E-Learning Concepts and Techniques

Chapter 4 – E-Learning Tools

4.1 E-Learning Tools

Jeffrey Border, Kimberly Stoudt and Mary Warnock

4.1 Introduction

As academic staff, we all have our own preferred teaching methods which suit our personal style and discipline area. For many of us, the carefully considered integration of e-learning tools can enhance these pedagogic approaches and enable varied and improved interaction with students at all levels, both on and off campus. We are reminded by Biggs (2002) that aligning all aspects of our teaching, from learning outcomes through teaching methods to assessment, is vital to ensure the continued quality enhancement of the learning experience we offer to students. In this context, e-learning needs to be considered as a fully integrated component of the whole educational process. (Introduction to eLearning at GCU)

E-learning is firmly embedded in many of the current educational theories. For example, it is widely recognized that learning is a social process (Wenger, 1999, Vygotsky, 1978) and Fowler and Mayes (2000) explain how learning relationships can encourage the conceptualization and re-conceptualization cycle which facilitates deep understanding. They describe how interactive courseware and online discussions can play a major role in supporting these cognitive processes by engaging the learner in meaningful dialogue with tutor and peers. Laurillard's Conversational Framework (2001) also illustrates the crucial nature of communication in the learning process and highlights a series of actions and interactions which can be supported to varying degrees by new technologies. (Glaskow Caldonian University, 2004)

E-learning tools such as Blackboard, Centra, Wimba, etc. encourage student collaboration; improve team working skill and independent thinking. Many of the developing e-learning tools encourage student motivation and desire to remain in online educational environments.

The online learning community offers a wide array of e-learning tools. As educators and developers we must determine which tools fit our pedagogical needs before we can determine which tool to incorporate into our e-learning strategy.

This chapter will provide a guideline to various e-learning tools and how they can empower instructors and learners to develop e-learning specifications to meet individual instructional goals.

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4.1 Overview

There isn't one single tool that brings e-learning to life. E-learning requires tools in three different categories to be successful. These categories are access, offer and create. By what means will the e-learners locate and experience the content? By what means will your e-learners be able to access the content? By what means will the content be authored and integrated? For a complete e-learning solution, software is required to meet each of these categories.

There are also levels of learning at which the content is administered from the curricula to an individual component. In e-learning this is called the level of granularity. The levels are curriculum, course, lesson, page and media.

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Levels of Granularity

In their book, E-learning Tools and Technologies, William and Katherine Horton (2003) break down each category into the level of granularity. The definitions are as follows:

Create
Offer
Access

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Tools for the Different Categories

William and Katherine Horton list different tools for the different categories. They are:

Create

Definition: processing of authoring and integrating content

Types:

Course Authoring
Website Authoring
Testing and Assessment
Media Editors
Content Converters
Offer

Definition: Makes sure the e-learning you create can be accessed by learners conveniently and efficiently by making e-learning available over a network, administering your e-learning offerings, and controlling and tracking access

Types:

Web Servers
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)
Collaboration Tools
Virtual-School Systems or Course Management Systems (CMS)
Media Servers
Access

Definition: Learning requires tools to find, navigate, display and play e-learning content

Types:

Web Browsers
Media Players and Viewers

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Synchronous Tools

Centra

Saba's Centra is a synchronous e-learning tool that can be utilized in many different ways, and has many capabilities. Centra can be used to set up a virtual classroom; it can be used in a university setting and school setting. Centra can also be used for Web seminars and virtual meetings. Some of the features associated with Centra are real-time interactivity, allowing student and teacher, or two corporations to connect and meet with each other, as if in the same room. There is a whiteboard available for interactivity, you can poll students, or the students can raise their hand, there is a text chat, as well as the microphone feature which allows one to talk instantly and another to give instant feedback verbally. It is also possible to show websites and other software during a Centra session. The teacher or meeting leader has the use of multimedia, and the ability to manage the multimedia. The teacher can also integrate various multimedia capabilities such as Flash, Shockwave, animated pictures, and streaming audio and video, as well as PowerPoint slides. It is also possible to give online tests and quizzes to evaluate the learners understanding of the subject matter being presented. Another powerful feature is its ability to be integrated with other learning management systems and software such as Blackboard.

