Posted 8:48 PM by George Siemens
Understanding the Culture of Elearning
Quote: "Five main success factors are necessary for an e-learning strategy to succeed--content, capability, cost, clients, and, most importantly, culture. Culture has always been a particularly contentious issue but as the market matures, organizations are more seriously examining pan-continental and, in some cases, global e-learning solutions."

Posted 4:32 PM by Steve
From Steve's Head

The E Team - Installment 3

Last fall, I found myself in the position of becoming a student again, in a part-time fashion. Starting a new program is always a little nerve-wracking, but this time it was a little more so that normal; I not only had to get used to being a student and ferreting out what the expectations were going to be in terms of time, effort, etc., I also had to come to grips with being a student in an unfamiliar medium - my course was totally online and completely asynchronous (no scheduled classtime at all)! Yes, this was what I had hoped and searched for, but when I was finally face-to-face with this new challenge, I must admit I experienced a little bit of cold feet and a whole herd of butterflies in the stomach.

There were certain things that I knew I was going to like right from the start. The prof was based in New Zealand, which meant that I could benefit from a completely different cultural perspective being presented as well as from the fact that this was someone who was an "expert" from whom I would have never otherwise had the chance to learn. The class was made up of students from New Zealand, Australia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, China, and western Canada...quite the cosmopolitan mix! Again, this would not be the norm experienced in a typical night school class.

I discovered that I would have to complete 3 major assignments to obtain my final course mark. Two of the projects were quite intense in scope, but were solo ventures. I would have to research and complete these on my own, and I was comfortable with that, as that has been the nature of most assignments in all of the courses that I had completed to date. The one assignment that really made me nervous was organizing and leading a week-long seminar completely online. To top it off, this was to be done in groups of 4 or 5 students as assigned by the prof. I was disoriented as to how we could possibly organize such a venture, since group members were often located on different sides of the International Date Line. Could we possibly reach some sort of concensus about a topic and then organize such a huge undertaking via e-mail? And then there was the daunting challenge of actually leading this session for an entire week. I quickly decided that I was completely loony for having wanted to take a degree using this format, but being too vain to drop out I decided I better stick around and give it a try.

It was obvious that everyone else in my group was just as hesitant about this venture, as we each made initial contact with the rest of the group and then promptly did nothing to further this start of conversation for several weeks. However, things changed quite rapidly as one group member threw out some ideas about seminar topics, and other members began to respond and begin threads of conversation that would ultimately result in a skeleton for our presentation. I found myself quickly getting caught up in the excitement being generated by these discussions, in participating in what turned out to be an extremely creative process, and looked forward to receiving each subsequent e-mail...ok, the cover is blown...everytime I'm a student I become a major geek (...then again, the level of geekiness may not change, but I just may not notice it in everyday life...am I deluding myself???) At any rate, the project was a major success, and it became on of my favourite memories of my first online course.

So what did I learn from this whole episode? Firstly and foremostly, that the quality of the educational experience did not suffer from the transition to a virtual classroom, and in many ways, it was even enhanced. The level of conversation, dialogue, and debate was very high because the prof had the foresight to outline her expectations of participation. New contributions to a discussion had to add something new - no "me too!" messages allowed. Unsubstantiated opinions could be put forward, but these wouldn't count for much; contributions needed to be thought out and supported by research. As a result, the discussion that took place in the course was not exacerbated by hundreds of extra, irrelevant messages that have plagued many of the courses I've heard about.

As well, online courses could be organized in a way that required active participation from all students. Assignments could be structured to require not only rigour and research, but also creativity and teamwork. Most importantly, this entire experience helped to confirm my belief that online learning can be an effective and enjoyable way to learn. If you are an instructor or developer planning to work with online courses, I would strongly recommend taking a course online to discover what learning looks like in this medium. If you are a student, I would encourage you to try this type of learning to see which format provides you with a better learning experience. You just might be surprised with how rich an environment can be created online - I know I was.

In Search of the Perfect E-Learner

Quote: "It's becoming common knowledge that e-learning is achieving inconsistent results. Some e-learners thrive on the increased flexibility and control that the medium provides; others wallow in isolation, struggling to make a start...perhaps it would help us to know just what it is about some learners that makes them better suited to e-learning than others. It would also help if we could make e-learning more suitable for the majority of learners, so we could all take advantage of its benefits."

Comment: This article identifies a number of positive characteristics of successful e-learners and elaborates on them by using experiences from real life e-learners. What I would find interesting is rather than a search for the perfect e-learners, we examine of how we create "perfect" e-learners. Its well-known that classroom learning does not work for a lot of people, yet they have been taught how to strengthen their skills in order to get as much out of the experience that they possibly can. I honestly believe the same can (and should) be done for online students.

The Online Disinhibition Effect

Quote: "In text communication such as e-mail, chat, and instant messaging, others may know a great deal about who you are. However, they still can't see or hear you - and you can't see or hear them. Even with everyone's identity visible, the opportunity to be PHYSICALLY invisible amplifies the disinhibition effect. You don't have to worry about how you look or sound when you say (type) something. You don't have to worry about how others look or sound when you say something. Seeing a frown, a shaking head, a sigh, a bored expression, and many other subtle and not so subtle signs of disapproval or indifference can slam the brakes on what people are willing to express."

Comment: Okay, George already published this link a little while back. I'm including it here because of the popular concept that online courses will allow the silent guy wearing the baseball cap and slouching at the back of your classroom to become an active participant in discussions. Based on the course I completed, I can vouch for this. I'm usually that guy (except that I hate wearing baseball caps, sit somewhere in the middle of the room, and participate (and slouch) occasionally... :-) ). I found that in online discussions I was not only very willing to participate in conversations, but I became one of the "button-pushers", relishing the opportunity to bring more controversial topics into the discussion threads. Why was that? I'm not sure, but this article provides a number of different possibilities for why we feel more comfortable doing these things when we become cyber-entities.

Students' Learning Styles in Two Classes

Quote: "Because more online courses will invariably be offered in the future, some assurance must be provided to the college, the faculty, and the students, that distance education will meet expectations for a good education. Not only will students expect an education that is equal in quality to that provided by traditional offerings, they will expect a student-centered learning environment, designed to meet their individual needs."

Comment: A student is a student is a student, regardless whether they are in a traditional classroom or in a virtual one, right? This article outlines the results of a study of two groups of students covering the same material, but one is taught traditionally while the other is online. The results (surprise, surprise) show that students that take online courses have different preferred learning styles than those who opt to attend a traditional classroom. One of the really great recommendations to instructors here is that they incorporate a variety of styles in order to help students develop and strengthen styles that they currently underuse. I really enjoyed this one!

How Do You Like to Learn? Comparing User Preferences and Visit Length of Educational Web Sites
or for those of you who love PDF files, PDF format of the same article

Quote: "If people learn best in active modes but prefer passive Web experiences, how can we develop sound educational Web activities that attract and appeal to a broad audience? We decided to develop a detailed and focused pilot study of user preferences to shed more light on this complex and important issue. The primary research question was: how do people's preferences vary among types of Web-based learning activity?"

Comment: Oh great - another 20 page educational study...Steve, what are you thinking?!? Actually, this can be a good, quick read. It has an extensive section that will definitely get stats-oriented individuals' blood moving, but that can also be skimmed over if that is not your idea of a thrilling read. One of the really interesting parts is a comparison of how long visitors stayed at sites that featured different styles of learning activities. After all, we want to ensure that the format of learning activities in online courses will encourage learners to stick around and complete the activity, don't we?