- Articles:
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- Online Debate: A Case Study...
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- The Web as an Effective Tool for Adult Learners.
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- Using Online Interaction to Break Your Addiction to Classroom Training
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- Use of Internet for Online Course Delivery: A Case-study.
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- Theory and Practice of Online Learning.
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- A Comparative Analysis of Distance and On-campus Learners
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- Tech Tools for Students with Learning Disabilities.
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- Innovations in Online Learning.
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- Why I Teach Online.
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- Designing Distance Delivery Courses.
Articles
Online Debate: A Case Study Combining Traditional Strategy and Online Technology..
By Shawn M. Love
Introduction
Instructional Designers are constantly faced with new challenges. In a volatile technological environment, online resources seem to lead instructional designers into unknown territory. Often, instructors will attempt to merge online media and instruction in an effort to accomplish a single task. However, instructors must consider the resources they use and the strategy they employ before attempting to combine traditional strategies with online technologies. Merging a traditional debate format in synchronous and asynchronous online environments demonstrate the challenges of merging the traditional with the non-traditional. In this article, an online debate is examined in terms of limited communication methods and suggestions are provided for designing an online debate. Go to article
The Web as an Effective Tool for Adult Learners.
By Moira McIntyre
Introduction
The introduction of the computer and specifically the internet has been relatively recent. For the majority of adults it was somewhat of a leap from the traditional methods of instruction to the technology-based learning systems we have available to us today. In the past, if you wanted to become involved in continuing or distance education, you either went to formal classes at pre-scheduled times, or enrolled in a correspondence course. These methods, although effective, could sometimes be inconvenient, time-consuming, expensive, and limited in subject matter options. Go to article
Using Online Interaction to Break Your Addiction to Classroom Training
By Michael Burke
Abstract
Many of you may be familiar with the phrase: “Interactivity is in the mind, not in the mouse.” I’d endorse that statement, with the following caveat: It’s okay to depend on the mouse to get the mind engaged.
Unfortunately, the majority of corporate self-paced online learning consists of screen turners, which is the equivalent of page turners in a print model. That sort of courseware commits cruel and unusual punishment—boredom—upon its victims/learners. The irony is that online learning actually lends itself to interaction, and with little effort can be far more engaging than some traditional classroom instruction. Go to article
Use of Internet for Online Course Delivery: A Case-study
By Sahalu JUNAIDU
Introduction
The success of an online learning project depends, to a great extent, on the continuous study and improvement of the major components of the online learning paradigm. One of the major thrusts of online learning is focused on providing activities that shift the control of learning activities from the teacher to the student. Students are the most important stakeholders in any learning environment. Thus, we must know our students well in order to engage them effectively online. We should know their skills in the use of computers, competencies, attitude towards online learning etc. This will help us evaluate how good online learners our students are (Great Basing College, 2003., Extension Online, 2003) and also help us identify and address possible causes of attrition (Frankola) in our courses.
Course content must also be subjected to periodic evaluation for effective learning. The best evaluators for an instructional material are its learners. The kind of study reported in this paper is necessary to find out, amongst other things, whether our contents contain, in the right measures, Elsenheimer’s five key points for keeping learners engaged namely, entertainment, interaction, control, usability and customization (Elsenhiemer, 2003). Go to article
Theory and Practice of Online Learning.
By Athabasca University faculty
Introduction
The Online Learning Series is a collection of works by practitioners and scholars actively working in the field of distance education...
...the book is neither an academic tome, nor a prescriptive “how to” guide. Like a university itself, the book represents a blending of scholarship and of research, practical attention to the details of teaching and of provision for learning opportunity, dissemination of research results, and mindful attention to the economics of the business of education. Go to article
A Comparative Analysis of the Academic Performance of Distance and On-campus Learners
By Professor C. M. MAGAGULA and Mr. A. P. NGWENYA
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to examine the background characteristics of off-campus and on-campus learners enrolled in the parallel programs at the University of Swaziland, the extent to which the academic performance of off-campus and on-campus learners were similar and/or different, the advantages and disadvantages of learning at a distance as perceived by off-campus learners, and how off-campus learners felt these disadvantages could be addressed. Go to article
Tech Tools for Students with Learning Disabilities: Infusion into Inclusive Classroom.
By Jane Quenneville
Introduction
The potential for assistive technology in general education classrooms for students with disabilities is great. Its benefits include enhancing academic achievement in written expression, reading, mathematics, and spelling; improving organization; and fostering social acceptance. Support technology provides many benefits by facilitating writing for students with learning disabilities (LD) who often find the writing process frustrating (MacArthur, 1996). When students have the opportunity to accommodate writing challenges, they are more successful in the general education classroom. A necessary component of this effort is collaboration between classroom teachers and assistive technology specialists. Go to article
Innovations in Online Learning.
By Carol A. Twigg
Introduction
During the early 1990s, many of those interested in the impact of information technology liked to talk about "paradigm shifts." Despite its attainment of cliché status, the concept of a paradigm shift is a powerful one. Most who were once skeptical of the impact of the Internet on the ways we do business in all facets of society now recognize that our paradigms are, in fact, shifting.
The word paradigm comes from the Greek word paradeigma, meaning "model" or "pattern." A paradigm represents a way of looking at the world, a shared set of assumptions that enable us to understand or predict behavior. Paradigms have a powerful influence on individuals and on society because our view of the world is determined by our set of assumptions about it. To put it another way, our vision is often affected by what we believe about the world; our beliefs often determine the information that we "see."
Extending this concept to technology, a paradigm effect may prevent people from seeing what is happening around them and from realizing the potential in a new application of technology. As Jim Wetherbe, Bobby G. Stevenson Chair in Information Technology at Texas Tech, puts it, "The biggest obstacle to innovation is thinking it can be done the old way." Familiar examples of how, in Wetherbe’s words, "technique lags behind technology" come to mind... Go to article
Why I Teach Online.
By William Wade
Introduction
While distance learning is not for everyone, the flexible education alternative provides teachers and students with many advantages.
A colleague once asked me why I teach online. After several seconds of thought, I realized how that answer has changed over the last 10 years. I first began teaching online because it allowed the students to use the current technology to their advantage and have a little flexibility in their schedule. In 1991 that flexibility was limited, and compared to now, the technology was even more limited.
My first class had four students, and we meet in class once a week and online three times a week. I needed information online to help the students understand the assignments, so I taped my class lectures and reduced them to the primary points. Then I wrote those points into ASCII text files, which I set into a scrolling file that the students could read from their computer screens. Of course, the students could only go forward - no jumping around or going backward. As the semester progressed... Go to article
Designing Distance Delivery Courses.
By Dr. Arlyn R. Rubash
Introduction
As we create distance delivery courses for the Internet, we must learn new functional capabilities and incorporate them into this emerging methodology. Consequently, courses employing distance delivery at various quality levels abound. As educators and course developers adopt distance delivery, new mind-sets must appear. When technology dramatically changes, well-understood and long-employed methodologies become obsolete. History shows that people persistently apply outdated methodologies after circumstances change; these anachronisms eventually disappear.
The Industrial Revolution was an earlier era of rapid changes where outdated practices persisted throughout the period. The world’s first iron bridge was constructed in Shropshire , England , in 1779 with wooden-bridge technology. It took years before the Industrial Revolution’s advances in iron use were integrated into bridge construction. Even Stonehenge, the mysterious circular formation of large stones, shows builders worked with outdated technology. The stones’ adjacent sides appear to have been tongued and grooved. Stone-building technology later progressed to include mortar joints that bond better... Go to article
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