E-Learning Synthesis: Teaching and Learning

Terms or concepts that are unfamiliar may be the best place to start exploring findings and conclusions from NCREL's review of the e-learning literature. Please use the list of terms below to review critical e-learning vocabulary and concepts. Each concept has an active link: After the term or phrase, there is a description that identifies one of the best online resources available outside of the NETRO Web site. The key vocabulary offered here are included to help each user build a working knowledge of online learning that is understandable to and appropriate for K-20 educators and educational leaders--anywhere, anytime.

Remember that you can always return to the NCREL E-Learning Knowledge Base by clicking the "back" button on your Web browser.

• E-Moderation and E-Moderators ( Gilly Salmon on E-moderation / Open University-UK).
• Computer-Mediated Communication (Tips from Athabaska University / CA).
• Online Learning (from Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace / Greg Kearsley's Web site).

One of the critical factors required to enable a transition to Digital Age literacy and 21st-Century skills, as the goals and objectives for public education in the new Millennium is a shift in our definitions of teaching and learning. The integration of new and powerful technologies in our schools and increasing emphasis on higher-order skills in curriculum content will not bring about the broad changes required without essentially changing the ways teachers and learners work together.

The work of the teacher is to plan and execute a series of interactions between students and subject matter. The decision-based rules governing interactions between teachers and students are commonly referred to as pedagogy. These interactions are based on underlying assumptions about the nature of the learning process. In general, the teacher plans a series of interactions to control the way the students come into contact with the subject matter.

By doing so, the teacher generally expects to make the key concepts and ideas more accessible to the students. Traditional designs for classroom instruction are commonly concerned with sequencing materials, moving from rule to example (or vice versa), prompting strategies, task analysis, learning hierarchies, the use of drill and practice patterns with key content, and, finally, tests measuring the accurate recall of key content.

This static and generally linear interaction model characterizes most traditional classroom instruction. It is teacher centered and promotes a high degree of accountability for the recall and recognition of facts and demonstration of behaviorally stated competencies and skills that constitute most of the traditional, discipline-based curriculum. However, it allows for little of the exploration, reconstruction, and creation of authentic work products that are emerging as the new bases for literacy in today's classrooms and other learning environments.

E-Moderation and E-Moderators

The interaction models that are considered characteristic of today's technology-rich learning environments and the increasing emphasis on synthesis and application of knowledge to authentic tasks and project-based student work most often are described as being student centered. Students often work independently as individuals or in groups. The teacher's role changes from being the primary source for knowledge and direction to become something more like a facilitator of learning or (speaking metaphorically) a kind of ringmaster in a circus of learning events.

An important educational institution that was a pioneer in developing pedagogy suitable for supporting highly individualized distance learning with adults is the Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom. With the advent of computer-mediated communications (CMC), the individualized learning that characterized the OU work, providing highly individualized tutorials over distance, evolved into a new interactive and online variation that has come to be known as e-moderation (Salmon, 2000).

According to Salmon (2000), "A moderator is a person who presides over a meeting. An e-moderator presides over an electronic online meeting or conference, though not in quite the same way as a moderator does" (p. 3).

Within operations characterizing distance education in the Open University, course authors seldom actually serve as teachers with the courses they create. Authors are subject-matter experts who have training and expertise to prepare print, audio, and video materials for courses. Tutors, who may know something about subject matter but also have different training and experience suitable for working with students, actually teach the courses. E-moderators can be described as highly specialized tutors who work with students in learning situations where interactions are sustained primarily through computer-mediated communication (Salmon, 2000).

Computer-Mediated Communication

An explicit, five-part model is used to guide tutor/student interaction in Open University online courses. The model may be summarized as follows (Salmon, 2000):

1. Access and Motivation (These are prerequisite competencies for online participation.)
2. Online Socialization (Participants establish online identities and networking with other participants.)
3. Information Exchange (Participants exchange information with the e-moderator and with one another.)
4. Knowledge Construction (Course-related discussions occur; interaction becomes more collaborative.)
5. Development (Participants reflect and examine benefits from the system of interactions that help them achieve personal or course-related goals, explore how to integrate CMC into other learning, and generally reflect on the learning process.)

