E-Learning Concepts and Techniques

Introduction

This e-book, E-Learning Concepts and Techniques, is the result of a collaborative effort by students in the Bloomsburg University, Department of Instructional Design spring 2006 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques online class as well as several guest authors and contributors from around the world.

In order to properly introduce the E-Learning Concepts and Techniques e-book, it is important to share a little bit about our department. This description currently appears on our home page:

As is our custom in the Department of Instruction Technology, I felt it was important to use an actual e-learning project as the final for this class; one involving just as many potential issues as other e-learning projects.

This project, involving the creation of an e-book, was a novel project for us. We did not have the benefit of having standards and guidelines in place. This meant we had to work these things out as we progressed through the project. Even though this made the project more complex, we all had an opportunity to experience something none of us had ever done before.

With every project I use as a teaching tool, I feel it is very important to provide each participant with an opportunity to experience the processes involved in completion of project such as:

• Instructional design (We were able to get through the analysis, design, and partial development of the e-book.)
• Communication
• Working in groups
• Creativity
• Critical analysis

I also strongly believe it is important to provide, when possible, maximum learner control regarding the choice of topics and the path to completion of the project assignments. In my experience, allowing participants to struggle through a process without providing all the answers right away tends to produce lots of critical moments that allow me, as the instructor, to maximize learning opportunities; learning on demand, which is how people tend to learn informally on the job. The need for more information in order to complete some task (especially one in which the learner has a vested interest) drives the desire to learn and tends to make the learning experience more meaningful. In addition, certain concepts and procedures remain abstract until experience makes them concrete so my intention was to create challenges throughout the project and through other related assignments, allowing issues to become apparent (and therefore concrete) before we discussed them in class.

I did not expect things to be perfect. From an instructional design standpoint, how much learning actually comes from perfection? Non-examples are a critical part of learning and the classroom is a safe place in which to learn from those things that don't work. Although many participants were skeptical that this project could be accomplished in 15 weeks, I had and continue to have faith in the process. I feel comfortable with and have experienced the value of a certain amount of imperfection while, at the same time, knowing the project can still succeed. This was something I wished to share with our students. This is the nature of our business and we are committed to providing our students with the skills they will need to be successful in the field. For many of us, instructional design and development is not just a job; it is a life-long passion and we do what we do for the learners.

I consider myself quite fortunate to have known people who have fueled my love of learning through the years. Many thanks to my friends and colleagues Tina Barnes, Vince Basile, Regina Bobak, Celina Byers, Dave Cerreta, Robyn Defelice, Helmut Doll, Beth Holmes, Karl Kapp, Eric Milks, Mary Nicholson, Richard Peck, Tim Phillips, Karen Swartz, and Kelly Woltornist. I would also like to thank a few other people with whom I have had the pleasure to work in various contexts. They have graciously shared their knowledge and wisdom, which I, in turn, have shared with our students: Hank Bailey, Robert Berman, Tom Brown Jr. as well as all the instructors and students at the Tracker School , Charles L. Chen (CLC-4-TTS ), Kathy Ergot, Joel Holmes, Jonathan Jones, Gez Lemon (Juicy Studio ), Kermit Mantz as well as all the scouts in Boy Scout Troop 50, Livio Mondini, Ben Mackiewicz, Amy McDaniel, Dave McFee, Julie Myer, Rebecca Ohl, Mike Phillips, T.V. Raman, Roberto Scano, Lisa Seeman, Sam Slike, and June Trudnak.

I especially want to thank the students, without whom this endeavor would never have come to fruition with a big thanks to Luis Vidal who is preparing the e-book for PDF and RTF formats and to Dave Cerreta for creating the title and web page graphics. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all the participants once again (as well as all those reading this), Collaboration and teamwork can be a powerful thing. Have faith in yourselves and have faith in the process.

I would also like to thank Josh Bersin and Jennifer De Vries for permission to use several charts as well as Bob Johnson for permission to use a graphic, all of which can be found in Chapter 2 - Instructional Design Models for E-Learning.

This e-book is dedicated in memory of Justin Bennett (1989-2006). It is also dedicated to those who love to learn as well as to those who inspire that love in others.

Pamela Berman

Sections

• Home
• Introduction
• Authors
• Contributors
• About the IIT
• 1. What is E-Learning?
• 2. Instructional Design Models for E-Learning
• 3. E-Learners
• 4. E-Learning Tools
• 5. Instructional Strategies for E-Learning
• 6. Information Ownership
• 7. Development
• 8. Delivering E-Learning
• 9. E-Learning Evaluation
• 10. Managing the Data
• 11. Web Standards
• Site Map

Institute for Interactive Technologies , Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License .