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Affordances of Learning Technologies in Higher Education
Multicultural Environments
Edilson Arenas
CQUniversity, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract: A cluster of research has been conducted in higher education to investigate the affordances (action possibilities)
and the influence information and communication technologies (ICT) may have on students’ learning experiences and
outcomes. Such studies have given rise to the implementation of a wide range of educational frameworks with a great deal
of empirical evidence on the benefits of using technologies to improve learning. However, these benefits do not appear to
have fulfilled higher education expectations for more meaningful and transformative learning experiences. In this paper, I
argue that part of the problem is either the content or teacher–centric perspective of these frameworks and the need to
explore the benefits from a more student–centric perspective. Learning is contextual, with learners having different
abilities to learn and varying preferences for educational technologies with greater potential to facilitate their learning
activities. Drawing on an ethnographic study of culturally diverse computing students and teachers within learning
environments that blend online and face-to-face pedagogies, I argue that our understanding of what ICT has to offer for
the design and implementation of transformative learning activities is a far more complex issue than is often anticipated,
particularly in the design and implementation of learning for computer science programs.
Keywords: academic disciplines, computer science, computing science education, e-learning, ICT affordances, learner’s
preferences, learning styles, learning technologies, media affordances, online learning
1. Introduction
There is an extensive body of research on the affordances of information and communication technology (ICT)
to transform learning and teaching in higher education (see Collis 1997; Fowler & Mayes 1999; Goodyear 2005;
Laurillard 2002; Oliver 2001). For example, in her influential Conversational Framework, Laurillard (2002)
claims that for ICT to play an effective role in learning and teaching, there need to be mechanisms to support
the interactive dialogue between teachers and students with the subject matter. Fowler and Mayes (1999)
take a similar dialogical approach but primarily focusing on ICT to support the three essential learning stages of
understanding: conceptualisation, construction and contextualisation; enabling the learner to move from a
novice level to an expert level of learning. A different perspective is presented by Collis (1997) in her
pedagogical profile of a course, where the intention of incorporating ICT into the course is to maximise
flexibility, with more student engagement and locus of control. Collis sees two ways to achieve this: either
through the pedagogical enrichment of the course profile or through a more transformative approach known
as the pedagogical re-engineering approach where the components of the course are expected to be radically
changed. In the Australian Flexible Learning Framework for the Vocational Education and Training sector,
according to Oliver (2001), the underpinning theme is for the use of ICT to support the design of the three
learning elements which represent critical components of any learning setting for knowledge construction:
learning activities, learning resources and learning support. Similarly, in Goodyear‘s (2005) conceptual design
framework for networked learning environments, the use of ICT is instrumental in supporting the institutional
combination of two elements: the teacher’s pedagogical approach (teachers’ philosophy to teaching) and the
educational setting including the learning environment, the learning tasks and the learning activities.
However, despite significant investment in infrastructure and training and a wide-scale uptake of such ICT-
mediated educational frameworks, the promised transformative effect on student learning is yet to be
actualised outside of small pockets of innovation (Arenas & Lynch 2012; Price & Kirkwood 2014). Of particular
interest are students’ approaches to learning in multicultural learning environments where ICT is considered as
integral to teaching and learning activities. The above discussed models appear to overlook factors like that
learning is cross-cultural, that learners have different abilities to learn and modes of approaching the
intellectual inquiry; and that all these factors may affect the way students perceive ICT-mediated learning
activities (Arenas 2012). Specifically, this research addresses the following questions:
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Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 13 Issue 4 2015
• In the context of computing science programs, what are students’ preferences for ICT media in their learning activities?
• What is the relationship between the different types of ICT media, their action possibilities and the way these ICT media best support the learning of computer science?
2. Related work
Two interlocked aspects of learning and teaching appear to be critical in the choice of ICT to support learning:
1) the nature of the subject matter (within an academic discipline) that we as teachers believe students need
to construct their knowledge and, 2) students’ learning styles of intellectual inquiry (Becher 1994). In this
respect, Biglan’s classic model on academic disciplines and Kolb’s learning styles theory might shed some light.
