Project Investigator: Dongchen Hou, Lecturer, Asian Studies
Project Description
This project plans to analyze how students have actively and creatively managed their own learning, or “self-regulated learning” (SRL), by using digital technologies and platforms, such as Canvas, classroom response systems (iClickers), and more. I envision there’s a gap between how digital technologies is designed to be used by the instructor and how students actually use them in their everyday learning experiences. The project also factors in students’ ethnic background in an Asian course composed of predominantly international students away from their home countries. The project will use qualitative research methods, such as survey questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, diary studies, and focus groups to collect and analyze data.
Project Questions
- How does the use of digital learning technologies shape students’ learning and collaborative patterns in both formal and informal settings?
- How do students strategically use one or more learning technologies and/or websites, or cross-platform to achieve successful learning and collaboration? What issues do they encounter?
- Within a classroom with predominantly international students from a source country, how do they accommodate and reconcile the differences and similarities between their cultural background, ethnic identity, and course contents, and digital learning modalities in the class?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
We have seen the drastic changes of teaching and learning modes emerged among students and teacher-student dynamic in the past decade, and yet it is still unclear as to how students really navigate themselves to adjust digital learning technologies and communicate with their peers, when needed. Results from this study will be informative to instructors who are more aware of the strategies and creativities done by students among themselves on the ground and how to better adapt and use digital teaching tools effectively. The research result will also inform teachers on what they can do to improve students’ self-regulated learning practices via technological, institutional, personal, and collaborative activities.