Using the Homebook Method For
Teaching Graduate Courses in Social Sciences
Davor Jedlicka
The University of Texas at Tyler
Previous papers presented at the National Social Science Technology Conference established the rationale for the use of the homebook method for teaching undergraduate courses (Jedlicka, 2004; Jedlicka & Stadelmann, 2006). This paper suggests that the homebook method may be also appropriate for teaching graduate courses in social sciences. A case study of a course on Internet Communities using the homebook method is presented here. The University of Texas at Tyler is among the first in the country to offer a course by this title. This paper shows that the homebook method of teaching is suited for the Internet Communities course and other graduate courses in social sciences. The homebook method is justified as a way for the graduate faculty to facilitate individual and team learning, interdisciplinary learning, student-centered learning, and online exploration and research.
This paper is a continuation of an ongoing study on the homebook method for teaching social science classes. The homebook method was first discussed in 2004 at the National Technology and Social Science Conference (Jedlicka, 2004). A later study showed that undergraduate students in selected sociology and political science courses preferred to study using a homebook rather than a textbook (Jedlicka & Stadelmann, 2006). Our findings at the University of Texas at Tyler are consistent with the Waxman, Lin, and Michko (2003) who demonstrated through a meta-analysis that the overall positive effects of technology on learning may be greater than previously thought.
Each year increasing numbers of students are taking graduate online classes. The growth of online education demands that instructors adapt the educational technology to meet the goals of graduate education. Through a case study of a course on Internet Communities, this paper ascertains the value of the homebook for teaching using the Internet. The value of a homebook in graduate social science and education curricula is evaluated in terms of educational goals promulgated by various graduate schools (Cal Poly, 2007; Oklahoma State University, 2007; Texas A&M, 2007; The University of Texas Telecampus, 2007).
Selected Goals for Social Science Graduate Coursework
Ainsa and Awalt in their 2007 article provide a list of desired goals for education in general. They argued that effective education should involve collaboration, connectivity, student-centeredness, elimination of boundaries, community, exploration, shared knowledge, multi-sensory experiences, and authenticity. They showed that the Internet can help educators achieve these goals more efficiently than traditional methods alone.
This paper offers the homebook method of teaching as one way to attain some fundamental educational goals of graduate education. Using a graduate course entitled “Internet Communities” as a case study, this paper will show that the homebook is adaptable to 1) promoting individual and team learning, 2) interdisciplinary learning, 3) student-centered learning, and 4) online exploration and student research.
To accomplish these goals, continuous research is necessary to decide which methods are most efficient. Such research requires a theoretical framework that lends itself to empirical testing of student outcomes.
A Theory of the Homebook Method of Teaching
The word homebook refers to a method of teaching which is already widely used across disciplines from freshmen to graduate courses. Even though the word itself is not used, any instructor who provides students with online materials that contain structured, principles of a subject of study with links to related sources anywhere on the Internet is using the homebook method (Jedlicka, 2004). For example, Seguin and Seguin (2007) described an application of “Real Simple Syndication” for classroom use. The RSS content varies over time as the data are updated. Assuming that the RSS feeds are coordinated with structured content provided by the instructor, then this method of content delivery could be called the homebook method.
It is important not to confuse the idea of a homebook with an ebook. A homebook may indeed be a type of an ebook. But every ebook could not be a homebook. The reason is that most sources identified as ebooks today refer to digitized textbooks. Transferring a book into a digital format does not make it a homebook. If we can agree that an ebook represents a textbook on a different medium, and that the homebook represents the structure of a textbook combined with the openness of the Internet, then we could begin to reduce confusion in the educational technology lexicon.
