The first reading is from:
Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., Wallet, P. A., Fiset, M., & Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 74 (3), 379-439.
An interesting quantitative research article with references (17 pages!)to other analysis and studies on this subject. The conclusion of the study suggests that classroom instructions and DE (Distance Education) are comparable, but suggests that the current research does not provide concrete evidence. Their research did add several new facets to the study of DE versus classroom instructions and, also discovered slight differences between synchronous and asynchronous DE instruction.
The second reading is from:
Oliver, Ron, & Herrington, Jan. (2001, December). Teaching and learning online: A beginner’s guide to e-learning and e-teaching in higher education. Centre for Research in Information Technology and Communications Edith Cowan University Western Australia.
Trying to locate this book online was interesting in itself, but by persisting in using searching capabilities success was mine! A few days later one of the students posted the URL for Oliver's six chapter article. My apologies to my classmates that I waited since I actually thought that locating the article was part of the assignment...but, back to Oliver.
He states in his opening chapter, that the purpose of this book is to "help those people who believe that online learning provides a means to enhance learning quality...and to provide practical ideas and guidance in the development of effective online learning settings."
Well, Oliver had me hooked immediately! I especially like Chapter 4 where Oliver describes Learning Supports. This was familiar territory for me as I recently completed the Certificate in eLearning Design and had tried to use many of the learning tasks and resources listed.
Chapter 6 also provided a solid background on Design and Development strategies which I wished would have been in last year's course information, although the year was very full of all kinds of new things to learn and explore. i have the feeling that this year's activities will be just as interesting and demanding in their own right!
I am looking for a position as an eLearning Design Specialist and believe that Oliver's short book will prove more beneficial to me than the Bernard research paper.
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4 comments:
Hi Marilyn! First, I feel compelled to apologize for adding comments. Everybody has had such comment free blogs until now.
Your experiences in class made me chuckle. I can relate. I eventually found the second article by doing a google using the "more" feature. There is a "scholar" field under there that helps narrow the search.
Like you I found the second article to be the most useful. Scaffolding and Learning resources caught my eye as well. I would have liked more of that with Flash and DW! But, on the up side we survived and we are learning through our own experiences as students what types of supports need to be there. Hopefully our student experiences will help shape the types of designs we produce as well.
Hello Marilyn,
Regarding the Bernard article, it could be considered interesting if I'd ever had a Statistics class!
Seriously, I was kind of surprised by what I felt was the ambiguous results of the research. I agree with Bernard's assessment that the current research doesn't provide concrete conclusions.
I was also surprised at the date of the research. Given the explosion of eLearning and Distance Learning, I would have thought there would have been more recent studies.
Good blog site!
Leisa
Hi Marilyn,
My favorite chapter in the Teaching and Learning Online was chapter 4 too! I have a bunch of stuff highlighted in yellow. I was especially interested in the section on social construction of knowledge. I'm trying to find ways for students who take one of our classroom course to collaborate after the class is over. Many of the students who take the classroom course have so much experience and knowledge to share, and I feel like we (my company) is missing out by not tapping into ways to get them to share. I'm tossing around ideas for creating a learning community where they can meet after class.
appreciate the comments on the Chapters in the "Beginner's Guide" resource. I skimmed the article and now am ready to go back and dig in to uncover more of the resources that you all did. thanks for sharing.
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