Revisited the Findings from Both of the Action Case Researches in

Chapter 6 Research Summary

This chapter presents revisited findings of the action case researches in two different organisation contexts, examined research questions and research objectives, personal reflection and conclusion.

1.30. Revisited the Findings from Both of the Action Case Researches in

Difference Organisation Contexts Considering the factors depicted in Table 3.7, which may affect the findings of the two action case research in different organisation context, the following section tried to revisit the findings given in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. The first action case research at Salford University may give more in-depth understanding since it was carried out in such a longer time compared with the second research at Sanata Dharma University, however it allowed the researcher to explore the findings based on the two different contexts. The limited Internet access facility and provided time to follow the module, and the nature of additional module without assessment in the second research might affect the participants’ willingness to follow the module online. These limitations also explained why only some participants 4 members of 21 registered users actively access the site. The students from undergraduate degree in the second research considered have less self-organise and self-discipline, compared with the students from master degree in the first research that might also affect their willingness to access the site. Furthermore, no direct face-to-face support by the lecturer in the second research due to the distance limitation might also affect this willingness. The technical Database System module in the second research compared with the non-technical Virtual Organising module in the first research might affect how the students contribute in the discussion considering the exact nature of a technical field. Based on the researcher’s observation it seems that database module allowed the students to contribute relative freely due to the nature of database design, which may produce many variety results. Because of the time limitation provided for the research, which was considered as the limitation of this research, the research data in this research did not support culture categories. Based on the findings of the two action case research in a different organisation context considering the factors discussed above, the findings considering a general analysis of the usage of Web based teaching and learning technology were given in the following points: • Web based teaching and learning technology may be followed without technical difficulty for some students who have had Internet skill supported by a few tutorial sessions which was considered faster if it was given through face-to-face contact. It was considered important to pay more attention to students without Internet skills. • It was considered rather difficult to inform the importance of the facilities in Web based teaching and learning technology, which was considered very useful, for some students in their first experience, without face-to-face contact. • Lecturer support in collaborative learning concerning the awareness of independent members such as self-discipline and self-organise in students first experience in Web based teaching and learning technology was considered important. It was considered to be easier if it was given through face-to-face contact. • Lecturer could support shared leadership through facilitating open discussion and integrated level by inviting guest lecturers or experts in the online discussion in Web based teaching and learning environment. • Lecturer may support cooperative goals by giving a team assignment, which may encourage students to realise interdependent task such as voluntary behaviour to support interdependence of roles, to achieve concrete result such as experiences and reflections. Face-to-face meeting among members was perceived useful to provide opportunity for each member to motivate each other to achieve the awareness of interdependent task better than online. • Online recorded discussion and multimedia support in Web based teaching and learning technology may allow more members to follow and to join in the discussion and to allow the members to prepare their argument in order to offer members a convenient way of expressing their ideas across time, space and organisation • Asynchronous recorded online discussion facility in Web based teaching and learning technology may accommodate some students learning style such as anytime learning support. However, some members perceived the delay response in anytime learning support as disadvantage. It may be supported using synchronous technology, which was not used in this research. • There was an opportunity to gain an awareness of students to complement each other among students in solving their assignment. This awareness might show the students’ willingness to give trust to their fellow students in collaborative learning. • Lecturer could support an authentic task in Web based teaching and learning environment through Laurillards 1993 interactive level which may also involved virtual teams principles Lipnack et al., 1997 in conducting collaborative learning. This interactive level may allow the lecturer to provide meaningful feedback for the students in order to gain reflection supported by collaboration learning facility such as an online recorded discussion tools, and an repository for module document, additional documents and additional information from Internet link related to a topic module. • Using Laurillards 1993 discursive level, qualitative information and additional information, which support the topic module such as document and external Internet link provided in a schedule manager and a repository module document and Internet Links facilities in Web based teaching and learning environment, may be considered useful to guide learning process, to gain trust and to provide opportunity for constructing their own learning. • Material in a downloadable file form for a long material which was provided in Web based teaching and learning facility was perceived useful by students to read the material offline more easily due to the virtual nature of the technology. • The usage of interactive Web based teaching and learning application complemented with a better presentation such as using some pictures could enhance the material which may add to the students motivation and understanding. • Metacognitive skill in learning to learn for students may be obtained through reflection opportunity from authentic tasks and assignments in Web based teaching and learning environment. • Additional knowledge and skill could be supported in Web based teaching and learning environment by giving an authentic task supported with a repository document and information facility. • Higher order outcome such as curiosity from the students experiences could be supported in Web based teaching and learning environment. • Mental model such as the awareness of how important self-discipline and self- organise to follow Web based teaching and learning module could be obtained. • In this virtual environment, lecturer may also be expected to monitor students progress in order to encourage, to give direction, and to guide students so not to lose focus. • Internet access facility and provided time considering work overload from other face-to-face modules were considered very important to conduct Web based teaching and learning module successfully. • In some modules, a drawing tool is important to support Web based teaching and learning environment.

1.31. Research Questions and Research Objectives Examined