Institutionalising e-Learning

In recent years, e-learning has been use to change how education is being delivered not only for the functions as a academics but to support administration and communication functions.

To build a well-produced e-learning project, a strategy needs to be well produced. It is important to take a good look at the policies, infrastructure and resources needed for the e-learning requirements. According to Clark (2002), an e-learning strategy is important because it builds the process that will lead to the decisions taken to build an e-learning environment. Also, De Vries (2005), says that the e-learning strategy will give an outline of the what, why and how on the technology chosen as a new way to deliver the teaching.

It is important that both the teachers and students are given the opportunity to be taught on how to use the system. This means that the technology used should not require the users to require an advanced level of skills so that it can be accessible and manageable. The system should not be developed to accommodate only commercial software but also open source software.

An important part is to produce manual that help during the training and online activities and simulations. They are needed as the users would require a tool to help them understand the applications available in the e-learning system.

When building an e-learning it is important to search for the right multimedia that will help the teaching and learning approach. It is important to recognize that not every user will have an ADSL internet meaning having a slow download time if the multimedia files are large. E-learning can therefore be combined with CD as resources.

E-learning is then integrated with the human resources process such as training, evaluating the teachers’ performance and tries to motivate them to teach in a different way. This can be achieved by giving the teachers’ an evaluation form after each training session. When there is new staff, they should introduce to the e-learning resources.

This showed just an over view of how schools or organizations can implement from the ordinary school teaching to the e-learning approach.

Ref: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=419&layout=html

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are prospective tools to remove barriers such as distance and financial issues. OER became very popular in short time with teachers and learners although they test the present teaching and learning practices.

OER where created to provide knowledge that be shared for free through the Internet which anyone is can take advantage from excluding any barriers on the use. Initiatives giving steps of how open sources and learning objectives should be created have been presented.

· www.opensource.org (dedicated to software source code)

· www.opencontent.org (dedicated to content of information)

· www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/openaccess (three milestones to create an open access movement for school work)

OER are made up of three parts:

The Learning Content should include full courses with adequate notes, activity worksheets, homework and test divided into modules to help the learners, and journals that complement the course.

The Tools needed are to develop, use and reuse the content which can be searched and organized and providing learning communities where the learners can communicate.

The Implementation of Resources should happen through Intellectual Property licenses which can sponsor the open material.

As a conclusion, I would like to quote the Cape Town Open Education Declaration which describes open education as

“Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge…”

Ref: http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/OER_Briefing_Paper.pdf

Changing to an effective e-learning process.

To build an e-learning course, which is to be quite effective, one has to make sure that the method of changeover from traditional teaching to e-learning is managed in the best way possible. Therefore, one who is planning a course has to keep in mind that change management is an approach taken by the individuals involved during the transition from a current traditional course into a future e-learning course. Due to this the person creating the e-learning course has to think about the students who are going to be using this particular course.

Thus, one can say that the conversion management is the fundamental task. If this does not happen the course would be discarded because as Arthur Richardson said, “If poorly implemented e-learning can be seen as a punishment…” The idea behind all this is that if the students are introduced to a new course, they have to be trained for it in order to get used to it. However, if the course needs a lot of training while they still have to be doing the work for the traditional course they are doing right now, they would see the training as additional burden. Indeed, we can conclude that we cannot offer the content of a course, and expect the students to use it without having enough time to get used to it.

To avoid all problems, a person who is preparing an e-learning course has to make sure that six important steps are not overlooked. The six important steps are:

1. Time for implementation – this must never be miscalculated because one cannot expect to see instant results of a changeover because everyone needs time to understand what is new in order to get used to the new system.

2. Development – it is important to involve the students in the process of developing the e-learning course and thus the teachers preparing online courses must correspond with the students who are going to use the same courses. Since the students are the end users it is important to focus on them as the success and failure of the course, all depends on the students.

3. User Testing – the students are the best testers that one has while developing an e-learning course. This is the best method to test the course because this way, the teacher can notice what are the norms of the students and thus refine any development tips.

4. Build quality content – a teacher in a traditional classroom uses body gestures as well as the tone of voice, both of which produce a lot of information which would all be lost when using an e-learning course. Therefore, an online course must be developed in the most functional way where the content is more sophisticated than that used in a traditional class but which would still be understandable by the students.

5. Use technology – having a course offered online leads the producer of the same course to the use of different technology that can be integrated together and used in the most appropriate way. Since technology offers a lot of methods and ideas, one can borrow and combine a lot of factors together.

6. Clarify expectations – since there are a lot more elements in preparing an e-learning course, they are all expected to interact with each other. Due to this, access to different types of data might be needed and thus the students need to acquaint themselves with what can be found and what can be accessed. Consequently tailored material might be wanted so that the students can understand and be trained well. Thus the teacher has to understand what is expected by the students.

