Measuring Conditions Conducive to Knowledge Development

The design of virtual learning environments for post-secondary instruction is rapidly increasing among public and private universities. While the quantity of online courses over the past 10 years has exponentially increased, the quality of these courses has not. As universities increase their online teaching activities, real concern about the best design for these online learning opportunities underscores the need to create effective and responsive virtual learning environments. Adams (2007) developed the Recursive Model for Knowledge Development in Virtual Environments. The premise of this model is the belief that good teaching and engaged learning should not be determined by the use of certain instructional tools but by the guiding principal that learning is an active and recursive process, where knowledge must be contextualized to be relevant to the learner. To this purpose, this article describes the initial development in the ongoing process of designing a valid and reliable assessment tool, the Virtual Learning Environment Survey – VLES, for exploring the degree to which the Recursive Model for Knowledge Development relates to effective design of online learning environments. This student self-report survey will seek to provide guidance for the assessment of online learning environments through collection of student perceptions of teaching strategies, knowledge approach, and knowledge ownership in online classrooms. Measuring Conditions Conducive to Knowledge Development in Virtual Learning Environments: Initial Development of a Model-Based Survey Nan B. Adams, Thomas A. DeVaney, & Susan G. Sawyer Southeastern Louisiana University Introduction The social aspects of teaching, learning, and educational practice are changing to accommodate rapidly emerging communication technologies. Educational institutions are trying to respond to the growing demand for delivery of educational activities that are not tied to a physical place or set time. In the past few years, online learning practices have evolved into virtual learning environments. The positive side of this change is the ability to create high quality, responsive, and engaging learning environments that foster engagement between teachers and students (Topper, 2007). The negative side of this change is when poor teaching practice is merely translated into an online environment (Kanuka & Kelland, 2008; Smith & Mitry, 2008). It is critical that a positive outcome of this change be established as a focus for all involved – student, teacher, administrator, and institution. To aid in this process, it is imperative that quality assessment tools that authentically assess teaching and learning practices in the virtual classroom be developed to guide the quality of educational programs so they do not suffer in this transition from face to face classrooms to virtual learning environments. For educators that endeavor to develop effective learning practices in the new cyber landscape, the changed teacher and learner roles in virtual environments should be central to the design of responsive virtual learning environments. To do this, basic assumptions about appropriate teaching and participant learning roles in these virtual settings must first be defined, how the intentions of these roles guide practice in virtual learning spaces must then be described, and measures of the degree to which these roles are present in virtual classrooms must be developed. Measuring Conditions in Virtual Learning Environments Adams, DeVaney, & Sawyer