Research Article
Sonia Triana-Vera, Omar López-Vargas
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 17, Issue 2, Article No: ep570
ABSTRACT
This research aimed to determine the effects of motivational scaffolding and adaptive scaffolding on academic and online self-efficacy in learners interacting with a multimedia learning environment within the field of technology. The study involved 146 students from four tenth-grade classes at a public institution in the municipality of Soacha (Cundinamarca-Colombia). The research followed a quasi-experimental design with two independent variables: (1) motivational scaffolding (static and faded by the student) and (2) adaptive scaffolding (fixed and differentiated), it also included two dependent variables; academic and online self-efficacy. A factorial MANCOVA statistical analysis showed a significant interaction of adaptive scaffolding and motivational scaffolding on self-efficacy for online learning. There was also evidence that differential adaptive scaffolding had a substantial effect on academic and online self-efficacy. These findings suggest that the use of motivational and differential pedagogical and/or didactic strategies in virtual learning environments, which integrate scaffolding faded by the student, enhances learners’ personal judgments about their abilities to learn content within the field of technology.
Keywords: self-efficacy, motivational scaffolding, adaptive scaffolding, in computer-based learning environments
Research Article
Ahmet Coymak
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 10, Issue 1, pp. 94-105
ABSTRACT
There is a growing interest in the use of computer-based learning environments to enhance learning in higher education, but the implications of this on the improvement of metacognition in higher education have yet to be adequately explored. In the current study, 175 students who enrolled in an introductory psychology course were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (computer-assisted vs. self-managed). In the computer-assisted condition, besides the lecture delivered four hours per week and for three months in total, students took a set of assignments based on evidence-based teaching in a computer-based environment. The control group, however, took these assignments as in-and-out class activities without using a computer environment. An assessment based on Bloom’s taxonomy was utilized to obtain metacognitive and competency scores for both groups. The results of the study showed that the students who completed the structured learning assignments as computer-based, self-learning environment showed better metacognition performance than those in the self-managed group, who did not engage with the online platform, even though there was no significant difference between the groups regarding competence on the course’s learning objectives. The current experiment offers an empirical validation for why instructors should use technology as a self-regulatory tool that enhances students’ metacognitive performance and competence of learning outcomes.
Keywords: Metacognition, University teaching, Self-regulation in learning, Computer-based learning