Maor, D. (2008).

Changing relationship: Who is the learner and who is the

Title of the article:

Changing relationship: Who is the learner and who is the teacher in the online
educational landscape?

Area of research:

The broadest area of this research is about educational technology in which the author
focused on the role of the student as discussion leader and whether the discussion
leader can replace a teacher in managing the discussion in the online learning.

Synopsis of research:

In this 21st century, the number of web based or online or 'cyberspace' courses has
rapidly increased and many universities provide online graduate courses. Garrison,
Anderson & Archer, 2000 said it has brought flexibility and convenience and greater
opportunities to create online learning communities of practice. However, it did not
necessarily correlate with higher levels of academic achievement.

This research phase evolved into examining the contribution of the various
participants to the development of the cognitive interactions. This inquiry required a
different set of codes for the analysis of categories of interaction. Maor stated that it is
important to know in what ways and who contributes to the facilitation of the students
cognitive learning in the online learning. In her study, the teacher examined the
interaction to assess learning progress based on each student's online contributions to
the community knowledge construction. This study also analyzed the ability of
students who acted as discussion leader to engage in the question based facilitation
and, to a lesser extent, content based presentations.

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Methodology:

The participants used for this research was a postgraduate unit on e-learning in a
school of education. The methodology combined quantitative data of students'
frequency behavior with qualitative analysis of students' individual online
contributions. Maor use the original online interaction to support and demonstrate the
nature of cognitive learning that took place during a semester of three consecutive in a
group of people.

The data were generated from an exclusively online asynchronous discussion of

The role of discussion leader was defined and demonstrated to the other students.
They were asked to lead and promote the discussion, add relevant questions and
material synthesis learners' contributions and summarize at the end of the topic. The
different categories of interactions (student-student, student-group, student -teacher
and student -discussion leader) were condensed into two main groups, which was: “all
student-student interactions” and “all teacher-student interactions” as shown in
figure1.

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Main Findings:

The answer of the research question which is: “what roles do discussion leaders
perform and whether a discussion leader replaces a teacher in managing the
discussion”, can be seen in the static graph shown in figure 2 in this journal article. In
figure 2 too, it illustrates the differences between the discussion leader's facilitation
actions and the teacher's facilitation actions during five selected topics and from 1157
postings from the online course.

The analysis suggested that the teacher tends to give more direct instruction/content
related postings and encouragement and giving feedback than the discussion leader
during the five selected topics.

However, the discussion leaders' postings were higher in four types of facilitation
which are: summing up and confirming, focusing discussion, moving the discussion
forward, and debriefing. While for the scaffolding part, the teacher having a slightly
higher percentage of postings in this category than discussion leaders.

The type of teaching strategy of peer led discussion enables the students to immerse
themselves in the online experience and to learn and share ideas and frustrations with
other learners. The immersion suggests that the discussion leaders immersed
themselves in the community of learners and led the discussion on a rotational basis
as part of the online module design.

There are two issues related to this study which are the role of the group facilitator in
online small group learning and the process and impact of peer group discussion on
students' learning. Maor insisted that it becomes a common routine in many online
courses for the facilitator to adjust the planned curriculum, to constantly contribute
and seek input from students. The students, on the other hand, responded on a regular
basis and started to take leadership responsibilities in the online community.

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On the other hand, this study found that the students' discussion leader's role enabled
and promoted interactions. These interactions also created a greater commitment
among the community members, which sustained the discussion during the semester
long course. In addition to intense interactions, the role of the discussion leader
prompted empowerment and active learning, which were two goals intended in
creating this unit. This also changed the role of the teacher of this unit to a co-
facilitator and co-learner. However, it was important to have the teacher there for
encouragement and feedback and direct instruction on specific points. From her study,
Maor suggested that online learning is more suitable to mature age students who are
more likely to be motivated than younger, undergraduate students. The role of
rotational leadership, which was examined in this study, helped learners to achieve the
learning outcomes of the course. Clear goals and expectations also helped to inspire
the group to achieve learning outcomes and to create a community of learners.

In addition, from Maor survey, the quantitative data suggest that the discussion
leaders fulfilled most of the facilitation roles and the leadership experience provided
them with the opportunity to be highly interactive, reflective and understand the new
relationship between the online teacher as a facilitator and the learners in the changing
educational landscape. However, the qualitative data suggest that the lecturer
scaffolded the learners into reflection and interaction and guided them to immerse
themselves in the online experience. Occasional social or cognitive challenges could
not be resolved without the intervention of the teacher.

Summary:

In summary, the task given to each member to be a discussion leader enabled new
relationships between the teacher and the learners and new relationships among the
learners, with everyone being empowered, changing their learning experiences and
promoting the learning of others in the community. It is possible in adult learning to
obtain meaning through collaborative learning with minimal input from instructors.
The role of rotational leadership, which was examined in this study, helped learners to

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achieve the learning outcomes of the course. Clear goals and expectations also helped
to inspire the group to achieve learning outcomes and to create a community of
learners.

My individual responses towards this journal:

In my opinion, overall the journal is very interesting to read on. The author has done a
very good job in order to find the answer for her research question.

The method the researcher used to investigate her topic was quite blurring explained.
Her participants were postgraduate students who are in 12 people per group. My
question is why she does not want to use full-time undergraduate students as her
research participants? Why must be the undergraduate students? Plus she also made
an inference stating that from her study, online learning is more suitable to mature age
students who are more likely to be motivated than younger, undergraduate students.
But she did not show the reason why undergraduate students can not be motivated as
undergraduate students. She also did not mention how many groups or the total
participants she used in this research. Thus, I think Maor should fix her statement or
do more research about the changing relationship in the online teaching between
undergraduate students and their teacher and do not forget to state how many
participants she has used.

Besides that, the figure 1 showed the types of interaction and facilitation between
teachers and discussion leaders was good. It helps me to read her methodology easier.
The figure explains well what she wants to do for her research and how she can make
it. She also used a very good software program, that is Nvivo, to categorize the
interactions among the students and the teacher which I think the software should be
accurate in doing the analyses.

The research journal is well written and the results showed were very satisfaction as
she has included graph in figure 2 to compare to role of direct instruction and

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facilitation between the teacher and discussion leader. Thus, readers can easily
analyze the results. Plus, she also cited how the teacher and the group leader
conducted the group when the discussion going on. This is important as readers can
know what was happening during the research going on.

If possible, this paper also can be expanded. In this case, Maor can use different
participant to do her research besides using postgraduate students. As I mentioned
before, she can either use undergraduate students or secondary school students as
nowadays teachers prefer use ICT as their teaching medium.

Moar had a very good introduction and summary. She had done many researches
about the educational technology and this journal is the continuation of her previous
research. Her summary stated that both discussion leaders and teachers play a vital
role to increase the learners in online teaching and learning. In a nut shell, the author
can improve her research method for the next improvement. Besides, the online
learning should be encouraged not only in postgraduate students but as well as
undergraduate students too.

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