With reference into the similarities and differences of academic disciplines, no other framework has been as
extensively cited and used as Biglan’s classic model (Arbaugh 2013; Lam, McNaught, Lee & Chan 2014; Li, Long
& Simpson 1999; Pike & Killian 2001; Schommer-Aikins, Duell & Barker 2003; Stoecker 1993).
In his model, Biglan (1973) uses the cultural and epistemological uniqueness found in each branch of
knowledge to classify the nature of academic disciplines. In doing so, Biglan (1973) differentiates the academic
disciplines according to their specific characteristics including the object of research, body of knowledge,
theory, principles and research methods. Two dimensions emerge from these characteristics. The first
dimension distinguishes between paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic fields, i.e. hard or soft respectively. For
example, physical sciences are ‘characterised by the existence of paradigms that specify the appropriate
problems for study and the appropriate methods to be used’ (p. 195), while social sciences and non-sciences
areas like history ‘do not have such clearly delineated paradigms’ (p. 195). The second dimension perceives the
subject matter in terms of ‘its requirements for practical applications’, i.e. pure or applied (Biglan 1973). On
those grounds, Biglan (1973) sees academic disciplines divided into four groups: hard-pure, hard-applied, soft-
pure and soft-applied.
The educational context of this study is computing science and in terms of Biglan’s categorisation, it falls into
the hard-applied category (Baldwin 2011; Clark 2003). According to Becher (1994), in the hard-applied
disciplinary group, the nature of knowledge is purposive and pragmatic where individuals are concerned with
the technical mastery of physical environments to build products. Consequently, the effective choice of ICT in
the design and implementation of computing learning and teaching activities should consider these
characteristics of the computing science discipline.
Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT) has been instrumental in understanding learners’ preferences and the
way they approach learning. According to Kolb and Kolb (2005), learning is a process where learners construct
knowledge through their experiences with the environment. Kolb sees knowledge as the result of combining
the way individuals grasp and transform their experiences (Kolb & Kolb 2005). According to this theory, there
are two dialectically related modes of grasping experience: Concrete Experience (CE) and Abstract
Conceptualisation (AC). Similarly, there are two dialectically related modes of transforming experience:
Reflective Observation (RO) and Active Experimentation (AE). For example, when a learner is exposed for the
first time to a concrete experience (CE), there is an initial stimulus for the reflective observation (RO) of the
new experience, which in turn gives rise to a thinking process characterised by abstraction and
conceptualisation (AC) to assimilate the new experience. Once the new experience is assimilated the learner is
prepared to act upon and transform it into something different through active experimentation (AE). This
learning cycle repeats in the construction of new knowledge and varies depending on the personality and
experiences of the learner (Kolb & Kolb 2005). In other words, there is a preferred way of choosing amongst
the four abovementioned modes of learning shaped by individual’s previous experiences, learning behaviours,
prior learning and the learning environment. To understand Kolb’s ELT in the context of computer science,
there is a need to explore first what computer science constitutes in terms of an academic discipline.
A provocative and thoughtful description of the nature of computer science as an academic discipline is the
one given by the prominent computer scientist and computational theorist Juris Hartmanis (considered by
many as one of the fathers of computer science education). During his Turing Award lecture on computational
complexity and the nature of computer science, he stated that computer science is all about the creation of
many levels of abstraction to deal with computational problems. It involves the creation of ‘intellectual tools
to conceive, design, control, program and reason about the most complicated of human creation’ (Hartmanis
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1994; p.39). A similar view is shared by Donald Knuth (the father of the analysis of algorithms) who in a
personal communication to Hartmanis commented that:
Computer science is a field that attracts a different kind of thinker. I believe that one who is a natural
computer scientist thinks algorithmically. Such people are especially good at dealing with situations
where different rules apply in different cases; they are individuals who can rapidly change levels of
abstraction, simultaneously seeing things in the large and in the small’ (Knuth in a personal
communication to Hartmanis March 10 1992, in Hartmanis 1994; p.39).