Resource:
Douglas J.V. (2002). Six steps to effective e-learning. Retrieved from: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/systems-management/2002/05/09/six-steps-to-effective-e-learning-2109917/

eLearning Ethical Issues and the Students

As we all know and experience, the invention of the Internet opened doors to all the information we could possibly want to search and find. In fact the Internet is thought of as a very powerful resource, especially for education, where both educators and students can search for any information they might need to enhance the learning process. So much so that education has now also been extended to an online platform resulting inseveral elearning components. However, one cannot ignore the numerous ethical problems arising from the number of readily available information which can be accessed and in some cases copied and presented without any acknowledgements. It is not the first them that, as my friends pointed out, students simple copy and paste information from the Internet without stopping to think about the ethical implications of their actions, and not even noticing the infringement of the copyrights of the material being reused without the author’s approval. With the implementation of elearning system, the risks of infringement of copyright increase as “It is easier to cheat online than Face-toFace (F2F).”

However identifying the increase of the “traditional problems of cheating, plagiarism, and violation of privacy, vandalism, theft, and spying into the cyberspace” with elearning systems, is not enough. As educators implementing the online environment we have to be aware that the we can limit such unethical acts by carefully configuring and managing the courseware for eLearning through the design of the assigned tasks and the implementation of checks to balance and minimize the unethical practices. The tools and services provided within a Course Management Systems (CMS) or Learning Management Systems (LMS) can help in”preventing the issue of cheating, plagiarism and copyright violations.” Such tools can be used in the (a) Structuring of Assignments and Evaluation Techniques and the (b) inclusion of peer assessment, which if configured and implemented well , will hinder the unethical usage of the online available content. Here are some tips I found in a journal article I read.

When structuring the assignments and also the techniques for evaluation it is ideal to use multiple methods of measuring performance, mastery and skills. The assignments could range from asking students to create or design a web site which could be considered as a component of eEducation, to creating online portfolios which contain a range of material samples, creating and publishing resources by using available web site tools such as online powerpoint presentations, hands on lab approaches, creating themed Games and Puzzles. The idea is to ask for student creativity and opinions where the Internet is not used as the provider of the information readily to be presented, but rather the internet is what they actually use to produce their own work, which can be stimulated by some concepts found through the Internet. For example providing students with case studies which they need to analise and post comments and thoughts about the case studies and their opinions backed with some theories which can be found through the Internet. This brings us to the suggestion of including peer work and peer assessment on an online learning environment by using forums or Instant Messaging tools so that students have a chance to express their personal ideas and introduce themselves to the class. It is also suggested that having peer reviewed systems will control the amount of unethical use of the material available on the internet.

This suggestions all ask for the student to think creatively and create something “new” rather than reproducing what is already available and thus reduces the needs of students simply copying and pasting information to respect the copyright and IP available on the internet.

As mentioned by my friends some students still do not understand the true meaning of copyright and the implications which comes with every Intellectual Property available on the Net, and thus simply break the rules without considering their actions. To prevent such behaviour from happening it is a good practice to put in act some prevention strategies such as :

o Presenting, discussing and reviewing policies related to academic integrity, plagiarism and cheating with the students and dedicate time to them as part of the educational syllabus.

o Explaining the different levels of using someone else’s work, but that at the end it’s still cheating. This can be much easier explain on an eLearning online environment where students can put their work online and then without asking for permission the teacher uses their work as hers and see what reactions the students will have. Using the reactions, the teacher can explain the unethical actions of using something without any permission

o Discussing the consequences of plagiarizing by presenting plagiarism and violation of copyright and privacy cases and discussing them.

o Not just scare the students but also teachings students how to cite and quote the material used using the appropriate formats and layouts. Could also teach them how to ask permission to quote and use copyrighted materials.

o Guide students with what resources they could/should use by providing a list of websites or books, or maybe even specifying the number of references which can be done from different sources available.

Most importantly it is important that we practice what we preach as students will start adopting the same methods for example we as educators have to make sure that all the information available on an eLearning platform conforms to all the fair use guidelines and have the appropriate citations and attributions given to the author/s of the information.

I found a site which explains 10 big myths about copyright laws and related topics. I found it useful to learn from it myself and also could be used to explain the concepts to the students. Here’s the link to the site:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Another interesting site I found which I think can be very useful is a copyright tutorial which guides the user to understanding the concept of copyright. I think it’s of utter importance that as educators who will soon be using an online learning environment, that we know well the concepts and implications of copyright to avoid breaking any ethical rules.

http://www.lib.utsystem.edu/copyright/high-home.html

Nagi, K. ( August, 2006). Solving Ethical Issues in eLearning. Special Issue of the International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management , Vol. 14 No.SP1.

E-learning and Change Management

“E-learning and Change Management – The Challenge” journal by Lesley Mackenzie-Robb helped me to better understand and recognize the difference and linkage between e-learning and change management. 

Implementing an e-learning system in schools can be seen as a challenge in various aspects.  Such new system brings a lot of change; therefore change management should be taken into consideration before actually implementing the whole system.  The stakeholders’ involvement is an extremely important element in such change over.  Various documents and people talk about e-learning in schools; discussing what it entails and its benefits but little has been said about the changes that it will bring along in this academic environment.  E-learning and change management are connected together even though many people just ignore the change management phase and start off implementing the e-learning system immediately.

