The terms that are used to refer to the learning environments that learners and teachers use with their computers, or that they access through a computer terminal, have been given many names: virtual learning environment, online learning environment etc. These terms are used to refer to these environments independent of the ways that the environments are used or the kind of pedagogy they employ. For this reason, it is often hard to know, on the basis of the title or abstract alone, whether researchers are actually researching the same areas, or if their approaches are very different from each other. Some understand that the term virtual learning environment simply refers to the use of the WWW or the use of online sources in the learning event, while others understand that it also includes cooperation or collaboration with other learners. Furthermore, the term virtual learning, or virtual course, is often used to refer to courses that are taken by students or learners who all sit in the same classroom, or relatively often occupy the same physical environment. On the other hand, some virtual courses are completely virtual, actual distance courses, and the
learners or students never physically meet either each other or their teacher. Also these kinds of courses may rely on individual work alone, or involve cooperative and collaborative tasks.
In light of this confusion of terms, it is important that the reader of the present study has a clear idea of what specifically is discussed. At the same time, the introduction of specific terms in the present work is hoped to clarify, in its small part, the use of these terms in the field. It is proposed here that the term virtual learning environment may refer to practically any environment used in computer-assisted learning, whether it is used by learners in the same room, or if they access it from their own homes. On the other hand, online learning environment should refer specifically to an environment that is always used online; that is, the learners use only that environment, or little else, to work on their tasks and learning assignments and they rarely, if ever, meet outside the environment. Therefore, neither of these terms indicate that the learners necessarily collaborate with each other.
Now, the term that the present writer proposes to use is collective online environment.
This term includes the assumptions that the environment is used ‘online’ and that it is used collectively. One could ask why we use the term collective to refer to the fact that the environment is used by several learners, working together. However, it is the author’s belief that that the terms ‘collaborate’ and ‘cooperate’ only include the work methods that the learners use in order to achieve a shared, or distributed, goal. Neither of these terms is necessarily specify, nor does either term specifically require that when learners study together and work on shared assignments, they also depend on each others’ motivation to work collaboratively, their social skills as well as their ability and willingness to adapt their learning strategies in order to work as a part of a group. The word ‘collective’ also unifies the terminology used in this work about collective learning strategies and collective motivation and helps the understanding that these terms, and issues, go hand-in-hand when we study a group of people working or learning together in an online environment.
All in all, the term collective online environment refers to an environment that is used
‘online’ (i.e. the users are at their computers, accessing the environment through, for example, an Internet service) and that is used collectively (i.e. several learners who work together in order to reach a shared goal and whose individual motivation and learning
strategies therefore intertwine and affect each other as the process progresses and the group develops).
The next chapter introduces the questions that directed the present research and the learning environment and learners who took part in the study. In accordance with the previous discussion of learning in virtual settings, the learning programme was designed to support learners in their studies and engage them in cooperative and collaborative group work.
5 RESEARCH METHODS
There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively these are known as
"nutty methods." Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as "a complete waste of time."
Scott Adams (1957 - ), The Dilbert Future
This chapter aims to provide an in-depth description of the research participants and the process of data acquisition. Finally, the chapter presents a description of the research methods that were used to find answers to the research questions in preparation for the following chapters that will present the analysis and findings of the study. The research questions themselves were previously presented and described in Chapter 1.