In the light of Harmanis and Knuth, and in terms of Kolb’s modes of learning, computing students are
individuals with a converging style of learning with abstraction, conceptualisation, and active experimentation
as the main dominant learning abilities. Consequently, the choice of ICT for learning purposes should be
consistent with the learning style of these individuals.
Following Biglan and Kolb’s work, this paper builds upon our knowledge about how computing students go
about learning in learning environments with ICT as an integral component in the design of transformative
learning and teaching. The analysis presented below elaborates specifically on computing science students’
diverse responses to particular ICT—mediated learning activities, and through this analysis I argue that our
understanding of what ICT has to offer for the design and implementation of transformative learning activities
is a far more complex issue than is often anticipated, and this is so particularly in the design and
implementation of learning for computer science programs.
3. About the study
3.1 Participants
This paper draws on an ethnographic study (Arenas 2012), conducted at two universities in Australia, that
explored the behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and conceptions of teaching and learning found within
multicultural learning environments that blend online and face-to-face pedagogies.
Data were collected from participants located at two qualitatively different sites. Within each site, two
postgraduate computing courses (or units of study) were targeted for data collection: NetSec (Network
Security) and SAD (Systems Analysis and Design) at Site 1; and BAM (Business Analysis and Modelling) and FOIS
(Fundamentals of Information Systems) at Site 2. The first site (henceforth referred to as Site 1) was located in
one of the metropolitan campuses of a multi-campus medium-sized regional Australian university, and the
second site (henceforth referred to as Site 2) was located in a large metropolitan Australian university. Site 1
student body comprised international students only, whereas Site 2 was located in a university that catered
mainly for domestic students with a relatively smaller population of international students. The learning
management system (LMS) used at Site 1 was a purpose in-house built system whereas at Site 2 students used
Blackboard™, a popular commercially available learning management system.
The purposive, culturally diverse sample from both sites comprised of a total of 18 student participants from
nine countries of origin and their respective teachers. The following is a description of the sample based on
participant-reported background information.
The student sample at Site 1 was comprised of twelve students. They had diverse educational backgrounds,
with varying residency time in the country. Prior to the commencement of the semester term, Site 1 students
had been residing in Australia for periods of between 3 months and 18 months, with half of them for less than
12 months and five students for only three months. Of the twelve student participants, six were men and six
women, including nationalities from Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Kuwait and India. Before participating in this
study, six students already held a postgraduate degree and three had more than two years’ experience in the
field of information technology. All students who provided information about their skills reported that they
were experts at writing academic arguments in the English language. They also reported to have expert level
knowledge using computer hardware and software and discussion forums; however, only three students
reported to have experience using blogs (electronic journals).
At Site 2, there were six student participants: three men and three women including nationalities from
Australia, Oman, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. Prior to the commencement of the semester term, except for
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one domestic student, Site 2 students had been living in Australia for a period of between one month and two
years, with two students residing in Australia for fewer than three months. Also in contrast to Site 1, where six
students already held a postgraduate degree, at Site 2 all students held only an undergraduate bachelor
degree before the conduct of this study. Three students had between four to thirteen years’ experience
working in an information technology field. Only one student claimed to have only novice expertise in
computer hardware and software and discussion forums compared to the rest who reported to be highly
experienced using those tools. Similarly, two students reported having novice experience writing academic
arguments in English, with the rest reporting to have expert level essay writing skills. Except for one student,
none had substantial team work and management experience.
The teacher participants at Site 1 were two young but experienced teachers: Georgina taught NetSec and
Richard taught SAD (pseudonyms are used throughout to refer to teacher and student participants). Before the
conduct of this study, Georgina had more than three years’ experience teaching information technology
subjects on a sessional basis, that is to say, through separate contracts for the duration of each semester term.
Georgina combined her professional academic practice with full-time paid work in a senior systems
administration role at a prominent Australian financial organisation. She held a Masters degree in information
technology from an Australian university. Richard was a full-time academic staff member with three years’
experience teaching information systems subjects. Before his full-time academic tenure, Richard was a Site 1
alumnus and after his graduation he worked as a teacher on a sessional basis at Site 1. He held a Masters
degree in information systems and a Graduate Certificate in university teaching.