Ideally change management should be taken seriously into consideration before bringing out e-learning in schools.  E-learning brings change to all school stakeholders including students, teachers, parents and school administration.  If this new technological system is drastically introduced without any phase-change over implementation, stakeholders may react negatively, therefore adopting a negative attitude towards e-learning. 

For positive attitude and successful implementation in the school, various measurements should be adequately followed.  In my opinion to minimize problems, before actually follow up any change management scheme; stakeholders should comprehend what e-learning is through talks and seminars if necessary to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretations.  If the schools cater effectively for change, e-learning will succeed in schools.  Schools should follow up change management schemes and models guided by professional people.  A very commonly used model is the ADKAR. 

This change model compromises five main phases: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.  The first phase entails stimulating consciousness of what e-learning involves and why it is recommended to all stakeholders.  As its name implies, the Desire phase involves instilling desire to stakeholders to involve themselves in such change.  In the Knowledge stage, all required knowledge is used to establish how the change will occur.  Then during the Ability phase, the actual implementation of the change is needed.  The last stage, the Reinforcement consists of constant reviewing of the implemented e-learning system and support for all stakeholders.

The Semantic Web, E-learning and the Classroom

It is very interesting to note that Berners-Lee was concerned that the new success of the Web may lead to a fierce competition. He feared of a situation whereby different proprietors will restrict Web information with the intention to destroy what is known as the open source nature of the Web.

Whilst conducting a research particular on this subject, I further found out that Berners-Lee decided to create a conference with the intention to tell people of a consortium adhering to a number of agreements whereby all opposing parties exposing information on the Web should work together as a teamwork. Such consortium was fundamental so as to be able 'to lead the Web to its full potential...' as stated by Berners-Lee own words. This is done by establishing common guidelines and protocols in order to achieve interoperability of the learning objects on the Web. For instance the W3C is a membership of such consortium which has open technical specification where anyone can make use of them or provide further recommendations.

This makes me think of e-learning in relation to the semantic web. E-learning is not simply concerned with the availability of resources anytime. On the other hand, e-learning involves supporting features that allow for personalization of learning resources and communication which can be both synchronous and asynchronous. It is also capable to support collaborative features. I am inclined to believe that indeed e-learning can be seen as a supplement to traditional teaching. In fact, this gives way to the benefits of personalized learning.

Having said this, thus, the web is all about learning which is shared, consensual and which is split and categorized into different domain specific assets whereby domains are needed in order to filter the information in the right manner.

Before ending this blog, I would like to share a particular quote by Jon Stewart which captured my attention:

“The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

Could this quote be relevant to introduce the idea of incorporating e-learning within a classroom? One wonders…

References:

Internet Pioneers: Tim Berners-Lee. Accessed from http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/index.html

Sicilia, M., & Garcia, E. On the Convergence of Formal Ontologies and standardized e-Learning.

How can we implement change?

“Change is difficult but often essential to survive” Les Brown.

Very often we find it very hard to adapt to a change and keep on resisting till we are restricted by force to implement such transformation in our lives. Some people prefer their lifestyle to follow a particular routine. These same people experience confusion and turmoil when faced with a change. Little do they notice that a change can bring about positive outcomes. Saying this, I am inclined to believe that a change has to be implemented well and with caution especially when the change involves transforming people’s mentality. There has to be a specific phase whereby all the necessary analysis of the current situation is carried out and discussions are conducted with each stakeholder affected with the change. Indeed the keyword of change management is stakeholders. In order for a change to be successful, one has to refer to the people‘s attitudes and make sure that every transformation is implemented positively.

Having said this, in order for the phenomenon of e-learning to be implemented in all Maltese schools, a change management has to take place. Some may think that this simply involves transforming face-to-face lecture style lessons into digital content. In some cases, teachers are also literally forced to put their material online without being re-assuring of the enforcement of the copyright laws. However, e-learning involves more than this. Educators should be encouraged to trust and share their resources with others and not limit them to their own use only.

In a particular journal of Stoltenkamp & Kasuto, which I read in relation to change management, a Learning Awareness Campaign was initiated as part of the change management. What interests me is the idea of having a committee made up from a number of different stakeholders who discuss with each other every issue concerning the transition from traditional teaching to e-learning. I am also in favour of providing a training phase for all of the stakeholders who make a fundamental part of the change management. It is to the interest of each person involved in the educational system to experience the e-learning system as a progressive tool for teaching and learning in an interactive and interesting way as possible. Motivation is the key principle of everything in the educational system. In this case, however, it is not only the students who have to be motivated in order to engage themselves in such a new e-learning based system but also the educators themselves!!

References:

Stoltenkamp, J., & Kasuto, O. A. J. E-learning change management and communication strategies within a HEI in a developing country: Institutional organization cultural change. Research, Reflections and Innovations in Integrating ICT in Education.