Macromedia Breeze

Macromedia's Breeze is also a synchronous e-learning tool that has many of its own capabilities as well and has many of the same features that Saba's Centra exhibits. Again some of the features that Breeze contains are course and content management, integration with other software including other Macromedia products. Breeze also has the survey feature, you can also record the sessions, set up meeting rooms, share applications and use whiteboards, use of a camera is supported as well as real-time verbal communications. Breeze can also have multiple presenters, has the ability to have multiple people in video conferencing, and use of polling. PowerPoint is also available to use through Breeze to control your presentations and meetings, or virtual classroom. Another great feature of Breeze is its ability to convert one language into another to eliminate language barriers when presenting to people of other nationalities or backgrounds.

Horizon Wimba

Horizon's Wimba is a versatile e-learning tool that allows for dual-way live voice and video for real-time classrooms and interaction between student and teacher. Wimba also incorporates a public and private chat. Files such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, HTML, web pages, images, movie clips, PDF and Flash can be used to present material to the learners. Wimba includes interaction between student and teacher by using the whiteboard feature, using polls and quizzes, and also surveys. Past classes or session scan be recorded and can be made available for playback at a later date. One of the great features of Wimba is its ability to be incorporated with other learning management systems like Blackboard and WebCT.

LearnLinc

LearnLinc is another synchronous learning tool that has many of the features all the other software and tools have only it isn't as well known. LearnLinc has the feature of real-time video and audio conferencing or classroom presentations and participation. LearnLinc allows the sharing of applications such as PowerPoint, between student and teacher, as well as synchronous web browsing. LearnLinc incorporates electronic hand raising, allows for feedback, and question and answer sessions. Some of the other features are that you can view class lists, view your learner's screens, break into smaller groups, and keep track of participation as well as a group chat room.

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Authoring Tools

The concept of an authoring system is not a new one. As long as there has been computer-based learning - and that's well over 20 years now - we've had highly sophisticated tools to assist us in product development.

Most developers agree that e-learning product should conform to the standards of the Web - HTML, JavaScript, perhaps a little Flash or Java - and not require users to download enormous plug-ins just so they can view the output of legacy authoring systems. On the other hand, not all e-learning developers have access to programming support and will not want to be restricted to simple HTML. They need something more than generalist web tools.

Authorware

One of the best tools available for creating online training is Authorware. You can reduce learning time and speed development with the familiar Macromedia user interface. Dockable panels can be grouped together, collapsed, or expanded as needed, providing a smooth, highly configurable workflow. The visual interface lets you develop rich media e-learning applications without scripting. Just drag and drop icons to create your application's logical outline, and use menus to add content. You can leverage existing PowerPoint presentations to rapidly create rich multimedia e-learning content and deliver applications with the click of a button to corporate networks, CD, and the Web. One-button publishing integrates and automates all the steps in the publishing process, and offers such features as batch-processing and customizable settings.

Knowledge Objects are prebuilt templates with wizards that drastically cut your development time. Use them to accelerate both large and small authoring tasks, from creating application frameworks and quizzes to installing fonts or locating a system's CD-ROM drive. Just drag and drop from the Knowledge Object gallery, and then fill in the content. Create courseware that can connect to LMS and that complies with standards from the Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) or the ADL Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM). Users work with the wizard to decide what information to get or send to the LMS. The Knowledge Objects handle all the complicated back-end communications with the LMS. LMS Knowledge Objects can communicate through ADL and HACP, as well as over LANs.

PowerPoint

Not many e-learning developers or instructional designers think of PowerPoint as a tool for building online courses. Surprisingly, PowerPoint is the second most frequently used tool for creating computer-based training applications – Dreamweaver being number one. The truth is that PowerPoint, when used correctly, can help you create rich, compelling, and instructionally sound e-learning content.

