Although some of the students felt that this was their first experience with Web based teaching and learning technology, they could use some essential
facilities such as the Discussion Board, the Course Document and the Course Material facilities supported by the lecturer online.
Web based teaching and learning environment was also perceived by some participants to provide easier, more relax, and more interesting environment to
express the idea and to understand the material P21B1, P25B1, P4D1. But the college lecturer noted that she had to wait if there was nobody online, it was like
email but it was more directed P4D4. It happened when she used the Discussion Board facility, which used asynchronous technology. Asynchronous discussion was
perceived having advantage such as anytime characteristic, which was also perceived become disadvantage on the other hand.
It seems that there was different learning style, which might impact on how they perceived the usage of this technology differently.
1.29.1.3. Origin of Motivation
Most of the student perceived that good presentation and interactive environment affected how the students understand the material P23B1, P23C1. The
college lecturer noted it might give good understanding for students P23D1.
It seems that Web based teaching and learning environment provides opportunity to build a better presentation and interactive environment, which
might enhance the material perceived by students Reeves, 1999. 1.29.1.4.
Opportunity to Construct Learning
Some useful information has been provided in the External Link facility to provide opportunity for the students to construct their own learning. Based on the
researcher observation in the discussion of designing a simple Web based Hospital Information Systems, no students have used this facility. It might be affected by the
limitation of time provided to follow the module.
1.29.1.5. Collaborative Support
Collaborative support in this technology is a type of virtual team which need the nine principles of virtual team Lipnack et al., 1997 to be successfully in
practical. Analysis of the usage of Web-based teaching to support collaborative
learning will be complemented with the nine principles depicted in the unified conceptual framework Table 2.1.
1.29.1.5.1. Independent member
There were some problems regarding independent member principles. It was understood as after the researcher conducted Web based teaching and learning, there
were also examinations from the university in the following week. All of the students felt the limitation of allocation time P17B2, P18A1, P18B1, P18C1 and two of
students recognised the important of self organise in this environment P9A2, P9B2. The Database module online as additional module without assessment from the
lecturer might also affect their willingness to follow the module more often. The college lecturer noted that the students must be pushed to conduct
discussion P22D1. The researcher also found difficulty to support the students to be independent member as he only could communicate through virtual environment.
It seems that because of the nature of virtual environment, the members really need to be self organise. The face-to-face meeting by the lecturer is
considered to be very important in order to support student to be self organise. 1.29.1.5.2.
Shared leadership
In this discussion, the lecturer facilitated an open discussion and did not prevent the students to express their idea in the Discussion Board facility. The
participants felt free to express their idea P25B1, P25D1.
It seems shared leadership might be supported in the discussion board facility through providing the same opportunity for each member to express
their idea, which might be followed the fellow students comment for that idea. 1.29.1.5.3.
Integrated Level
There was one group consisting of the students and the lecturers. Although there was a limited number in this module due to the limitation of time, there was
opportunity to conduct a discussion among the students, the lecturer and the college lecturer.
It seems integrated level could be supported easily in Web based teaching and learning environment through the Discussion Board facility due to the
nature of virtual environment.
1.29.1.5.4. Co-operative goals
The lecturer also supported cooperative goal through giving teams assignment in this collaborative learning such as an authentic task, which will be discussed in
section on task ownership category below. As a team, they had the same goal to provide a solution for the assignments considering that the goal allowed the members
to cooperate. This goal will also be discussed in the discursive level in Laurillards
1993 framework in section on teacher support category below. The lecturer might support students to understand cooperative goal
through giving a team assignment, which supports the members to cooperate in collaborative learning.
1.29.1.5.5. Interdependent task
Most of the students noted that they could ask for help from the fellow students or the lecturers and complement each other in Web based teaching and
learning environment P10A1, P10B1, P15B1, P17C2. One of the students noted that what they could be well achieved was the discussion P12B1, P26B1. The other
noted that this virtual environment could add his knowledge, as there was discussion partners P25B2.
It seems that Web based teaching and learning technology provides an environment to support interdependent task, which is considered to be very
important to achieve successful collaboration learning. 1.29.1.5.6.
Concrete result
In this module, a group assignment was given to design a database for a simple Web based Hospital Information Systems. This assignment was perceived to
improve students understanding in database design P19A2.
It seems there was some experiences gained from authentic task, which was considered as valuable result.
1.29.1.5.7. Multiple media
In this Web-based teaching and learning technology, the Discussion Board facilitated the students to give opinion and to make comment of the other opinion and
also to record our discussion in asynchronous methods and it was perceived useful to shared result P16A1, P16D1.
