Online learning is the future of education, training and knowledge transfer. I realize this is a pretty bold statement however, I believe distance learning will continue to grow in the next 5-10 and even 10-20 years. With the use of computers, the internet and mobile phones increasing all over the world we definitely see how education and knowledge will continue to be passed through these means. As Dr. Siemens states this week in our Media program, there is growing acceptance of online learning. This is being fueled by increased online communication, new communications technologies and growing comfort with online discourse. (Siemens G, 2011)
I envision more campus Universities will have blended learning applications so that students have an online portal for discussion and to submit assignments. The same will apply for high school students the online requirements I believe will continue to grow so students are able to do more work online. Kids today growing up not knowing live without computers and the internet so learning online will be easy for them as they will be using computers from day one that they are able to click the on button. On a workplace training level, distance learning will become the norm. I believe more and more companies will outsource their training requirements to instructional designers so that training can be completed at a worker’s desk or at home. This will make it easier for the organization as it will be less logistics and more cost effective.
Currently, the field of instructional design is still unknown as many people have never heard of it or know what it involves. I believe when more people understand and know about instructional design than, the understanding and perceptions of distance learning will change. When more people understand the process and those individuals involve I believe that will help to clear up the stigmas and stereotypes that some people, some companies and some countries have about distance learning. On a personal level as an instructional designer I hope to improve societal perceptions with ensuring what I create and develop will be of excellent quality. With the internet it is very easy for someone to look up your work and see the quality you create. So I will ensure that that work I am developing makes me happy to put my name on.
Our course project this module really made me realize how likely it is that organizations will continue to train their employees using distance learning and online training tools as this is more cost effective and easier to organize for an organization. When I discussed this module with anyone many people were fascinated with the idea of our corporate training going online. At the moment whenever someone asks me what I am studying or what my project work is I always have something positive to say and am essentially educating the person on instructional design. I am a positive force as I am informing anyone I speak to about my program and what it involves. It definitely will have a snowball effect as anybody I have informed about the field of instructional design could then pass the information to others.
However, with knowing the positives of Instructional Design I also see the skeptics and negatives opinions out there about distance learning. As an advocate for instructional design I also can see how many are completely ignorant to the process, to what a good distance learning program is and thus who are the ‘good’ distance educators out there. Unfortunately, there are definitely many countries and organizations that still do not accept online learning as they do not see it as a real program. They feel that online programs are fake or do not compare to a traditional classroom learning experiences. I am hoping what Dr. Siemens said will hold true that the more we interact and connect with those all over the world, the more there will be an acceptance of distance education. (Siemens, George, 2011) I believe as long as governments recognize the credibility of an Online learning program than the public will feel confident and accept it.
All about me.
- Liz v d Burg
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Hi All! I am a born and raised Canadian that is currently living a European life. I decided the best way to appreciate Canada was to escape it for awhile and see what other countries have to offer. I spent a year in Dublin and currently reside in Amsterdam. The plan is to live in Amsterdam for the next few years while I complete my Master's in Instructional Design and Technology. I look forward to blogging about my experiences as I begin to get closer to developing my Instructional Design skills and potentially gaining experience in this field. My goal is to complete my program and begin to develop and deliver training programs.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Converting your classroom to the online world
In this week's assignment for my online classroom we were tasked with a case study. A trainer has decided his student's are not participating enough in his classroom and wants to change his training sessions to blended learning of some in class and some online training. In order to adapt his training session there will be many things that need to be considered. I created a document to help him begin to think of the areas he will need to develop, adapt and change in order to move some of his training content online.
Converting Your Classroom to the Online World
There are many factors to consider when adapting some of your training to a distance learning program. This guide will help you to review the areas needed to get your program online.
Pre-Planning
Before you can have an online training program there are some things you need to consider and plan.
•What online classroom platform will you be using?
•Are there more costs involved to purchase this or other technologies?
•Investigate the technology skills of your learners as you may need to consider creating new training documents on how to use their new online environment
•How much of the content will go online?
•Will you need an instructional designer to help you set up and design your online classroom?
•Set up a timeline to determine if you have enough time to organize these factors before the training begins.
•Have a backup plan if your technology goes down so students are aware what they need to do. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•What will be the break-down of grading and the requirements of your training program?
•Consider reviewing and changing your syllabus as a guide to help you plan the curriculum.
Content
The online environment is different from a traditional classroom so your classroom materials will need to be adapted and changed for the online world.
•To ensure your students remain engaged it is a good idea to review your current content and add in visuals. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These visuals could include multimedia videos, tables, or charts.
•To ensure the students are engaging in their online classroom and participating you need to ask problem solving questions, create experience driven activities and have a group project. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and pull examples from their own experiences.
•Also, “time constraints for class delivery, lack of eye contact, visualization of the materials, and planning for interaction require a reconsideration of classroom dynamics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and remain engaged.
•Will you be changing how you grade your students?
•How much of the class time will be spent online vs. in the classroom?
