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    The world at our doorstep : evaluating an Internet-based social studies programme : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education, at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2002) Warren, Susan Mary
    If young people are to know how most of the world lives, to understand the problems faced by developing nations, and to see people in other countries and situations as real, whole people, they need more than figures and news reports. Internet-based programmes in the virtual field trip style are being increasingly used to enable students to experience other places and cultures without leaving the classroom. However, to date there have been few evaluations that examine whether these programmes have the intended impact on student learning and attitudes. This thesis examines one such programme, the Ethiopia Connection run by World Vision New Zealand during March 2001. The programme was evaluated using a theory-driven evaluation methodology. First, a programme theory was derived from the literature and from the expectations of participant teachers. Factors identified as central to the success of the programme were interactivity, active learning, student choice, collaboration, access to experts, integration of several aspects of a topic, authenticity and ease of use. Next the implementation of the programme was observed. A total of 296 schools and over 20,000 students participated in the Ethiopia Connection, with varying patterns of involvement according to factors such as internet access, time available and teacher skills. Lastly the impact of the programme was evaluated in terms of student learning, attitude change and participants' perceptions of the programme. Despite the inherent difficulties in evaluating learning in a programme so dependent on teachers' differing implementations, and in assessing attitude change over short time frames, there were strong indications that the programme succeeded in its goal of developing understanding and compassion for people in the developing world. As a result of this evaluation, the programme theory outlined above was confirmed. Recommendations are made for future World Vision internet programmes, for internet- based social studies programmes in general and for future research directions.
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    Template-driven teacher modelling approach : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Science at Massey University, Palmerston North
    (Massey University, 2004) Shi, Yanmin
    This thesis describes the Template-driven Teacher Modeling Approach, the initial implementation of the template server and the formative evaluation on the prototype. The initiative of Template-driven teacher modeling is to integrate the template server and intelligent teacher models in Web-based education systems for course authoring. There are a number of key components in the proposed system: user interface, template server and content repository. The Template-Driven Teacher Modeling (TDTM) architecture supports the course authoring by providing higher degree of control over the generation of presentation. The collection of accumulated templates in the template repository for a teacher or a group of teachers are selected as the inputs for the inference mechanism in teacher's model to calculate the best representation of the teaching strategy, and then predict teacher intention when he or she interacts with the system. Moreover, the presentation templates are kept to support the re-use of the on-line content at the level of individual screens with the help of Template Server.
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    Virtual social network-mediated English language learning in a Saudi tertiary EFL context : innovation and agency : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Alqasham, Fahd Hamad A
    The study explores the nature and roles of virtual social network (VSN) within a Saudi tertiary EFL (English as a foreign language) context, and the trajectory of the students’ experiences and perceptions of Twitter inside the classroom and of WhatsApp outside the classroom throughout a 12-week semester. The study draws on the three broad phases of Fullan’s change process (Fullan, 2001, 2007, 2016) for its underpinning theoretical framework and utilizes agency theory (van Lier, 2004, 2008, 2010) as an analytical tool for developing a deep understanding of the ways the innovative use of a VSN can aid students in and outside the classroom by allowing them to practice and collaborate in English learning. The study utilizes a mixed methods approach for data collection, divided into two stages; one designed to gather background information and another for a longitudinal study. The data collection instruments employed for the background stage included a questionnaire, interviews, and classroom scenarios, to gather data from 93 English language teacher trainees and 84 Preparatory Year Program (PYP) students from three different colleges at Qassim University (QU) in Saudi Arabia. The data collection instruments for the longitudinal study stage, which consisted of initial and post-project interviews, focus group participation, research log observations in and outside the classroom, and a post-project questionnaire, were employed to gather data from 25 PYP students throughout the 12-week semester. The study results revealed that VSN in the Saudi EFL context is divided into two types, private- and public-based, and that participants’ use and activity in each type varies depending on the platform affordances. It also suggests that, while students may have a positive attitude toward the use of a VSN in their daily lives, contextual constraints could mean that classroom use may fail to be sustained over a relatively long period of time. Within the study, although Twitter’s affordances in terms of anonymity and perceived newness initially motivated the students to exercise their agency in English learning, their anxiety, the teacher’s role, and the university infrastructure all played a crucial role in the failure of Twitter’s use to be sustained inside the classroom beyond the ninth week. However, WhatsApp’s implementation exhibited its sustainability by continuing even after the study ended and until the end of the semester. WhatsApp allowed the students to collaborate, practice what they were learning, develop autonomy, and transit from being passive to active learners, not only in English but also in other subjects. Finally, this thesis concludes by illustrating the value of interpreting the complex and dynamic nature of the innovation’s implementation process using agency theory from an ecological perspective. It also recommends ways in which teachers could implement VSN in the language classroom.
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    Learning Spanish online : emotions and identity in role-play settings : a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Second Language Teaching, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2017) Direnzo, Elida Raquel
    This study focuses on the dynamic interaction between the learner, the context, and the target language using as its framework the learner-context interface model (White 1999, 2003, 2005; White, Direnzo & Bortolotto, 2016). The research considers the online learning context as social, collaborative, interactive and dynamic. Using Spanish as the target language, the analysis is guided by one research question: How do emotions and identity contribute to the construction of the learner-context interface in online Spanish role-plays? Data for this research was gathered from a series of voluntary, non-assessed Adobe Connect online technology role-play sessions for Intermediate Spanish distance students at Massey University in New Zealand, and from two Stimulated recall interviews, where the use of the web-cam became significant for the analysis. The data set consisted of Stimulated recall sessions, students’ questionnaires and diaries, and a teacher’s journal. The four role-play sessions took place over a period of two weeks: two sessions of one hour duration each week. Four students participated and all of them had at least an intermediate level of competence in the Spanish language, as well as previous experience in online learning settings. Making use of the rich data collected the study records and analyses the moment-by-moment interactive emergence of emotions -with salience of humour- and identities and how these impact L2 (second language) learning in a technology-mediated L2 classroom. Insights from this research will offer a contribution to the growing study of emotions in L2 learning, as well as to the study of the complex dynamics of identity and language learning, particularly in relation to role-play settings.
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    Applying knowledge management in education : teaching database normalization : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2004) Zhang, Lei
    In tertiary education, Information Science has been attracting more attention in both teaching and learning. However, along the course on the database design theory, learners always find it hard to grasp the knowledge on database normalisation and hard to apply different levels of the normal forms while designing a database. This results poor database construction and difficulties in database maintenance. In regard to this teaching and learning dilemma, academic teaching staff should, on the one hand, pay more attention to organising different teaching resources on database normalisation concepts and making the best use of the existing and newly developed resources so as to make the teaching environment more adaptive and more sharable. and on the other hand, apply different teaching methods to different students according to their knowledge levels by understanding the nature of each learner's behaviour, interests and preferences concerning the existing learning resources. However, at present there is no effective Information Technology tool to use in considering the dynamic nature of knowledge discovery, creation, transfer utilisation and reuse in this area. This provides an opportunity to examine the potentiality of applying knowledge management in education with the focus on teaching database normalisation, in terms of knowledge discovering, sharing, utilisation and reuse. This thesis contains a review of knowledge management and web mining technologies in the education environment, presents a dynamic knowledge management framework for better utilising teaching resource in the area of database normalisation and diagnoses the students' learning patterns and behaviours to assist effective teaching and learning. It is argued that knowledge management-supported education can work as a value-added process which supports the different needs of teachers and learners.
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    Application of mobile agents in web-based student modelling : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Systems at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2001) Hong, Hong
    In recent years, educational information on the web has increased exponentially, and web-based learning environments are becoming mainstream applications on the Internet. But these environments face some common deficiencies, such as slow access, no adaptivity to individual student, limitation by bandwidth, and so on, which need to be resolved. Meanwhile, the research in Intelligent Agents technology has received a lot of attention in Information Systems Research and Development area. This project investigated mobile agents technology and its benefits, and applied this technology to address the problems that limit the potential of web-based learning environments. This project has developed a system, using mobile agents technology, to capture interactions over the Internet and to provide a continuous interaction pattern for a given student, even in off-line mode or in the case of unreliable connection. The mobile agents technology is used as the communications channel between client and server instead the traditional approaches. The system uses two step student modelling architecture, which consists of the local and central individual student models and central group student model. There are primarily three parts of student model in the system: local individual student model that resides in student's machine, central individual student model that resides on the central server, and central group student model that sits on the central server. This two-step modelling mechanism largely improves capturing interactions of a given student in the web-based learning environment, even in off-line mode, and enables the system to provide adaptation at different granularity. The combination of two-fold student modelling and mobile agents technology provides an attractive alternative to implement and improve web-based learning environments. The methodology used in this system addresses the problem of adaptation, which is one of the main bottlenecks that limit the development of web-based intelligent educational systems.
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    Main strategies of internet-based Japanese language teaching and the associated risks : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Tretiakov, Takako
    This study formulates two models of using Internet in classroom based Japanese language education. The models identified, the static model and the dynamic model, can be used in planning the strategy of introducing Internet as an educational medium in Japanese language classroom. Apart from elaborating the features of the models, and clarifying their relationships to recognized foreign/second language teaching approaches, we determine the risks, associated with Internet based Japanese language education and consider the ways to mitigate them. Our study is backed by 2 surveys, and by qualitative and quantitative analysis of Internet search engine data and of a database of teachers' beliefs data. This study may be of value to Japanese language teachers and learners, education administrators and to designers of CALL software.
