E-learning website observation & analysis: Starfall.com

E-learning Website Observation &

AnalysisTonny Meng-Lun Kuo

Advisor: Prof. Shelly Young Institute of Learning Sciences National Tsing Hua University

[E-Learning Spring 2014]

Overview

1. Introduction

2. Website Analysis

3. Conclusion

4. Q&A

Starfall.com

Introduction• Star+Fall= “evoked wonder and delight”

• Free educational website for the early literacy development

• Phonics, reading, and mathematics

• For young English language learners

• Founder: Stephen Schutz, early reading difficulty

HistoryYear Progress

2002 the launch of the website

2006 the launch of “Pumarosa”

2009 the release “Starfall Kindergarten Reading and Language Arts Curriculum”

recent the launch of mobile apps

Objectives• Research-based systematic learning objectives

• Four levels

1. Learning ABCs: letter-sound relationships

2. Early beginning reading: word family

3. Intermediate beginning reading: sentence-level

4. Advanced beginning reading: various genres

Target Users• English language learners: build up

their reading ability, fluency, and comprehension

• Educators: implement proven teaching methods for classroom use, additional subscription

• Parents: homeschooling or bolstering the instruction child receives at school

Framework

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Others

Demo

Website Analysis• Web-based learning provides students with a

different information architecture and interface design in comparison with conventional classroom learning (Hamid, 2001).

• Pedagogical, cognitive, social, technical interactive factors need taking into consideration

• Conceptional framework

1. Five levels of web use

Interface design

activity design

multi-media design

interaction design

Personalization

Participation knowledge-Pull

• Cognitive theory • Behaviorism • Gestalt Theory

• Constructivism • Nine events of instruction

(Gagne, 1985)

• Information processing theory

2. Theories and practice

3. 3P model

• informational • supplemental • essential • communal • immersive

1. Five levels of Web use• 0) no use, 1) informative, 2) supplemental,

3) essential, 4) communal, 5)immersive

• Students are not productive members, and only obtain most information from the web.

• Apart from reading, students are not able to transfer their personal experience in their daily life to the production of oral representation.

2. Theories and practices

Interface design

activity design

multi-media design

interaction design

Interface design• Gestalt theory referred to the theories of visual

perception, attempting to organize visual elements into “group”.

• “law of organization”: proximity, similarity, closure, and simplicity

• the interface design of the website is appropriate for young learners.

Activity and interaction design

• Related theories: behaviorism, cognitive theory, information processing theory, constructivism, and nine event of instruction (Gagane, 2005)

1. Introduction

2. Monitoring learning process

3. Closure

• Gagne’s model+social interaction

Multimedia design• Three layers:

1. the utilization of the media can improve understanding of the learning content.

2. the style of the multimedia shows congruence with the website.

3. the use of the multimedia is legal and stated with an appropriate Creative Commons license.

3. 3P model• Personalization: little because the website does

not offer mechanism to foster individualized learning

• Participation: no groups or communities

• Knowledge-pull: phonemic awareness formation or reading training, the development of reading ability can be seen as a way of knowledge pull.

Discussion and Conclusion

• User-friendly interface and rich learning materials and multimedia resources

• Flash-based

• lack social interaction

Peer learning

webcam and sensors

Plan/curriculum

“As learning in 21 century is changing in ever-faster pace, educators and E-learning

designers should speed up with the trend of web-based learning to create meaningful, unthreatening, and effective strategies to

facilitate digital natives’ learning.”

Thank you!

Tonny Meng-Lun Kuo [email protected]

+886-981-218-007