Pre-service Teachers' Learning Object Development: A Case Study in K-12 Setting

Abstract

Teachers use variety of media to support students learning. Though there are many new tools and settlements in learning technologies and their specifications, there has been a fierce debate over learning objects and their development. This research aimed to examine the effect of preservice teachers experience in information and communication technology (ICT) use on their learning object development through (1) inspecting type, number and organization of their learning object (LO) components authored in a non-commercial system, (2) evaluating quality of their learning objects using the Learning Object Review Instrument (Nesbitt & Li, 2004), and (3) studying relationship between the components, quality and subject matter of their LOs. Seventysix pre-service teachers were asked to design and develop LOs in a non-commercial learning content development system. Analysis of their learning objects and a usability test data showed that the participants found the system easy to use in general. Novice and experienced information technology users were able to develop learning objects similar in size and features. The analysis showed meaningful correlation between the use of some of the learning object components. There seems to be significant relations between the quality of the LOs measured with the LORI items and some elements of the developed LOs, however, the novice and experienced groups LOs did differ neither in overall ratings nor at nine individual items of the LORI. The study suggested some further work for developing quality LOs through collaborative learning resource authoring.