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Promoting Learning through Interactive On-line Activities: Examining Effects of the RICG Model for Designing Blended Classes. Li Cao Counseling & Educational Psychology. Theoretical Framework. Elements of Successful Cooperative Learning Individual Accountability Group Rewards
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Promoting Learning through Interactive On-line Activities:Examining Effects of the RICG Model for Designing Blended Classes Li Cao Counseling & Educational Psychology
Theoretical Framework Elements of Successful Cooperative Learning • Individual Accountability • Group Rewards • Positive Interdependence • Improvement Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2002). Meaningful assessment and cooperative process. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
RICG Instructional Model • Read the assigned material • Individual responses and posting on line • Chatroom discussion with the group • Group synthesis and sharing with the class
Research Literature • Educational technology offers unique features to benefit teaching and learning • Focus shifting from developing infrastructure to using technology as a cognitive tool (Lajoie, 2000) • Current research yields conflicting results: • No difference was found in classroom performance between traditional, completely online, and hybrid course delivery (Rivera & Rice, 2002) • Blended class outperformed face-to-face class in physiology ( Taradi, Taradi, Radić, & Pakrajac, 2005)
Purpose Compare student performance in the traditional classes versus the blended classes in psychology and research Traditional class=12 face-to-face classes Blended class=8 face-to-face + 4 on-line classes (2 before and 2 after the midterm) On-line class=RICG • Read the assigned material • Individual responses and posting on line • Chatroom discussion with the group • Group synthesis and sharing with the class
Results • Significant difference was found on the means of the final exam in psychology and research between traditional and blended classes F(1, 264)=13.75, p=.001, η²=.05.
Figure 1. Means of student performance on the final exam by year and subject
Figure 2. Means of student performance on the final exam by subject and instructional methods
Discussion • Our results confirm Taradi et al.’s (2005) finding that students in blended classes outperformed students in traditional face-to-face classes. • Our data show that student performance benefited from the blended instruction only on the final exam but not on the midterm. • This finding suggests that students may need more experience using on-line class structure to benefit their learning.
Future Study • Consider a larger sample and from different subject areas and disciplines • Control the instructor effects • Reverse and/or alternate the traditional and blended instruction