Title:
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The experiences of e-learning for eight education professionals undertaking an online course in educational testing : an interpretative phenomenological analysis
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Major UK studies reviewing thee-learning literature have concluded that
"There is a general scarcity of studies of the learner experience"
(Sharpe, Benfield, Lessner & De Cicco, 2005, p.3). This research study
focuses on the experience of e-learning for eight education professionals
who, over a six month period, wrote diary entries on a confidential online
blog. A single open ended question and a prompt which aimed to
increase awareness were used so that participants provided data about
the experiences that were important to them. A phenomenological
perspective was used to explore the participants' experience. The data
was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith,
1996).
The diary accounts provided eight different personal experiences of alearning.
Three common themes were identified of 'feeling socially
isolated', 'difficult to keep going', 'online tutor absent'. Less common
themes were also identified, 'positive social contact online', 'I must be
careful that people don't see me as incompetent', 'course matches my
learning style', 'course does not match my learning style' and 'writing the
blog made a difference'.
Course participants experienced the social presence of 'faceless
strangers' and felt socially isolated. The 'social isolation' theme
appeared to link to the theme 'difficult to keep going'. This suggests that
providing experiences of social presence on an e-learning course is not
enough and further research into the area of social connectedness
would be valuable.
Whilst all course participants made progress through the course many
described their e-learning experience in intensely emotional terms.
Adopting Mead's (1934) theory of perception it is suggested that the
intense emotional experiences could be due to the unexpected loss of
social cues making it difficult for course participants to construct an
identity on the course.
Educational Psychologists are recommended to consider using elearning
to provide continuing professional development opportunities for
education professionals.
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