In the first decade of the twenty first century the number of textbooks converted to ebooks has proliferated (Blumenstyk, 2001; Ezarik, 2004, 2005; Hurst, 2004; Ishizuka, 2004; Johnston, 2000; Pascopella, 2001; Wilson, 1994).. The pedagogy associated with all such ebooks, however, remains the same. The textbook concept does not change simply because books are made readable through the computer. On the other hand, whether used as a part of an online course, or in a face-to-face classroom, the homebook itself changes the pedagogy. Consider the four choices of teaching modalities shown in following paradigm (see Figure 1).
This paradigm shows two ways of using a homebook. One is in conjunction with face-to-face classroom, and another is all online. The hybrid method without a homebook can use the Internet to connect to the platform such as the Blackboard. In this case the Internet is used to record grades, discussions, testing, and providing supplemental readings on the Internet. In such a course the traditional use of a textbook is still the organizing structure of a class.
Whether face-to-face or all online, the homebook is a gateway to the websites selected in conjunction with the structured, core material for the class. The homebook provides a sequence of topics organized in chapters. Links to websites from these chapters have been selected by the homebook author to assure that the Internet sources are relevant, and valid. Unlike the edited and reviewed content of a textbook, the direct access to the Internet provides the homebook author with the control over the content and may require "more organization and forethought in creating courses than otherwise" (Neumann, 1998).
The theory of the homebook is based on the assumption that the balance between the structured material and open sources found on the Internet establishes an efficient learning environment. Figure 2 shows that a homebook incorporates the textbook structure and the Internet openness and flexibility (see Figure 2).
The data sources and references on the Internet keep homebooks updated and relevant. An added advantage is that a homebook can be adapted to each student's interest once the student learns the core material. In graduate courses, the flexibility of content is a benefit for students who specialize in various areas within their disciplines.
Based on this theory I have developed a homebook for a graduate course in sociology entitled Internet Communities. This course has been offered in the spring semester for three consecutive years, from 2005 through 2007. This class tends to be small, eight to fourteen students per semester. With such a small size, it is possible to monitor and guide each student individually. Partly because of the small size, but also because of the homebook method of teaching, this class achieves the four essential goals of graduate education each time it is taught: it promotes individual and team learning, interdisciplinary learning, student-centered learning, and student research and exploration.
Individual and Team Learning
Team learning and discussion have been identified as advantages in a meta study of online education ( Lou, Abrami, and d’Apollonia, 2001). Ngyuen, Cripps, and Ngyuen (2006) showed that an online discussion encourages further learning. In the course on Internet Communities discussion and team learning are structured around the homebook format. Students form special interest groups during the first two weeks of the semester. They choose a topic, write a mission statement, and assign specialized roles to each group member. A homebook chapter on “special interest groups” teaches them what roles may be necessary for an Internet community to develop. In their own online special interest groups the roles students defined included group administrator, assistant administrator, real-time monitor, asynchronous monitor, and specialized researchers. At the end of their participation, students are able to classify various roles according to role function and effectiveness in attaining the group’s goals.
Through group participation students observe network characteristics of computer mediated communication (CMC) as it occurs in a chat room, a blog, and in various discussion forums. This CMC yields a written record which students can analyze in terms of network characteristics of their group. While ostensibly pursuing the SIG goals as expressed in their group’s mission statement, students also observe characteristics of their own online participation. This method of online involvement is facilitated by the availability of links to other schools, disciplines, and scholars.
Interdisciplinary Learning
In a traditional classroom setting, interdisciplinary learning often remains an unrealized goal in spite of the best of intentions. In a face-to-face setting, it is difficult to engage experts in various fields of specialization. Difficulties are compounded by the paradox in which institutions require their graduate faculty to specialize in narrow fields, while at the same time demanding that they use interdisciplinary methods for teaching graduate students.
In the case of Internet Communities, a course with an interdisciplinary perspective, the homebook method of teaching removed the paradox. The Internet Communities homebook incorporates links to faculty anywhere in the world. For instance, the chapter on social networks leads to the specialists in three disciplines: Laura Garton, Sociology, University of Toronto, Barry Wellman from the Center for Urban and Community Studies from the same university, and Caroline Haythornthwaite, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Garton, Haythornthwaite, & Wellman, 1997). Their work is available online, with email links to each of them.
