Policy and Planning for eLearning Programs

By starting my readings with the article, How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature, I stunted my enthusiasm! This research article is long on the description of how the meta-analysis was performed and why a meta-analysis methodology was used. I skipped to the results shortly after starting the article; no significant difference between on line learning outcomes and traditional classroom outcomes - more specific data variables need to be considered in the measurement of traditional classroom instruction and on line instruction. After reading this, it increasingly difficult to make myself go back to reading more about the methodology of the research. I wish the article had been presented to me at the time I took my statistics course. I would have appreciated the methodology discussions more.



Teaching and learning online: a beginner's guide to eLearning and eTeaching in higher education was a more accessible reading. It provided a starting place for inquiry. This article provides a (relatively) quick overview of online learning; online learning, learning tasks, learning resources, supports, designs, design and development strategies. As the title implies, the article would be an appropriate resource for those beginning to teach or design in eLearning environments. Overall clear, succinct definitions and descriptions of various eLearning strategies as were given as related to best practices and educational theory.


Parts that I appreciated:

Description of Vygotsky's theory as it relates to Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This was as clear a description as I had heard of the ZPD (never having studied Vygotsky's theories directly myself). The part that helped me was, "The ZPD is regarded as the point on (a) continuum where learning supports provided by teachers peers or the resources themselves, help move learners from the zone of actual development to the ZPD....(including) any teaching or learning strategies which help the learner master the requirements of the learning situation." (p.67) An emphasis throughout the article was making sure that instructors and designers are providing supports in developing eLearning, by setting learning expectations, planning appropriate learning tasks and providing all important learning resources.

Another helpful place in this resource (scaffolding moment!) was the authors presentation of "learning designs and objects" up through their presentation of "metadata" usage. "Contemporary online learning development is moving away from ...pages of electronic text, to more deliberately planned learning designs, learning tasks and processes...."(p.99) It was interesting to read that the development of reusable learning objects was one goal in the development of learning objects. I wondered, how does this fit with the idea that the most effective learning takes place in contextual (therefore specific) evironments? It would seem there is some tension there.

Finally, the "metadata" section clarified for me what SCORM is. I had not realized SCORM was part of a larger movement with various organizations working to define metadata standards. Likening this drive towards developing metadata standards to the indexing that occurs in libraries helped clarify for me the objective of the movement. It was also enlightening to see examples of the metadata in headers. A light went on for me as I have seen some of these. Not so elaborate as the examples shown in the reading, but it made more sense. I appreciated the examples on pages 108-109.