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An Action Research Approach to the Design, Development and Evaluation of an Interactive E-Learning Tutorial in a Cognitive Domain
ARTICLE

, University of South Africa, South Africa

JITE-Research Volume 6, Number 1, ISSN 1539-3585 Publisher: Informing Science Institute

Abstract

The teaching and learning of a complex section in Theoretical Computer Science 1 in a distanceeducation context at the University of South Africa (UNISA) has been enhanced by a supplementary e-learning application called Relations, which interactively teaches mathematical skills in a cognitive domain. It has tutorial and practice functionality in a classic computer-aided instruction (CAI) style and offers considerable learner control. A participative action research approach was used to design, develop, evaluate, and refine the application over a longitudinal period. In this process the application was formatively and summatively evaluated by different methods – questionnaire surveys, interviews, heuristic evaluation and a post-test. This article explains the purpose, structure, and operation of Relations and notes how the various evaluation methods resulted in iterative refinements to its functionality, learning content, and usability. The findings lead to reflection. Conventional computer-aided instruction and learning (CAI/L) has a role to play in the milieu of e-learning. CAI can present efficient instruction, motivate and engage learners, challenge them with meaningful exercises, and can support effective learning. The students requested more such tutorial and practice environments. Relations' greatest strength is its excellent diagnostic feedback, attested to by learners and expert evaluators alike. Courseware authoring systems have powerful facilities that can be used to judge the learner-input and provide appropriate, detailed, tailor-made feedback. This can be done in web-based learning (WBL) too, using specialized web-programming languages, but it is more complex. A further obstacle to the use of WBL at UNISA is that many UNISA students still lack broadband Internet access. The designer and developers of Relations used technology, not for its own sake, but rather to motivate and to illustrate concepts in ways that enhance cognition. Technology should be the medium and not the message. The blue-water recreational theme was well received by the majority of learners and expert evaluators, who acknowledged its role in providing brief interludes of diversion and relaxation in a demanding cognitive domain. The concepts of usability and interaction design from the discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) are receiving increasing attention in the development of commercial and corporate software. It is equally important to produce usable applications in educational contexts where the users are not professionals in the workplace, but learners who must first be able to use and interact with a system before they can even commence learning. Many learners approach e-learning after exposure to commercial software. As far as possible, learning applications should use operations and key-presses that support the HCI principles of predictability and consistency with familiar systems. In certain respects Relations falls short in this respect, but it was found to be easy to learn and use. It adheres to the fundamental principle of internal consistency, where a system's own internal operations are characterized by predictability and visibility.

Citation

de Villiers, R. (2007). An Action Research Approach to the Design, Development and Evaluation of an Interactive E-Learning Tutorial in a Cognitive Domain. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 6(1), 455-479. Informing Science Institute. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

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