DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
5.3 Key theory for WBTL as a solution
The solution for the facilitators should be to apply ‘The Tree Three Rings Theory’ (TTTRT) in their designs for Web-Based Teaching Learning (WBTL) environments as shown in Figure 5.1: The Tree Three Rings Theory (TTTRT).
Figure 5.1: The Tree Three Rings Theory (TTTRT)
This theory indicates that facilitators should imagine themselves working as farmers who are trying to grow the fruit tree between the rings in order to produce fruits. Their designs of the Web for learning should at least have the seven principles of the above theory (Figure 5.1: TTTRT).
The first principle is the student: Facilitators should begin by defining their students’ characteristics. By so doing they will be able to group them and their learning resources accordingly in order to have a situation that will encourage the students to construct knowledge (Gognon & Collay, 1999). It is also very important for the facilitators to use the contact sessions (workshops) to introduce their students into the system and give them projects to be performed.
Such projects should be given to the students together with a list of recommended linked resources (as shown in Appendix X: Respondent 2a’s design showing resources) and recommended search engines but not module notes that bring about the content (students should search for themselves). If such workshops are conducted once for each of the courses then students should be given class activities taken from the main projects to perform while they are still with their facilitators off-line. This will help both the facilitators and their students to identify most of the problems that can disturb the student online. Help facilities should also be indicated to students before they go online (student-interface interaction) as suggested by Anderson and Elloumi (2004).
Facilitators will understand whether their students prefer to have something like the knowledge management, performance support system, ill defined projects or not after they have defined their students’ characteristics.
Students should be made aware that they are not limited to these resources only; they should dig deeper by going beyond what is given by their facilitators.
The outcomes should not also be given if they are going to limit the students from digging deeper. They should be given only the aims of the module first and then later they should be told that this is what the facilitators were expecting.
One may be surprised to find that they may even achieve other important outcomes that were going to be excluded by the facilitators. The outcomes should also be linked to the government policy.
In Figure 5.1 students are represented by fruits that have to be produced by the tree for people to live on. Web learning is also designed or used to produce active students to produce knowledge for other people to live on.
Second principle is behaviourism: The strength of behaviourism is on presenting facts (Mahoney, 2005). Therefore, facilitators should use this principle to prepare their presentation of their designs for Web learning. This does not means that their approach should be dominated by behaviourism, but behaviourism should only be used in preparing for the structure of the modules.
The module structure is treated as the facts. In Figure 5.1 this principle is represented by the sub-roots because it is not dominating Web learning but can be used for certain tasks.
The third principle is cognitivism: The best principle to be used by facilitators to measure what they want to give their students for processing purposes is cognitivism as recommended by Anderson and Elloumi (2004). This principle should be applied by facilitators in order to measure the size of their students’
sizes of their projects before they are given to students. It calls for time management, so that when the facilitators give their students any task they should make sure that the time given is enough for the students to construct knowledge. In Figure 5.1 this principle is also represented by the sub-roots because it is not dominating the WBTL environment as it can be used for certain tasks.
The fourth principle is constructivism: Constructivism becomes handy when facilitators want to prepare projects to be performed by students. It has a list of characteristics that should be considered by the facilitators in preparing any project for the students as presented by Herrington, Reeves and Oliver (2004).
Therefore, constructivism should be treated as the main root for the tree of the three rings. It is the one that gives the facilitators reasons why they have to include or exclude different activities as a part of any given project. That is why Anderson and Elloumi (2004) indicate that it is the best theory that can help Web learning facilitators to answer all questions that have to do with the ‘why’
part of their Web learning. Therefore, students’ projects should have the characteristics of constructivism.
This principle also helps to guide facilitators in assessing their students and evaluating their courses as it encourages students’ reflection and peer to peer assessment. It helps the facilitators to improve learning and teaching situations all the time as it brings in different important issues of constructivism as discussed in Chapter 2.
The fifth principle is the ‘use search engines’: This principle is very important as it helps both facilitators and student to search any information anywhere in the world. Therefore, facilitators should plan for their students to use search engines to explore information and other resources to be used for their courses or modules. They can also link a few of these search engines as shown in Appendix X: Respondent 2a’s design showing resources. This is the easiest ring of the tree three rings that can be learnt by facilitators within a short period of time.
In Figure 5.1 this principle is represented by leaves (search engines) of the tree (Web learning), because the leaves are the softest (easiest part) part of the tree (Web learning). Any one can learn to use the search engines faster than the other two rings.
The sixth principle is ‘use Learning Management System (LMS)’: This is becoming popular because almost all the universities (world wide) have developed their LMSs or they are renting one of the known LMSs shown in Appendix VIII. They are also useful because they come with almost all the Web tools (technologies) that can bring reality into the Web for the students to learn.
Appendix VI also shows many different important tools for the design of the Web that should be used by facilitators to facilitate Web learning. Even if they cannot design web-sites they can learn to use these Web tools that come with LMSs.
In figure 5.1 this principle is represented by the tree branches. Branches can represent the stem because they have similar parts except that they are not connected directly to the roots. Therefore, LMSs can also represent the web sites which are represented by the stem of the tree. They have all the necessary tools that can be found in any web site for learning, because all the tools are built-in as parts of the LMSs. If the stem (design web sites) is treated as the hardest (most challenging part) part of the tree (Web learning), then the branches (LMSs) should be treated as the harder (more challenging part) part of the tree (Web learning).
The seventh principle is ‘design Web-site’: This principle is becoming the duty of the technicians, because facilitators are not interested (don’t have time) in learning how to develop their own software that can be used to develop websites for learning. This ring is also useful if facilitators want to master all the tools for the Web learning, because with knowledge and skills acquired from this ring one can also apply them in the other two rings. Therefore, if facilitators have the knowledge and skills of using this ring in teaching / learning they can easily master all the tree three rings and use the advanced tools in order to operate at the advanced third level of Activity Theory (AT). Good example here is Respondent 1a who has help in the development of her university LMS. It is easy for her judging by her frames of reference.
In Figure 5.1 this principle is represented by the stem (design web-site) as it is connected direct to the roots (learning theories) as the hardest (most challenging part) part of the tree (Web learning). Designing a web site (from scratch) for learning is the most challenging part of Web learning as it needs a good understanding of programming languages as well as learning theories.
The Web site for learning (stem) is also the one that produces and carries LMSs (branches) in Web Based Teaching / Learning (tree).
In concluding the theory shown in Figure 5.1 above, one needs to imagine herself / himself working with a big tree (in working with the design of the Web learning). The tree has roots which cannot be seen above the ground level, but it is known that they are there to keep the tree from falling down and provide
food for the whole tree. It is the same with these three schools of thought because they are operating underground and they cannot be seen but it is known that they are there to integrate the effective use of the tree three rings.
They are operating in the same way as the roots in terms of planning, organising, preparing, practicing, presenting and revising the whole Web learning with the aim of improving the teaching and learning situation (as shown in Figure 2.2: systems approach).