The homebook used in the Internet Communities class served as a means to establish links to business schools, schools of education, commercial websites, interest groups, support groups, and faculty in a variety of disciplines. The homebook format uses the openness of the online sources to advance the interdisciplinary education.
An instructor using the homebook to teach a graduate course functions as a facilitator of interdisciplinary learning. According to Bennett and Serota (2007) the role of a facilitator is an outcome of online graduate instruction in general:
Because the instructor’s role becomes one of facilitator rather than teacher-centered, constant reflection on effective instructional practice is the key to creating learning communities that model the way in which technology can be used to enhance teaching and learning. (Bennett & Serota, 2007)
Student-Centered Learning
The homebook structure of the Internet Communities course allows an instructor to facilitate independent study without ever meeting a student face-to-face. It appears that face-to-face contact is not necessary for students to learn the core theoretical content, while the instructor facilitates their pursuit of more specialized knowledge. This dual purpose of education requires students to read and show understanding of the concepts before they venture into their own specialized pursuits. For example, during the study of ethnic communities each student is required to learn the meaning of the word “ethnicity” as it is used in sociology and in everyday life. After they demonstrate the understanding of general materials, they are then asked to observe an ethnic group on the Internet. Some students chose ethnicity by religion, some by race, others by national origin. Through the postings in the discussion forum, they share their observations with others in class. These activities take place without the instructor imposing on them any one particular ethnicity and without contacting students face-to-face or even by telephone. Of course, students always have an option to call or visit; however, it rarely happens that anyone uses off line contact to resolve substantive issues that arise during the course.
Online Student Research and Exploration
An instructor can also facilitate independent research strictly through CMC. The facilitator assures that the sources and the topics fall within the acceptable limits presented in the chapters of the homebook. As a facilitator in the Internet Communities class, I also stipulate that all data used in research must be available to anyone online.
There are a variety of ways to assist graduate students to do research using online data. In the case of the Internet Communities class, most chapters of the homebook serve as a gateway to the data sources on the Internet. Other online data include student-generated communication. Such data can be analyzed in terms of role functions and social network structures on the Internet. The advantage of starting the research from the homebook is that the links have been approved for quality of content and for relevance to the topic studied. Some examples of research topics produced by students in the Internet Communities classes using pre approved topics and sources included the following:
Internet communities among people who collect things as a hobby.
The use of the Internet for home telehealth care.
Special interest groups organized around health and fitness.
Catalysts for forming online communities.
Buyer and seller feedback on the eBay.
CMC as a replacement of paper newsletters.
Social structure of myspace.com
The homebook is certainly not the only way to engage graduate students to produce high quality work. The point of this paper is to make the faculty aware that the homebook format can be useful to channel students initially to seek the acceptable data sources on the Internet.
Discussion and Conclusion
This paper is based on the premise that words are a prerequisite for thinking and understanding how we teach. The word “homebook” is suggested as a label for a previously unnamed method of teaching that has been used without a theoretical justification. This paper provided the theory and the name, “homebook” for a new teaching method. This method is based on a theory that the balance between the traditional textbook structure and the Internet leads to pedagogical improvements in undergraduate and graduate education.
Findings in this study are consistent with the related literature which shows advantages of online graduate and post graduate education (Amber, V. & Tolbert, D., 2007; Brownell & Brownell, 2007; Bennett & Serota, 2007). There is cumulative evidence that the use of the Internet in education can help attain fundamental goals of graduate education: individual and team learning, interdisciplinary orientation, student-centered learning and exploration of the unknown. Although faculty preferences and varied institutional goals for graduate education will always have to be considered, the accumulation of research evidence on the effectiveness of a homebook is compelling enough to consider the homebook method as an option for teaching graduate courses in social science.
