eLearning: Systems and Content

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e-LearningSystems and Content

• Jim Gotaas
• Learning Development Unit
• University of Central Lancashire
• 22 April 2005

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Outline

• What is e-Learning?
• e-Learning Systems
• Why bother with pedagogy?
• Pedagogical theories
• Features of effective e-Learning
• The importance of student engagement
• Online interactions
• Constructing community
• Constructing content
• e-Assessment Objective Tests
• Web links
• Summary

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What is e-Learning?

• Different people use different definitions, but
  well define it as the use of electronic
  technologies to deliver aspects of the learning
  experience.
• It can be used to supplement ordinary instruction
  (blended learning) or deliver the entire learning
  experience.
• Probably the most challenging form (and the most
  currently active) is online or networked
  learning. Well concentrate on this today.

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e-Learning Systems

• Virtual Learning Environments - VLEs
• e.g. WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle
• Offer single point of entry to learning resources
• Offer built-in tools
• Reduce level of required technical skill

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e-Learning Tools WebCT

• WebCT stands for Web Course Tools. It provides
  academic staff with a set of tools to deliver
  content and learning activities without requiring
  extensive technical web expertise.
• It can be used anywhere through the World Wide
  Web, with access controlled by passwords.
• The university offers staff both team and
  individual training and support, both in using
  the software and in developing e-Learning courses.

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e-Learning Tools - WebCT

• We began the consultation process about WebCT in
  2000/1. Selected demonstration modules were
  tested during 2001/2. In 2002/3, we moved to
  full implementation, with a target of every
  module having a presence in WebCT by 2004/5.
• We now have 2500 modules delivered in part or
  wholly through WebCT, involving 850 designers,
  and supporting almost 20,000 students.
• Most of these support our on-campus programmes
  blended e-Learning as opposed to fully online
  distance e-Learning.

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e-Learning Tools WebCT Management

• Administration of the WebCT software and servers
  is managed by our Information Systems Service.
  This includes creation of new module spaces,
  assignment of individual module designers, and
  transfer of student lists from our Student
  Administration System to the WebCT database.
• The WebCT administrator also maintains complete
  backups of the WebCT servers in case of hardware
  failure.

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e-Learning Tools WebCT Management

• Individual academic staff or small teams are
  responsible for the management of modules,
  including adding students from the WebCT
  database, and the creation and management of
  their content. Detailed management policies are
  left for the academic Faculties and Departments
  to decide.
• These individuals are also responsible for the
  backup of their own modules for archive purposes,
  as the global backup of the WebCT administrator
  cannot easily restore individual modules.

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e-Learning Tools - WebCT

• Tools for providing content
• Content modules ordered sequence of connected
  web pages
• Single web pages
• Organizer pages to provide coherent access to
  content and tools
• External web links

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e-Learning Tools - WebCT

• Tools for communication
• Calendar
• Private e-mail (asynchronous)
• Discussion lists (asynchronous)
• Chat room (synchronous)

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e-Learning Tools - WebCT

• Tools for evaluation and assessment
• Assignment tool
• Self-tests
• formative only - no grade recorded
• Quizzes
• multiple-choice automatically graded and recorded
• short-answer
• Anonymous surveys

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e-Learning Tools - Breeze

• Macromedia Breeze
• Breeze is a program for web-based meetings that
  allows for live audio-video communication,
  PowerPoint presentations, synchronous chat and
  many other tools. Breeze can used in conjunction
  with WebCT to deliver recorded lectures on demand
  via the internet. A brief introduction can be
  found at
• http//www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/research/tech
  nology/index.htm

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Why bother with pedagogy?

• The e-Learner can easily lose interest and
  motivation.
• In face-to-face teaching and learning, we have
  similar problems but there we can notice and
  try to do something about it.
• Even in synchronous online interaction, its
  harder to recognise when the learner is getting
  lost, because we are unable to see or hear
  physical cues.

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Why bother with pedagogy?

