Participation and reflection in virtual workshops

Sudweeks, F. and Simoff, S. (2000) Participation and reflection in virtual workshops. In: 3rd Western Australian Workshop on Information Systems Research, 27th November 2000, Perth, W.A.

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Abstract

Virtual educational environments, such as WebCT, provide a seamless interface for organising online learning and teaching activities. The rate of diffusion of these new technology-enabled environments in education, however, is so rapid that, quite often, they are adopted without a sound pedagogical basis. One area that is currently under-researched is an understanding of the factors that motivate students to participate. In this paper, we describe virtual spaces for computermediated communication, social interaction, and collaborative learning. We propose a pedagogical framework in which the web-based environment is used for both delivery of material and for reflective construction of knowledge. The proposed framework is based on a quantitative and qualitative analyses of student participation.