PRINCIPALES ASPECTOS LEGALES

Figure 18 visualises networks of learning activities in the same four exemplary modules in RQ1.1. To recap, two nodes (i.e., activity types) are assumed to be connected if they were used in the same study week. The thickness of each tie represents the strength of the connection between two ac-

75 tivity types. The thicker the line is, the stronger the relationship between two nodes. Network den- sity represents the percentage of the existed ties out of the maximum possible ties. In simple terms, the higher the network density is, the more variety of learning activity types were used.

Module 1, Arts (density = 1) Module 2, Health (density = 0.286)

Module 3, Science (density = 0.714) Module 4, Languages (density = 0.714) Figure 18. Network visualisations of four exemplary modules

Note: The weight of ties was omitted for the sake of visual clarity. Instead, I reported the centrality measures in Table 22 below.

Table 22. Freeman’s centrality measures of seven learning activity types

Arts Health Science Languages

Out de- gree In de- gree Out de- gree In de- gree Out de- gree In de- gree Out de- gree In de- gree Assimilative 101.6 11.9 65.9 31.7 152.0 36.9 75.2 56.9 Information 3.3 23.4 0.9 9.3 0.6 8.7 0.9 6.5 Communication 2.5 5.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 10.4 24.0 Productive 12.1 33.0 37.8 56.1 36.9 78.0 52.1 32.9 Experiential 0.7 1.8 0.0 0.0 10.3 32.5 5.5 46.0 Interactive 2.8 29.7 0.0 0.0 11.9 39.9 0.0 0.0 Assessment 7.1 25.0 5.0 12.6 43.5 59.0 56.6 34.3

76 Additional network centrality metrics (out-degree and in-degree) were reported to support the reader’s interpretation (Table 22). Out-degree in an unweighted network refers to the number of ties directed outwards (or inwards for in-degree). However, for a weighted network, out-degree refers to the sum of weights directed outwards (or inwards for in-degree) (Newman, 2001). For example, assimilative activities in the Arts module had out-degree = 101.6 and in-degree = 11.9. In other words, there were in total 101.6 hours of assimilative activities that were mixed with other types. The total number of hours of other learning activity types which were used in combination with assimilative activities was 11.9 hours.

In Module 1 in Arts, there were strong connections between assimilative and assessment, assimila- tive and production, assimilative and interactive, and assimilative and information. There were weak links among other learning activity types. The network density was 100% which suggested that all seven types of learning activity were used in the module.

In Module 2 in Health, there was a strong link between assimilative and productive activities. How- ever, this module did not use any interactive, experiential, or communication activities. The net- work density was low (28.6%) which suggested that there was a lack of variety in the LD. The most common repertoire of practice was assimilative and productive (10 out of 31 weeks)

In Module 3 in Science, there were strong links between assimilative and assessment, assimilative and production, assimilative and interactive, and assimilative and experiential. There were no com- munication activities in this module (e.g., discussing module related content with peers or tutors in online disucsison forums). The network density was 71.4% suggesting a good mix of learning activ- ities was used. The most common repertoire of practice was assimilative, productive, interactive, and assessment (7 out of 31 weeks), and assimilative, productive, and assessment (6 out of 31 weeks).

In Module 4 in Languages, assimilative and experiential activities were often mixed with assessment and productive types. There were no interactive activities in this module. The most common rep- ertoire of practice was assimilative, communication, productive, experiential, and assessment (9 out of 31 weeks) followed by assimilative, productive, experiential, and assessment (7 out of 31 weeks).

To sum up, the network analysis has uncovered complex LD strategies used in four different mod- ules, which were not visible with simple line graphs. The analysis indicated a strong influence of assimilative activities in workload and in relations with other learning activities. In the next step, I will further explore the media types that are used in assimilative activities, which provides a rich picture of the media mix used in a particular LD. This is important because not only which learning activity type was used but also how it was delivered will have different effects on student learning.

77 This analysis was carried out on 268 learning tasks of a selected module in Social Sciences because it was one of the few modules that have been mapped at a task level (Figure 19).

Figure 19. LD mapping at a task level of an exemplar module in the Social sciences

When coding learning activities, media assets are indicated at a high level, in order to compare the overall amount of time spent on video, words, photos, and figures for instance. This high-level no- tation does not indicate whether a module includes one video of half an hour or six videos of five minutes, as the total time spent per item is recorded. The decomposition of assimilative activities of the exemplary module is illustrated in Figure 20. On average, most assimilative activities took forms of words (M= 3.32, SD=1.92). This suggests that educators were more likely to use reading materials to convey information, but most weeks also included another media element. Figure 20 also shows that figures and videos were also used over time, but in less frequency compared to words.

78 Figure 20. Assimilative activities of an exemplar module in Social sciences

Using descriptive statistics, Table 23 indicated that on average, teachers in this module allocated 0.98 hours for each learning task (SD=1.75). Assimilative activities accounted for more than half of the workload of each learning task (M=0.58, SD=1.60). Readings were the main component of as- similative activities accounting for 0.39 hours (24.3 minutes) on average.

Table 23. Descriptive statistics of 267 learning tasks in an example module in Social Science

Variable N Mean SD Min Max

Assimilative 267 0.58 1.60 0 9.00 Words 267 0.39 1.17 0 6.80 Figures 267 0.06 0.23 0 2.08 Photos 267 0.03 0.12 0 0.90 Tables 267 0.01 0.07 0 0.58 Equations 267 0.00 0.02 0 0.33 Audios 267 0.01 0.09 0 1.00 Videos 267 0.03 0.12 0 1.00 Others 267 0.04 0.56 0 9.00 Information 267 0.06 0.24 0 2.00 Productive 267 0.09 0.18 0 1.00 Experiential 267 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 Assessment 267 0.25 0.91 0 6.00 Total 267 0.98 1.75 0 9.00

Note: Metric = hours.

Further SNA analysis demonstrated the inter-relationships between different types of assimilative activities and other learning activities (Figure 21). There were in total 40 ties in the network, with a density of 22% and the average distance between a pair of ties of 2.036. Firstly, there were strong connections between the use of words with photos, tables, and figures. These forms of assimilative activities often appeared together in reading materials. In line with the multi-media principle of Mayer (2002), this module employed an integrated representation of graphics and words. Given the nature of this module, most of the graphics were representational (visuals that illustrate the appearance of an object), organizational (visuals that show qualitative relationships among con- tent), and interpretive (visuals that make intangible phenomena visible and concrete) (Mayer, 2002). The use of words had a strong influence on photos, figures, and tables with a weight of 38.9, 16.4, 38.4 respectively (out-degree centrality = 118.541).

Secondly, videos were often used in combination with finding information activities and productive activities. For example, students were asked to watch a short video, and answer some questions using the information from the video. Alternatively, students were asked to interpret and draw a conclusion using the information from the video.

79 Figure 21. Inter-relationships between assimilative activities and other activities of an exemplar

module in Social sciences

Note: Blue nodes represent assimilative activities, red nodes represent other activities

The structure of the network also revealed interesting findings. There were two local networks in which the first one (right-hand side) consists of mainly assimilative activities, whereas the second one (left-hand side) consisted of some assimilative activities (i.e., videos, others), finding infor- mation and productive activities. The connection between words and productive activities acted as a bridge between these two local networks. The betweenness centrality of the edge productive and words was 28, which means there were 28 flows between all pairs of nodes which were carried using this edge.