In terms of Site 2 teachers, BAM staff was larger than FOIS, and included three experienced professionals with
different industrial and academic backgrounds. Sophia, the principal academic teacher and teacher participant
responsible for this subject, had completed a PhD in Computer Science and also a Graduate Certificate in
university teaching. She had extensive experience as a research scientist in information architecture; and
usability analysis and design for various industrial and research projects locally and internationally. The other
two teachers did not form part of the sample.
While BAM had three academic staff, FOIS was managed and taught by a single staff member, Shane. Shane
was a senior lecturer within the Faculty of Science at Site 2 with extensive experience teaching online courses.
He held a PhD in Information Systems and a Graduate Certificate in university teaching.
3.2 Data collection
The study used multiple data sources to gain insights into the behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and
conceptions of teaching and learning found within these multicultural blended learning environments. The
data included digital textual records of online discussions, semi-structured interviews, field notes from
classroom observations, a reflective research journal, course-associated documentation, and students’
assignments.
The first source of data consisted of digital texts produced by both student and teacher participants during
their interactions with the online component of the learning environments at each site. During the term,
teachers provided the students with various online learning activities for individual and group work.
At Site 1, student participants were required to maintain an electronic journal (blog) to reflect on their own
learning experiences and perceptions of the course. The blog was based on nine topical questions spread over
the last nine weeks of the semester and was assessed. The teaching staff provided structured marking
guidelines to promote quality work and to ensure each student contributed the nine expected reflections.
They also monitored students’ progress and provided weekly feedback. At Site 1, students also used a
laboratory simulator (LabSim TM
), a simulation tool where students could experiment with real world problems
in a virtual environment. The LabSim TM
acted as a virtual tutor guiding the students through complex and
technical configurations of secured networks. The system could challenge the student to conduct tasks that
replicated the real world providing immediate feedback after the completion of the task.
At Site 2, students were required to use a discussion forum to extend their engagement with learning activities
initiated in face-to-face classrooms. There were six discussion forums. Three of them were designed for
individual participation where students were asked to challenge or critique at least one of the questions raised
by the lectures or fellow classmates during the classes. There was a general discussion forum to discuss
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general issues arising from the course and two group-project-related discussion boards. Of the six forums only
the general discussion forum was moderated by the teaching staff. The other forums were only moderated to
check students’ progress and to prevent language flaming.
Classroom observations were conducted at both sites to record reflective notes and provide descriptions of
students’ face-to-face classroom activities and behaviours, stimulate personal views of participants in
interview, and record events such as student consultations and class participation. The classroom observations
were instrumental in the selection of the purposive sample for the student interviews.
Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with both teachers and students. The duration of each
interview was between 30 and 45 minutes. The purpose of these interviews was to gather participants’
reflective views of their teaching and learning experiences in the learning environment. Semi-structured
interviews were preferred to structured interviews because this method is more consistent with the
ethnographic aspect of this study. Through the use of open-ended questions, semi-structured interviews allow
for the exploration of new ideas and themes, something hard to achieve with the rigorous setting of questions,
commonly found in structured interviews (Creswell 2007).
The identification of potential interviewees was based on the criterion-based selection as recommended by
Schensul and LeCompte (1999). Specifically, four teachers responsible for the delivery of the subjects were
interviewed: two at Site 1 and two at Site 2. Student participants were interviewed in the middle of the second
semester, by which point there was an opportunity to observe the students and assess the level of
engagement and participation in both face-to-face and online forums. Sample diversity was maximised by
choosing students from the following groups: those who were quiet in the classroom but very active online;
those who were active online but not in face-to-face sessions; those who were very active in both
environments; and, those who were passive face-to-face and online.
The interviews contained a range of open-ended questions that asked participants to reflect on the
multicultural, pedagogical and technological aspect of the units of study.
Additional data sources were used such as a research journal, subject outlines, profiles, content and
accreditation documents, and students’ assignments, to investigate the relationship between students’
reported perceptions of the subject and the documented learning aims, course content and student
behaviours in the course.
