In terms of web-based project learning, students should use Internet for finding information, communicate their findings with others, and then make projects or tasks(Laffey, 1998). This leaning helps students engaged in activities such as problem solv...
In terms of web-based project learning, students should use Internet for finding information, communicate their findings with others, and then make projects or tasks(Laffey, 1998). This leaning helps students engaged in activities such as problem solving, making decision, reflective thinking, and knowledge constructing(Liu & Hsiao, 2002). Unlike traditional classrooms or individual learning environments, therefore, learners in the web-based project learning environment are able to make their own learning as well as collaborate with peers for a task in the group learning situation. In addition to these, web-based resources such as multimedia material, hypermedia, and online chatting enable the learners’ communication and interaction at anytime and anyplace, and this broad way of communication and interaction influences academic performance and satisfaction(Althaus, 1997). To dates, investigators have been focused on learner participation, interaction, and flow in the web-based project learning(Park & Kim, 2006). Specifically, Palloff and Pratt(1999) and Wilson and Ryder(1998) reported that collaboration and participation through the web-based learning environment motivate students involved enthusiastically in their learning, participated in learning activities, and this motivation and flow impact academic achievement and attitude.
Authentic task has been said that it provides authentic experience and context-based learning. So it helps students understand better, motivates them, and aids them to acquire useful information and knowledge. Authentic task can be closely related to learners’ personal life, so that they make their learning significant and interesting as to be engaged in. For example, Woo et al.,(2007) investigated that learners build important knowledge and greatest performance particularly when they use graphics, audios, and videos, and bulletin board and instant messenger in the web-based learning environment together with authentic tasks. As a result, it is critical to adopt authentic tasks into the web-based project learning (Herrington, 2005; Herrington, Oliver & Reeves, 2003). However, most studies have been narrowly focused on theoretical concept rather than practical analysis(Herrington, & Herrington, 1998; Herrington, & Oliver, 2000; Herrington wt al., 2003). Thus, this study will show the relationship among authenticity of tasks, flow, academic achievement and learner satisfaction in the web-based project learning environment. First, to do this, this study will analyze the effect of authentic tasks on flow, academic achievement and learner satisfaction. Then, it will suggest ideas about design strategies to instruct learners in the web-based environment for the future research.
There are research questions as below,
1. Is the relationship among Task Authenticity, flow, academic achievement and learner satisfaction in Web-based Project Learning?
2. Is flow mediated to the estimation of the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners for the amount of academic achievement in Web-based Project Learning?
2-1. Does the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners estimate the amount of flow in Web-based Project Learning?
2-2. Does the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners and flow estimate the amount of academic achievement in Web-based Project Learning?
2-3. Is flow mediated to the estimation of the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners for the amount of academic achievement in Web-based Project Learning?
3. Is flow mediated to the estimation of the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners for the amount of learner satisfaction in Web-based Project Learning?
3-1. Does the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners estimate the amount of learner satisfaction in Web-based Project Learning?
3-2. Does the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners and flow estimate the amount of learner satisfaction in Web-based Project Learning?
3-3. Is flow mediated (influenced) to the estimation of the amount of Task Authenticity identified by learners for the amount of learner satisfaction in Web-based Project Learning?
The participants in this study are 45 college students who are taking the L class and the college is located in Seoul. The class is about leadership and vocational education instructing learners to be trained and developed as a member of the society. The participants have taken the classes in the web-base project learning environment for 7 weeks from September 30, 2009 to November 11, 2009. The instruments in this study are surveys that asked the participants task authenticity, flow, academic achievement, and their satisfaction in the class.
This study has a few important findings. First, it found that there is correlation among authenticity of tasks, flow, academic achievement and learner satisfaction in the web-based project learning environment. For example, authenticity of tasks is positively related to flow(r = .51), academic achievement(r = .50), and learner satisfaction(r = .53). It reported that there can be a possible effect of authentic task for learner flow, achievement, and satisfaction. Flow is also positively related to academic achievement(r = .43) and learner satisfaction(r = .78), and it showed a strong relationship with learner satisfaction in r = .78. It is possible that the large amount of flow can make students to be strongly satisfied with their learning. In addition, academic performance is correlated to learner satisfaction in r = .48.
Second, the amount of task authenticity estimates 26% variation of flow in the web-based project classroom(F(1, 43) = 12.66, p < .01, β = .51). In a word, a learner who identified the task authentic showed the large amount of flow in this study. Third, the amount of task authenticity estimates 25% variation of academic achievement in the web-based project classroom(F(1, 43) = 12.24, p < .01, β = .50). In a word, a learner who identified the task authentic was highly performed in this study. However, flow is not a factor to estimate the variation of academic performance. Fourth, the amount of task authenticity estimates 28% variation of learner satisfaction in the web-based project classroom(F(1, 43) = 14.69, p<.001, β = .53). Also, flow is a factor to estimate learner satisfaction(F(2, 42) = 31.08, p < .001, β = .68). In a word, high task authenticity and flow estimate the strong satisfaction in this study. Finally, this study examined whether flow is mediated to estimate the relationship among the other factors, task authenticity, academic performance, and learner satisfaction. So this study made two regression models with and without flow as a predictor. The result of the two regression models showed that flow is a predictor to display the relationship between task authenticity and learner satisfaction, but it is not a predictor to display the relationship between task authenticity and academic achievement.
The results propose a few suggestions and directions for the future research related to task authenticity, flow, academic performance, and learner satisfaction. First, task authenticity that indicates familiar, meaningful, and context-based estimates the variation of learner performance and satisfaction, so that educators and researchers should consider authenticity into designing student tasks. However, few studies have been done about learner factors and environmental factors for considering authentic tasks. Accordingly, future study should develop instruments to identify authentic tasks and strategies to improve student learning with the help of authentic tasks. Second, more research will be necessary to investigate flow as well as transfer in the web-based learning environment. This study showed that there is a relationship among task authenticity, flow, and learner satisfaction in the web-based learning environment. In particular, further study needs to report the relationship among ask authenticity, flow, achievement, learner satisfaction, and transfer because Park and Kim(2006) found that learner satisfaction is a factor to influence student achievement as well as transfer. Third, task authenticity and flow should be discussed in terms of variables of learning. There have been many researchers who reported task authenticity and flow influenced achievement and satisfaction, but few researchers examined other learning variables. Hence, future studies should make connection between various factors and environmental variation and authentic task. Finally, it will be critical that further research conduct a qualitative analysis by using open-ended questionnaire, interviews, and observation for looking at learning in the web-based environment. These will help improve validity and reliability of studies about web-based project learning.