Designing Effective Elearning Environments: Community is as Important as Content Paul Resta Learning

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Designing EffectiveE-learning Environments
Community is as Important as ContentPaul
RestaLearning Technology CenterThe University
of Texas at Austin
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E-Learning Trends

• Higher education trends
• Online degree programs and courses are ubiquitous
  and growing
• 2.4M students in Fall 2004
• 3.2M students in Fall 2005
• Myriad of new tools used in instruction
• Wikis, blogs, MUVEs (e.g., Second Life),free
  desktop videoconferencing
• Podcasting - cumulative sales approaching 100
  million
• Sloan Consortium. (2006). Making the Grade
  Online Education in the United States.

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Broadcast model still dominant

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Old Wine in New Bottles

• Much of what we see in e-learning is a porting
  over of broadcast model to the Web
• Shovelware Taking existing lectures or written
  text and simply putting it on the Web and calling
  it an online course

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Growing knowledge-base of how people learn

• How People Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and
  School (Book also available online)
  http//www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/

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Transitioning to new learning environments
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A rich learning environment is

• (Wilson, 1996)

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Moving toward Authentic Learning
Enguage North Central Regional Educational
Laboratory (http//www.ncrel.org/engauge/highlite.
htm)
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Design Approach(Backward Design)

• Identify desired outcomes and results
• Determine what constitutes acceptable evidence of
  outcomes
• Plan instructional strategies and learning
  experiences to achieve outcomes
• Wiggins and
  McTighe (2003)

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Know the Learner

• Generational Groups
• Matures (pre-1946)
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
• Generation X (1965-1980)
• Millennials (1981-1994)
• Neo Millenials (1995 -)
• Wendover (2002)

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Learner Motivation

• The CANE model (commitment and necessary effort)
  based on
• Personal agency (Can I do this and what are the
  barriers?)
• Emotion (Do I feel like doing this?)
• Task value (Will this do me any good? Is this
  important to me?)

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Design of Online Learning

• High cost does not mean high quality learning
• Effective e-learning environments can be
  developed within your time and resource
  constraints
• Some examples of e-learning design with limited
  resources

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Designing Student-Centered Learning Environments
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Authentic Assessment Group Accountability
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Authentic Problem Presentation
Simulate the problem in the context in which it
is normally and naturally encountered.
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Authentic Context

• (Tech leadership course problem solving video)

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Authentic Tasks - Examples

• Analyze student performance data
• Conduct hardware Inventory

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Authentic Tasks
Role Playing
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Authentic Tools
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Authentic Tools
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Online Scaffolding and Support
Experts provide ideas and suggestions for best
practices at start of each learning task (through
pre-recorded video segments)
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Online Collaborative Learning

• process through which learners work together to
  accomplish specific learning tasks or projects
  using networks and software tools

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Why Collaboration inE-learning Environments?

• Electronic Proximity represents the new work
  space
• Electronic collaboration is changing the ways
  that work is accomplished
• Research on collaborative vs. competitive and
  individualistic learning environments
• Johnson and Johnson (2002)

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Community is as Important as Content

• Collaboration fosters dialogue and discourse
• makes tacit knowledge public
• Provides safe environment for intellectual
  conflict
• Multiple perspectives moves learners to deeper
  levels of understanding

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Building and Supporting Learning Teams

• Learning about each other
• Social presence and connection
• Students develop rules and norms
• Sense of community

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Peer and Self Assessment

• Individual accountability

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Peer and Self Assessment Result
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QTVR Software

• VR Worx
• Educator Price 249
• www.classsource.com/vrworx/
• index.html

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Summary

• High cost does not mean high quality
• Apply knowledge of how people learn to create
  more effective learning environments

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Contact

• Email resta_at_mail.utexas.edu
• Web www.utexas.edu/education/LTC/about/resta/inde
  x.php