Collaborative Open Webcasting Community
Time to put a little fun into online learning–with good reason: ‘Emotional arousal helps the brain learn’. Medina, Brain Rules (2008). Joni Dunlap leads the IDLive team in considering how to incorporate fun into the fabric of a course to provide a more stimulating learning experience.
Xiaojing Liu, Senior Research Analyst at Kelley Business School, Indiana University, joins us this week to discuss how to design effective online cased-based learning courses. Drawing on her research into cased based-learning startegies used in an MBA program, Dr. Liu considers the benefits and challenges of case-based learning from both a student and faculty perspective.
Dr. Helen Barrett, recipient of the EIFEL lifetime achievement award for her contributions to e-portfolio research and development, joins us this week to put a firm emphasis on having students control their learning through e-portfolios. In addition to highlighting the ‘two faces of e-portfolios’, Helen makes the case that universities have been placing too great an emphasis on e-portfolios for summative learning.
John Graves, the lead faculty in the Master of Science in Science Education program at Montana State University, Bozeman, spends 30 minutes sharing over a decade of expertise in the design and delivery of online courses. John touches on a number of key considerations in terms of engaging learners in the early stages of an online course:
Jennifer Maddrell leads a discussion of another key aspect of online teaching and learning–developing cognitive presence in online courses. In addition to discussing the definition of cognitive presence, we consider how it can be facilitated, and the challenges that students face when the instructors emphasize collaboration without adequate supports.
According to Garrison (2009), Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.”
Defining, creating and maintaining social presence in online courses is the focus of this week’s show and is part of a three-part series that considers the Community of Inquiry framework.
Professor Charles Reigeluth from Indiana University shares his thoughts on Instructional Theory for education in the Information Age. Charles and Allison Carr-Chellman recently co-edited Volume III of the seminal Instructional Design Theories and Models (The Green Book): http://www.amazon.com/Instructional-Design-Theories-Models-III-Knowledge/dp/0805864563
This week Cammy Bean, VP of Learning Design for Kineo and ID-live co-host, discusses what e-learning means from a corporate perspective. The discussion focusses on the following issues:
Additional Resources:
This week, we discussed how to promote learning through asynchronous discussions, in many cases, the heart of online courses. Issues considered include: developing a sense of community, structuring discussions, setting expectations, assessment and strategies for facilitating quality interactions.
Resources mentioned:
Joanna Dunlap: Down and Dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses
