Learning Out Loud: How Does It Impact the Online Student Learning Experience?

LEARNING OUT LOUD

Michelle  Pacansky-­‐Brock                TeachingWithoutWalls.com

How  does  it  impact  the  online  st=dent  lear>ing  ex@erience?

@brocansky   CC-BY Gustavo Devito

Sept 2014 (update)

Context• A fully online class at a community college in California.

• General education course (History of Still Photography)

• Most activities give students the choice to comment in text, voice, or video.

• First activity (ice breaker) requires students to use voice or video.

• Tool used: VoiceThread (with sitewide license/LTI Integration)

• Survey conducted each semester in the same class for four consecutive terms.

Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).

very nervous not nervousSp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=87

How nervous were you when you left your first voice/video comment?

34%

24% 26%

12%

2%

Now when you comment in voice/video, how nervous are you?

Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).

very nervous not nervous

Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=87

8%4%

30% 30% 28%

When given a choice, which commenting format do you prefer?

Text Voice Video

Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).

Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=87

34%

61%

5%

CC-BY-NC-SA By Coofdy

a  social-­‐emotional  speed  bump?

So far, I think VoiceThread has added value to my online learning experience.

Agree Neutral Disagree

Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).

Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90

68%

24%

4%

Commenting in VoiceThread is:

5

Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).

easy difficultn=90

End of Semester Survey

•work in progress•1 class surveyed each term for 4 consecutive terms•anonymous

Age

18-24 25-32 33-40 41-50 51-60

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

47%

25%

12% 14%

2%

Was this your first experience using VoiceThread?

Yes No

n=59

98%

2%

Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

91%The voice activities contributed to making me feel like I was part of a group.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

62%

29%

7%2%

Throughout the course I noticed an improvement in my ability to speak more clearly in the voice/video comments.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

54%

34%

10%2%

89%

The ability to communicate effectively with online voice/video communications is an important 21st century skill.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

68%

25%

7%

93%

This class increased my confidence with using online !voice/video technologies.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

59%

37%

4%

96%

If you have completed an online class before this one, was this the first time you have been required to participate in voice?

Yes No

n=39 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

85%

15%

85%

Being able to listen to my peers (vs. reading all their comments) improved my ability to reach the learning objectives in this course.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n=59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

69.4%

25.4%

5%

95%

When I left voice comments I remembered more of the information compared to when I left text comments.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n= 59 Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13Sp 14 Fa 13 Fa 12Sp 13

63%

26%

8% 3%

89%

More online classes should use voice discussions.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

n= 46 Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13

48%

33%

17%

2%

This data was not collected in

Fa 12.

91%

CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

Were there any benefits to being able to hear your peers’ comments?

“Yes, I feel like we got to know each other better. I actually recognized a classmate at my

children's Taekwondo class because of the sound of her voice!”

CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

Were there any benefits to being able to hear your peers’ comments?

“…Listening gave me a better understanding of the material. In the showcase assignments, you could actually hear the passionin the speaker’

voices for their photographer.”

CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

Were there any benefits to being able to hear your peers’ comments?

“Yes, it feels more personal and intimate which I think helps you retain

what you are learning.”

(cont'd)

CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

Were there any benefits to being able to hear your peers’ comments?

“I enjoyed it more.”

(cont'd)

CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

“I think speaking…engaged me more…It is easy for online students to feel a disconnect… Having to … speak and …directly engage a fellow student through voice makes you feel a part of

an actual class.”

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

CC-BY JD Hancock

“…having to say the words helped me understand what I was talking about better

than if I had just been writing it down.”

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

CC-BY JD Hancock

“I found ... that I would ... unearth more thoughts and opinions as I spoke them out loud while

looking at the content, as opposed to looking at the content, forming an opinion, then looking at

my text as I wrote it.”

CC-BY JD Hancock

“…it made me re-evaluate my answers. Mostly because I didn't want to sound like I had no idea

what I was talking about. Plus when you write something down there is not much emotion to it

and being able to speak out loud my ideas made me feel like I could connect and explain the

material better.”

Were there any benefits to being able to hear your peers’ comments?

CC-BY JD Hancock

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

“I felt the need to more fully research the material before leaving comments. I wanted

to sound proficient when discussing questions in voice comments.”

CC-BY JD Hancock

“I felt more motivated to produce a better quality assignment.”

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

CC-BY JD Hancock

“I was able to remember more information because when I read something I often get distracted and it’s harder for me to retain

information.”

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

CC-BY JD Hancock

“It made me more conscious of what I was saying, which helped me understand it more.”

How did speaking (vs. writing all your assignments) affect your learning?

“I did not like the voicethread activities. I don't feel that it added to my learning experience since it is not a speech or public speaking class.”

CC-BY kodomut.com

What drawbacks were there to being required to speak?

“None really, other than me tripping over my tongue and having to re-

record a lot. But that gets better as you get more comfortable with it.”

CC-BY kodomut.com

Were there any drawbacks to being required to speak?

“For me, working them around my noisy (and consistently busy) family and house. I

also had to buy a microphone for my comments, but acquiring materials is just a

part of school.”

CC-BY kodomut.com

Were there any drawbacks to being required to speak?

CC-BY Gustavo Devito

Were there any drawbacks to being required to speak?

“At first, I was nervous ...but ... I found [VoiceThread to] be most useful. It was fun and made the class more interactive. In my opinion, the online class

would be a bit boring without VoiceThread.”

Photo by JasonSamfield CC-BY-NC-SA

• Make students nervous (78%). • Reduce anxiety in students in just 3 weeks (from 78% to 12%). • Voice discussions improve the sense of being part of a group (91%). • Are preferred over text comments (66%). • Contribute to a perceived improvement in students’ communication skills (89%). • Increases retention of information (89%). • Improves students’ ability to reach learning objectives (95%). • Using voice discussions supports diverse learning needs. • Most online students (85%) do not speak in their classes. • Most online students (81%) want voice discussions to be used in more classes. !

FindingsAsynchronous voice discussions in an online community college class:

Pacansky-Brock, 2014. Most data collected in one class each semester for four semesters (Fall 2012-Sp 2014). n=59

Implications• Additional accessibility support would be required for captioning of

content when a text accommodation to voice content is necessary in a class.!

• LTI Integration of VoiceThread requires a department or site license (auto-embedding, grade from the gradebook, student accounts can be auto-generated).

CC-BY-NC-SA By DigiD