The history discussion record provided in the Discussion Board facility may be perceived useful to follow discussion and shared result.
1.29.1.5.8. Boundary-Crossing Interaction
The students noted that with Web based teaching technology, he could follow the module and communicate with the other students and the lecturer across time and
space P4A1, P25C1. The college lecturer noted that she could conduct discussion with the students without considering who the lecturer was and who the student was
P25D1. According to the researcher observation, there were more students involved in the fourth session.
It is like the first action research that it seems in this virtual environment may give more convenient for students to express their idea across time and
space. This virtual environment may also give opportunity to involve more members to contribute in the discussion.
1.29.1.5.9. Trusting relationship
In this module, one of the students gave trust that the lecturer would guide him to follow the module P10A1 and their willingness to complement each other in Web
based teaching and learning environment P10B1, P15B1, P17C2 shown how trust could be gained.
It seems the trust could be built in Web based teaching and learning environment to achieve successful collaboration learning.
1.29.1.6. Task ownership
In this module the students was given an assignment, i.e. a simple case to build a simple Web based Hospital Information System in order to apply the theory in
practice. The nature of the module in designing database itself was an authentic task as it might engage the students in practical activities Reeves, 1999, such as
analysing required tables in a database. One of the students noted the usefulness of this authentic task to increase his understanding in database design P19A2. As it has
been depicted in the unified framework Table 2.1, this authentic task was one way to obtain concrete result principle in collaborative support categories.
This authentic task needed support from the lecturer guided by Laurillards interactive level 1993 to obtain cooperative goal, concrete result and trusting
relationship, which have been explained in section 5.4.1.5 above. In this discussion, the students practised to apply the theory of database design to solve the simple case.
The interaction was not only restricted between teacher and students, but it happened among members which is considered as collaborative learning. It was needed the
members to support independent members, shared leadership, interdependent task, and trust relationship, which have also been explained in section 5.4.1.5 collaborative
support above. One of the students noted that they complemented each other to understand the material P15B1 the other noted It increase my understanding in the
database design P19A2. It shows that the dialog was supplemented by constructive
and meaningful feedback and it provided opportunities for the student to obtain reflection Laurillard, 1993. Although this research faced difficulty to provide
Internet access facility for the students, in this module they were considered to be able to conduct online discussion to propose a simple database design in Web based
teaching and learning environment.
In this module, the students learned authentic task as they learned experiences to put into practice some of the theories of database design. It seems
that Web based teaching and learning environment may provide opportunity to build constructive and meaningful feedback and may provide opportunities for
the students to obtain reflection through Laurillard’s 1993 interactive level. 1.29.1.7.
Teacher Support
Laurillard’s 1993 conversational framework consists of discursive level and interpretative level was used in order to guide the analyses of the Introduction to
Database module online. The module online was built using Blackboard from Blackboard Inc which provide many facilities which were depicted in Appendix B. In
order to prepare the module, he used some facilities which supported the focus of the research such as the Announcements, the Course Information, the Staff Information,
the Course Documents, the Assignments, the Course Material, the Discussion Board, and the External Links facilities.
It may be useful to think that in discursive level it will be analysed how the teacher support the students to learn the theories of database design and in
interpretative level, it will be analysed how the teacher supported to obtain experience of database design theories in practise through a task. The task was a database design
for a simple Web based Hospital Information System. These analyses will be explained in the following section.
1.29.1.7.1. Discursive level
The researcher used the Course Information, the Course Documents, the Assignments, the External Link and the Course Material facilities to describe the
subject matter and presents the idea Laurillard, 1996. In these facilities he provided information concerning what was the course about, the facilities in this module, the
course material and the assignment. He also gave the link to other resources that support the material for example Internet link to other source provided in the External
Links facility. In order to conduct discursive level successfully, the lecturer supported the students through cooperative goal, trusting relationship and multimedia which
have been explained in section 5.4.1.5 collaborative support above. One of the participants noted that the material was easy to understood P4D1,
and the usage of Indonesian language made the material could be understood more easily P4D3. Most of students gave highest scale to the Course Material, which
contained material in downloadable file form P7X6, P8X5, and gave high scale to the Course Document, which contained material in HTML pages P7X4, P8X3. One
student noted that he downloaded the material in the Course Material P19C2.
