Proceeding of International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and

Informatics (EECSI 2014), Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 20-21 August 2014

Evaluating Students’ Learning Experiences Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence,

Using Course Management System in a Social Presence and the overall learning
Blended Learning experience using Moodle in blended
learning. However, the level of Social
Marva Mirabolghasemi Presence is lower in comparison with
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Skudai, Teaching Presence and Cognitive Presence.
Johor, Malaysia Keywords— blended learning; cognitive
marva.mirabolghasemi@yahoo.com presence; course management systems;
Noorminshah A.Iahad social presence, teaching presence
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia I. INTRODUCTION
Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
minshah@utm.my Over the past decade, there has been a rapid
Muhammad Qomaruddin growth in the number of blended learning
Universitas Islam Sultan Agung courses where some online activities
(UNISSULA) Semarang, Indonesia replaced face-to-face teaching and learning.
mqomaruddin@unissula.ac.id One of the major applications in today’s
classroom is Course Management Systems
(CMS) for example Moodle, BlackBoard
Abstract— One of the major software used
and WebCT. A CMS is a software program
in today’s classroom are Course
or integrated platform that contains a series
Management Systems (CMS). There is
of web-based tools to support a number of
currently little research regarding the
activities and course management procedure
learning experience of students using CMS
[1]. Many lecturers choose a blended
like Moodle in a blended learning
approach by utilizing a CMS [2], [3] as a tool
environment. Effective learning
to deliver course materials to students in
environments give students a chance to learn
addition to traditional teaching environments
better and faster. Understanding the
and online learning. This teaching method is
students’ learning experience in a blended
called ‘blended learning’ and thus the
course using a CMS is the first step to
courses are called ‘hybrid courses’ [4].
determine how to best engage students. It
Many online instructors are in the hope of
assumes that good learning environments are
improving student’s participation and usage
achieved through three factors which are
of the CMS. Increase in students’
Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence, and
participation in online course causes of
Social Presence. This study used a set of
increased learning [5] Effective learning
questionnaire to evaluate students’ learning
environments give students a chance to learn
experience for 107 students in blended
better and faster. Understanding how
learning. Correlation analysis has been used
students participate in an online course is the
to find the relationship between Cognitive
first step to determine how to best engage
Presence, Teaching Presence, Social
students [6]. In order to support
Presence and learning experience of students
improvement in the learner’s subject matter
who use CMS in blended learning. The
and learning, the CMS in e-learning
findings of this research study show that
environments should be designed to provide
there is a significant correlation among
different learning styles, prior knowledge,
and self- regulation skills [7]. whether students felt close to each other .
Konstantinidis, Papadopoulos, Tsiatsos and Teaching Presence consists of subject matter
Demetriadis [8]implemented Moodle as a expertise, the management and design of
single system, which would be easy to learning and the facilitation of active
operate, maintain, update, and would cater to learning [13]. The instructor activates in
the variety of instructor and student needs. online learning are creating lecturer notes
A critical community of learners is and PowerPoint slide presentations onto the
composed of students and lecturers course site, preparing personal insights into
interacting with the specific purposes of the course material, developing video/audio
constructing, understanding, facilitating and mini-lectures, creating a desirable schedule
developing capabilities that lead to further for group activities and individuals, and
learning [8]. The Community of Inquiry preparing guidelines on how to use the
medium effectively. Social Presence is
(CoI) model provides a comprehensive
defined as the ability to establish personal
theoretical model that can inform both
and purposeful relationships. Meanwhile,
research on online learning and the practice Social Presence refers to the degree to which
of online instruction [9 [9].This model has learners feel emotionally and socially
been developed by Garrison, Anderson, and connected with others in an online
Archer in 2000 as a research tool for e- environment [1]. Moreover, Social Presence
learning. It assumes that good learning is a critical attribute of a communication that
environments are achieved through three can recognize the way people communicate
factors which [9]are Cognitive Presence, [9] and interact. To sum up, it is necessary and
Teaching Presence, and Social Presence. valuable to create CoI where reflection and
interaction are sustained; where opinions can
[11]In order to sustain and create a be critiqued and explored; and where the
collaborative CoI, the interactive effects of process of critical inquiry can be modelled.
each of the presences must be understood. II. METHODOLOGY
The CoI's model provides a theoretical
model that can inform both researches on The researchers developed a set of
online and blended learning. Fig.1 shows questionnaire based on the 5-point Likert
CoI model. scale with responses ranging from Strongly
Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). The
questionnaires were distributed among two
classes of 107 respondents, consisting of
Fig. 1. The CoI model first year undergraduate students in the
Faculty of Management and Human