Instructor’s role
As an online instructor there are aspects of your role that will need to adapt and change as you need to ensure students are participating. “Learners who are engaged in learning are actively participating in their own understanding of the content. The ‘kiss of death’ for any distance course is the lack of student participation.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•It is your responsibility as an instructor to determine if students are participating enough or if they need to be pushed to engage more with their classmates.
•The key to online learning is your discussion board. It will be where students are posting their assignments, discussing issues or ideas with each other and really showing their knowledge.
•As an instructor you will need to set up hours and times when you will be login to review the student’s work and posting to the discussion board.
•Students will be engaged in their online learning experience if they feel their instructor is challenging their learning experience and helping them to learn as much as possible.
Technology
In order to prepare for online learning there are a few technical questions you will need to ask yourself.
•Will the students need training for the online environment?
•Do the students need to purchase anything or have computer requirements?
•What happens if your technology goes down?
•If you are going to have an online database for your resources you need to ensure students know how to organize access.
•All technology including the online classroom will need to be tested to ensure it is functioning and there are no issues with content.
Resources
•Will students need access to any online resources?
•Do any of your resources need to be scanned or added into your database?
•Have you added in any new media or visuals?
Preparing your Student’s
Currently, your students have not been communicating effectively in person. It is important that you make them aware of what their new requirements will be if they are in an online environment. Here are some steps to prepare your student’s for this change.
•It is possible to have students that have not been in school for at least 10 years and there last experience in school did not use the internet let alone a computer. This means many could have limited computer skills and have never navigated an online classroom.
•As a new distance learner your student might be a little intimidated as they are not use to navigating and learn in an online classroom. It will take some time for them to figure out where everything is and really ensure that you are not missing any important information.
•“Just as the instructor must take responsibility for learning about students, learners in the distance learning education classroom must assume ownership in their learning experiences (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).”
•It will be important to encourage your student to participate online but set minimum login and discussion board posting requirements. It will be an incentive to participate if they receive lower grades for not participating enough.
•Ensure you communicate what your expectations are for your students.
•Allow the student’s to communicate with one another by encouraging them to post their details or have assignments that create discussion with their classmates.
REFERENCES
Piskurich, Dr. George. "Facilitating Online Learning" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Converting Your Classroom to the Online World
There are many factors to consider when adapting some of your training to a distance learning program. This guide will help you to review the areas needed to get your program online.
Pre-Planning
Before you can have an online training program there are some things you need to consider and plan.
•What online classroom platform will you be using?
•Are there more costs involved to purchase this or other technologies?
•Investigate the technology skills of your learners as you may need to consider creating new training documents on how to use their new online environment
•How much of the content will go online?
•Will you need an instructional designer to help you set up and design your online classroom?
•Set up a timeline to determine if you have enough time to organize these factors before the training begins.
•Have a backup plan if your technology goes down so students are aware what they need to do. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•What will be the break-down of grading and the requirements of your training program?
•Consider reviewing and changing your syllabus as a guide to help you plan the curriculum.
Content
The online environment is different from a traditional classroom so your classroom materials will need to be adapted and changed for the online world.
•To ensure your students remain engaged it is a good idea to review your current content and add in visuals. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These visuals could include multimedia videos, tables, or charts.
•To ensure the students are engaging in their online classroom and participating you need to ask problem solving questions, create experience driven activities and have a group project. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and pull examples from their own experiences.
•Also, “time constraints for class delivery, lack of eye contact, visualization of the materials, and planning for interaction require a reconsideration of classroom dynamics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and remain engaged.
•Will you be changing how you grade your students?
•How much of the class time will be spent online vs. in the classroom?
Instructor’s role
As an online instructor there are aspects of your role that will need to adapt and change as you need to ensure students are participating. “Learners who are engaged in learning are actively participating in their own understanding of the content. The ‘kiss of death’ for any distance course is the lack of student participation.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•It is your responsibility as an instructor to determine if students are participating enough or if they need to be pushed to engage more with their classmates.
•The key to online learning is your discussion board. It will be where students are posting their assignments, discussing issues or ideas with each other and really showing their knowledge.
•As an instructor you will need to set up hours and times when you will be login to review the student’s work and posting to the discussion board.
•Students will be engaged in their online learning experience if they feel their instructor is challenging their learning experience and helping them to learn as much as possible.
Technology
In order to prepare for online learning there are a few technical questions you will need to ask yourself.
•Will the students need training for the online environment?
•Do the students need to purchase anything or have computer requirements?
•What happens if your technology goes down?
•If you are going to have an online database for your resources you need to ensure students know how to organize access.
•All technology including the online classroom will need to be tested to ensure it is functioning and there are no issues with content.
Resources
•Will students need access to any online resources?
•Do any of your resources need to be scanned or added into your database?
•Have you added in any new media or visuals?
Preparing your Student’s
Currently, your students have not been communicating effectively in person. It is important that you make them aware of what their new requirements will be if they are in an online environment. Here are some steps to prepare your student’s for this change.
•It is possible to have students that have not been in school for at least 10 years and there last experience in school did not use the internet let alone a computer. This means many could have limited computer skills and have never navigated an online classroom.
