempting each exercise up to a maximum of three prior attainment that could skew the final results. attempts until the deadline set for the final attempt. Eight of 12 freshmen classes, each containing 40 They were able to complete the term project students, were randomly selected to take part in under the same conditions. (SIMnet recorded the the trial. In phase one, the first part of the course results for all the attempts at assessment but used was conducted using purely traditional teaching only the highest score for grade calculations). methods for all eight classes over four weeks for Finally, they completed the same final written each of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. All of the examination at the same time and under the same classes were taught by the same lecturer, and all traditional conditions as the TDL group, allowing received the same English language instruction, the researchers to see whether blended e-learning carried out the same class activities and received would still have an impact one students were the same assessment. Results of the mid-term were outside of the SIMnet system. then analyzed using T-tests to rule out any major differences between the different groups. The The final number of students in the BEL group analysis revealed negligible differences between was 152 and in the TDL group, 150. Although this the mean distribution of scores across the groups. total of 302 students taking part in the study is relatively small (due to the necessity of having the For phase two, four of the eight classes were same lecturer for both groups to control variance), randomly selected to continue the second five- the rigour of the study, and the fact that the results Getting set up and running with SIMnet was a norm in most Thai universities and educational week part of the course, covering Microsoft reflect the findings of other literature on the subject, relatively simple task. The McGraw Hill consultant settings, so there was a bit of a cultural barrier to Excel, with a mixture of traditional teaching and means that the results can be viewed as reliable, ran sessions with the team to show them how break down among the students. Dr. Buraphadeja e-learning (blended e-learning, or BEL), while the and are therefore interesting to other course to use it, and the team appointed a manager says: “Students weren’t used to taking control of other four classes, the control group, continued directors who are thinking about introducing an for the project who was quickly able to set up their learning. It’s not their fault, it’s just the way with purely traditional face-to-face learning (TDL). element of e-learning in future. the resources and exercises for the students. they have been taught up until now. So, in terms Both segments covered the same lesson content, SIMnet was to be used with freshmen students of mixing independent active learning with guided, and were given the same range of exercises, term studying a module on the use of productivity we’ve had to ease them into it; there’s been a lot of project and final written exam. However, while the software applications – principally, in this case, hand holding. We’re not just having to teach them TDL group completed class activities following To read more about the academic study, you can Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. However, the content but also the active learning skills. It has traditional class instruction, the BEL group was find the full article in the Journal of Interactive for the purposes of the research, SIMnet was not not been completely easy, but we’ve kept at it.” He introduced to SIMnet. Technology and Smart Education, Vol. 17 introduced to the course until the first half of the was also highly conscious that learners would have No. 2, pp. 197-214: course, (covering Word and PowerPoint), had been different levels of familiarity with technology, and In the TDL group, the lecturer directed the learning https://doi.org/10.1108/ITSE-10-2019-0068 completed, allowing Dr. Buraphadeja and his team different learning skills, characteristics and styles process in the usual way, providing content and to screen for any major differences between the that could impact on their ability to use e-learning instructing students to do step-by-step lessons 8 randomly selected classes involved in the trial effectively. “The international students are often before the class exercises were assigned. Students in order to minimize any other variables that could more at ease with the technology, but Thai students in this group followed a class schedule, working significantly impact on results. are eager to comply and to try new things as at a common pace through the learning and class instructed,” he says. activities. The professor was aware that there were risk factors involved in introducing e-learning. In the BEL group, on the other hand, once the Traditional teaching methods are still largely the lecturer had introduced the lesson, Students had

PAGE 6 PAGE 7 So what accounts for this improved performance? features of educational technology that add value Much of the research into e-learning and blended to the learning experience, and we see many of THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF learning over the past decade has identified several those at play here in the case of MSME and SIMnet. SIMNET ON TEACHING AND A COMPARISON OF BLENDED E-LEARNING WITH TRADITIONAL LEARNING LEARNING BEL TDL

The results of the study showed that overall, the Classroom instructions and activities often take Classroom instructions and activities do not often take Taking an average of all of the assessments students who had been taught using blended advantage of appropriate technologies to enhance advantage of technology together, the mean for the BEL group was e-learning out-performed the group that had only learning experience 80.84, against a mean for the TDL group of Learners must study one a fixed class schedule received face-to-face teaching, with a higher mean Learners have the ability to design their own schedule 76.26 – an uplift of 4.58 points. Each class schedule has a fixed range of time score in each of the five separate assessments. and able to access anytime Learners must follow fixed class content Learners decide how long they prefer to study in each session Teachers often do not have time to provide personalized feedback to each individual student RESULTS OF ASSESSMENTS FOR BOTH GROUPS Learners can choose the content they prefer to study most GROUP (NO. OF STUDENTS) Statistical Learners receive personalized feedback of their BEL (152) TDL (150) significance individual progress (2-tail) Assessments Mean SD Mean SD T (Degrees of freedom) Source: Data adapted from Bencheva (2010) Exercise 1 83.5 16.9 80.8 19.2 1.3 (300) 0.197

Exercise 2 85.7 17.5 81.1 20.0 2.1 (300) 0.033*

Exercise 3 89.0 11.5 82.7 16.3 3.9 (267.5)** 0.000*

Project 86.3 13.2 81.3 20.1 2.6 (256.2)** 0.010* The question of how to use technology within the lecturing when you have the lab?” This element Final written exam 59.7 13.4 55.4 13.1 2.8 (300) 0.005* classroom to enhance instruction and activities of the instructional design for the BEL students was of course very much front of mind for Dr. was a major differentiating factor between them NOTES: (a) *indicates statistical significance at a level of 0.05 or less; (b) **indicates a statistically significant difference between the variances at a level of 0.05 or less Buraphadeja in his thinking about how to integrate and the TDL group. Following an introduction of SIMnet into the course pedagogy. “I asked myself – each lesson by the lecturer, students were then ‘how can I blend online and offline in a way that is allowed to discover and practice, using SIMnet, most beneficial for the setting?’” he says. “I realised at their own pace. This active learning approach Mean results and standard deviance for the BRL and TDL groups across the five assessments that comprised we shouldn’t be teaching in a traditional way in the enables students to learn by doing, enhances both the overall grade for the Microsoft part of the course. computer lab. Why stand at the front of the room understanding and retention and is particularly good for visual and kinesthetic learning styles. The set-up of the laboratory class in this way also meant that students had the freedom to decide how much time to devote to each particular operation of Excel, spending more time on areas that they found challenging and less on areas that they quickly understood, without being constrained by the pace of the class as a whole. This makes the learning process much more learner-centered and efficient.

The professor and his co-authors also attribute the improved outcomes in large part to the

PAGE 8 PAGE 9 feature of the software that allows students to the retaking of assessments is well supported. repeat exercises and assessments: “In particular, Not only does the repetition of the assessments the BEL feature which allows students to count as deliberate practice, leading to increased retake assessments leads to improved learning proficiency as per Bloom’s taxonomy, but we also performance equally for both males and females... know that making mistakes, and learning from the it was clear that in the BEL environment, greater feedback, is a fundamental part of the cognitive use of this feature enhanced final assessments.”3 process. While more investigation is needed to determine the exact extent to which this feature was Through SIMnet students receive detailed feedback responsible for the improved results (e.g., by on their mistakes instantly, allowing them to see splitting the e-learning group further and removing where they went wrong, reflect on it, and correct this feature for some), the education science behind it immediately while the learning is still ongoing. This also links into Bjork’s concept of desirable difficulty, in which tests can be seen as learning events, helping students to understand the gaps in their knowledge and fluency allowing them to self-regulate. By giving students either confirmation or correction of their learning ‘in the moment’ it allows students to move forward quickly and reduces frustration and discouragement. Even in a scenario where the correct answer is not given, we know from the principles of gamification that errors encourage problem solving and increased effort at information retrieval.

The accessibility and flexibility of online learning are also highly conducive to active learning, allowing students to be proactive about their own learning. With the ability to access SIMnet from anywhere, CONCLUSION at any time, and without time constraint, students in the BEL group had additional opportunities to The research at MSME carried out by Dr. (through the instantaneity and bandwidth of access the material and to practise independently. Buraphadeja and his team offers empirical technology) students get personalized learning to a This in itself, however, is a learned behaviour. As evidence of the impact of blended e-learning degree that would otherwise be impracticable even Dr. Buraphadeja reports: “Good students learn by generally, and the efficacy of the SIMnet online for the most committed of teachers. themselves. We need to put our energy into the ‘not learning system specifically, in enabling students Dr. Buraphadeja now hopes that his experiences so good students’ and they needed a little more to learn more actively. The trial demonstrates a will encourage other university faculty across pushing to engage with the online system.” To help statistically significant improvement in mean results Thailand to investigate what is possible and to mitigate this problem, the lecturer used the SIMnet for students using blended e-learning for instruction embrace technology with more confidence as they dashboard as a motivating tool, demonstrating to over and above those using purely face to face work towards the achievement of the new National students the correlation between good exercise instruction. While technology could never be a like- Scheme of Education. scores and the higher levels of engagement among for-like replacement for a good teacher and human other students. interaction, the study at MSME takes forward the national conversation about how educational technology can enhance teaching and learning. We have seen how SIMnet can help educators 3. A case study of blended e-learning in Thailand, J. Wongwuttiwat, V. Buraphadeja and T. Tantontrakul. Journal of move from an emphasis on instruction to an Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. emphasis on guiding and empowerment, while 197-214: https://doi.org/10.1108/ITSE-10-2019-0068

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