Despite the potential for emerging technologies to humanize online learning, students are often reluctant to use them. This action research study explores the experiences of online community college students who learn out loud. The findings show why students are reluctant to speak online, provide a strategy for improving this problem, and highlight the cognitive and social benefits achieved from increasing voice participation. 2014 Sloan-C/MERLOT Emerging Technologies for Online Learning, Featured Session.

1. CC-BY Gustavo Devito
LEARNING OUT LOUD
Michelle'Pacansky.Brock''''''''TeachingWithoutWalls.com
CSU'Channel'Islands
'''''''Mt.'San'Jacinto'College
Changing'St?dents’'Mindsets'About'Voice'Comments
@brocansky'
tiny.cc/ET4ONLINELOL

2. • Share the results of an action research study designed to
improve the percentage of community college students willing
to voluntarily leave voice or video comments in required
VoiceThread activities.
• Evaluate the experiences of community college students as
they engage with emerging technologies for online learning.
• Identify the impact of course design and instructor support on
students’ mindsets about using emerging technologies.
Objectives

4. Instructor voice feedback in online
classes has been found to improve:
• perceived distance between instructor (more like "in class")!
• perception that instructor cares!
• feeling of student involvement!
• student motivation!
• student retention of information
(Ice, Curtis, Phillips, & Wells, 2007; Oomen-Early et al., 2008,
Olesove, Richardson, Weasenforth, & Meloni, 2011)

5. • Started teaching using VoiceThread in my online classes in 2007.
Background
• By 2008, proven for its online community-building potential.

6. VoiceThread contributed to
establishing a sense !
of community in !
our class.
80% strongly
agreed or agreed
Online Student VoiceThread Survey:
101 students surveyed, 88% response rate
Pacansky-Brock, 2008

7. My instructor's voice
comments increased my sense
that she was actively present
in my learning experience
(compared to text alone).
96% strongly agreed or
agreed
101 students surveyed, 88% response rate
Pacansky-Brock, 2008
Online Student VoiceThread Survey:

8. My instructor's video
comments increased my sense
that she was actively present
in my learning experience
(compared to text alone).
98% strongly agreed or
agreed
101 students surveyed, 88% response rate
Pacansky-Brock, 2008
Online Student VoiceThread Survey:

9. CC-BY-NC Pulpolux !!
Voice comments
are great!
As long as I don’t
have to use them.

10. Questions
If voice/video comments by the instructor improve social
presence, how is online learning impacted if student-
generated voice/video comments increase?
Why are most students (~75%) unwilling to
participate in voice/video?
How can this problem be improved?

11. Can I change
them?
Can I change how
they feel about
leaving text
comments?

12. !
•Community college
•Southeastern California
•Fully online
•Max class enrollment: 35
•LMS: Blackboard
•About 1/2 students new to online
•At time of redesign, campus had
site license to VT but no BB
integration
About my current online class:
Text

13. The Changes
1. Ensure access. !
• New institutional site license to VoiceThread meant ubiquitous
access to voice through phone commenting minutes
2. Slow down & scaffold. Redesign of Weeks 1-2.!
• Wk 1: Getting Started Unit (new) - no commenting!
• Wk 2: Learning Unit 1 (redesigned) - everyone comments in voice or video
3. Voice/Video Commenting Required - sometimes. 12 activities.
5 require voice/video, 7 allow students to choose voice/video/text.
4. Check-In. Added a “VoiceThread Check-In Survey” in Week 4.

14. VT2 VT3 VT4 VT5 VT6
0.22 0.24
0.21
0.42
0.24
average
26.6%
before
redesign
% of Voluntary Voice/Video Comments !
by Students: Semester Before Redesign

15. VT2 VT3 VT4 VT5 VT6
0.78
0.82 0.82 0.83
0.56
0.22 0.24
0.21
0.42
0.24 average
26.6%
average
76.2%
after
redesign
before
redesign
% of Voluntary Voice/Video Comments !
by Students: Semester Before & After Redesign

16. VT #1:
Ice Breaker -
Voice or video comments required.
https://voicethread.com/share/2656014/ https://voicethread.com/share/2740447/
VT #2:
Formative Assessment -
Any commenting method allowed.
Wk 2: Revised Unit

17. Ice Breaker (new)

18. Week 4: Check-In Survey

19. How did you feel when you were asked
to leave your first voice comment?

20. Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90
How nervous were you when you left your
first voice/video comment?

21. 0
7.5
15
22.5
30
1 2 3 4 5
Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
very nervous not nervous
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90
How nervous were you when you left your
first voice/video comment?

22. 0
7.5
15
22.5
30
1 2 3 4 5
Now when you comment in voice/video, how
nervous are you?
Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
very nervous not nervous
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90

23. When given a choice, which commenting
format do you prefer?
0
15
30
45
60
Text Voice Video
Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90
34%
61%
5%

24. CC-BY-NC-SA By Coofdy
a'social.emotional'speed'bump?

25. So far, I think VoiceThread has added value to my online
learning experience.
0
17.5
35
52.5
70
Agree Neutral Disagree
Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12n=90
68%
24%
4%

26. Commenting in VoiceThread is:
1 2 3 4 5
Sp 14 Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12
Week 4 Survey (after 3 VTs, 1 req’d voice/video commenting).
easy difficult
n=90

27. End of Semester Survey
work in progress
started surveys in Fall 2012
anonymous

28. CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia
Were there any benefits to being
able to hear your peers’ comments?
“Yes, I feel like we got to know each other
better. I actually recognized a classmate at my
children's Taekwondo class because of the
sound of her voice!”

29. CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia
Were there any benefits to being
able to hear your peers’ comments?
“Yes, it feels more personal and
intimate which I think helps you retain
what you are learning.”
(cont'd)

30. CC-BY JD Hancock
“…having to say the words helped me
understand what I was talking about better
than if I had just been writing it down.”
How did speaking (vs. writing all your
assignments) affect your learning?

31. CC-BY JD Hancock
“I found ... that I would ... unearth more thoughts
and opinions as I spoke them out loud while
looking at the content, as opposed to looking at
the content, forming an opinion, then looking at
my text as I wrote it.”
Were there any benefits to being
able to hear your peers’ comments?

32. CC-BY JD Hancock
“…it made me re-evaluate my answers. Mostly
because I didn't want to sound like I had no idea
what I was talking about. Plus when you write
something down there is not much emotion to it
and being able to speak out loud my ideas made
me feel like I could connect and explain the
material better.”
Were there any benefits to being
able to hear your peers’ comments?

33. CC-BY JD Hancock
How did speaking (vs. writing all your
assignments) affect your learning?
“I felt the need to more fully research the
material before leaving comments. I wanted
to sound proficient when discussing
questions in voice comments.”

34. CC-BY JD Hancock
“I believe giving myself the ability to do voice
comments without a completely scripted comment in
front of me added to my thinking process. Without
sitting down to write out everything I might say, it
made me dig deeper in the moment of discussion to
speak out about ideas I may not have though out or
thought of while sitting to script the comment.”
How did speaking (vs. writing all your
assignments) affect your learning?

35. CC-BY JD Hancock
“I felt more motivated to produce a better
quality assignment.”
How did speaking (vs. writing all your
assignments) affect your learning?

36. CC-BY JD Hancock
“I am not really sure it effected my learning.
I seemed to avoid my voice threads as
long as possible because of this.”
How did speaking (vs. writing all your
assignments) affect your learning?

37. CC-BY Gustavo Devito
Were there any drawbacks to
being required to speak?
“At first, I was nervous ...but ... I found [VoiceThread
to] be most useful. It was fun and made the class
more interactive. In my opinion, the online class
would be a bit boring without VoiceThread.”

38. “I did not like the voicethread
activities. I don't feel that it added to
my learning experience since it is not
a speech or public speaking class.”
CC-BY kodomut.com
What drawbacks were there to
being required to speak?

39. “None really, other than me tripping
over my tongue and having to re-
record a lot. But that gets better as
you get more comfortable with it.”
CC-BY kodomut.com
What drawbacks were there to
being required to speak?
(cont'd)

40. What drawbacks were there to
being required to speak?
“For me, working them around my noisy
(and consistently busy) family and house. I
also had to buy a microphone for my
comments, but acquiring materials is just a
part of school.”
(cont'd)
CC-BY kodomut.com

41. Was this your first experience using VoiceThread?
Yes No
n=49
98%
2%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

42. Age
18-24 25-32 33-40 41-50 51-60
n=49
18%
12%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12
53%
14%
2%

43. The voice activities contributed to making me feel like I
was part of a group.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
n=49
65%
27%
6%
2%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

44. Throughout the course I noticed an improvement in my ability to
speak more clearly in the voice/video comments.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
n=49
59%
24%
14%
2%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

45. The ability to communicate effectively with online voice/video
communications is an important 21st century skill.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
n=49
71%
24%
4%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

46. If you have completed an online class before this one, was this the
first time you have been required to participate in voice?
Yes No
n=31 (17 or 35% chose N/A)
84%
16%
Fa 13 Sp 13 Fa 12

47. Being able to listen to my peers (vs. reading all their comments)
improved my ability to reach the learning objectives in this course.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Fa 13 Sp 13n=49 Fa 12
73%
18%
6%

48. When I left voice comments I remembered more of the information.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
n= 36 Fa 13 Sp 13
58%
25%
11%
6%

49. CC-BY-NC-SA By Coofdy
• Student mindsets towards emerging technologies affect
their willingness to use them.
!
• These mindsets may be changed through course design
and instructor support.
!
• Scaffolding student use of technology into a course can
reduces nerves.
!
!
Findings

50. CC-BY-NC-SA By Coofdy
• Voice/video student participation in online classes:
!
• increases when students are required to comment in a low-stake ice
breaker with high instructor interaction after tool set up is complete
• affects social & cognitive elements of online learning
• supports learning differences
• may improve students’ verbal communication skills & self confidence
• fosters skills that students perceive to be critical for 21st century
success
!
Findings!
(cont’d)

51. Implications
• Additional accessibility support would be required for captioning of
content when a text accommodation to voice content is necessary in
a class.!
• For VoiceThread, a campus must subscribe to a department or site-
wide license to provide students with free phone commenting
minutes.!
CC-BY-NC-SA By DigiD

52. Oomen-Early, J., Bold, M.,Wiginton, K. L., Gallien,T. L. & Anderson, N. (2008). Using asynchronous audio
communication (AAC) in the online classroom:A comparative study. Journal of Online Learning andTeaching,
4(3).
Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P., & Wells, J. (2007). Using asynchronous audio feedback to enhance teaching presence
and student sense of community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.
Olesova, L.A., Richardson, J., C.,Weasenforth, D., Meloni, C. (2011). Using asynchronous instructional audio
feedback in online environments:A mixed methods study. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and
Teaching. &(1), 30-42.
References