A trialling of an intervention that is designed to keep most variables constant except the intervention in question within the constraints of the allocation of schools and classrooms into conditions, rather than the random allocation of students, and the reliance on ‘standard practice’ in a contrast group, rather than a strict ‘control group’.
Published in Chapter:
Technology, Curriculum, and Pedagogy in the Evaluation of an Online Content Program in Australasia
Peter Freebody (The University of Sydney, Australia), Sandy Muspratt (Griffith University, Australia), and David McRae (Educational Consultant, Melbourne, Australia)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-861-1.ch023
Abstract
The question addressed in this chapter is: What is the evidence for the effects of online programs of learning objects on motivation and learning? Much of the research available on information and communication technologies (ICTs) generally yields short-term or ambiguous findings, with recommendations that centre on the need for more attention to theorizing and documenting: how ICTs can be located within sequences of curricular learning; the kinds of learning that new ICTs offer (factual, conceptual, application, and transfer); and the ways in which existing pedagogies and uses of ICTs both adapt to and transform one another. This chapter aims to advance discussion of these issues by summarizing ongoing evaluations of a large-scale national program of online learning objects across key curriculum areas, drawing on survey and interview data, and a field experiment in which the effects of exposure to learning objects on learning outcomes in mathematics are documented.