Initial content from an SME in many cases is created in PowerPoint. E-learning developers and instructional designers often use PowerPoint to create outlines or storyboards – it's easy, convenient, and quick. Also most organizations have an enormous amount of information that already exists in PowerPoint format, which lives on servers and PCs all over the enterprise. Virtually anyone, whether tech savvy or not, can quickly get up to speed using PowerPoint. In fact, most people have created some kind of presentation with the tool. It's not difficult.

An e-learning developer or instructional designer can take the core materials and enhance them. And this enhancement can be done in PowerPoint - the native format of the content. Rather than convert the SME's training presentation over to another tool, the instructional designer or developer can augment and improve the original within the same tool using the same format. This means a SME's PowerPoint presentation can be used "as is" with narration added in Breeze if the delivery need is immediate. If more time is available the original materials can be enhanced to add richer media, interactivity, quizzing, and improved instructional design. Links can also be added to slide content to provide non-linear navigational design. Materials can also easily be enhanced by inserting pre-existing Flash movies or software simulations directly into a PowerPoint slide.

PowerPoint comes with numerous design and presentation templates. The design templates get you started with the graphical look and feel and the presentation templates provide a skeleton for arranging and outlining your actual content.

Interactivity in any form of e-learning greatly enhances both the appeal and the effectiveness of learning. The PowerPoint Breeze plug-in makes it very easy to add quizzes, tests, and surveys to e-learning content. (The scores and data from these can be sent directly to your AICC/SCORM LMS.)

The Breeze plug-in simplifies the addition of audio narration. Adding narration to online training content has been proven to increase retention rates. In most cases it is also the learner's preferred mode of receiving instruction or information.

Very often the simplest approaches to a problem are the most effective. Tools designed specifically for e-learning authoring can be used to produce some wonderful online content, but only if time permits — and usually it doesn't. By utilizing PowerPoint you can significantly increase the speed of development of e-learning by using an authoring tool with which your SMEs are already familiar.

Using a few customized PowerPoint templates to guide content organization and content creation you can rapidly create online content that is engaging, effective and instructionally sound.

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4.1 References

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4.2 What is an e-learning tool?

John Zelenak

There is a multitude of e-learning tools available today. Whether you break it down by the types of e-learning tools, or by the e-learning tools in regular use, the choices of effective e-learning tools is seemingly endless. By the time you are done compiling a list of e-learning tools, it is likely that there are even more of them available then when you started compiling the list. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the growth in the number of e-learning tools is not the shear quantity, but the prolific and still growing use of e-learning tools.

Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing. - Donna J Abernathy, Training and Development Editor, 1999 (E-learning quotations, 2006)

In a rapidly changing e-world, where the education, or learning, part of e-learning is the deliverable not the delivery system, the better question may be, what is not an e-learning tool? With the kind of growth in e-learning that we are seeing now, every computer application that touches the Internet, and some that do not, has the potential to be an e-learning tool. The online, and offline, e-learning education market is driving the development of e-learning tools.

The next big killer application on the Internet is going to be education. Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error. - John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems Imagine education as an application. (E-learning quotations, 2006)

How it breaks down:

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What are e-learning tools?

E-learning tools come in three main flavors; a content/course or learning management system (CMS/LMS), synchronous collaboration applications, and all other computer tools/applications including asynchronous collaboration applications. Game play or game simulation software is rapidly becoming the fourth type of readily accepted e-learning tool.

CMS/LMS include applications like Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT, Desire2Learn, etc, that create a shell in which to organize the content of the instruction. These CMS/LMS applications can be quite robust by offering the ability to include self-contained surveys or assessments, to track individual learner use of the course site and all of the components thereof, and to provide forums for asynchronous and synchronous learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor communication.

Synchronous collaboration tools include applications like Wimba, CentraOne, HorizonLive, Elluminate, NetMeeting, etc. These applications allow real-time communication via voice and video, as well as, a virtual whiteboard, textchat and possibly application sharing capabilities.