• Pedagogy
• gives us a framework for planning the online
  experience
• offers the opportunity to ground our practice on
  accepted theory and research results
• should be thought of as a guide to practice, not
  a set of laws dictating or restricting practice.

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Pedagogical theories

• Most of the detailed pedagogical theories are
  drawn from developments for face-to-face
  teaching. Standard approaches include
• Behaviourism or instructivism (Skinner)
  step-by-step transmission of knowledge,
  followed by reinforcement and assessment useful
  for learning facts and simple concepts
• Constructivism (Piaget, Kolb) individuals
  construct knowledge through interaction and
  reflection needed to develop deeper
  understanding of principles and applications

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Pedagogical theories

• Further approaches include
• Social constructivism (Vygotsky) individuals
  construct knowledge through group interactions
  and reflection this is, for instance, a good
  model for much of the learning that takes place
  during a PhD research project
• Communities of practice (Wenger) formalises
  social constructivism to reflect whole
  communities of professional engagement this
  models the way in which academic communities and
  disciplines change

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Features of effective e-Learning

• Design content and activities to achieve specific
  outcomes
• Keep the learning student-centred
• Use active learning approaches
• Make the learning experience accessible
• Develop structure and content for different
  learning styles
• Tailor the content for the media
• Prepare the student for the online experience
  induction is important!

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Student engagement

• It is important that students be kept
  intellectually and even emotionally engaged with
  the online learning experience.
• This can be aided by building in short
  activities, offering formative assessment with
  the opportunity for feedback.
• It is also helpful to use content and learning
  activities that address different learning
  styles. See, for example, Multiple Learning
  Styles in Web-based Courses at http//www.webct.co
  m/OTL/ViewContent?contentID2334144
• As well as Instructional Strategies for Online
  Courses at http//www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/
  tutorials/pedagogy/instructionalstrategies.asp

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Online interactions

• Interactions online can be synchronous or
  asynchronous. They can be broken down into three
  main types
• Student-content
• Student-instructor
• Student-student

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Online interactions

• Student-content
• The student will often interact with content that
  is either directly prepared, or to which links
  are provided, by the instructor.
• Online reading should be mixed with activities.
• In some cases, the student may also be involved
  in modifying or providing some content.

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Online interactions

• Student-instructor
• The student will generally communicate with the
  instructor, receiving guidance, direct
  information, and feedback on progress.

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Online interactions

• Student-student
• This can be simply students spontaneously helping
  each other.
• More formally, can be organised as online
  collaborative or cooperative learning (CSCL)
• In some cases, students may interact as a team
  directly with the content.

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Constructing community

• It is important to support online students
  through the creation of a community.
• You can use structured activities to develop
  social presence - e.g. Salmons Five Levels

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Constructing community

• Communication tools
• e-mail private and asynchronous
• Discussion boards public and asynchronous
• Chat tools public and synchronous
• Video links private/public and synchronous (high
  bandwidth!)
• The public tools are most useful for creating an
  online community.

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Constructing content

• There are many forms of content, including text,
  graphics, audio, video, animations and
  simulations, and even assessment activities.
  Many of these require special technical expertise
  and support. Well briefly look at those that
  are easiest for an individual to start with -
  text and graphics.

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Constructing content

• Writing e-Text
• Chunk the text use short sections, rarely
  longer than a single screen, laid out with plenty
  of white space.
• Provide guidance to the structure signposts
• Use simple language.
• Personalise the text.
• For long blocks of important text, offer easy
  download and print options
• See E-ffective Writing for e-Learning
  Environments, Campbell, for more details.
• Also see The Five Features of Effective Writing
  http//www.learnnc.org/topics/writing/features/ind
  ex.html

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Constructing content

• Using graphics (drawings and images) can address
  different learning styles and liven up the page,
  but
• only use relevant graphics
• integrate associated text and graphics
• be sure to offer text equivalents for
  visually-impaired students
• be aware of possible bandwidth limitations for
  the student.
• See e-Learning and the Science of Instruction,
  Clark Mayer, for more details and supporting
  research.
• Also see Learning with Visualisation and
  Developing Multimedia Learning Environments, by
  Andrew Broughton, both available on the LDU
  website.

