The second assignment was
a quiz on the content of Nicenet covered to that point. The computer
teacher posted on Nicenet a link to http://quiz.4teachers.org,
at which site she had created a 7-item timed test for students on the
uses of Nicenet. Results were automatically sent to the teacher, and
students received immediate quiz feedback online.
For the third assignment,
the computer teacher placed students in small heterogeneous groups and
designated a team leader for each group. Each team was asked to choose
a team name by using the Conferencing feature of Nicenet to discuss
and vote on names. Lastly, teams were given the following situation
about which to make a decision:
Your team gets to go out
for an evening together in the local area. Where would your team like
to go? How much will the evening cost? How will your team get to and
from the selected place? How late will you be able to stay? Your task
is to choose an evening outing that everyone can afford and that the
majority votes in favor of.
You may only converse using
the Conferencing feature of Nicenet—no face-to-face, email, phone,
or any other interactions are allowed. Each person in the group should
contribute ideas and suggestions at least six times during the next
two weeks.
When your team has reached
a decision, your team leader must use the “Turn in Online”
feature of Nicenet to submit your results to the instructor. Good
luck!
For the fourth assignment,
the computer teacher posted two Web sites on locker privacy under Link
Sharing on Nicenet. Students were asked to read information at each
Web site, write one paragraph summarizing each site, and submit paragraphs
to the teacher using Nicenet's "Turn in Online" feature. This
assignment was designed to provide background information for the subsequent
assignment.
For the fifth assignment,
students were asked to participate in a threaded discussion on locker
privacy using the Conferencing feature of Nicenet (see Addendum
for sample student work). The computer teacher posed several questions
on Nicenet and asked students to respond using complete sentences and
to incorporate background information from the reading assignment. Students
were also asked to respond in a serious manner to at least one classmate's
comments.
The final assignment involved
completion of the student perception survey described below.
Student Survey Results
Students were asked to respond
anonymously to a 10-item survey (see Figure
1). Table 1 summarizes
the survey results for items 1-7. The results indicated that a large
percentage of students (85%) liked using Nicenet. Further, most students
(70% or more) found that using Nicenet made class assignments clearer,
made it easier to communicate with the instructor and their classmates,
helped them know assignments in advance, and would be helpful in other
courses. Interestingly, a rather high percentage of students (40%) reported
that using Nicenet did not help them complete a group project or group
discussion.
Table
2 summarizes the results for survey items 8-9, which asked students
to rate Nicenet on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing "not
at all" and 5 representing "very." The results indicated
that 25.5 % of the students found Nicenet to be very helpful or useful
(rating 5); 36% of the students found Nicenet to be moderately helpful
or useful (rating 4). Further, 15% of the students indicated that using
Nicenet very much improved learning (rating 5), while 30% of the students
said using Nicenet moderately improved learning (rating 4).
Item 10 of the survey asked
students to make comments about using Nicenet. The most frequent positive
comments included that Nicenet was fun, helpful, easy to use, should
be used in other classes, made communication easier, and kept students
up to date. The most frequent negative responses were that on Nicenet,
assignments were confusing, some students could not get the assignments
from off-campus, and some students sent annoying emails or did not participate
fully in group work.
Qualitative results described
by the computer teacher are included below.
With respect to students'
general ability to use Nicenet features, students who were used to
telecommunications were quite at home with the Conferencing and Email
features of Nicenet. Assignments that involved emailing or conferencing
resulted in approximately 98% participation. Although at first students
were confused about the difference between "Turn in Online"
and "Add a Document," the ability to distinguish between
the features became easier after five assignments. Students had no
trouble at all using the Link Sharing feature; almost all of them
already had favorite Web sites and posted them easily. On the Nicenet
quiz, students not only performed well, they also enjoyed taking the
quiz.
Using Nicenet was the only
computer project all year that seemed pleasing to most of the students.
They came in ready to go online and see what the assignment was. I
believe that in another semester students would have begun to view
the assignments and to complete some of the work before coming to
class. Since most students were connected to the Internet at home,
that option was available. A few students picked right up on their
ability to email the instructor to ask questions from home. This,
too, would become a habit for more students in time.
Grading (Pass/Fail) was
extremely lenient due to the new nature of the online tool. If a student
completed an assignment in any way, I gave credit. Nearly all of the
students completed at least three of the five assignments. A large
percentage completed all five of the assignments. Four of the 47 students
completed no assignments; however, those same students completed few
of the previous semester's assignments, and I therefore considered
them outliers in this study. Taking that into consideration, I believe
students were about 98% successful in understanding and using the
Web tool, which was my main instructional objective. The problems
some students experienced during the term (for example, difficulty
choosing a group name or completing the group project) did not result
because they didn't understand how to use Nicenet features, but rather
because they lacked appropriate communication or collaboration skills.
