Paul Nicholson

A History of E-Learning

In many contemporary sectors, E-learning is often regarded as a ‘new’ form of learning that uses the affordances of the Internet to deliver customized, often interactive, learning materials and programs to diverse local and distant communities of practice. This view, however, is historically disconnected from its antecedent instantiations, failing to recognize the extensive links between developing educational theories and practices that had shaped the use of E-learning over the past 40 years. In addition, the historic divide between Education and Training has led to both the concurrent development of different notions, foci, and labels for technology-enhanced learning in different contexts and situations, and different conceptual origins arising in acquisitive and participatory learning metaphors.

Advances in Web-Based Learning - ICWL 2003

The last decade has seen a phenomenal growth in the use of the Web in university education, with various factors influencing the adoption of Webbased technology. The reduction of government funding in the higher education sector has forced universities to seek technological solutions to provide courses for a growing and increasingly diverse and distributed student population [13,14]. Another impetus has been a shift in focus from teacher-centred to learner-centred education, encouraging educators to provide courses which enable students to manage their own learning [6]. In this paper we discuss challenges associated with the design and provision of Web-based learning environments that are truly student-centred. We draw on interview and questionnaire data from an evaluation study to raise issues surrounding the provision of online environments that meet learners’ needs. We discuss the challenges of catering for the needs of different learners and the challenges associated with helping students to make the transition into new online learning environments.

A Curriculum for teachers or for learning

What should the focus of an informatics curriculum be? The majority of existing courses mimic industrial or commercial practice and reflect a particular vision of teaching and learning. Humanistic and constructivist perspective’s suggest that alternative course models can empower students to become independent learners capable of operating in the complexities of modern society. The implementation of such a curriculum focus would place enormous strains on teachers and schools. Is this approach worth pursuing? What are the advantages to learners and what are the costs to schools?

Exploring the foundations of practicing online collaboration

In collaborative learning, instruction is learner-centered rather than teacher-centered and knowledge is viewed as a social construct, facilitated by peer interaction, evaluation and mutual support [1]. Such computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) enables and encourages learners to confer, reflect and help to develop meaningful learning in an environment where significant learning can be achieved through interactions supported by electronic communication and discourse [2]. This paper proposes a theory that supports educational collaboration in a peer-to-peer computing environment, thus blending the two disciplines.

A Framework for Facilitating Higher-order Strategic Thinking in Online Management Development

Organizations which grow by responding dynamically and strategically to rapidly changing business environments require managers capable of analytical and creative thinking in individual and team contexts. Whilst management development of this kind is hard to achieve within a localised workplace, it is even more difficult in globally distributed workplaces. Appropriately designed online programs can facilitate effective management development within and across multi-site organizations. This requires, firstly, the insightful and purposeful development of a learning environment which is grounded in an understanding of the dynamics of learning and, secondly, the delivery of this environment online. These contexts require an instructional design model which focuses upon expertise development in collaborative settings - the key elements of our model.

MetaMaps: Assessing understanding of large, complex or distributed knowledge domains

Many traditional assessment instruments and procedures are developed for the purpose of assessing a carefully defined degree of understanding of specific items, such as competence in arithmetic or demonstrating a particular physical skill. The knowledge or skill to be assessed is learnt through a limited set of learning experiences, in conjunction with selected texts and other resources as defined in the curriculum—often in a ‘closed’ system. Evaluating learners’ understandings of wider and more complex knowledge systems can require a different approach. MetaMaps—a reflective, hypertext alternative to the traditional essay, provides an alternative approach to the linear essay, term paper or minor thesis for evaluating students’ holistic understandings of open knowledge systems. For students, MetaMaps have the advantage of being developmental, allowing for the ready inclusion of developing knowledge and perspectives, and they make the learning/evaluation cycle more holistic by using the MetaMap as both a learning and assessment tool. This paper describes the development and ongoing revision of the MetaMap concept.

Characterizing E-learning Practices in Companies

It becomes perceptible that each day more companies make use of e-learning for the capacity of its workers. During a congress in the e-learning area it has been noticed the increase in corporative e-learning cases. These cases show that there does not exist a single form of e-learning within the companies. Each program makes use of adequate practices for organizational characteristics, which may vary according to each company’s knowledge, the technology, the available resources, and the vision administrators have concerning e-learning. Thus, this paper aims to characterize some of these different e-learning practices. Exploratory research was carried out where e-learning specialists were interviewed in nine different companies and a university in Australia. The results revealed successful accounts as well as challenges that must overcome. These results will form the basis for later research where an evaluation system that can be adaptable to each corporate e-learning practice will be developed.

E-training or E-learning?

Many E-training environments and processes are based on participatory learning models in which participants share their understandings and aim to develop new insights into their workplace knowledge through discussion, questioning, mentoring and personal reflection. Knowledge production is assumed to occur through the cumulative effect of these actions. However, equally likely outcomes include the sharing of ignorance or the development of erroneous understandings. Cognitive and social views of learning posit, however, that humans learn by thinking (not just by interacting), and that unless this is explicitly taken into account in developing training programs, optimal learning outcomes may not be achieved. This paper examines the importance of incorporating cognitive and social-learning perspectives in E-training environments in order to maximise the potential for optimal learning to occur, and provides suggestions for a synthesis of participatory and cognitive models.

Real-life learning in higher education

While real-life learning is commonly identified with workplace or lifelong learning outside of an individual’s initial pre-workforce education, this does not preclude real-life learning experiences occurring within Higher Education programs. This paper describes a program that aims to integrate real-life learning experiences into a pre-service teacher education program in a way that provides rich, contextualised learning experiences, provides a basis for meeting the requirements of external certification criteria that focus on evidence-based performance rather than on academic competencies, and provides students with authentic learning experiences in the effective use of ICT in their professional roles and classroom-based work.

ICWL 2003 : Advances in Web-based learning--ICWL 2003 : second international conference, Melbourne, Australia, August 18-20, 2003 : proceedings

The last decade has seen a phenomenal growth in the use of the Web in university education, with various factors influencing the adoption of Webbased technology. The reduction of government funding in the higher education sector has forced universities to seek technological solutions to provide courses for a growing and increasingly diverse and distributed student population [13,14]. Another impetus has been a shift in focus from teacher-centred to learner-centred education, encouraging educators to provide courses which enable students to manage their own learning [6]. In this paper we discuss challenges associated with the design and provision of Web-based learning environments that are truly student-centred. We draw on interview and questionnaire data from an evaluation study to raise issues surrounding the provision of online environments that meet learners’ needs. We discuss the challenges of catering for the needs of different learners and the challenges associated with helping students to make the transition into new online learning environments.