3.3 Data analysis - coding
Nvivo TM
, a qualitative research computer program developed by QSR TM
, facilitated the data analysis. During
the process, a large number of units of data analysis were created, managed and organised aimed to develop
codes from the multiple data sources. Codes that made explicit reference to both expected elements of the
study and to unexpected elements that represented unusual information to the researchers and/or
participants were chosen and labelled (Creswell 2007). This coding process produced a total of forty-six nodes
with direct or indirect relevance to the focus of the research.
Nodes were examined in search of themes that were meaningful in relation to the aim of the study in that they
related to students’ behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and conceptions of teaching and learning within a
blended, multicultural context. For each theme think-aloud and concept mapping processes were used to
develop conceptions of the patterns in the nodes and refine the coding process. As a result, some of the nodes
were merged and others, considered to be redundant, excluded from further analysis and representation. The
resulting thirty-six nodes were hierarchically clustered into five broad themes: 1. Adapting to a new learning
environment – cultural and social dimensions; 2. Preparing to learn; 3. Keeping pace with the learning
activities; 4. ICT integration; and, 5. Perceptions of pedagogical practices.
It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss each of these themes, which are reported elsewhere (Arenas
2012). Instead, addressing the research questions, in this paper the focus is on the ICT integration theme,
which incorporates codes associated with the affordances of ICT in learning and the types of ICT-mediated
learning activities that appear to be a better fit with the expectations and behaviours of computer science
students than others.
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4. Discussion of the findings
In relation to educational technology, the term integration means different things in different contexts and it is
often used without precise explanations of what it might mean to different people and for different authors. In
this paper, a number of ideas and practices related to integration are explored in the context of computing
students using ICT in their learning activities and could be interpreted as any of the following: the way
different online tools and their access are presented to students, the relationship between online and face-to-
face components of a unit of study, the link between learning aims and the use of ICT, the link between
assessment tasks and the way ICT is used; and the underlying assumptions of teaching and learning tasks for
different aspects or components of a unit of study and how this relates to the way ICT is used.
Having said that, this study showed that the vast majority of student participants perceived the integration of
ICT into learning activities as useful, convenient, flexible, encouraging reflection and good for knowledge
sharing and asynchronous interactions.
These findings are consistent with those reported by similar studies (e.g. Stacey & Rice 2002), where the use of
learning technologies is seen to be a positive experience for students, enabling them to engage in learning
activities even when the parties are spread geographically, providing resources, idea sharing and a sense of a
learning community. Let us take the case of Vert (India, Site 1) for example, who had the need to urgently fly
to his country owing to family problems during the teaching period. He recognised that through the blended
learning approach, he was, while overseas ‘able to keep in contact with lecturers, tutors, catch up with
lectures, and lecture notes, materials and so on’ (Vert, India, Site 1, interview excerpt), which in a conventional
face-to-face teaching and learning program he would have found it difficult to do, given his personal situation.
But, if for Vert the use of ICT in his studies was a matter of flexibility and convenience, for Jacquie (China,
Site1), an experienced user of the tools, it was necessary for learning. She referred to the discussion forums
and blogs as ‘indispensable for learning’, to the extent that she would not have been able to conduct her
studies without them. There was evidence of this engagement and facility with these learning tools by Jacquie
through the high number of conscientious and thoughtful posts she generated during the semester term. In
her interview, she particularly emphasised the ubiquity of the tools, her confidence to express feelings, and
the wide audience she was able to reach with them:
They provide you with interactivity that traditional face-to-face methods could not provide; they are also
24/7. I think that maybe people tend to be shy in modern society. Maybe sometimes when I meet you
face-to-face I could not say some words directly or I feel tensed or something [like that], I do not want
you to know it is me who said that, but with these tools you can solve all those problems. It can also
involve large scale people, students, coordinators, lecturers and tutors that could discuss a problem
together, not just limited within a classroom (Jacquie, China, Site 1, interview excerpt).
Jacquie’s words are consistent with a cluster of research (Suler, 2004) highlighting the disinhibiting effect of
online text-based interactions and particularly the potential that this has for international students (Lanham &
Zhou, 2003) when socio-cultural factors and English language issues might otherwise inhibit them from
participating in face-to-face forums.