Resource Development at Universiti
Cognitive Presence is described as the Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The CMS used
construction, exploration, resolution, and in the courses that they enroll is Moodle.
confirmation of understanding through SPSS version 13.0 was used to analyze the
collaboration and reflection in a CoI. It data using correlation analysis between
refers to learners’ construction and Cognitive, Teaching, Social Presences and
confirmation of meaning through discourse the overall learning experience.
and sustained reflection [10], [12]. The The questionnaire is based on the CoI model
Teaching Presence is a more reliable which includes all the three dimensions
predictor of effective cognitive learning than which are Cognitive Presence, Teaching
Presence, and Social Presence. The  H13: There is a correlation between
instrument is developed according to the Social Presence and learning
previous research [9]. To ensure the validity experience of students in blended
of the survey instrument in the context of learning.
this research study, three experts with
experience in quantitative methods and scale The degree of association between two
development were evaluated its content dimensions in each hypothesis is a number
validity. The reliability of survey usually between -1 and +1. A positive degree shows
describes as numerical coefficient and it can that the two dimensions have a positive
be from 0.00 to 1.00. If a test is completely relationship. For instance, a large value of
reliable, the coefficient should be 1.00. the first dimension tends to be associated
Cronbach Alpha coefficient is a measure of with large values of the second dimension
squared correlation between observed scores and a negative degree show that the two
and true scores. The value of Cronbach dimensions have a negative relationship. For
Alpha which is greater than .65 is instance, a large value of the first dimension
recommended [17]. For this study, the tends to be associated with small values of
questionnaire is reliable shown by the values the second dimension.
of Cronbach Alpha for Cognitive Presence, III. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
Teaching Presence and Social Presence are
α=.909, α=.876, and α=.921 respectively. The correlation analysis has been conducted
For finding correlation between learning to investigate correlation between Cognitive
experience and each related dimension, the Presence, Teaching Presence, Social
correlation test has been used. The following Presence and learning experience of
are hypotheses that are tested in this research respondents. As a result, each question will
study.
be tested for correlation using a parametric
 H01: There is no correlation
method known Pearson correlation in SPSS.
(relationship) between Cognitive
Table 1 shows the summary of correlation
Presence and learning experience of
students in blended learning. analysis in SPSS.
 H11: There is a correlation between
Cognitive Presence and learning
experience of students in blended
learning.
 H02: There is no correlation between
Teaching Presence and learning
experience of students in blended
learning.
 H12: There is a correlation between
Teaching Presence and learning
experience of students in blended
learning.
 H03: There is no correlation between
Social Presence and learning
experience of students in blended
learning.
 information in Cognitive Presence, .627 for
reflecting class progress in Teaching
Presence, and .647 for answer rising in
Social Presence. Fig. 2 shows the
comparison of respondents’ answers to the
factors that effect on learning experience of
respondents to Cognitive Presence, Teaching
Presence, and Social Presence are compared.
Fig. 2. The comparison of learning
experience dimensions
It can be clearly seen that Moodle provides
high quality of Teaching Presence.
However, Social Presence has lowest
position by using Moodle compared to other
dimensions based on the collected data.
Although, there is a significant correlation
between each related question to Cognitive
Presence, Teaching Presence, Social
Presence and the overall learning
experience, around half of the respondents
commented there is not good internet
connection for using Moodle sometimes and
there is a data base error in connecting to the
system. Furthermore, 30% of the
respondents believe that Moodle cannot
Table 1 shows all of the variables that are support all of the learning features and
related to each dimension positively and applications so their lecturers use another
significantly correlated with learning website for collaborative activities.
experience. On the other word, because of Moreover, 26% of the respondents
Sig< 0.05 is for all of the related questions mentioned the design of the website is not
to each dimension so the null hypothesis is attractive for them and it is too formal.
rejected for all of the variables and there is IV. CONCLUSION
significant correlation between each variable The goal of this research was to provide the
and learning experience. As a result, readers with an overview of findings about
Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence, and learning experience of students in blended
Social Presence are significantly and learning using Moodle, to reach this goal the
positively correlated with learning authors have used a set of questionnaire for
experience in Moodle. gathering data. Correlation analysis has been
The highest Pearson correlation value is .813 used to find the relationship between each
for responsibilities in group in Cognitive dimension and overall learning experience
Presence, .795 for expectations from of respondents. The results show that there
instructors in Teaching Presence, and .866 is a significant and positive correlation
for engaging in discussion in Social among Cognitive Presence, Teaching
Presence, while the lowest Pearson Presence, Social Presence and the overall
correlation value is .603 for identifying new
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