Transforming pedagogical practices in African higher education with blended learning: considering Telepresence in university teaching Nonofo Losike – Sedimo Education Foundations Department University of Botswana

Introduction This presentation is about bringing the media magic in the classroom with special effects. Much more like the movie magic in the movie theatre, Because of time limit, these slides do not tell the whole story. Therefore the first two slides represents two publications which are readily available on the web Slide 1 is a book and slide 2 is a chapter which happens to be more popular than the book. If you are interested in this topic, they will fill in the gap in this presentation

Introduction

Abstract This study, which took place at the University of Botswana focuses on how blended learning can be used to motivate student by enhancing their conceptualizing ability. The purpose was to investigate the pedagogical significance of telepresence teaching at the university level

Abstract continued The problem addressed in this study was the lack of student motivation due to the complexity of the subject taught. The study pays attention to the African context in consideration of the research questions, the structures, processes and staff available to facilitate pedagogical innovation.

Abstract continued An experimental research design was used to understand the complex contextual framework of the problem in order to determine the appropriate integration of technology. Data was collected from two groups by obtaining pre-test and post-test scores from the experiment and control groups. Results were consistent with previous technology impact studies. It is concluded from this study that blended learning at university level can benefit from the integration of telepresence teaching

The study This study presents results that can be used to improve methods of teaching by adding super sensitivity to teaching materials in such a way that student experiences become unique and highly engaging. This can be achieved by targeting the students’ conceptualization’s strength and weaknesses. And designing lessons using special effects to build very catchy and engaging lessons’ tasks. The study was conducted to test such a method here called telepresence teaching method

Definitions continued Telepresence teaching engages the three types of interactivity defined here. It is about teaching a remote class though e-learning or telecommunication technologies. The content is designed with immersive interactivity that creates learners’ experiences of the teacher’s presence and virtual reality of the content. Learners experiences should be such that they do not want to put the device used down or shut down the PC. Learners’ experiences have been at the center of educational research. For example, experiential learning and instruction technology research studied experiences

Definition of telepresence Telepresence teaching engages the three types of interactivity defined here. It is about teaching a remote class though e-learning or telecommunication technologies. The content is designed with immersive interactivity that creates learners’ experiences of the teacher’s presence and virtual reality of the content. How? The engagement on task and general interaction with learning materials make more sense to the learner resulting in enjoyment of the lesson. By bringing in feelings of the presence of the communicator and the receiver in the same space. The lessons are designed to have high impact in all human senses especially taste

Samples of cultural materials some of the material s blended i the teaching came from local schools and cultural events, e.g., our Africa Teaching resources or wedding video Telepresence explained Advances in E-learning technologies have brought to the teaching process an exciting array of methods for motivating learners, reinforcing learning and automated student teacher interactions with instant feedback One of the leading technologies in area is the SMART board.

Reviewed studies Revealed the following; a) the importance of learners’ technology usage patterns b) and that the correlation between these patterns and the different technologies improves learning. c) The studies also delineated that how the learner’s experience of technology related to achievement motivates them to learn. (Author, 2010, 2006, 2003; Cramer,2002;Dillon & Gabbard; Miller, 2009).

Targeted Learner Experience The feeling of a teacher in the classroom Enhancement of conceptualization A sense of achievement Motivation And effective time on task Enjoyable manipulation of learning conditions In short the teacher aims at students experiencing what they learning and that depends entirely on the teachers creativity with the use media and technical know how

Why this study is important or how we became interested in it Statement of the problem The problem addressed by this study was to determine the impact of telepresence teaching on the achievement scores and motivation scores of third year psychology students at the University of Botswana. Purpose and significance Could improve teaching methods

Conceptual Framework Rogers’ (1983) theory of experiential learning guided the study distinguished two types of learning: (a) cognitive (meaningless), and (b) experiential (significant). The former corresponds to academic knowledge such as learning vocabulary or multiplication tables, and the latter refers to applied knowledge such as learning about engines in order to repair a car.

Methodology The study experiment: Method – Quantitative Design - Pre-test and Post test randomized experimental design Sample -From the 140 who had registered for an advanced course in Educational psychology, 70 students were randomly selected for the study. Two groups experimental and control groups were formed. Thirty five students were randomly assigned to each group.

Ethical and context considerations I.RB approval 2. To what extent did the telepresence in the experiment include the human sensory elements of vision, sound, and touch/manipulation and in what form? 3.Visuals, videos, power points, and three D models pictures were used to explain concepts without violating the rights of the learner

Students’ baseline profile What did the student baseline profile look like before the experiment Pre test measures 1. motivation scores 2. Achievement score 3. Demographic data Were collected to profile the learners.

Study variables Independent Variables Teaching method; the telepresence method was created by using visuals 3D models videos games role-plays SMART board lessons conveyed by blackboard, internet and phone Dependent Variable: students’ motivation scores And students’ achievement scores

Research questions and Instruments 1.To what extent does the telepresence method increase students’ scores from pre – test to posted as measured by the Advanced educational psychology exam 2. To what extent does the telepresence method increase the students motivation as measured by the motivation scale Instruments. Educational psychology examination paper The motivation survey was a self-report instrument based on the theory acquired form literature Both instruments had established reality co-efficient of.89 and.91 respectively Demographic survey

Data collection and Analysis Data Collection. Participants completed the demographic survey. Next, they were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. While in the 2 groups, participants completed the achievement and motivation premeasures. Participants in the experimental group were exposed to telepresence treatment over a 1 5-week period. The control group received similar content through traditional face to face interaction for the same time of fifteen weeks. At the end of the 15-week period, both groups completed the achievement and motivation post measures. Data analysis Descriptive statistics The data was analyzed using SPSS. The descriptive statistics were calculated, specifically the pre- test means and the posttest means

Data collection and Analysis The standard deviations and effect size were calculated and interpreted as follows; mean of treatment group – mean of control group divided by standard deviation of control group. The effect size description was guided by Cohen’s description of effect size if, 0.5 = large difference Inferential statistics. The inferential statistics model used was the t – test for paired samples. The test provided the t – value, probability value and degrees of freedom.

Results Achievement results Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations of the experimental group and the control group pre – test and posttest scores Group N Pre-test Posttest ________________________________ _M_____SD________ _______M SD_____ Experiment Group (7.8) 85.0 (8.9) Control group (5.7) 60.0 (6.39)

Results The telepresence teaching method group had a higher posttest achievement mean (M = 85.00, SD = 8.9) and the pretest achievement mean was (M = 43, SD = 7.8) the posttest mean was greater than the pre-test mean by 42%. The control group pre –test mean was (M =41 SD =5.7) and posttest mean was (M =60, SD = 6.39) making the mean difference of 17.The effect size was indicating that the strength of the difference between the group posttest means was moderate. In the t- test procedure, the t -test for paired samples calculation showed p value of.000 which was less than the set alpha value of (0.5). The difference of 25 between the groups’ posttest scores’ means was statistically significant.

Results. Motivation The table below displays the results of the motivation scores. Each question in the survey was scored for individual respondents. Next the means for all items were calculated for both groups Table 2

Means and Standard Deviations values Table 2 Means and Standard Deviations values for the Likert survey given to both experiment and control group Items 1 to 10 results follow

Table 2 - Results Post-test only. Pre-test included in the paper Experiment Control Question Mean SD Mean SD ________________________________________________________________ I prefer learning with technology in this course I want to use communication tools all the time I like using the discussion forums I want to watch 3D videos and simulations all the t

Results 5. By using Technology I will understand subject content better I will not remember what I learned because I hate computers I prefer to learn by face to face method only Learning with technology will be easy It is more meaningful to learn from technology Technology would be engaging and fun

Results The table 2 results show that the experiment group had higher means in all the items that support the use of technology and scored low on items that did not support it. The control group scored high on the method that they were taught with and low on technology enhanced learning, The results for the experiment group makes good sense. The results for the control group show low scores for technology. This means both groups preferred the method they were taught with, but experiment group were more motivated to learn than the control group. In response to the research question 2 “To what extent does the telepresence method increase the students motivation” It appears the method has increased the motivation for the experiment group only.

Conclusion The results of this study might provide a framework for effective teaching method designs for higher education in Africa. Telepresence teaching method is like any multimedia-related instruction. The effectiveness of the method is in the lesson design It was clearly demonstrated in this study that careful merging of technology properties and student abilities can be exploited to create desired sets of behaviors or experience. The results bring critical design issues regarding the use of technology in E-learning. Finally, as a result of this study, telepresence has been established as an effective learning condition. It recommended that The study be repeated with a larger sample with another sample elsewhere