October 2012 Volume 15 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

Tsai, P.-S., Hwang, G.-J., Tsai, C.-C., Hung, C.-M., & Huang, I. (2012). An Electronic Library-based Learning Environment for
Supporting Web-based Problem-Solving Activities. Educational Technology & Society, 15 (4), 252–264.
An Electronic Library-based Learning Environment for Supporting Web-based
Problem-Solving Activities
Pei-Shan Tsai 1 , Gwo-Jen Hwang 2* , Chin-Chung Tsai 2 , Chun-Ming Hung 3 and Iwen Huang 3
1 Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, 2 Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, #43, Sec.4, Keelung Rd., Taipei, 106, Taiwan //
3 Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, No. 33, Sec. 2, Shulin St.,
Tainan city 70005, Taiwan // D9622305@mail.ntust.edu.tw // gjhwang.academic@gmail.com //
cctsai@mail.ntust.edu.tw // hcm@live.htps.tn.edu.tw // huangi@mail.nutn.edu.tw
* Corresponding author
(Submitted June 12, 2010; Revised July 27, 2011; August 01, 2011)
ABSTRACT
This study aims to develop an electronic library-based learning environment to support teachers in developing
web-based problem-solving activities and analyzing the online problem-solving behaviors of students. Two
experiments were performed in this study. In study 1, an experiment on 103 elementary and high school teachers
(the learning activity designers) has been conducted to understand their views toward an electronic library-based
learning environment. The results showed that with this innovative approach, electronic libraries not only have
the potential to support traditional in-class learning, but also can assist teachers in developing learning activities
for training students in web-based problem-solving abilities. Moreover, teachers of different ages and
backgrounds all readily accepted the new approach, in particular, the older and more experienced teachers
showed even higher willingness to use the system than the younger and less experienced teachers. In study 2, a
quasi-experiment on 62 elementary school students (experimental group with 31 students and control group with
31 students) has been undertaken on a natural science course for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed
approach. Experimental results showed that this innovative approach can improve the students’ learning
achievements and attitudes in comparisons with the conventional web-based learning approach.
Keywords
Web-based learning, Problem-solving, Learning portfolio, Electronic library, Computer-assisted assessment
Background and motivation
The rapid growth of digital resources has encouraged the development of digital archives for various purposes. One
of the most important roles of digital archives is to serve as learning material providers for the learning activities
conducted in all levels of schools (Boumarafi, 2010; Chen, 2010; Chu, Hwang, & Tseng, 2010; Hall & Davison,
2007). In the past decade, many studies concerning the use of digital archives in education have been reported
(Chiou, Tseng, Hwang, & Heller, 2010); for example, Chu, Hwang, Huang and Wu (2008) developed an electronic
library to support outdoor learning for an elementary school natural science course.
While trying to find better ways of using digital resources in education, educators have recognized the importance of
training students in the competence of collecting and using information for problem solving. Various studies have
been conducted to investigate this issue, including the development of learning strategies or tools to support webbased
problem-solving activities (Hwang, Tsai, Tsai, & Tseng, 2008; Skylar, Higgins, & Boone, 2007; Tseng,
Hwang, Tsai, & Tsai, 2009), investigations of the learning behaviors and performance of students using web-based
information for solving problems (Allan & Street, 2007; Tsai, Tsai, & Hwang, 2011), and the development of subject
content-related digital archives for supporting problem-solving activities (Chen & Chen, 2010; Wang & Hannafin,
2009).
One of the major difficulties of using digital resources in learning activities is the lack of an easy-to-follow
procedure for inexperienced teachers to design subject content such that suitable digital archives or technologies can
be properly applied to the learning process (Chu et al., 2008; Hwang, Chu, Lin, & Tsai, 2011; Hwang, Kuo, Yin, &
Chuang, 2010), in particular, problem-solving activities. Therefore, it has become an important but challenging issue
to develop a learning environment to assist the teachers in using electronic libraries to develop web-based problemsolving
activities.
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