 Method of
Content Delivery
|
Mode of Teaching |
 Face-to-Face
|
The Internet |
Textbook (paper or digital) |
Traditional |
Internet
Hybrid |
HOMEBOOK |
Face-to-Face
Hybrid |
Modern |
Figure 1. Combinations of Learning and Teaching Modalities
Textbook Homebook The Internet
-----|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------
Structured Structured Unstructured
Closed Opened Opened
Figure 2. A Continuum of Information Delivery Resources
References
Ainsa, P. & Awalt, C. (2007). Online collaboration in teacher education. National Social Science Journal,
29(1), 16-18.
Amber, V., & Tolbert, D. (2007). Distributed learning: Not just for students. A new way of mentoring faculty.
National Social Science Journal, 29(1), 16-18.
Bennett, L., Serota, S. B. (2007). The impact of teaching philosophy on instructional strategies: Reflections
of fine tuning an online graduate course. National Social Science Journal, 28(2), 32-41.
Blumenstyk, G. (2001). Publishers promote e-textbooks, but many students and professors are skeptical.
Chronicle of Higher Education. 47(36), A35.
Brownwell, G., & Brownwell, N. (2007). Using technology/media to marry social sciences and the humanities.
National Social Science Journal, 28(2), 42-48.
Cal Poly (2007). Research and Graduate Programs. Report of the Task Force on Graduate Education.
http://www.calpoly.edu/~rgp/taskforce.html. (Accessed, January, 2007).
Ezarik, M. (2005). New products. District Administration. Feb. 41(2, pp. 81-86.
______ (2004). Piloting a paperless curriculum. District Administration. July, 40(7), .52.
Garton, L., Haythornthwaite, C., & Wellman, B. (1997). Studying online social networks. JCMC, 3(1), June.
(http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue1/garton.html)
Hurst, M.D. (2004). Textbook shortages spur digital alternatives. Education Week, 23(34), p. 5.
Ishizuka, K. (2004). A Texas district goes digital. School Library Journal. July. p.14. www.slj.com.
Jedlicka, D. (2004). The homebook as a pedagogical tool: A case study of a CD-text. Paper presented at the
Annual National Social Science Association meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2004.
Jedlicka, D. & Stadelmann, M. (2006). The future of the textbook: A study of student reactions to the homebook
and traditional textbook. National Social Science Journal, 25(2), 58-63.
Johnston, C. (2000). Electronic books. Times Educational Supplement., Issue 4365. p.26.
Lou, Y., Abrami, P. C., & d'Apollonia, S. (2001). Small group and individual learning with technology: A meta-analysis.
Review of Educational Research, 71, 449-521.
Neumann, P. G. (1998). Risks of e-education. Communication of the ACM, 41(10), p. 136.
Nguyen, N. Cripps, A. & Nguyen, H. (2006). Using online discussion to foster online learning effectiveness:
An empirical analysis. National Social Science Journal, 27(1). 82-86.
Oklahoma State University. College of Education.(2007). Graduate Program Goals. http://www.okstate.edu/education/stcl/stclgradgoals.htm (Accessed, March 2007).
Pascopella, A. (2001). Laptop or textbook? District Administrator, 37(11), p.54-56.
Seguin, C. A. & Seguin, A. M. (2007). Using RSS feeds in social science education.
National Social Science Journal, 28(1), 97-103.
Texas A&M University.(2007). Office of Graduate Studies. Expectations for Graduate Studies at
Texas A&M University. http://ogs.tamu.edu/OGS/currentExpectations.htm
The University of Texas Telecampus.(2007). Mission. http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu.
Waxman, H.C., Lin, M. & Michko, G. M. (2003). A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Teaching and
Learning with Technology on Student Outcomes. Naperville, Illinois: Learning Point Associates.
Wilson, D. L. (1994) Textbook publishers struggle to embrace new technologies. Chronicle of Higher
Education. 40(37), A21. |
