Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments
By Jan Herrington, Ron Oliver, Thomas C. Reeves. Australian Society for Computers in Tertiary Education, 2003
782 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The use of authentic activities within online learning environments has been shown to have many benefits for learners in online units and courses. There has been renewed interest in the role of student activities within course units, as constructivist philosophy and advances in technology impact on educational design and practice. Courses based on these principles have been used successfully across a wide variety of discipline areas. In spite of the growing evidence of the success of authentic learning environments, they are not without their problems. In this paper we discuss patterns of engagement that have emerged from our own research on authentic learning tasks, in particular, the initial reluctance to willingly immerse in learning scenarios that some students experience, and the need for the suspension of disbelief before engaging in the task. The paper proposes ten characteristics of authentic activities, based on educational theory and research, which have been used as criteria for the selection of existing online units or courses for in depth investigation. The paper includes a short review of the literature, a description of the research and some preliminary findings and identification of issues related to the necessity for students to willingly suspend disbelief in order to fully engage in learning scenarios based on authentic tasks.
Subfields: Computer Science Applications, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e8a2f998360c7a0dc0f21420a15ec24d164e7a83
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In Computer Science Applications
In Developmental and Educational Psychology
In Education
Citations in the corpus
- Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: Reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives (2010, background): “Herrington et al. (2003) view online e-learning experience as a two-stage process in which the suspension of disbelief (flow/immersion) is a necessary precursor of engagement.”
- Digital storytelling: a meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning (2008, positive): “Studies have shown that learner engagement is paramount to learning success (Herrington et al. 2003).”
- Understanding student engagement in online learning environments: the role of reflexivity (2016, positive): “The tasks that Herrington et al. (2003) highlighted as important to student engagement in the online learning environment also incorporated significant levels of uncertainty for the student.”
- Online formative assessment in higher education: A review of the literature (2011, background): “Correia & Davis, 2008; Crisp & Ward, 2008; Herrington et al., 2006; Lin, 2008; Mackey, 2009). Crisp and Ward (2008) examined the role of online formative assessment in promoting deep learning and student motivation. Their findings demonstrate how scenario-based learning as a means of facilitating au”