EDU 651: Designing Interactive e-Learning

Overview

E-learning is a current buzzword in corporate and institutional circles. Just as multimedia was the answer in the early 1990s, e-learning is the current answer to learning problems. What is the question?

In the orientation, you will learn a bit more about current conceptions of e-learning. In principle, e-learning is any form of electronically mediated learning support. In reality, e-learning is some form of instruction (content delivery and learner interactions) delivered on the World Wide Web (WWW). That instruction is usually facilitated by some kind of course management system that keeps track of learners’ activities. Very often, the instruction is supported by some form of conversation system that is designed to foster a learning community among the course participants. All of these components (“knowledge” delivery, course management system, and learning community) are mediated by the WWW. That is, e-learning is Web learning.

In this course, you will learn to design meaningful e-learning systems. It is important to realize that in eight modules, you can learn to design only a fraction of the kinds of learner interactions that may be necessary to meet all learning needs. With the focus on problem solving, this course will illustrate some of the most meaningful kinds of learning interactions. That is, helping learners to solve problems is the most important kind of learning.

Because the WWW is the primary medium of e-learning, it will be necessary to understand more about it. In Module 1, you will learn some conceptual lessons about the WWW. Basically, the WWW is a massive hypermedia (hypertext) system. Hypermedia is an open-architecture system for accessing information. In hypermedia systems, information and resources can be organized in any way. They may be organized to support information access (the most common purpose). But hypermedia materials may also be organized to support learning, performance, or any other endeavor. That means that designers of hypermedia systems (that's you) can structure the resources to support learning or any other activity.

In this course, you will learn how to design hypermedia to support meaningful learning, that is, problem solving. So, this course focuses on how to structure hypermedia systems on the WWW in order to support learning how to solve problems and learning the skills required to solve problems.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Design e-learning interactions that support learning how to solve well-structured problems.
• Design e-learning interactions that support learning the concepts required to solve well-structured problems.
• Design e-learning interactions that support learning the rules required to solve well-structured problems.
• Design e-learning interactions that support learning how to solve ill-structured problems.
• Design e-learning cases (stories) that support learning how to solve ill-structured problems.
• Design e-learning inquiry (ask) systems that support learning how to solve ill-structured problems.
• Design e-learning systems that support advanced, flexible knowledge acquisition.
• Design, conduct, and monitor mediated conversations that support learning outcomes and the development of a community of learners.

Course Requirements

Inspiration or Concept Map Software; students may download free 30-day trial.

• You may choose to complete your course project by building Web pages. Please visit the My Courses page under Academic Help, and click on “How do I request FTP access for use in my courses?” to request web space. Directions on how to upload your project will be sent to you by email.

Required Texts
EDU 651 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore