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Theoretical background and hypothesis development

Chapter 3. A blog application: Assessing the effects of interactive blogging on student

3.2. Theoretical background and hypothesis development

The traditional classroom-learning environment includes only an instructor and learners.

The instructor is responsible for delivering content, answering questions, and testing learning, while learners play a passive role. Communication of course content is mostly one-way, from the instructor to the learner. In a hybrid-learning environment, the instructor designs the classroom instruction and becomes more of a facilitator to engage learners through computer mediated communication (CMC). Technology has created opportunities for learning to become a more interactive process between instructors and learners as well as among learners.

We used the expectancy theory of Vroom (Rao 2000) as a framework to explore factors, which motivate one to contribute and collaborate in online learning environments: blogs as compared to other social tools such as discussion forums. The expectancy theory includes the three dimensions of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy when investigating choices people make. Motivation is produced by individual expectancy that a certain effort will lead to an intended performance, the instrumentality of this performance achieving a certain result, and the desirability of this result for the individual, known as valence (Condrey 1998). Blogs provide more control in configuration, content sharing, and customization than discussion forums. Diverse expectancy levels involve the efforts required that lead to the intended results in peer learning. In other words, what matters is whether the efforts will eventually lead to the

end-results. Findings in the work of Kay (2006) suggest that idea sharing and online interaction in discussion forums are significant in learning environments. Hall and Davison (2007) also provide evidence of learning effectiveness in terms of peer support, propositional stances, and group affective tones. However, blogs might be a better instrument to achieve idea sharing and collaborative learning without sacrificing too much on customizing blogging space, tuning its look and feel, and the sense of ownership (Hall & Davison 2007). In contrast, members jointly own discussion forums, administrators design their look and feel, and member-specific customization is hardly possible. With regard to valence, blogs compared to discussion forums leave more room for students to present their results in multiple forms of media other than text, a major form of media seen in discussion forums.

The content analysis of blogs (Hall & Davison 2007) reveals that interactive use of blogs with students composing comments in educational settings results in a substantial degree of online peer interaction among learners. This leads us to the following hypothesis:

H2-1: The use of the comments feature in blogs is associated with positive attitudes towards online peer interaction.

Studies have supported that “good conversations” in blogs as social media are beneficial to peer learning. Makri and Kynigos (2007) conducted a study on 48 university students assigned to publish their answers to open-ended questions and problems on the blog, make their ideas explicit and “readable” by others, and comment on the work of their peers. They analyzed excerpts of written transcripts from participant blog entries, observation notes, informal interview transcripts, and a final evaluation questionnaire. Their ethnography method identified most students in their experiments as “blog frequent visitors,” who visited blogs quite often, but did not comment or contribute to a discussion; rather, they merely

observed ongoing activities or debates. Hall and Davison (2007) conducted content analysis of 79 student blogs in a university class setting and provided an evidence base for peer support through reflective learning activities facilitated by student blogs. The students were free to interpret the instruction to be “reflective” to mean that they should challenge statements posted on peer blogs as much as possible. Based on the role model theory of Merton (Holton 2004), individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires. Similarly, exposing oneself to good postings, which translate postings with reflection and insight, identifies role models in the learning context among many peers.

A behavior pattern in the blogging context involves some motivated students who perceive differences among themselves, to some students who deepen their thinking, and finally, to some accomplished students who successfully compose feedback in their comments (Chang

& Chang, in press). From the perspective of Piaget (1926), students interacting with their peers in learning situations will cause disequilibration, expose inconsistent knowledge, explore opposing perceptions and ideas, and challenge inadequate logical reasoning and strategies, resulting in higher-quality comprehension by learners. This leads us to hypothesis H2-2.

H2-2: The Use of the comments feature in blogs is associated with more motivation to learn from peers than not using the comments feature.

From the social modeling perspective (Bandura 1986), student-student interaction presents opportunities for observing and imitating successful behaviors and achievements, which essentially results in changes in peer levels of competence in a task. Peer learning is a form of cooperative learning that enhances the value of student-student interaction and results in

various advantageous learning outcomes. By opening opportunities for peers to view blogs created by others and encouraging comments and suggestions after examining their viewpoints, exemplars are exhibited for observations and modeling, which, in the light of social modeling by Bandura (1986), should enhance observer knowledge levels in a task.

Consequently, course subjects reflected in interactive blog conversation, dialogues, and comments may enhance academic achievements. Therefore, we propose our third hypothesis:

H2-3: The use of the comments feature in blogs is associated with positive attitudes towards academic achievements in course subjects.