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e-Assessment

• Many of our traditional assessment mechanisms are
  compatible with delivery online, although there
  may be new issues that arise.
• In some cases, online assessment actually adds
  flexibility and offers new modes.
• There also may be issues about student
  authentication, at least for some modes of
  assessment.

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e-Assessment

• We can use the online environment to distribute
  and collect electronic documents for assessment.
• We can also assess online activities, such as
• Communication activities
• Individual or group presentations
• Finally, we can use the online environment
  directly for testing purposes
• Short written tests
• Objective tests

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e-Assessment

• Assessment can be classified according to
  purpose
• Diagnostic for identifying state of preparation
  or knowledge
• Formative primarily for purpose of giving
  feedback on learning
• Summative primarily for purpose of producing
  grade

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e-Assessment Objective Tests

• By objective test, we mean that there is no
  judgment required in the marking process it can
  be done automatically. This is probably the most
  common implementation of CAA. These can be
  diagnostic, formative or summative.
• Objective tests can also be implemented with
  paper and optical mark readers, or even
  completely manually.

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e-Assessment Objective Tests

• It is important to remember that objective test
  questions still have a subjective element
  writing the question and answers, as well as
  choosing the correct answer, all involve
  subjective judgment.
• In ordinary assessments, we can adjust our
  marking scheme if we see unexpected student
  responses. In objective tests, irregularities
  may only be discovered through statistical
  analysis.

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e-Assessment Objective Tests

• Pedagogic advantages
• Can monitor students progress through frequent
  short assessments both formative and summative
• Students can monitor own progress and revise at
  their own pace formative purposes
• Detailed and specific feedback can be given to
  students during and immediately after a test
• Can assign different learning activities to
  students based on their test results
• Can be linked to other web-based/computerised
  learning materials

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e-Assessment Objective Tests

• Pedagogic disadvantages
• Unsupervised CAA has a risk of plagiarism or
  improper collaboration it can also be difficult
  to authenticate the identity of students
• Requires that students (and staff) have
  appropriate IT skills and experience with
  Computer Aided Assessment
• There is a tendency to just use Multiple Choice
  Questions (MCQs), which students can find tedious
  and demotivating
• It has also been argued that MCQs focus on
  testing superficial levels of student learning
  (simple facts and concepts) and may reward
  guessing

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e-Assessment Objective Tests

• VLEs normally offer simple objective test tools.
  Other options include
• QuestionMark Perception is a commercial web-based
  program offering more sophisticated question
  types, better management tools, and improved
  security.
• http//www.questionmark.com/uk/home.htm
• TRIADS resulted from an FDTL project it offers a
  wide range of alternate question types, including
  sophisticated graphical questions.
• http//www.derby.ac.uk/ciad/

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Web Links

• Tipler Supporting Resources http//bcs.whfreeman.
  com/tiplerphysics5e/default.asp?snivons
  0uid0rau0
• Java Applet simulations http//www.ph.ed.ac.uk/cg
  i-bin/ss/main
• Physlet (Physics applet) examples
  http//webphysics.davidson.edu/physlet_resources/c
  algary_physlets/
• Web Physics http//webphysics.davidson.edu/
• Software Teaching of Modular Physics SToMP
  http//www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/stomp/
• MIT OpenCourseWare http//ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Phys
  ics/index.htm
• Physical Sciences Learning and Teaching Subject
  Network http//www.physsci.heacademy.ac.uk/Home/I
  ndex.aspx

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Summary effective e-Learning

• Create the e-Learning experience to match
  specific outcomes.
• Use active, student-centred learning approaches.
• Make the learning experience accessible to
  students with diverse learning styles.
• Help the student prepare for the online
  experience.