In terms of the affordances or action possibilities of ICT in transformative learning and teaching, the focus of
this paper; two findings are relevant to the discussion: 1) the integration and alignment of ICT-mediated
learning activities with students’ learning needs and preferences; and 2) students’ diverse responses to
different types of digital media discussed next.
4.1 Alignment of ICT-mediated learning activities
While the integration of ICT into learning activities was seen by many students to be beneficial for their
learning, many also reported difficulties with the particular array of ICT-mediated learning activities that they
experienced.
Some students reported perceptions that the ICT-mediated learning environment did not give them the option
to choose from learning tasks and that somehow they were misaligned with their preferences and needs. Take
for example the case of Eloisa (Australia, Site2), a mature student with an extensive information technology
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working experience, who expressed disappointment that the first learning task was not aligned with her
immediate preferences and needs:
I prefer not to have subjects where I have to submit a real-life situation. I do not mind if it is a theoretical
problem or an essay, a case study but the fact that we have to use a real-life case, I find it difficult but
mostly I find it pointless when I am working. My goals are to learn something other than workplace. I do
not need experience talking to people; I do not need experience in dealing with teams because it is part
of my work. It is frustrating; I rather spend the time doing the review (Eloisa, Australia, Site 2, student
interview excerpt).
This time referring to the use of discussion forums, Eloisa believed that the use of ICT as part of the online
learning activities turned out to be counterproductive. She was frustrated by the lack of alignment between
teachers’ expectations as articulated in the course’s objectives and the students’ actual participation and
collaboration in the forums. In her own words: ‘contextually, nothing happened’. In relation to student
participation, she said that the discussion forums were fragmented, disjointed and hard to follow:
The discussion forum itself is fine but not effectively used in this subject. Perhaps the way we try to use
the system is not quite right … I am not sure if it is the system by itself. I think it is the way the posts are
put in the discussion forums which are very fragmented and the way they are used … It is all being kind
of disjointed and hard to follow up (Eloisa, Australia, Site 2, student interview excerpt).
An analysis of the online discussion data confirmed Eloisa’s perceptions showing fragmented and disjointed
contributions from her peers. Many students did not appear to have skills in communicating effectively via
online discussion forums. For example, simple procedures such as copying a part of the post and pasting it
onto their own post before responding to it, was not taken into account by some students, making the
discussion difficult to follow. Another example is that names were rarely used in posts and replies, that is to
say, the social networking etiquette of initiating a post with a short greeting followed by the recipients’ name
and closing the post with the senders’ name was overlooked in a vast majority of contributions. From the given
examples, students appeared to be operationally literate when using the discussion forums but they seemed
to lack the cultural and critical skills (Goodfellow, 2004) required to use them in a meaningful way.
Eloisa’s disappointment was evident when she talked about the effective use of the tools to promote
knowledge sharing and collaborative learning:
Even though everyone is there trying to say something and you think that it would be collaborative but I
think that there is a still an element of competition perhaps. I have seen in other subjects where the
lecturer said that if you found an interesting article just posted it for everyone to share and no one
posted anything. I cannot believe that no one found an interesting article. They are not sharing articles
because they believe that should be used for their advantage. All of those things are working against the
idea of sharing information, helping each other (Eloisa, Site 2, student interview excerpt).
The student data suggests a competitive culture amongst the participants, contrasting with the teachers’
assumptions and expectations of communicating in a collaborative way. The data also suggests that the
assumptions and expectations held by the teacher (Sophia, Site 2), which she hoped were built into the
teaching and learning environment, were not understood or shared by the students. Unfortunately, not much
work was done by Sophia to make her assumptions and expectations explicitly known and understood by the
students from the start of the term, which she later recognised as ‘a big mistake’.
Another situation is the one expressed by Peter (India, Site 1), who perceived the use of blogs as problematic
to the extent that knowing that he had to contribute by posting his reflections became a burden and not
aligned to his expectations:
The way blogs were used in this subject was a kind of obstacle for me. For starters they were
compulsory. You had to do them regardless since they had marks allocated. It should be a reflection of
the subject done spontaneously and not on a weekly basis as they have been set up for this subject
(Peter, India, Site 1, student interview excerpt).
From the quote, there was a reported feeling of frustration and concern in Peter’s words regarding the way
the blogs had been implemented in the study of the subject matter. He did not think the way they were used
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was consistent with the spirit of reflection and was instead in favour of using them ‘spontaneously’, that is to
say, in response to a self-generated urgency of recording personal reflections on topics discussed in class, and
not for the sake of a mark allocated.
In summary, from the findings, the requirement to do all the learning tasks was not well received. Students
would have preferred a learning environment with a higher level of flexibility in terms of choice of content
management and the mode of learning consistent with their professional interests and learning needs (Biggs
2003; Cornelius, Gordon & Ackland 2009; Guest 2005; Marton & Booth 1997). The approach to learning should
support program designs which include a wide array of ICT-mediated learning activities but where students are
given scope to both select and pursue learning activities that align with their interests and preferences, as well
as being supported to engage with non-preferred modes.
4.2 Students’ diverse responses to different types of digital media
With reference to students’ diverse responses to different types of digital media, Norman’s (1990) work in
human computer interaction (HCI) along with Laurillard’s (2002) analytical framework, which identifies the
affordances of both communicative media and adaptive media are both useful here in discussing this finding.
Norman (1990) argues that the affordances (or action possibilities) of an environment as perceived by an actor
depend not only on the physical capabilities of the actor but also on their intentions, plans, values, beliefs and
previous experience (Norman, 1990). In other words, to examine the effectiveness of ICT in learning, there is a
need to understand the capabilities of the learning environment as perceived by teachers and students.
According to Laurillard (2002), particular technologies are understood to have particular affordances and
constraints (Laurillard, 2002), that is, a particular technology can be analysed and understood to afford some
types of usages and behaviours while constraining others.
Following this line of reasoning, this study found student and teacher participants responding differently in
their perceptions of the value of different types of digital media. Take for instance the following comment
from Georgina (Teacher, Site 1) when referring to effective interactions using the discussion forum in the
course she was responsible for:
Through discussion forums international students may only be interested in getting solutions to the
problems. Give me the answer from the collaboration point of view (Georgina, Site 1, teacher interview
excerpt).
She was concerned that, within this context, students may only be motivated to use these tools to acquire or
consume knowledge, and get answers without any concern for the process; defeating what she was aiming, for
which was a two-way collaborative and engaging learning system.
From the student perspective, Natalie (Oman, Site 2), who found the flow of the discussions irrelevant and not
engaging, the affordance of the learning technology was somehow similar. She particularly lamented the
apathy, the lack of participation of fellow students and the low quality of their arguments:
I find the discussion forums superfluous and that is why I do not do participate a lot. You post interesting
topics and no one replies with sound arguments (Natalie, Site 2, student interview excerpt).
It is worth noting that Sophia, the teacher who implemented the discussion forum in Site 2, took a proactive
approach by implementing some changes part way through the semester to improve participation and the
quality of the contributions; however, this change produced only minor improvements. Her attempt to use the
forum as a discussion place for sharing and possible meaning-making was a failure. During the interviews,
Sophia was asked what she thought was the cause of this problem. Even though she was not sure about the
roots of the problems, she mentioned a wide array of student factors that could have contributed to its
ineffectiveness; from time constraints, lack of interest and doing the minimum to get a pass, to lack of
confidence in working out the appropriate argument for posting. All these explanations point to the students.
In a more personal reflection, Sophia was prepared to accept part of the responsibility for flaws in her
implementation of the discussion forum. Firstly, she did not manage to motivate the students to use the tools
for learning purposes and, secondly, she failed to get it right from the start of the semester. Her future agenda
is to learn from this mistake. She identified strategies that she could adopt in the future, including to better
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Edilson Arenas
cater for a range of language abilities, familiarising students with discussion forums as learning environments,
and scaffolding the learning process by modelling what is expected, amongst others.