The Course Material and Course Document facility might be perceived to be important to guide the students in the process of learning. It seems that the
students prefer to read the material offline. The usage of Indonesian language, which was perceived more familiar by
students, might support the students to learn the material faster.
The Announcement facility, which contains guideline about the progress of the module, was given relatively low scale P7X1, P8X1. It might have relation with
the schedule, which was out of order due to some reasons. This problem has also been explained in the chronology of the research see Appendix E.
Monitoring students progress was considered important to guide the students in following the module in the virtual environment, as there was one student who
asked What should I do now? Although there was information about what the students should do in the Announcement and email sent by the lecturer concerning the
module schedule, this comment indicated that there was opportunity for the students become confused in this environment. The lecturer also put the information about the
course in the Course Information facility, which was given below average scale by most of the students P7X2.
It might be important for the lecturer to support awareness of the important of each facility in Web based teaching and learning technology, which
was considered easier through face-to-face meeting.
Most of the students found difficulty to allocate time due to the other tasks from face-to-face module, the same schedule with the lecture and one student noted
that the schedule was not on the right time P17B2, P18A1, P18B1, P18C1, P25A2, P27B1. The researcher realised that this situation was happened because of the
restricted time for the research. On the other hand two students considered active in following the module which also could be monitored through Course Statistic
facilities. The successfulness of the college lecturer to encourage student to follow the forth session through face-to-face approach, which has been explained in the
chronology of the research see Appendix E, was shown how important face-to-face contact to motivate student.
Self-discipline is considered as an important factor to follow Web based teaching and learning technology successfully. It seems that face-to-face contact
is considered more effective to motivate student to follow the module.
Interaction with the teacher to understand the course material was perceived useful by the students P10A1, P14B1, P14C1, and P17C2. One student perceived
that interaction with the lecturer limited to writing question P14C1, he noted that in order to ask a question using images, he would need additional cost and time. As it
has been explained in the chronology of the research see Appendix E that drawing tool facility was considered important for this module.
All students and the college lecturer felt that although Internet access from university was free for them, it was too slow. The worst thing was that it was often
stuck and sometimes it failed to connect the site and in return they felt that it was not effective, wasted time and wont produce outcome P3A1, P3A2, P3B1, P3C1, P3D1,
P9C2, P10C1. This problem also has been described in the chronology of the research see Appendix E.
When the third session was conducted at Internet Cafe on Saturday afternoon consist of three members, one of the students felt that the Internet access could
support them P3B1. In the fourth section on Tuesday afternoon, the members accessed the site from Internet cafe consisting of eight computers with Internet access.
In this fourth session, the college lecturer felt that Internet access was slower then previous session P3D2. They also felt some difficulty such as logout by itself, could
not login, slow respond, slow update, too often refresh, and lost typed message due to automatic refresh which caused them to retype again P3D2, P6A1, P6B1, P6D1,
P12A2. The students perceived that these difficulties affect their willingness to access the site P18C1, P25B3. The college lecturer noted that it did not happen
when she accessed the site from home P6D2. The researchers, who also followed the discussion at that time through dial up connection from students accommodation,
didnt meet these problems. It also has been explained in the chronology of the research.
1.29.1.7.2. Interactive level
As it has been explained in the chronology of the research, the researcher gave a group assignment to design a simple database for Web-based Hospital Information
System. This interactive level has been discussed in section on task ownership category above.
1.29.1.8. Metacognitive Support
It was difficult to build metacognitive support in this research considering the limitation of time. However, the nature of this module was to apply the theory of
database design in practice. In the assignment team, the lecturer guided the students to design database using a framework, which might helpful to shown the steps which
should be followed to design database but left the detail for the students’ requirement. The comment of one student, It increase my understanding in the database design
P19A2, might show how the student perceived reflection to learn different cases.
It shows that virtual environment may provide opportunities for the students to plan strategies in leaning different cases.
1.29.1.9. Knowledge and Skills
According to Khan, Web-based teaching can be designed to enhance the transfer of knowledge and skills by emphasising authentic tasks that students own
for themselves Khan, 1997 in Reeves, 1999. The authentic tasks experience in this module might also add students knowledge and skill. This authentic task has been
explained in section on task ownership category above in which one of the students perceived additional understanding in database design P19A2. This authentic task
was conducted through the Discussion Board, which also was noted by one of the students P25B2. The other perceived additional knowledge about Web based
teaching and learning technology P19A2, P25A1.
This indicated that the students perceived additional knowledge and skill through authentic task using the Discussion Board facility.
1.29.1.10. Mental Models
