Welcome to the Toucan House Online Ed. Updater - 6 April 2001
This
occasional newsletter keeps you up to date with innovation and change in online and flexible learning.
In this edition:
MIT has announced it will offer the content of over 2000 courses online - for free. Students wishing to get recognition for their learning will need to enrol, and there will also be a fee for making contact with professors and other students.
This initiative recognises some fundamental truths about the online environment. While raw content has some value, it is actually the way learners interact with it, instructors and each other that provides the bulk of the learning process, and the value.
Simply mounting raw content on the net is the electronic equivalent of publishing a book. If that in itself were enough for effective learning, training and educational providers would have gone out of business long ago. The real world experience is that, for most learning, learners need interaction and guidance. In this sense, the Internet is proving to be not so different after all.
Organisations that persist in taking the easy option of dumping text online and assuming students will do the rest are likely to find it harder and harder to maintain a credible online presence as bandwidth increases and the level of interactivity follows suit. The key to effective online learning therefore is good educational design: matching the needs and experience of the learner with content, interaction and feedback.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/04/technology/04MIT.html
http://www.localbusiness.com/Story/0,1118,NOCITY_711669,00.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/24/onlinesch.html
Fastcompany.com (no, not an adult site) has conducted a review of several online learning offerings. It contains useful information on pricing and delivery systems. However if you follow the links and actually manage to get into one of these sites to view the course, please let us know. Most subscribers comment that it's hard to find free access to good models of online learning.
School
Baker College On-line http://www.baker.edu
City University http://www.cityu.edu
The Open University of the United Kingdom http://www.open.edu
University of Phoenix Online Campus http://www.uophx.edu/online
Walden University http://www.waldenu.edu
Learning Circuits has published a substantial case study about an online course. It provides good descriptive information on the development and delivery process, together with useful commentary on the issues raised. The course trains maternal and child health professionals in U.S. state and local health departments to collect, analyse, and interpret data.
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/apr2001/farel.html
As investment is poured into developing online learning solutions, categories of products and solutions are emerging, each with their own acronyms. It can be hard enough to keep up with the acronyms, let alone the products themselves.
Some of the key categories are:
LMS (learning
management system): Software that automates the administration of
training events. The LMS registers, tracks, records and reports on
learning. It usually doesn't include its own authoring capabilities.
CMS (content management system): Software that structures
and makes available content for learners. It provides the framework
for accessing information, but does not generally provide interactivity
or any depth of
learning.
LCMS (learning content management system): The latest buzzword.
A system for organising information (content) so that educational
developers can construct interactive learning experiences from original
source material. Information is stored so that it is hierarchical,
retrievable, and reusable. The actual learning experience is customised
to suit the learner profile and technology being used.
Companies leading
the charge are:
The concept of keeping information in an easily accessed and customisable form is great; it has strong links into knowledge management principles. The trade off though will be in terms of the fragmentation and 'dumbing down' of information. One of the criticisms levelled at the National Qualifications Framework has been that it compartmentalises knowledge, leading to superficial learning, especially at higher levels. LCMSs will clearly have benefits in terms of managing information, whether this will translate into effective learning outcomes will depend on how flexible they are in allowing educational designers to develop learning experiences.
Global Reach has published statistics on Net usage on the basis of language spoken. Statistics by country are also available. Go to: http://www.glreach.com/globstats/index.php3
©
Toucan House Ltd. 2001
www.toucanhouse.co.nz