By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Perhaps one of the most shocking things to the new
e-learner, or the student returning to school after taking time off, is the
fact that instructional strategies have profoundly changed in the last few
years. This is particularly the case in
online courses. While the face-to-face
environment may still be place where students file in and sit passively, taking
notes as the professor delivers a lecture or drones through a PowerPoint
presentation, the typical online course requires a more active approach. Students are asked to respond to each other
and to write papers and create projects rather than simply take standardized
quizzes and tests.
This was not something that came naturally to
eLearning. You may remember the early
days of eLearning, when many providers suggested that the best online course
consisted of videotaped lectures streamed over the Internet to students. It was a colossal failure for many reasons,
most of which had to do with the fact that students fell asleep and/or never
tuned in again after a few hours of watching a teeny-tiny talking head flicker
and freeze on their monitors. Early
proponents of this method used Microsoft's NetMeeting to synch a white board
with the taped instructor (classic talking head!). This was the quintessence of passive learning, and it
corresponded to about 0.01% of the general populace's ideal learning style.
Other quickly discarded forms of eLearning modeled
themselves after the old computer-based learning labs. These consisted of reading text and then
taking multiple-choice or true-false tests.
Although there may be some efficacy to this learning technique, the vast
majority of individuals simply do not ever transfer any of this into long-term
memory. Worse, the learners who
successfully complete the "skill-and-drill" kinds of activities are
not able to do anything with the information they have gotten except skill-and-drill
interactive tests. Perhaps this is
acceptable for the learner (or parent or teacher) who simply wants the learner
to pass the standardized test in order to graduate or satisfy No Child Left
Behind mandates. However, it is
tragically apparent that there is nothing in the long-term memory to use for
applying to real-life situations.
Regurgitation of books is not good.
When I think of that type of activity, I can't help think of the Cave of
Errour in Spenser's The Faerie Queene, where
the ghastly monster, "Errour."
I think that Edmund Spenser's words nicely sum up what goes on when a
student is forced to memorize, then regurgitate the facts in order to complete
an online test.
Therewith she spewd out of her filthy maw
A floud of poyson horrible and blacke,
Full of great lumpes of flesh and gobbets raw,
Which stunck so vildly, that it forst him slacke
His grasping hold, and from her turne him backe:
Her vomit full of bookes and papers was,
With loathly frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke,
And creeping sought way in the weedy gras:
Her filthy parbreake all the place defiled has.
From The First Booke
of the Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.
Retrieved May 3, 2006 from http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/queene1.html
True, I may be going a bit overboard. However, the experience of online courses
certainly led instructional designers to push for something besides interactive
games. In addition to not retaining
information, students failed. Colleges and universities found that their
students felt extreme test anxiety in the timed environment, and that they
dropped out of their courses. Here is
the old paradigm:
"Teach" the
student
- Student is an empty receptacle to be filled up with
knowledge
- Instructional activities involve "filling" up
the student, usually reading or engaging in memorization of images or concepts
- Student should endeavor to find the best way to organize
the knowledge, but other than that, the experience is fairly passive
- Student processes, or "digests" the information
- Performance on tests demonstrate student's ability to
retain the information and to repeat it in more or less the same form it was
first presented
- Discussion, if allowed, is tightly controlled. Students must respond to very specific
prompts.
The new paradigm involves active learning. The instructor is required to be more active
and to participate in discussions.
Instead of a simple role of oversight, the instructor must engage on a
deeper cognitive level with each student.
It can be more demanding, but instructors by and large prefer it. It is much more satisfying to interact in a
meaningful way with one's students.
"Help or
Guide" the student
- Student is considered an active participant in the learning
process
- Activities are designed so that the student must review
his or her prior knowledge and decide how to build on it or incorporate it
- Student actively communicates his or her needs, and
indicates where more instructional content or activities are needed
- Student communicates his or her level to the instructor
- Student is encouraged to make connections between the
course content and his or her own interests and/or learning goals
- Instructor "listens" to the students and helps
them make sense of the information.
Special attention is paid to developing schema and organizing principles
that can be used.
- The instructor models how to process information
- Students encourage each other to use the course content to
solve problems and to synthesize the information.
- Through collaborations and discussion boards, which are
open and flexible, students engage in social learning.
- Instructor encourages students to complete at least one
major project that requires problem-solving.
Having a bit of understanding about the two competing
paradigms of instruction can help you, as an informed eLearner, align your own
preferences with what is available.
Even if not all the activities are completely aligned with your
preferred learning styles, most probably will be. It is just a matter of finding ways to accommodate what is not
best for you. At any rate, it is good
to keep in mind that eLearning philosophies are always unfolding and
evolving. Change is good. So are choices. Thankfully, you can take advantage of both in eLearning.
[Listen to the companion podcast at:
http://community.elearners.com/blogs/inside_elearning/attachment/342.ashx - 4.24 MB]