Design, Evaluation, and Improvement of a Virtual Learning Environment

• In Event: Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Exploring the Current Landscape of Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning

Abstract

This paper describes the development, evaluation and improvements made to an online learning environment, SOFIAA, designed to support masters students’ learning of program evaluation and its application to a real-world setting. SOFIAA, developed using Activity Theory, consists of a series of activities that teams of students undertook to understand the theories, select an appropriate evaluation, implement the evaluation, and write a report. Quantitative measures indicated that SOFIAA was effective in improving performance. However, qualitative analysis revealed a number of contradictions, which were remediated in the second iteration of SOFIAA, leading to greater improvement in performance. Results are discussed in terms of the benefits of virtual learning environments, and the utility of Activity Theory for the improvement of online environments.

Authors

• Benilde Garcia-Cabrero, National Autonomous University of Mexico

• Michael Lindsley Hoover, McGill University

• Lidice Quevedo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

• Nadia Andrade, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México