Effective Practice in e-learning

1. Effective Practice in e-learning Sarah KnightProgramme Manager, JISC Development Group

2. Key Questions • How can we enhance current knowledge about what constitutes ‘effective’ practice in e-learning? • How can we support practitioners with their developments in the use of e-learning? • How can we promote the development of terminology that will improve understanding and sharing of practice in e-learning? • What are the current approaches to the design of e-learning activities and how can these be developed in the future to ensure that we are using sound pedagogical models?

3. e-learning Programme • JISC works with post-16 and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use ICT to support teaching, learning, research and administration. • The JISC Committee for Learning and Teaching (JCLT) is funding a new e-learning Programme to run until August 2007. • The overarching aim of the e-learning Programme is to identify how e-learning might be used to facilitate and support learning and to advise on how these approaches might be effectively implemented. • The Programme focuses on four areas: e-learning and Pedagogy; Technical Frameworks for e-learning; Innovation and Distributed e-learning.

4. Some Definitions • Communities across post-16 and HE: • Practitioners – whose role it is to support, facilitate and direct student learning • ILT Champions, e-Guides, educational developers and learning technologists • Staff Developers • Researchers into learning and e-learning • Developers of e-learning related software, systems and standards • E-learning – learning facilitated and supported through the use of ICT

5. A view of e-learning A Model of e-learning and e-living, Killen, Davies and Smith, adapted from the e-learning Fan, B Powell/J Scribbins, Demonstrating Transformation, http://ferl.becta.org.uk/fpp6

6. Relevance Accessible Fun Interactive Engaging Range of materials Stimulate Encourage feedback Motivate Enthusiastic teachers and receptive learners Encourage communication – peer-2-peer and peer-2-tutor Work at own pace Differentiation Individualised learning Effective e-learning? …or effective learning?

7. e-learning and Pedagogy • Overall aim: to ensure that e-learning as practised in UK post-16 and Higher Education is ‘pedagogically sound, learner-focused and accessible’. • What this means in practice: • To provide the post-16 and HE community with accurate, up-to-date, evidence- and research-based information about effective practice in the use of e-learning tools. • To promote the application and development of e-learning tools and standards to better support effective practice. • Practical outcomes which are relevant to practitioners, researchers and developers.

8. Two related themes • Designing for Learning (Practitioner focus): • Models of learning and e-learning • practitioner planning perspective • Understanding and moving on practice • Case studies of effective practice (14-19, FE, HE, ACL) • Evaluating learning design tools • e.g. Coppercore, Eduplone, LAMS, mindmapping… • Practitioner consultation (14-19, FE, HE, ACL) • Understanding my learning (Learner focus): • Models of learning and e-learning • learner perspective and learner differences • Exploring the potential of e-portfolios • Mapping effective assessment for e-learning • Peer learning, collaboration and vicarious learning • Learner consultation (14-19, FE, HE, ACL)

9. Models of learning and e-learning • Explore how different approaches to (e)learning can be represented and shared. • Develop a general framework within which approaches can be evaluated and compared. • Model/represent a limited number of approaches within this framework • Provide tools to evaluate these approaches in specific learning contexts • Advice and guidance for practitioners on effective use of e-learning

10. Understanding and moving on practice • Explore how practitioners make effective choices about e-learning • Develop an understanding of how different resources support practitioners, e.g. • Case studies, examples, ‘stories’, video-clips • Guidelines, staff development materials • Tools (e.g. LAMS) and toolkits/planners • Practices e.g. mentoring, workshops • Investigate which are effective in practice: • Broad (e.g. survey, review of existing materials) • Deep (e.g. interviews, personal case histories) • Influence the way in which information/advice and guidance from the e-learning Programme is disseminated

11. … potential outcomes • lesson plans/learning designs for different environments • representations (e.g. video) of different approaches in use • an e-learning planning tool • a database of activities indexed to specific learning outcomes, contexts, or needs • re-usable ‘activity sequences’ e.g. for use in a LAMS-type environment • an online ‘knowledge garden’ in which participants contribute, refineand link e-learning concepts • materials for use in staff development, e.g. integrated into FPP modules • publication ‘Effective Practice in e-learning’ with supporting video clips for October 2004 • development of more effective learning design tools and standards • new digital library functions and services • …

12. Case studies of effective practice • Describeand evaluate a range of different approaches to e-learning: • in a range of organisational contexts: • 14-19, FE, ACL and HE • Blended, face to face and virtual • using a range of technical environments: • specific uses ofVirtual Learning Environments • use of Learning Design tools (e.g LAMS, ReLOAD) • use of modular tools (e.g. simulations, scenarios, activities, discipline-specific tools…) • Publication ‘Effective Practice in e-learning’ with supporting video clips • for October 2004.