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    Learner success in eLearning : room for improvement-- but how? : an analysis of the problem of retention and completion in an online programme : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2006) Roberts, Christine
    Lack of time to work on their online programme was a more significant barrier for students on an online programme than problems such as cost, access to a computer, computer difficulties, childcare or other family responsibilities, or lack of employer support. A 2004 online survey of 77 students of the online Public Sector Knowledge programme, at Change Training, Wellington, followed up by telephone interviews and a focus group session, showed that 92% of students gave 'lack of time' as the critical factor making it hard to study online, and that even when they had dedicated time to do it, work-based tasks and colleagues took priority over working on their online programme. Findings also showed that allied to the time issue was the evidence that for the majority of students their goal for the programme was not to complete assessments, but to get what they wanted from the learning materials. Without the need to gain the qualification for personal or work reasons, most students chose to bypass the time-consuming summative assessments that constitute a 'completion' and effectively 'drop out'.
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    Facilitating a blended learning community : a collaborative approach to professional learning : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2009) Bell, Heather
    This thesis has researched the question of "How can blended learning communities be facilitated to support the professional learning of inservice teacher educators?" Inservice teacher educators work to build teacher capability with the ultimate goal of raising student achievement. This relatively small group of people work across large geographical areas and are having increasing difficulty meeting the demands of the teachers. In addition, inservice teacher educators' contact with teachers is often less frequent than is desirable to ensure sustainable shifts in practice. However the growth in internet-based collaborative tools has meant that different ways of communicating are being created at exponential rates. Due to the natural limitations on inservice teacher educators' work, innovative ways of sustaining the professional development they provide are becoming increasingly important. The action research project described in this thesis has investigated one of these innovative approaches; not towards shifting teacher practice but focusing rather on improving the practice of the inservice teacher educators themselves. Five inservice teacher educators known as Isteam (Inservice teacher educators at Massey) formed a professional learning community to investigate the use of blended learning communities which use a combination of both face to face and online learning environments. While this thesis discusses how blended learning communities can be facilitated to support the professional learning of inservice teacher educators, Isteam themselves investigated the potential of using both blended learning communities to support the professional learning of teachers they worked with. Isteam met physically face to face on regular occasions and carried on their learning virtually between meetings through an easily modifiable webpage environment known as a wiki. This thesis discusses how these two environments wove their relative strengths together to build the professional learning of Isteam in ways that far exceeded the possibilities of using one or other learning community on its own. Research findings indicate that blended learning communities require early phases of building knowledge and social relationships, and that developing pedagogical capability relies on these building blocks to be in place first. Blended learning communities worked most effectively to improve the professional learning of inservice teacher educators when the facilitator: 1. Provided a range of online and face to face opportunities for inservice teacher educators to build their professional knowledge and gain confidence and competency in using online collaborative technologies, particularly in the early phases of the community's development. 2. Engaged inservice teacher educators in a range of online opportunities, including non task-related activities, to develop social relationships and get participants 'talking' comfortably online. 3. Challenged inservice teacher educators to use their growing knowledge and social relationships as platforms for critically reflecting on their professional learning and practice issues. As a result of these findings, the inservice teacher educators involved in this research project are now strengthening the communities they have already established to ensure they grow to their full potential, and are mentoring other colleagues to develop their own blended learning communities in response to requests for help. Blended learning communities have piqued the interest of inservice teacher educators at Massey as having powerful potential to embrace the demands of working in the 21st century.
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    Student modelling and adaptivity in web-based learning systems : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2001) Han, Binglan
    Web-based educational systems are now becoming part of main stream education. As an essential component of the web based educational systems, the student model enables the system to provide individualised course contents and study guidance, and therefore to help the students with different backgrounds and knowledge levels to achieve their learning goals effectively on the web. A prototype student model was developed in this project for a web based learning system. The architecture of student model is divided in two parts: individual and group student models. The information contained in individual student model includes the student knowledge levels for course contents, study goals, learning styles, preferences, etc. The individual student model is initialised by asking students their behavioural preferences through a questionnaire, and using default information based on stereotyping in the group student model. The model is updated dynamically according to student study times and/or assessment results. The group student model is extracted by a cumulative analysis of the individual student models of various students and is used for giving guidance to the students. Both navigation and content adaptations are provided based on the information maintained in student models. A web-based educational system was constructed for implementing and testing the student model. The web-based system adopted a three-tier, client-server architecture. The first tier is a set of HTML frames embedded with Java Applets running in the student's web browser to provide course contents and navigation guides. The middle tier consists of Java Servlets, JSP, and application programs to receive student requests, update student model, and send adaptive course contents and navigation guidance information to the client side. The course contents are stored in XML files that are processed to create the individualised course content presentations. The third tier is the relational database for storing the course structures and contents, and the information in the student model. This study produced a unique two-fold web-based student modelling system that can be applied to intelligently deliver the courses for a wide range of subject domains.