| Web-based teaching has become ubiquitous in education and training departments around the world. Yet, few believe the Web to be a total solution to education. Simple provision of software management tools does not guarantee continuous student collaboration. Also, the current status of online collaborative environments does not match the variety of interactions and discussion in a classroom, and self-paced learning has a long history of student attrition due to the huge motivational investment required on the part of the student. For these reasons, Selected Styles in Web-Based Educational Research targets a large contingent of knowledgeable skeptics for whom Web-based teaching and learning has become an object of study. It is intended for prospective Web teachers and trainers interested in conducting Web-based educational research, and helps define style in educational research methodology.
Whatever the reason, possibly to gain an edge in a challenging job market, students today are choosing to make the extra effort required to earn the top grade. Instead of the usual “read and reply” Web-course fare, students are choosing assignments with more difficult tasks of conducting an original experiment, running an original survey, or conducting a structured interview. Invariably their choice of platform for conducting their original studies is the Web. And invariably these students ask me, “Which method is best for my study? I have an idea of what to investigate, but which approach should I use? I could run an experiment on learning through the Web, but how should I use the Web to conduct my experiment? Is it still possible to control the variables in a true experiment on learning through the Web?” Other students tell me, “I just want to run a little case study. I’ve read a lot of case studies. Please just tell me how to run my case study on the Web.” And there are still other students say, “Everyone talks about constructivism and naturalistic approaches to conducting a study on constructivist uses of the Web. What about a more naturalistic method on Web-based learning? How would a naturalistic approach actually work on the Web
About the Author
Bruce L. Mann is a Professor of Education at Memorial University in Canada. Professor Mann has been a visiting researcher with the Faculty of Science at Memorial, the Department of Educational Psychology at McGill University in Canada, and with the School of Interactive Multimedia at Edith Cowan University in Australia. Professor Manns studies of web course behavior and learning from multimedia speech prompting have been cited in many textbooks, international journals and conference presentations. His first book Perspectives in Web Course Management has earned him international recognition. |
