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Exploring What We Know About the Capacity of Educational Tools to Improve Education Quality to Promote Learning. Badrul H. Khan. National Instructional Design Workshop: Improving the Quality of Education through Good Instructional Design November 2-4, 2006, Bangalore, India.
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Exploring What We Know About the Capacity of Educational Tools to Improve Education Quality toPromote Learning Badrul H. Khan National Instructional Design Workshop: Improving the Quality of Education through Good Instructional Design November 2-4, 2006, Bangalore, India
“India has the capacity to become a major e-Learning hub with its IT prowess and strong education system” (Badrul Khan, 18 Nov, 2003, Times of India).
If we can meaningfully integrateTechnology withPedagogy, then India will be a world leader ine-learning. Technology Pedagogy (Instructional Design)
E-Learning deals with open and distributed learning environment, different than our traditional closed system of Instructor-led classroom-based instruction. Designing and delivering e-learning requires thoughtful analysis and investigation, combined with an understanding of both the Internet and digital technologies’ capabilities and resources and the ways in which instructional design principles can be applied to tap the Internet and digital technology potential (Khan, 1997).
Digitizing instructor-led classroom content does not necessarily mean that you are creating meaningful e-learning materials. E-learning materials must be designed with proper instructional design principles and learning theories by addressing critical issues encompassing various dimensions of open and distributed learning environment.
To develop quality e-learning, we need policies and standards to participate in virtual education (e-learning) in India. The government must to play an important role in developing policies for e-learning design and implementation by following international instructional & technical standards.
To explore the Capacity of Educational Tools to Improve Education Quality to Promote Learning, I would like to introduce A Framework for Meaningful Learning
Academic, administrative & student services Ethical considerations in e-learning On-line and off-line resources & support Physical layout and navigation Learning and teaching issues Infrastructure, hardware and software Content development and maintenance Assessment of learner, evaluation of learning environment Pedagogical Institutional Technological Meaningful Interface Design Ethical Learning Resource Support Evaluation Management
1. PEDAGOGICAL • 1.1 Content Analysis • 1.2 Audience Analysis • 1.3 Goal Analysis • 1.4 Medium Analysis • 1.5 Design approach • 1.6 Organization • 1.7 Methods and Strategies • 2. TECHNOLOGICAL • 2.1 Infrastructure planning • 2.2 Hardware • 2.3 Software • 3. INTERFACE DESIGN • 3.1 Page and site design • 3.2 Content design • 3.3 Navigation • 3.4 Accessibility • 3.5 Usability testing • 4. EVALUATION • 4.1 Assessment of learners • 4.2 Evaluation of the instruction • & learning environment • 5. MANAGEMENT • 5.1 E‑Learning Content Development • 5.2 E-Learning Maintenance • 6. RESOURCE SUPPORT • 6.1 Online support • 6.2 Resources • 7. ETHICAL • 7.1 Social and Political Influence • 7.2 Cultural Diversity • 7.3 Bias • 7.4 Geographical diversity • 7.5 Learner diversity • 7.6 Digital Divide • 7.7 Etiquette • 7.8 Legal issues • 8. INSTITUTIONAL • 8.1 Administrative Affairs • 8.2 Academic affairs • 8.2 Student services http://BooksToRead.com/framework/dimensions.htm
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods How often is dynamic course content updated?
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods • Who are the learners? Does the institution have adequate information about the learners at a distance?
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Does the course provide clear expectations of what the student is required to do?
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Does the course utilize multimedia attributes of the Internet and digital technologies? - text - audio - video - graphics - other (specify)
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods • What is the instructor’s role? - more facilitative than didactic - more didactic than facilitative - a combination of both
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods • Does the course provide a sense of continuity? (e.g., each unit of the lesson builds on the previous unit, etc.)
Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods • Does the course promote Inside Collaboration by providing a supportive environment for asking questions, clarifying directions, suggesting or contributing resources and working on joint projects with class members?
Technological Infrastructure Planning Hardware Software Does the course have personnel who can assist learners to set up for starting the course?
