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2013 Conference Proceedings - University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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The interactions that students experience between the content, teacher, and other studentsshould not be studied in isolation <strong>of</strong> one another, nor is one greater than the other. Within theomni-media environment, the combinations <strong>of</strong> such interactions are possible. Because researchin online learning relatively new, few studies only compare effectiveness <strong>of</strong> learningmathematics online when compare to its brick-and-mortar counterpart. A major weakness inthese studies is the singular focus on one or another component part rather than the interplaybetween types <strong>of</strong> interactions (Anderson & Kuskis, 2007; Moore, 2007, 1989). The purpose <strong>of</strong>this study was to investigate the relationship between the actual use and perceived effectiveness<strong>of</strong> synchronous and asynchronous modes <strong>of</strong> delivery in learning mathematics.MethodologyFor the purpose <strong>of</strong> this study, a sample was drawn from 2051 high school students takingpre-algebra, algebra, and geometry courses online from one <strong>of</strong> nine virtual academies inCalifornia. The 458 self-selected students participated in an online mathematics course, withoptional discussions through online web conferencing and threaded discussion boards. Thecurriculum was delivered through a learning management system (LMS) that that supports allinstructional components <strong>of</strong> a traditional brick-and-mortar course. That is, students freely loginto one place and interact with computer-assisted instruction, animation and simulations, javaapplets, streaming audio and video, live up to date grade-book, online practice, and assessmentactivities. By the end <strong>of</strong> the semester students were required to complete online quizzes andexams to satisfy the course requirements.An online survey was administered to measure student preference, use, and confidence levelin learning mathematics when learning is dependent on the online content. Additionally, thesame was asked regarding threaded discussion boards, and synchronous interactions.The development and use <strong>of</strong> frequencies, descriptive statistics in this article are based datacollected as part <strong>of</strong> a larger study on students’ interactions while learning mathematics online.Comparisons were made between the subgroups by performing a series <strong>of</strong> two-sampleindependent t-tests. In each case, a Levene’s Test was performed to test the assumption <strong>of</strong> equalvariances. The discussion that follows has been abbreviated; only parts <strong>of</strong> the larger study relatedto course behaviors (geometry, algebra pre-algebra) will be discussed. Further frequencydistributions revealed which types <strong>of</strong> online student interactions were used most and theirperceptions <strong>of</strong> said interactions. The average time spent on each asynchronous activity was<strong>Proceedings</strong> <strong>of</strong> the 40 th Annual Meeting <strong>of</strong> the Research Council on Mathematics Learning <strong>2013</strong> 165

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