21st Century Educator

Beyond the programmed learning examples provided in Unit 2, are there other ways that a behaviourist approach is or can be utilized in an online learning context?

First, it is important to define what we consider "behaviours" in an online learning context. According to Nash (2007), some online behaviours would include: 
"a) going to the site; b) contacting instructor and/or student; c) doing online research to make connections; d) applying knowledge to one’s life, then reporting on it (a paper or discussion board entry)."
Basically we measure the effects of the learning theory on the activities we are able to record about the learning participant.

A behaviourist approach would mean that students would receive feedback about their activities, it might be in the form of information about the quality of their responses, or regularly graded assignments. One immediate way, which would be a form of programmed learning, to receive feedback in an online context is to participate in pre-tests and post-tests (Saettler, 1990).

One way that we can use a behaviourist approach that we see used in Vista is the introduction of the (# new) links. Click on the link and the messages open up, hence we feel immediate satisfaction that we have accomplished a task, since we know that were we to reopen Vista, our message inbox would be empty. We can access our own statistical information in Vista, and find out how our forum participation is, leading us to improve our performance because of the feedback.

Another way a behaviourist approach is used in Vista is with the "time out" that occurs when we are posting to Vista and take too long to respond. Having Vista log one out after one has submitted a long response (and forgetting to save our response elsewhere) encourages both shorter responses, and more careful self-record keeping.

References:
Nash, S.S.(2007)., Behaviorism vs. Constructivism, as Applied to Online Learning, Retrieved from http://www.xplanazine.com/2007/09/behaviorism-vs-constructivism-as-appli... on September 30th
Mergel, B., (1998). Instructional Design & Learning Theory, Retrieved from http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm on September 30th

Saettler, P., (1990), The History of American Educational Technology

• David Wees's blog

About David

David is a mathematics teacher and a learning specialist for technology at Stratford Hall in Vancouver, BC. He has been teaching since 2002, and has worked in Brooklyn, London, and Bangkok before moving back to Canada. He has his Masters degree in Educational Technology from UBC, and is the co-author of a mathematics textbook. He has been published in ISTE's Leading and Learning, Educational Technology Solutions, The Software Developers Journal, The Bangkok Post and Edutopia. He blogs with the Cooperative Catalyst, and is the Assessment group facilitator for Edutopia. He has also helped organize the first Edcamp in Canada, and TEDxKIDS@BC.