Technological Infrastructure Planning Hardware Software Are the hardware requirements for the course clearly stated?
Technological Infrastructure Planning Hardware Software Does the course provide links to resources where all necessary software can be downloaded?
Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Do Web pages look good in a variety of Web browsers and devices--in text-based browsers, all recent versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape, and so on.?
Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Does the course follow “one idea per paragraph” rule?
Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Does the course provide structural aids or site map to guide learner’s navigation?
Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Is the course Website designed to be accessible by a wider user population? (Is the course 508 compliant?)
Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing How quickly users find answers to the most frequently asked questions on the course site?
Evaluation Assessment of Learners Evaluation of Instruction & Learning Environment Does the course have a mechanism in which a learner can be truly measured and not cheat?
Evaluation Assessment of Learners Evaluation of Instruction & Learning Environment Does the course have a system to accept students’ online evaluation of the following? - content - instructor - learning environment - learning resources - course design - technical support
Management Content Development Maintenance Is there a project support site for e‑learning production team?
Management Content Development Maintenance Does the course notify students about any changes in due dates or other course relevant matters (e.g., server down) via following means? - e-mail - announcement page - alert boxes - running footer added to a page - phone call - mail
Resource Support Online Support Resources Does the course provide troubleshooting (or expert technical support from specialized staff) assistance or a help line?
Resource Support Online Support Resources Does the course provide examples of previous student's work on the Web?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the institution have to get approval from any external entities (who can serve as political barriers) to implement e-learning?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues To improve cross-cultural verbal communication and avoid misunderstanding, does the course make an effort to reduce or avoid the use of jargon, idioms, ambiguous or cute humor, and acronyms?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the course present more than one viewpoint on controversial issues?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Is the course offered to geographically diverse population? If yes ... Is the course sensitive about students from different time-zones (e.g. synchronous communications are scheduled at reasonable times for all time zones represented)?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Is the course designed to have patience for learners who adapt to individualized distributed learning environment slower than others?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Information accessibility issue must be expressed in terms of digital “haves” and “have nots,” a gap expressed in the term “digital divide.” Is the digital divide issue considered in designing the e‑learning content?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues • Does the course provide any guidance to learners on how to behave and post messages in online discussions so that their postings do not hurt others’ feelings?
Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the course get students’ permission to post any of the following on the Web? - students’ photographs - students’ projects
(An excerpt from a listserv posting by Kathy Murrell of South Africa): “In multiple choice questions the selected option was marked by a "tick" symbol (as apposed to a "cross" sorry no ascii equivelent). I presume the American equivelent to be a check mark, but for most South Africans' this represents the mark next to a correct answer, - it was most disconcerting to get an error or wrong message next to the mark and many students may not even bother to read the message as they would presume it to be the correct answer. “
Institutional Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services Is the institution ready to offer online courses?
Institutional Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services Does the course provide academic quality such as one would expect in a traditional course?
Institutional Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services Are instructor/tutor and technical staff available during online orientation?
Within the scope of today’s presentation, I have presented few learning issues in the form of questions that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating or implementing meaningful e‑learning.
As the scope of e‑learning design expands, design projects change from one-person operations to complex team efforts. The Meaningful Lerning Framework can be used to ensure that no important essential factor is omitted from the design of e‑learning, whatever its scope or complexity.
Pedagogical Institutional Technological Meaningful Interface Design Ethical Learning Resource Support Evaluation Management
I strongly believe that the Meaningful Learning Framework can provide guidance in the design, development, evaluation and implementation of: - Online Courses - e-Learning Environments - Distance Education Programs - Virtual Universities - Learning Management Systems
Furthermore, the Framework can be used by the Ministry of Higher Education to formulate and evaluate: • - Virtual Education Policies for Education • - Accreditation Criteria for eLearning Programs • - Technology Infrastructure for eLearning Programs • - Research Funding Criteria for eLearning Projects • - National Orientation Plan for eLearners • - Online Faculty and Staff Training