Figure 1
Engeström’s (1987) model of an activity system.
Figure 2
Activity Triangle of Subject –Tools-Object (S-T-O).
Table 1
Overall results of Log Reports of interaction with mediation tools in S-T-O Activity Triangle
| Total No. of participants in study (n=64) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stages of the Process Approach | Application stage | |||||||||
| Stage 1 | Stage 2&3 | Stage 4&5 | Stage 6 | Sess. 5 | Sess. 6 | Sess. 7 | ||||
| Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3 | Session 4 | |||||||
| Act. 1 | Act. 2 | Act. 1 | Act. 2 | Act. 1 | Act. 1 | Act. 1 | Act. 1 | Act. 1 | ||
| Tools | No. | No. | No. | No | No. | No. | No. | No. | No. | |
| 1 | Learning Resources | 35 | 17 | 20 | 11 | 17 | 12 | 14 | ||
| 2 | Discussion forum | 26 | 25 | 24 | 19 | 19 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 11 |
| 3 | Quizzes | 39 | 16 | T.P | N.R | TP | 7 | TP | ||
| 4 | Assignments | 20 | 24 | 13 | 19 | 13 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 5 | Reflective Journals | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
[i] T. P. = Technical problem in LMS. N. R. = Not required. No. = Number of participants
Figure 3
Questionnaire results on extent of engagement with Mediation Tools.
Table 2
Contradictions in the use of Tool – 1: Learning Resources
| Contradiction | Nature of contradiction | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Subject - Tool | Unfamiliar with process of using checklists | Commenting part [using checklists] given, I use that, but then little bit difficult not used to comment like that. We are doing that simple commenting. To think and to organize ourselves and write it was a bit difficult … [SF-6819-Interview] |
| Time constraints | I felt the resource that the tutor had already put was very, very, advanced and very good; only thing was it took a long time to read because there was lot of reading information there and self-reading and … I mean you need to have time, yeah, that was the thing which we were struggling, because to write alone for me it took one hour or one and a half hours, to construct my writing because before I type it, work on it separately in a Word document. [SF-4668-Interview] I couldn’t use checklists, the challenge … time management … we have to arrange the time, and sit in [at] the computer… [SF-7863-Interview] `… late night, late night by that time I am also very tired so … my work is not good at that time, I work in the morning, thing is I have to do other things in the mornings, and I can’t get on at that time, so I have to get on late night sometimes it’s around 11 O clock. My case it’s a bit difficult. [SF-1807-Interview] |
Table 3
Contradictions in use of Tool-2: Discussion Forums
| Contradiction | Nature of contradiction | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Subject - Tool | Weak peer participation | Yeah, that was a bit difficult because once I finish … my paper then I would have to upload it, then getting someone’s feedback was difficult, because sometimes people in the group would not participate at all … that was a bit frustrating. [SF-3470-Interview] … I commented on all the member’s posts at first, nobody comments on mine so I thought I won’t comment also …SF-6623-Interview] |
| Limited computer competency | Uploading documents was very challenging, because we didn’t know. Several times I tried, I didn’t know drawing and entering and sometimes I do, then the, it’s, it’s, not there, something has happened to it. It has gone to another page, and I found it very difficult. [SF-5719-Interview] Basically I did it [uploading mind-maps and diagrams etc], but editing and putting it in that way, the arrows and all that, I found it difficult to search those things. I wrote it on my writing book, but to upload it was a difficult task for me. That was what I, kept me, keep me without doing it further. But if someone like helped me in that, I should have participated more in that.[SF-4878-Interview] | |
| Limited language proficiency | You can do the brainstorming part, you can do the writing, the hardest part comes to editing and proofreading because you will have to assess your own writing.[SM-7320-Interview] . . . editing] was something very hard because editing means editing our own, our own work was a little difficult because we need to realize what we have written is wrong to find that is a little difficult that was very hard [SF-4668-Interview] |
Table 4
Contradiction in use of Tool 3- Quizzes
| Contradiction | Nature of contradiction | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Within Tool | Dysfunction of Quiz Feature in the LMS | I feel that I did not benefit so much, I feel that the quizzes, can err… be improved or moderated then it would be automatically corrected [SF-3673-Interview] Quizzes, I think you can add more questions, that’s easier without doing paper work there, 8 questions and radio buttons to mark the question then it’s easy not very time consuming [SM-5439-Interview] |
| Subject-Tool | Reluctance to express themselves in writing |
Table 5
Contradiction in use of Tool 4 – Assignments
| Contradiction | Nature of contradiction | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Subject-Tool | Low engagement due to lack of motivation | When we were doing the class, we dint take it that seriously, but after coming all the way at the very end we feel like, all are friends, we used to talk, we should have done it more, we all ways say Madam pushed us so much and you know if we had done more it would have been helpful for us, because there were lot of assignments, we were given lot of time to do so, yeah, on our part we didn’t do all the assignments. I of course tried to do the most , yeah, … but there were lot of friends, but they didn’t do much if we have done that or what was given there. Would have been immensely helpful SF-6623-Interview] If marks given for assignments, then of course, I have to be very honest, then of course …if you say like: ok, if you are an active participant online, then I am going to give you the marks in the class, then of course all of us would try, that is I would say a personal influence [SF-3729-Interview] |
| Subject -Object | Inadequate language skills | I try to correct, sometimes, I couldn’t, I don’t have idea about how to correct mistakes [SF-2643-Inteview] Actually, the thing is editing is the most difficult part and … very difficult that use correct academic and very correct form of the grammar, we can write, but academic form, academic form, we should I think we should do it ourself [sic], but the editing re-checking, editing rechecking, that is very important [SF-7471-Interview]. |
Table 6
Contradictions in use of Tool 5- Reflective Journal
| Contradiction | Nature of contradiction | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Subject-Tool | Low engagement due to lack of motivation | The thing is this, now we have the result, thereafter no personal encouragement to do something, the later part you mention something, now your assignment is ok! Very good! Well done! Something like that, then we have no idea to do that part [writing reflective journals] [SM-2947-Interview] I think even, I hadn’t done all reflective journals online, because like I said, maybe we didn’t want to sit and do that, I am just giving my opinion [SF-1620-Interview] |