Irina’s blog

Important things I learned during this weeks were:

Internet-based instruction does not automatically guarantee a rich learning environment. WWW is a resource-rich multimedia environment with great potential to serve large numbers of widely dispersed students at low cost.

The majority of the online courses are text, converted to electronic form and placed on the web or esend by mail to students to read.

The advantage is the immediate access to the material and the ease of editing it.

The criticism of this kind of courses is that they do not use the multi-modal instructional means available online. Even if such a course is accompanied by a forum or chat, it is like an artificial embellishment and is not very useful.

The effective text in online courses needs to be short and distributed among other multimedia components.

These multimedia components might be referred as learning objects — they include text, electronic mail, discussion boards, chat utilities, voice over internet protocol, instant messaging, synchronous audio, video clips, interactive activities, simulations, and games., self-grading exercises, quizzes, examinations and web sites.

I explored the http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids course. It is truly great - so active and versatile, well suited for the age group and full of activities.

This is probably the future, but there is definitely a barrier. The producers of such a course is a corporation. E-learning needs to be within the ability of a teacher - of the content provider. There is a niche to be filled of software which can be visually programmed for different activities, and games, being at the same time compatible with elearning standards and course editors.

It is a huge challenge - to make technology accessible to the content provider.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?

Useful common documents in an online course:

These documents could include

• a personalized letter of welcome for each new student.

• general information about online learning, technology requirements, and the resources available to students for technical help and for obtaining the proper software and Internet services required for the course.

• information about how to access the course on the Web, and how to navigate it it successfully.

• student log-in and password information for course Web site.

• rules, procedures, and help for use of the interactive tools.

• a course syllabus—preferably on public pages so that prospective students can see what they are getting into in advance—including instructor or tutor contact information; a course overview; a course schedule; a list of required text and materials (if applicable); clearly defined academic and computer skills prerequisites; clear communication about expectations; instructions about activities, assignments, and deadlines; faculty contact information and office hours; and student support contact information.

• administrative regulations, including guidelines on plagiarism, privacy, academic appeal procedures, library facilities, and access to counseling and advisory services

Good practice in undergraduate education:

1. Encourages contacts between students and faculty.

2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.

3. Uses active learning techniques.

4. Gives prompt feedback.

5. Emphasizes time on task.

6. Communicates high expectations.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html

• Develop tolerance for ambiguity (recognize that there may be no “right” answer to a given question, emphasize cognitive flexibility).

• Use scaffolding principles (create material that is slightly too difficult for the student, to encourage cognitive “stretch”).

• Use problems that require students to understand and manipulate course content.

• Create opportunities for high levels of interaction, both student-student and instructor-student.

• Integrate formative assessment throughout the course.

3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more
about it?

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?

Requirements for web designer:

Below is a partial list of the types of applications that programmers typically work with in a Web-based course.

Open-source code-based programming languages include

• Hypertext markup language (HTML)

• Java

• Javascript

• Perl

• Extensible markup language (XML)

• PHP

• MySQL

Proprietary GUI Web-development software packages include

• Macromedia Dreamweaver^®, Flash^®, Director^®, Authorware^®

• Microsoft .NET^®, Visual Basic^®

• Adobe GoLive^®, Photoshop^®, Illustrator^®

Traditional course design principles and models.
New approaches of course design process.

Reigeluth distinguishes two kinds of instructional design: basic and variable methods.

The basic methods are principles. They are true under appropriate conditions regardless of the program or practice (variable methods). A practice is a specific instructional activity. A program is a set of prescribed practices. Practices implement underlying principles. A given instructional approach emphasizes the implementation of one or more of these instructional principles.

Effective learning environments are those that are
problem-based and involve the student in four distinct phases of learning: activation of prior
experience, demonstration of skills, application of skills, and integration.

Learning is facilitated when:
· Learners are engaged in solving real-world problems.
· Existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge.
· New knowledge is demonstrated to the learner.
· Knowledge is applied by the learner
· Knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.

Group work develops soft team skills in an online environment.

Online just as offline teams go through the group dynamics:

the beginning is orientation and defining of roles and responsibilities. In online collaboration groups are also slowed in the beginning by learning the technology, but once it is done, they go ahead and synchronize their efforts towards common learning goals.

Synchronous communication through chat makes it possible for groups to discuss issues and clarify their common goals.

Wiki becomes ever more popular for collaborative learning online.

Teams develop their own rituals to strengthen identity, culture and motivations, they allocate tasks and create evaluation criteria.

Collaborative learning

Communities of practice
Groupware and collaboration tools

What is e-learning?

E-learning is a field of online learning, based on the technology-delivered instructions and carried out predominantly online.

E-learning is learning enhanced by technology in a new type of interactive environment. It is internet-enables, real-time delivered, individualized, dynamic, aided by development of online communities of learners , practitioners and experts.

E-learning can go beyond the world of instruction into the domain of knowledge management and creation.In this way it becomes a competitive advantage for leading edge corporations in the knowledge economy.

E-learning is predominantly learner-centered. It is fueled by the learner’s interest, motivation, time-managements abilities and goal-setting clarity.

What is e-learning 2.0?

E-learning 2.0 is related to Web 2.0 - a concept conjured by O’Reilly. It encompasses the technology and results of the existence and use of simple and open personal and collaborative publishing tools, such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasts used for e-learning.

Open social software tools revolutionize the way of teaching through closed institutionalized learning tools.

Learning communities and individualized learning tools made the learner responsible for the learning process.

The learner has a choice of the cooperative and individual learning settings.

Online course design

E-learning makes instructional design a key. It restructures the educational processes. Learners in higher education are self-directed.

The emergence of numerous open source and open access tools and services make it possible for learners to achieve their goals in learning spaces which they have chosen and created.

E-learning not only helps a learner to gain knowledge and competences in an area of their choice, but also develops skills such as:

- ability to find and evaluate learning tools;

- ability to form expectations about the feasibility of support learning;

- composing distributed learning spaces from a set of separate tools;

- collaborating in knowledge sharing systems;

- manage one’s own learning;

- learn to perceive other people’s points of view and communicate effectively online.