Dobre, I. (2012). E-TEACHING & E-LEARNING, A MODEL OF E-COURSE DESIGN TROUGH A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH AND OUTCOMES-BASED PLANNING. In Conference proceedings of” eLearning and Software for Education”(eLSE) (No. 01, pp. 481-487).
This article acknowledges the influence technology has made in e-learning with the role of the lecturer interchanging from mentor, coach and facilitator. Referred to as E-teacher, being immersed in the design process is also another added responsibility. Furthermore, the author indicates that students should be involved in the design phase together with the E-teachers and designers. I agree with the author as students are deemed as stakeholders and being involved in the process at the beginning may ensue motivation and relevance to the course. However, I believe a diverse range of learners should be included to encompass all learning styles. From my own experience, a class of only 20 learners can consist of many different styles and preferences. Although we only have four group members we have implemented this in the project where each member is both a learner and an educator. Designing from both perspectives may enhance the design process.
Moreover, communication is key in the success of e-courses. As noted by Dobre two imperative key factors in a successful e-course are ‘communication and interaction at both, teacher-student level and student-student level’ (Dobre, 2012, p.482). Therefore, in designing our project we need to ensure that interaction and collaboration have a strong presence. For example, the teacher may post questions or comments to instigate a collaborative dialogue to promote motivation. Creating a forum to stimulate student to student communication would also be beneficial as peer to peer learning is very effective.
The author discussed instructional design models related to eLearning. It suggests that ADDIE (Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate) is currently the most popular model. This is the model that we have implemented in our group project due its familiarity, structure and simplicity. However, the author proposes a model which is based on the Dick and Carey Model with the consideration of the ADDIE model. Whilst it does involve the learner in the process the model is very complex and the author fails to explain and elaborate sufficiently on its structure. However, it does promote the importance of the learning outcomes which I believe is imperative as depicted in Bigg’s Constructive Alignment where the outcomes, activities and assessment need to be aligned (Biggs, 2003). This has been applied to our project.
References:
Biggs, J. B. (2003). Teaching for quality learning university (2nd ed.). Buckingham: Open University Press/Society for Research into Higher Education.
May, G. L., & Short, D. (2003). Gardening in cyberspace: A metaphor to enhance online teaching and learning. Journal of Management Education,27(6), 673-693.
This paper proposes the implementation of the term gardening in cyberspace as a new metaphor for effective online practice and teaching. It draws on the similarities between basic gardening and effective online teaching. For example, soil conditioning relates to different learning styles and testing; watering relates to feedback and controlling weeds can relate to information overload. These serve as analogues for good online teaching. This was of particular interest to me as the subject for our project is winter vegetable gardening in an online context. However, these specific analogues may not be motivational for all educators. Nonetheless, it does depict growth and creating an environment to foster this growth/learning. This paper also focuses on the attitudes of faculty towards technology outlining the work of Abraugh indicating the fundamentals of interaction in learning and student satisfaction.
A valuable concept I have extracted from this paper is the attitudes of the teacher and how comfortable they are with sharing control of the process. I resonate with this as a result of the strong behaviourist approach applied in my own work environment and sharing control can therefore be a challenge. However, a learner centred approach with scaffolding enhances online learning and will be adopted in our group project where interaction and feedback is essential.
The paper also suggests that teachers using virtual classroom ‘need better instructional skills related to communication, organization, and motivation’ (May and Short, 2003, p.676). However, it can be argued that these are attributes also required in a traditional environment. Moreover, I believe that it is more an adaptation of these existing attributes as oppose to just a need. For example, face to face communication is different in an online communication environment. To promote intrinsic motivation in students the author suggests the use of real-life problems. This is relevant in both an online and traditional classroom environment and resonates with Malcolm’s Knowles view of the adult learner having a preference to real life problems (Knowles, 1984). Consequently, a case study will be instigated in our group project.
Overall, I don’t fully concur with the fact that ‘the gardening metaphor helps address the issue of subject matter by focusing instructors on the learning process’ (May and Short, 2003, p.688). It is not a metaphor that I will be implementing in my future work. However, from reading this paper I will reflect on my own attitudes and will be aware of this throughout the group project.
References:
Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Fransicso: Jossey-Bass.
Tirrell, T., & Quick, D. (2012). Chickering’s seven principles of good practice: Student attrition in community college online courses. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 36(8), 580-590.
This paper acknowledges the copious amounts of existing literature on the application of constructivist learning theories in eLearning to promote engagement. As a consequence, quantitative research in the form of online questionnaires was used to study student attrition rates in three community colleges in Virginia. This was prompted by the high attrition rates and increasing enrolments in online courses. The focus of this research was on the constructivist-based Seven Principles of Good Instructional Practice by Chickering and Gamson. This was of particular interest as I am influenced by the constructivist theory where the learner builds on existing knowledge. Furthermore, Chickering and Gamson’s principles was a theory I proposed to be applied to our current project prior to reading this paper. The reason I proposed this theory is due to its flexibility in that it can be applied to all learning contexts (NUI Galway, 2010). Moreover, Chickering and Gamson’s principles are an acceptable ‘rubric for evaluating online course design and online instruction’ (Tirrell and Quick, 2012, p.588).
Fifty faculty teachers participated in the research, which could be deemed as quite small and the findings indicated that the application of the principles was high. However, the research indicates that ‘faculty largely remain unfamiliar and/or uncomfortable with constructivist learning principles that promote student engagement’ (Tirrell and Quick, 2012, p.589). There was also correlation between the principle Encourage Active Learning and reduction in attrition rates. Moreover, I would suggest that qualitative research, for example, focus groups or individual interviews would have added value to this research with the advantage of further exploration. On reflection, in the group project we need to ensure that we use approaches that are engaging in an online context, for example, practical (learner demonstrations) along with synchronous (forums) and asynchronous activities (chats).
References:
NUI Galway. (2010). The Virtual Learning Environment: NUI Galway.