In Open University online courses, it is the role of the e-moderator to guide student participants through an online learning experience where course content serves as a conceptual basis for continuing online interaction and discussions. The skills required to sustain this online interaction define the work of the e-moderator (Salmon, 2000).

Online Teaching and Learning

The most critical skill for successful e-moderators or online instructors is the ability to encourage and sustain a high degree of participation on the part of the students. Interactions should focus on the defined subject matter and should involve lots of opportunities to learn through exchanges of information with the instructor and with the other students.

This situation requires that the online instructor or e-moderator follow the five steps, as outlined above. The skills required to be an effective online teacher are nearly identical to those needed to become an effective online learner, with one possible exception. Effective online instructors or e-moderators have a significant responsibility to learn the strengths and weaknesses of individual students so that they can individually encourage and direct participation. In other words, the most effective online instructors and e-moderators tailor the information exchanges and interactions by individuals and groups to individualize instruction in order to optimize the learning experience for each student (Kearsley, 2000).

Salmon (2000) recognizes four issues as being critical to sustaining appropriate levels of interaction and to helping online students achieve successful outcomes:

• Appropriate numbers of online participants.
• The use of online time.
• Time and complexity.
• The development of online communities.

Opinions vary regarding the optimal number of students in an online course. Generally speaking, estimates run about on a par with similar estimates regarding optimal class size for traditional "face-to-face" classes. Use of time also follows norms governing the use of time that are nearly identical to traditional instruction, with the possible difference that interaction among students is encouraged rather than discouraged.

The conception of time in online instruction is different from that of time in traditional instruction for a number of interesting reasons. First, class can hypothetically go on 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. To make things even more interesting for online instructors, interactions with particular individual students often are serialized or truncated by the delivery of e-mail or random factors governing when individuals do or do not go online to work. This almost chaotic randomness of online interactions is one of the distinctive elements that most participants become accustomed to over time.

The subject of building online communities is extensively addressed in the growing body of knowledge concerning online learning. The formation of learning communities seems to be an extension of online interactions and online networks into the domain of face-to-face human contact. In fact, a possibly important characteristic that varies in some online courses is whether or not face-to-face class meetings are a planned or required part of the course. Although some situations involving geographic distance between students may make face-to-face contact very difficult or impossible, many researchers looking at online learning in higher education settings believe that hybrid courses (which use a combination of online and real face-to-face human contact) have better student retention and arguably better student learning outcomes (Kearsley, 2000).

Assessment of Online Learning

The assessment of student outcomes associated with online learning is controversial and important. Teachers and institutions are justifiably concerned that student performance be accountable and that institutional standards be upheld, with grade inflation kept to a minimum. The one way that assessment of online work differs from traditional assignments is that online learning often provides an objective way that participation can be measured and factored into student grades.

In effect, by recording keystrokes and by time-stamping records of online events, instructors can have a data record of every individual transaction or interaction of every student enrolled in an online course or class. If the course's software creates an event log made available to instructors in a way that can be interpreted without overwhelming them with raw information, a student's participation can be objectively taken into account when assessing student performance and assigning the grade. This activity can be as simple as requiring each student to post one original message in a mail list and respond meaningfully to two messages posted by others. On the other hand, some online courses have elaborate management systems that keep a detailed transaction record of every instance where students log in and do work in an online learning environment. Some course platforms create what amounts to an automated student portfolio documenting the complete online participation and the work products of every student.

A recurring subject discussed by both critics and friends of online learning is cheating. The question usually goes something like this: "How do you know that the responses on the screen come from the actual student, not some substitute?" In general, this concern is less significant in longer online courses when instructors have an opportunity to become familiar with students' communication styles and written products. One of the frequent arguments for hybrid courses (combinations of online and face-to-face instruction) is that by meeting the students in person, instructors are more likely to successfully distinguish and identify work products created by sources other than the students enrolled (Kearsley, 2000).