Email, instant messaging, blogs, podcasts, surfing the Web, CDs, DVDs, mp3s and online and offline computer applications can be used to deliver e-learning. Just about any computer application can be an e-learning delivery or collaboration tool.

Games and game play is the up and coming fourth type of e-learning delivery tool. From the use of Solitaire in Business Education classes to assess mouse skills to SIMS in middle school Social Studies to teach types of government, gaming is making its way into education.

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What is not an e-learning tool?

From sophisticated, online, real-time, multi-player games to basic applications like Solitaire, MS PowerPoint and MS Word, almost every computer application can be an e-learning tool. It is hard to think of a computer application without imagining its use for e-learning. With the possible exception of the parts of the computer software relegated to the administration of the computer such as the software that keeps the time on the computer to the right-click on the desktop that opens the Arrange Icons by...Properties dialog box, all computer applications have the potential to be used as e-learning tools. Even these two examples above could be used for e-learning if the content were about how to set your computer clock or how to use the Arrange Icons by options.

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What's next?

More and more and more of the same is next. Not the same tools, more of those are evolving everyday. Not the same content, e-learning delivery is breaking ground into new content markets all the time. More of the same innovation of e-learning is what's next. As long as training is a big ticket item for business, as long as e-learning delivery is seen as more cost effective than brick-and-mortar classrooms, as long as cost cutting in public education drives school districts to look at alternatives to the traditional stand up instructor, e-learning will continue to prosper and along with it, e-learning tools.

Learning how to learn has become the most fundamental skill that an educated person needs to master and the instrument that enables learning in almost every field is the computer. - Dr Peshe Kauriloff, Adjunct Associate Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania (E-learning quotations, 2006)

Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge. - Plato (E-learning quotations, 2006)

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4.2 References

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4.3 Wikis and E-Learning

Lauren Jade Ferrett

Wiki... sounds more like a Polynesian idol than something that has to do with technology. But if you've been keeping up with the World Wide Web over the last few years, you've undoubtedly come across the term.

On the basic level, wiki is a Web database technology that allows multiple users to edit and update a work quickly and easily. (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001). The first wiki was developed in 1995 by Ward Cunningham who named it wiki because of a Hawaiian term meaning fast or quick. (Venners, 2003)

Cunningham's technology paved the way for Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger to found the Nupedia encyclopedia project. The two used the wiki technology to create an online encyclopedia. Wales and Sanger later switched their project to open source technology and in January of 2001 Wikipedia was born. (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001).

Probably the most common wiki on the Internet today, Wikipedia has more than 3,700,000 articles in several different languages, including more than 1,000,000 in the English-language version of the website. (Wikipedia.org) Users can create and edit articles on any subject they feel necessary.

Due to its size and popularity, Wikipedia's articles have proven to be reliable. Internally, there is no peer review process for putting articles on Wikipedia, but editors work around the clock to keep articles in the right categories and make sure that there is no copyright infringement. The real policing with Wikipedia articles comes from its users.

Most of its reliability comes from the fact that many users who update wikipedia articles keep a close watch on changes that have been made to their work. Looking at various wiki articles, it's surprising how in-depth users go with their topics. Most of the articles have internal citations and those that don't have users questioning where the editor got that information from. (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001).

While Wikipedia is the most popular website that uses wiki technology today, there are many different wikis on the Web. Other large wikis include the WikiWikiWeb, Wikitravel, and World66. (Wikipedia: Wiki)

So where do wikis fit into e-learning? Well, by its nature, the material is already in electronic form. The fact that the information is easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection makes it tempting to rely on the source as gospel. However, taking information from a source such as Wikipedia and citing it as a scholarly source can cause some problems.

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Discussion Questions

  1. If you were an educator, would you accept research a student had gotten from a wiki as a viable source?
  2. As a student, would you rely on a wiki for information for an assignment?
  3. Can you see wiki's developing into a more prominent internet tool?

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More Research

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Just for Fun

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4.3 References

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Last updated October 13, 2006

Graphics by David Cerreta