13. Further evaluation studies • Further evaluated case studies • different technologies and contexts • Review of existing case study resources • build links with repositories, e.g Ferl, Jorum • Regional workshops on ‘Designing for Learning’ • Evaluation of learning design tools, e.g. LAMS • usability • learner impact • effective sharing of designs and approaches • Learner consultation • towards the second theme, ‘Understanding my Learning’

14. Practitioner consultation • Opportunities to participate • through the experts’ working group • through consultation exercises (see delegates’ pack) • through workshops and focus groups (forthcoming) • Impact on programme • Feedback on outcomes of individual projects and studies • Interpreting outcomes and developing recommendations • Identifying priorities • Building links with other ongoing work • Taking part in further studies

15. Activity • What are the key ingredients for effective (i.e. pedagogically sound)e-learning? • Give an example of effective e-learning in your community • 3 Priorities for the e-learning and Pedagogy Programme

16. Designing for Learning Helen BeethamConsultant, e-Learning and Pedagogy http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning_pedagogy.html

17. What do we mean by… • Designing for learning (broad term)? • Designing, coordinating, planning, orchestrating and managing learning tasks as part of a learning session or programme • A ‘practitioner planning’ view on a learning situation, e.g. resulting in a lesson plan or a LAMS design • Learning Design (narrow term)? • A new IMS specification for sequences of interaction between learners and system components (compare LOM for content, PDPs/LR for learner data) • A sequence of interactions specified according to LD Does ‘Learning Design’ in this narrow sense provide a good framework for understanding and supporting the process of ‘Designing for Learning’?

18. Why the interest inlearning design? • Widespread adoption of designed, standards-based learning environments and tools • Pedagogical issues… appear to have been of secondary concern until now. JISC/UCISA (2003) • First generation VLEs do not obviously support innovative or diverse learning activities… [They are] strongly based around information transmission .. with little consideration given to the activities that the learners themselves might engage inBritain and Liber (2004) • Convergence of pedagogical research and practitioner education around ideas of • learner-centredness, ‘active’, constructive learners, outcomes-based teaching with emphasis on relevant tasks

19. Why the interest inlearning design? • Practitioner demand (from consultation): • ‘curriculum design’, ‘practical examples of learning activities’, ‘designing activities within VLEs’ • (note the popularity of Salmon’s (2003) e-tivities) • ‘a means of describing practice’, ‘a means of mapping theory onto practice’ ‘a means of mapping activities onto outcomes’, ‘a common set of terms for all of this’ • E-learning strategy: • Engaging teachers and lecturers through simple e-learning design tools would bring them closer to experimenting with pedagogical design DfES (2003)

20. What is effective practice in designing for learning? • a process that is acceptable to practitioners, i.e. • supports or enhances their approach to learning • makes acceptable demands on their time and skills • effective outcomes for learners, i.e. • planned learning outcomes are achieved and/or • the learner experience (motivation, participation, enjoyment, collaboration) is enhanced • a means of sharing (and reflecting on?) practice • e.g. through sharable sequences, ‘designs’ etc • or through more explicit representation of practice

21. Key tasks (from Review: e-learning models) • Define a range of practice models, i.e. distinct but comparable approaches among which practitioners, working in a specific context, can make an informed choice. • Ensure any framework or terminology has recognition and usability in the practitioner communities • Consider theoretical (explanatory) models insofar as these provide general frameworks for discussing, comparing and evaluating practice models (especially in relation to learner experience). • Map practice models totechnical standards and specifications to ensure that future systems are compatible with the needs of learners and teachers. • Evaluate tools to support designing for learning • Focus on learning activity/task as the basic unit of modelling: • fits with conclusions from UKeU, CANDLE, Dialog+ and work at the OU (eLTN)

22. Developing models and frameworks Evaluation framework (evaluation tool) analyse review collate evaluate refine Framework with examples of effective practice generate Evaluated and enriched models/descriptions Models/descriptions of different approaches describe evaluate apply apply Practitioner consultation & needs analysis specific instances of e-learning in context Building case studies Designing for Learning (1) Descriptive framework(modelling tool)

23. Reviewing interventions in practice Review of resources, toolkits and guidance Review of learning design tools Tools, resources & standards to support & communicate effective practice support develop evaluate develop define elaborate recommend Series of evaluations of tools in use Research into effectiveness of different interventions Researching/evaluating interventions Designing for Learning (2) Framework with examples of effective practice

24. Outcomes to date • Review of e-learning models • Review of learning design tools • Consultation events and online forum (eped-experts) • Draft framework for planning e-learning approaches and activities • completion by end July • Draft framework for ‘moving on practice’ • completion by end July • Case studies and video case studies • published October • LAMS evaluation programme • outline available: training begins 7th July • Recommendations, and refined research/ development programme • ongoing

25. Key issues in designing for learning • Is ‘learning activity’ the best focus of e-learning research and development? • How should we describe, differentiate and share (e-)learning activities? • Need for a common framework of description • How do practitioners currently conceive and plan (e-)learning activities? • What tools, resources and opportunities for dialogue do they have? • What tools, resources etc are most effective? • Which approaches to designing for learning are effective in which learning contexts? • Does the LD specification offer: • a good fit with definitions of learning activity used by learners, practitioners and theorists? • a sound basis for design of supporting systems?

26. Learner(s)needs, motives, prior experience of learning, social and interpersonal skills, learning styles and approaches Prior subject knowledge and skills of learner(s), prior conceptions, motivation to achieve specific outcomes, match of style/ approach to content Prior experience of learner(s) with tools, environments, services; match of learning style and approach to affordances of learning environment Outcomesubject/discipline area, target knowledge/ skills Environmentavailable tools, facilities, services, resources, environments etc Knowledge represented in specific media and formats; skills facilitated through specific tools; impact of learning environments on the meaning of knowledge and skills Activity ‘interaction of learner with environment, leading to planned outcome’ A specification for learning activities (H.Beetham, Feb ‘04)

27. Further information s.knight@jisc.ac.uk www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning_pedagogy.html eped-info@jiscmail.ac.uk