• Integrate key elements of e-Education principles, practices, applicability, and technology.

Key elements of e-Education principles, practices, applicability, and technology

It is important to be able to define the key elements of e-education and explain the reason for differences among the definitions, and how the definitions relate to the evolution of distance education. The prevalent technology for distance education strongly influences the definition devised, as does the learning context.

There are many factors that you must take into account when designing and developing an e-learning environment:

• Physical location. Are the learners in the same or different places?
  
• Time. Is the class convened synchronously or asynchronously?
  • The synchronous learning environment is where some or all of the participants are online at the same time and communicate in real time or with just a slight delay.

  Examples include:

  • face-to-face classroom instruction
  • two-way video conferencing
  • live Internet-based chat rooms.

  • The asynchronous learning environment is where the activities and communications take place at a time that is most convenient to the individual participant, not in real time.

    Examples include:

    • correspondence study
    • one-way audio and video
    • Internet-based threaded discussions.
      
• Instruction. Is the learning instructor-led or self-paced?
  
• Institution. Is the learning offered under the auspices of a traditional, credit-based educational institution? Or is it training-oriented, non-credit education? (There are many different possible options available.)
  
• Delivery technology. What type of medium is used to deliver learning materials and messages?
  
• Interactivity. In what manner and how frequently do the learners communicate with one another and the instructor?
  
• Internet delivery.

Instructional Design and Strategic Planning

In many of the courses you have completed as part of this program, the importance of instructional design and strategic planning in the development of distance education programs and instruction was discussed and emphasized. Some of the steps that you must take in this part of the process are:

1. Analyze the learners. Gain information about the learner profile including learning style, previous knowledge, demographics, motivation, and access to technology
   
2. Choose a media format and/or delivery technology. Making informed decisions about adopting technology can be extremely challenging, as students will discoveed in their vendor reports. Emphasize the financial and educational consequences of adopting technology that does not work properly or is inappropriate for the desired learning environment.
   
3. Require learner participation. Distance education is most effective when students are active participants in their own learning. It is important to develop course activities that avoid excessive lecture or other teacher-centered activities.
   
4. Evaluate and revise the program accordingly. Not only is it important to develop processes to gather student and faculty feedback, but also it is necessary to carefully analyze and act on the data.
   
5. Develop effective learning materials. Aides to the visualization of ideas can be extremely powerful learning tools.
   
6. Create visuals. Give examples of how the technical limitations of Internet-delivered streaming media differ from fiber-optic-based video conferencing. (Or use any other examples you might have of how educators must understand the media before creating materials.)
   
7. Distance educators strive for “equivalency” between the face-to-face learning experience and that of distance education. Educators in either environment should start with the same objectives for the course, but the teaching methods, assessment strategies, and course delivery will obviously vary. Consider whether good teaching at a distance differs significantly from good teaching in traditional modalities. Consider aspects on online or web-based education that is better than face-to-face education.
   

Special issues of emphasis in distance education teaching

Need for careful planning and organization.

Students may be uncomfortable with the learning environment, so the distance education instructor must pay extra attention to creating learning structures that are clear, well-explained, and easily lead students through the learning process.

Interactivity.

Learning is often said to be a social activity. Emphasize the need to structure multiple opportunities for student-to-student and student-to-instructor exchanges. Again, evaluate this course with students in terms of the level of interaction.

Creative group assignments.

Since much of distance education is asynchronous, it is feasible to group and regroup students for specific assignments, or for remediation based on assessment results.

Variety of teaching strategies.

Distance educators have the opportunity to reach students with varying learning styles by creating multiple means of completing assignments, and by delivering content in various styles and media.

Student access/course policies.

The distance education instructor must be clear about important administrative questions such as:

• How will students contact instructors? E-mail? Phone? Face-to-face office hours? Online office hours?
• How will work be transmitted in the class? Are e-mail attachments acceptable? Is there a digital drop box?
• How will work be graded?
• What is the calendar for the course?

As designers, if you carefully go through your planning and design stages of your project, you will save time, money, and produce a good educational experience for your students, regardless of whether they are students in a school or university setting, or employees going through training. It's surely guaranteed that if you skip these important steps in the process, you are well on the road to frustration, cost overruns, and a poor quality product.

Week One Discussion Question:

There are four discussion questions listed here. Choose two and respond by posting under the appropriate topic thread under Week 1. These DQs are due on Sunday. These are individual DQs, so each of you need to respond to two of them.