January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

generated by STR could improve learning as long as it was reasonably accurate (i.e., >85 percent). Most students
used STR-generated text as an additional resource to verify and clarify what they heard as well as to take and
augment their own notes. The students also believed that lecture transcriptions helped them to better understand the
lecture content.
Method
This study used the research method, learning design, STR application and training, and experimental research.
Research Method
The method of this study was based on three major steps, as shown in Figure 1. The first step included pretesting.
The second step involved experimental treatment. The third step incorporated homework assessment and posttesting.
Learning Design
Figure 1. Flowchart structure for the study
This study conducted an experiment with appropriately designed learning activities by using STR technology in an
online synchronous lecturing environment as well as in a setting wherein an individual student completed homework.
Online one-way lectures
This study used the JoinNet application (Wang et al., 2010) to support online learning activities, i.e., online
synchronous one-way lectures in a synchronous lecturing environment. The JoinNet application provides such tools
as a whiteboard, a chat box, and audio and video for synchronous communication purposes (see Figure 2).
Additionally, a teacher may upload and present PowerPoint ® slides in a synchronous cyber classroom using the
whiteboard. This study employed a chat box that displayed STR-generated text to the experimental group.
Originally, the teacher planned to use the STR application during online one way lectures and he hoped the
application could generate the text in real time. However, Petta and Woloshyn (2001) cautioned about significant
delays (up to 50 seconds) in transcript generation by the STR application. Thus, the teacher in this study changed the
original and ideal approach and prepared the lecture transcripts beforehand using the STR application in order to
reduce delay in transcript generation. Afterwards, the teacher copied STR-pre-generated text and inserted it inside
the chat box’s input field during the actual synchronous lectures. Finally, the teacher pressed the Enter key of his
keyboard for the STR-generated text to display inside the chat box, so then all students could read it simultaneously.
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