Contrary to the implementation of the discussion forums, the implementation of the LabSim TM
and its
integration into the wider unit was very successful. As mentioned above in section 3.2, at Site 1 the LabSim TM
(laboratory simulator) was a computer learning tool integrated to the NetSec subject. Its intention was to help
students experiment with real world problems typical of complex and technical configurations of secured
networks. This strategy was very well received by all Site 1 students including Manuel, who praised LabSim’s
capacity to guide him to construct real world scenarios without being actually exposed to them: ‘I found the
LabSim very useful ... for example, in my home computer I could build a virtual environment to learn routing
and networking’ (Manuel, Bangladesh, Site 1, student interview excerpt). In Bernie’s case, the LabSim TM
went
beyond the construction of virtual networking environments, enabling him to achieve deep learning:
In the beginning when I planned to do this course and realised that it had something to do with security,
I thought to get some basic expertise in security since that is my future goal in my career path. Once I
started the course, I found lots of practical things, specially the LabSim … very industry like. That inspired
me to put more effort to get a deeper understanding and to implement the knowledge I could get from
it (Bernie, Kuwait, Site 1, student interview excerpt).
Taking the teacher’s perspective, Georgina underscored the practicality of the LabSim TM
, particularly in those
circumstances where it is not possible for the students to use a live environment where they could practice
what they learn in theory:
The integration of the LabSim in the subject was really helpful because a pure technical subject like this
should have some hands on practical activities. Because we cannot give them a live environment, giving
them a simulated environment like the LabSim is as close as it can be (Georgina, Site 1, teacher
interview excerpt).
In summary, the use of communicative media (e.g. blogs and discussion forums) was perceived as problematic.
Some teachers and students were dissatisfied with the use of these technologies, specifically in relation to
supporting reflection, discussion and collaboration. The main sources of this dissatisfaction are evident in the
findings of this study. First, although social constructivist theories of learning suggest that students learn best
through collaboration, dialogical conversations and critical thinking, for some students their willingness to
learn collaboratively and to participate in the communicative environments was inhibited by a number of
socio-cultural factors such as cultural differences and attitudes towards cultural diversity. Secondly, although
these types of skills and interactions are promoted at the level of policy (e.g. through stated graduate
attributes), the fit between these types of reflective and dialogical activities and the culture of computing
science (Dijkstra et al. 1989; Lynch et al. 2001) is not necessarily good, such that computing students do not
necessarily understand the potential value of engaging in the reflective, dialogical learning activities afforded
by communicative media.
By contrast, while the use of communicative media appeared to be problematic in the context of this study,
the use of interactive and adaptive media in the form of the LabSim TM
(laboratory simulator) was a different
story. Laurillard (2002) states that interactive media support the investigating and exploring nature of the
learning experience. Adaptive media support the experimenting and practising culture that is important in
computing education. The learning activities that made use of adaptive media (i.e. through the use of the
LabSim TM
) were well received by the student participants who could see their value. Further, the sorts of
activities afforded by the adaptive media did not present challenges to the students’ socio-culturally laden
conceptions of, and skills in, learning in the same way that the communicative media did. In essence, the
findings suggest that some types of ICT-based learning activities appeared to be a better fit with the
expectations and behaviours of international computing students. While some other types appear to offer
much potential for developing desired learning outcomes and providing flexibility and accessibility, they may
need to be actively ‘sold‘ to these students.
5. Conclusion and implications
This study contributes further evidence of the complex issues associated with the effective integration of
online tools in learning. The finding that some types of ICT-based learning activities appear to be a better fit
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Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 13 Issue 4 2015
with the expectations and behaviours of computer science students than others makes a significant
contribution to computing education because of the implications it has for learning design. The cultural
preference found amongst computing students for adaptive rather than communicative media suggests a very
significant cultural barrier to effective engagement in online dialogical exchanges, barriers that for some
students are not easily overcome. The study sheds more light on the advantages and disadvantages of
different types of ICT media, and the need to properly integrate them in computing education scenarios. There
is a need for further exploration of the affordances of communicative and interactive media and for the
appropriate integration of such media in computing learning activities that best prepare computing students.
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