www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3jBjeNPFZQ
References Chetwynd, F. & Dobbyn, C. (2011). Assessment, feedback and marking guides in distance education. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance, and e-Learning, 26(1), 67-78. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2011.538565. Fish, W.W. & Wickersham, L.E. (2009). Best practices for online instructors. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 10(3), 279-284. Retrieved from http://www.infoagepub.com/quarterly-review-of-distance-education.html. Gallien, T. & Oomen-Early, J. (2008). Personalized versus collective instructor feedback in the online classroom: Does type of feedback affect student satisfaction, academic performance and perceived connectedness with the instructor? International Journal on ELearning, 7(3), 463-476. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/210354848?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=12085.
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Summary: “Who’s in Control? Guidelines for e-Learning Navigation”
Chapter 14 of e-Learning and the Science of Instruction (Clark & Meyer, 2011) discusses the types of navigation choices available to designers of e-learning courses. Navigation can be learner-controlled, program-controlled or an adaptive blend of learner- and program-controlled. Due to the time requirements of synchronous distance education, these courses must be program- or instructional-controlled. For asynchronous courses, instructional designers must determine the learners’ prior knowledge, ability to self-assess, and metacognitive skills (ability to manage and use study skills effectively) to best choose the type of control needed for their classes. Learner-controlled courses include three variables: content sequencing, pacing and access to learning support. These variables allow learners to control the order in which they view elements of a course, the time they spend on a portion of the course and the amount of extra support, such as practice exercises, that they receive (respectively). Clark and Meyer recommend that students should have to specifically decide to skip practice exercises rather than choose to take practice items. Schnackenberg and Sullivan (2000) found that students were twice as likely to view practice elements of a lesson and scored higher on assessments when course materials automatically directed them to these exercises. Clark and Meyer also recommend that materials should be split into small amounts with the option to pause and rewind each section. In 2010, Tabbers and de Koeijer found that learners given the option to stop and replay slides before continuing a presentation spent three times longer in a module than learners viewing slideshow that automatically advanced to the next slide. The extra time spent in the course is offset by an increased evidence of learning on assessments. A blend of learner and program control is adaptive control, which allows instructors to adapt instruction to learners as they are taking a course. This does have time and monetary concerns, so it is best used for large classes or in areas with high tuition that could cover the cost. It can also be used for courses where all students need to meet a minimum level of understanding. Regardless of the type of control chosen for a course, the navigation needs to include headlines and subheadlines similar to a textbook, a basic hierarchal course map, navigation options to progress through modules and an indicator of progress through a module, such as “Slide 2 of 5.” Reflection The control of a class is important, because it can affect the learners’ attitudes toward a class. Students with prior knowledge of a subject or advanced metacognitive skills may find a slower pace in a program-controlled class to become mundane and tedious. On the other hand, learners who misjudge their prior knowledge (“calibration accuracy”) may not spend as much time as they should in learner-controlled coursework, limiting their understanding of materials. Since the course my group is designing for the ISD project is a synchronous course, the choice between learner- or program-controlled navigation is not applicable. However, the instruction on actual navigational tools found on pp. 329-332 is particularly relevant as our group chooses media for this week’s assignment. We need to make sure that students can steer themselves through the presentations without becoming frustrated or lost. Clear topic headings and buttons to replay or continue a portion of the assessments are important. In my most recent work position, we found that adaptive control was best suited for training editors. This is because, in our internship program, each editor had to reach a minimum level of understanding of basic editing skills, the company’s publication standards, and the formatting of articles before he/she could advance to editing for our website. Our trainees could pace themselves through the course materials (learner-controlled) but could not advance from one stage of editing skills to the next until they completed required assessments with a minimum score (program-controlled). When necessary, trainers could ask participants to complete additional assessments to ensure that learning was successfully applied to real-world editing scenarios. Since this is a corporate program rather than school or university setting, the cost and time were not relevant since they were already budgeted into the weekly stipend for each participant and allotted in the trainer’s job duties. References Clark, R.C. & Meyer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed). San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9780470874301. Schnackenberg, H.L. & Sullivan, H.J. (2000). “Learner control over full and lean computer based instruction under differing ability levels.” Educational Technology Research and Development, 48, 19–35. Tabbers, H.K. & de Koeijer, B. (2010). “Learner control in animated multimedia instructions.” Instructional Science, 38, 441–453. https://youtu.be/5DU7bhlZlTw
Jones, D. (2014). Reading students' minds: Design assessment in distance education. Journal of Learning Design, 7(1), 27-39. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=95032165&site=ehost-live&scope=site Whitehurst, A. (2011). The assessment portfolio: A possible answer to the distance education assessment dilemma. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 16(3), 91-97. doi: 10.1080/10875301.2011.595216 According to EDUC633 Module 2, behaviorism involves "the acquisition of new behaviors." The model of behaviorism is based on practice, modeling, reinforcement and active learning. At first glance, it may seem that it would be hard to apply these steps to distance education, and it likely would have been even 10 years ago without modern technology like Skype and Google Docs.
In my job, our entire online program of training copy editors is based on behaviorism. We spend the first three weeks of our 12-week training program utilizing all of these steps. First, the students study our training materials and then they practice what they have learned by completing editing assignments. We trainers then model what correct edits and formatting should look like. Even though our program is completed entirely online, active learning does take place. We work collaboratively (and simultaneously) in Google Docs with our trainees, have online chats almost weekly, and utilize message boards within the social networking site Yammer. Reinforcement, particularly positive reinforcement, is one of the most difficult aspects of this type of online learning as it applies to editing. The very nature of editing is finding errors, so negative reinforcement is often more prevalent. We work to reinforce positive learning outcomes within biweekly emails and in our Yammer channels. According to Ruth Colvin Clark in E-learning and the Science of Instruction (2011, p 16), behavioral activity enforces psychological activity. To merely read an assignment (psychological) may not yield as much retention of a lesson as reading and answering questions, taking notes, or even clicking a mouse to reveal information on a computer screen (behavioral). This is the area of our program that needs the most improvement. The first week of training is solely psychological, as the only behavioral activity is answering questions at the end of a unit. Hopefully through this course, I can apply distance education technology to this part of our training program to increase the amount of behavioral learning that takes place at the beginning of our program. |