STUDY ON REFLECTION AND ATTENTION IN COMPUTER CONFERENCING - In
an effort to understand the dynamics of learning online, researchers from the School of Nursing,
the Faculty of Medicine, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University
of Western Ontario, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto
and the Node undertook a study of learners' attention and the effects of reflection on that
attention in courses taught by computer conferencing. The objectives of the study, which was
funded by the Office of Learning Technologies, were to examine: 1) changes in attention over
time among graduate students taking courses by computer conferencing and 2) changes in
attention following reflective strategies intended to restore attention. The qualitative data and
participants' observations and suggestions should be of interest to educators engaged in classes
with a computer conferencing component. The executive summary (in both English and French)
is available on the Node website at: http://thenode.org/networking/may2002/research.cfml
(NETWORKING vol. 6 no 5, 22 May 02)