Open Online Assignment Submission: First Year …

1 Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology Volume 5, 2008 open Online Assignment Submission: First year students Behavior and Views Dorothy Langley, Miky Ronen, and Shlomit ben Shachar Department of Instructional Systems Technologies, Holon In stitute of Technology, Holon, Israel Abstract The open Assignment Submission (OAS) is an innovat ive regime whereby st udent s submit homework Assignment s of an appropriate nat ure int o a designated open forum provided by t he Learning Management System (LMS). Our previous research, carried out with a cohort of Educa-t ion graduat es, indicat ed possible benefit s and challenges of OAS as a means of support ing as-signment submission t hrough learning from peer examples.

2 The current paper present s a recent explorat ive case st udy int o t he behaviour patt erns and views of 55 First year st udent s regarding OAS, during t he very early stages of the Academic Lit eracy course. Drawing on t wo main dat a sources (a self-report quest ionnaire and dat a of st udent access and submission ret rieved from t he course LMS records) we have found charact erist ic patt erns of peer-example viewing, Assignment submission schedules and relat ed grades. T he OAS regime appears t o provide an appreciat ed learning support and has a potent ial to promot e int ent ional learning. Ke ywords: open Assignment submission, LMS, peer examples, learning support, viewing pat-t erns, Assignment submission patt erns Introduction Homework Assignment s are a necessary and usual component of learning at all educat ion levels.

3 They are int ended t o promot e assimilat ion and applicat ion of principles and procedures present ed in class. Homework Assignment s can engage st udent s at different cognit ive levels from simple knowledge recognit ion up to synt hesis and evaluat ion (Bloom, 1956). T hey are int ended to enable st udent s to evaluat e their knowledge and t o provide necessary inst ruct ional informat ion to t he t eacher. In higher educat ion, homework Assignment s are part icularly import ant as t he knowledge input during lect ures is very concent rated, leaving litt le t ime for elaborat ion or pract ice. St udent s in higher educat ion (especially at t he freshmen st age) may find homework Assignment s very diffi-cult , wit h difficult ies st emming from a variet y of sources (Ronen & Langley, 2004).

4 The growing sense of account -abilit y for st udent learning in inst it ut ions of higher educat ion necessit at es finding ways of providing appropriat e scaffolds t o support st udent s in performing learn-ing Assignment s. The search for innova-t ive support met hods may require a re-concept ualizat ion of learning away from t he solit ary, individual, t eacher-st udent Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. P ermission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the First page.

5 It is per-missible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@ to request redistribution permission. open Online Assignment Submission 298 pat h and leading towards t he socio-cult ural learning paradigm, where st udent s are seen as belong-ing to a group and int eract ing wit h each ot her t hrough mult iple channels. The advancement s in ICT during t he past decade have afforded new effect ive communicat ion channels which can be ut ilized in different ways t o promot e st udent s ability t o undert ake and successfully perform serious homework Assignment s.

6 One such channel is the discussion group wit hin a course sit e. The discussion group is a public forum where each st udent can read and post messages. The open Assignment Submission (OAS) regime we are proposing means that st udent s will post their complet ed Assignment s in a designat ed Assignment forum during a fixed period. Posted Assignment s can be viewed by all group members as well as t he inst ructor, revised versions can be added unt il the set deadline and comment s of all kinds can be added by peers. The not ion of employing an open forum for homework submission may seem at First sight as promot ing plagiarism and dependence. Our previous research (Ronen & Langley, 2004) has led us t o believe t hat , given appropriat e homework Assignment s, t he pot ent ial advant ages far out -weigh t he drawbacks.

7 T he current case-st udy is framed wit hin t he Academic Lit eracy course in t he department of Instruct ional Syst ems T echnologies (Langley, 2007). Within this st udy we shall att empt to describe and evaluat e how First year st udent s act , and t he att it udes t hey express aft er init ial implement at ion of t he OAS regime. For an extensive survey of t he lit erat ure regarding learning from worked examples and from peer examples, as well as the social-cult ural approach to learning and inst ruct ion especially in an in-format ion t echnology environment , we refer the int erest ed reader to our previous st udy (Ronen & Langley, 2004). The Study Context and Subjects The current st udy deals wit h st udent behaviour and views regarding open Assignment Submis-sion (OAS) in the Assignment forum, during the First weeks of the semest er.

8 The research subject s were 55 First year st udent s att ending the Academic Lit eracy course, scheduled as a weekly 90 minut e lesson. T he st udent s were divided int o t wo groups with separat e lessons and access to separat e course sit es: grpR (32 full-t ime st udent s who st udy t wo semest ers a year ) and grpG (23 working st udent s who st udy three semest ers a year ). The st udy consist s of t wo part s: T he First analyzes st udent s' responses to a self report quest ion-naire, dealing wit h behavior and views regarding OAS, and t he second part analyzes dat a re-t rieved from t he learning management syst em concerning event s of viewing peer work in the as-signment submission forum. The Assignments The First t wo Assignment s of t he course were both relat ed to reading mat erial dealing wit h t he mult iple effect s of advancement in informat ion t echnology (Appendix A).

9 Assignment 1 dealt wit h t he effect s of the invent ion of the print ing press as described in The day the universe changed (Burke, 1985) and Assignment2 dealt wit h the effect s on societ y of t he rapid advance-ment in ICT during t he past t wo decades and t he result ing profile of the desired graduat e ac-cording t o Educat ion in t he informat ion age (Salomon, 2000). T he reading mat erial for bot h Assignment s was in the st udent s nat ive language, while lat er Assignment s were based on reading mat erial in English. Each st udent in each of the groups was randomly assigned one of t wo as-signment s. The submission period for each Assignment was 6 days. Each of t he Assignment s gave st udent s some choice in deciding which issues to address and required invoking personal knowl-edge and experience beyond the appoint ed reading mat erial.

10 For inst ance, Assignment 1 required Langley, Ronen, & ben Shachar 299 st udent s to describe the impact of t he invent ion of the print ing press on three, personally select ed, areas and t o explain t heir views concerning t he necessit y of memorizat ion in the informat ion age. Assignment2 required st udent s t o describe personal st rengths and weaknesses wit h respect t o fea-t ures of t he desirable graduat e defined in t he t ext . T his personalized nat ure of t he Assignment meant that any outright plagiarism would be easily det ect able. students ' Self Report on OAS Research instruments and methodology We prepared a 9 it em quest ionnaire (Appendix B) dealing wit h issues relat ed t o OAS: st udent s pract ice in viewing peer work, possible effect s of such viewing and st udent views concerning OAS.