•As a new distance learner your student might be a little intimidated as they are not use to navigating and learn in an online classroom. It will take some time for them to figure out where everything is and really ensure that you are not missing any important information.
•“Just as the instructor must take responsibility for learning about students, learners in the distance learning education classroom must assume ownership in their learning experiences (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).”
•It will be important to encourage your student to participate online but set minimum login and discussion board posting requirements. It will be an incentive to participate if they receive lower grades for not participating enough.
•Ensure you communicate what your expectations are for your students.
•Allow the student’s to communicate with one another by encouraging them to post their details or have assignments that create discussion with their classmates.
REFERENCES
Piskurich, Dr. George. "Facilitating Online Learning" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Impact of Open Sources.
My previous education and work experiences were not in the education sector so, this means I am completely new to the new educational tools, instructional design and new learning initiatives available online. I was unaware of the open sources courses available on the internet. It is amazing how the internet has expanded our abilities to learn from anywhere in the world. I reviewed Roman Architecture an open course from Yale University (http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture).
This course is available on campus but was adapted in 2009 for their open courses catalogue. The lectures were all recorded from on campus lessons so all 23 lessons of audio; video and course materials are available online. This course is taught by Diana E.E. Kleiner who has included many of her own photographs to help with the learning experiences. To adapt this course to distance learning the content has been organized carefully on the Yale website. All course materials are laid out nicely and organized well. As a student it is easy to navigate the website so you can easily find your materials and understand the requirements of the course.
Instruction for a distance learning course requires a different approach and requirements from the instructor to ensure students understand the material being presented. “The instructor is viewed as the facilitator of learning by guiding, rather than directing, the students, thus modeling a student-centred approach. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). This course offered by Yale has limited instruction as the course is only online and it does not seem like the student can contact the instructor. If the student has any technical issues there is a help button they can use however, they are given no contact details for the instructor. This course really is designed for a student to learn this material independently and complete the work as required. If they have any questions they need to direct them to their study groups as nobody at Yale is available to assist.
The course designer did their best to maximize active learning for the learning. However, I am uncertain how they really planned out this course. It really was organized so that students can review material that has been put online for them. It does not really feel like a course as it is organized for a very independent learning experience for the students. The students have all the same information that an on-campus student would receive for this class however, they do not receive any feedback or assistance from their instructor. The clear difference is a distance learning student would not get the same interaction with students and the instructor as if you were in the class. The course designer did not include many ways for students to interact with each other. The distance learning student has the opportunity to join an online study group for the class using OpenStudy. This allows students to interact and ask questions about the course material however, this is not mandatory. Given the material that is being presented it would have been more favorable if there was an instructor available to answer questions as this would really help the learning experience. However, students have all the right materials and information to enjoy the information presented. If they want to have an interactive class than this definitely is not the platform or class for them.
References
Kleiner, Diana E.E. (2010). Yale University. Open Yale Courses. “Roman Architecture” Retrieved on February 6, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture.
Piskurich, Dr. George. "Planning and Designing Online Courses" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
This course is available on campus but was adapted in 2009 for their open courses catalogue. The lectures were all recorded from on campus lessons so all 23 lessons of audio; video and course materials are available online. This course is taught by Diana E.E. Kleiner who has included many of her own photographs to help with the learning experiences. To adapt this course to distance learning the content has been organized carefully on the Yale website. All course materials are laid out nicely and organized well. As a student it is easy to navigate the website so you can easily find your materials and understand the requirements of the course.
Instruction for a distance learning course requires a different approach and requirements from the instructor to ensure students understand the material being presented. “The instructor is viewed as the facilitator of learning by guiding, rather than directing, the students, thus modeling a student-centred approach. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). This course offered by Yale has limited instruction as the course is only online and it does not seem like the student can contact the instructor. If the student has any technical issues there is a help button they can use however, they are given no contact details for the instructor. This course really is designed for a student to learn this material independently and complete the work as required. If they have any questions they need to direct them to their study groups as nobody at Yale is available to assist.
The course designer did their best to maximize active learning for the learning. However, I am uncertain how they really planned out this course. It really was organized so that students can review material that has been put online for them. It does not really feel like a course as it is organized for a very independent learning experience for the students. The students have all the same information that an on-campus student would receive for this class however, they do not receive any feedback or assistance from their instructor. The clear difference is a distance learning student would not get the same interaction with students and the instructor as if you were in the class. The course designer did not include many ways for students to interact with each other. The distance learning student has the opportunity to join an online study group for the class using OpenStudy. This allows students to interact and ask questions about the course material however, this is not mandatory. Given the material that is being presented it would have been more favorable if there was an instructor available to answer questions as this would really help the learning experience. However, students have all the right materials and information to enjoy the information presented. If they want to have an interactive class than this definitely is not the platform or class for them.
References
Kleiner, Diana E.E. (2010). Yale University. Open Yale Courses. “Roman Architecture” Retrieved on February 6, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture.
Piskurich, Dr. George. "Planning and Designing Online Courses" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
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