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Designing
Online Lucio
Teles In this paper we discuss generic principles of optimal design and how they apply to designing online environment. Learning theories to inform course design are discussed and the use of Web media in both synchronous and asynchronous modes are also addressed. We conclude by assembling some of the principle to guide course design for collaborative environments. Definition and Foundations: Technology and Learning Technologies have always played an important role in the configuration of the learning environment. Before writing systems and materials were invented and became widely available, memorization was the most important tool and learners would recite words until the information and knowledge was built in the form of mental structures. Written records meant that knowledge could be stored and consulted as necessary. The invention of printing (Ong, 1982) further changed the configuration of the classroom because it eventually made it possible for students to have their own copies of texts. Therefore, they were able to read away from the library and at the most convenient time. Until the invention of the printing press made it possible to disseminate knowledge on a large scale, almost all formal education in the West was in the hands of the Church, which trained boys and young men in the skills needed for teaching, preaching, and interpreting the scriptures and, incidentally, for governing the newly emerging states. A variety of secular schools were instituted as the middle class increased, and more and more literacy became necessary to conduct business and legal affairs. But it was not until 1763, when Prussia made schooling compulsory for children between 5 and 13 years of age, that the kind of classroom we are familiar with today began to develop. The reconfiguration of society impelled by the Industrial Revolution created the need for public schools, and during the nineteenth century, they became available throughout Western countries. As these schools grew in number, the elements of the modern place-based classroom were formalized. Students were placed in classes and split into different levels, advancing to subjects of greater complexity according to their age and the knowledge previously acquired. A number of the basic characteristics of the typical classroom are assumed to assist learning: for example, having a physical location and a regular meeting time; using a course design that relies on a trained instructor to lecture on the topic (creating the "sage on a stage" approach) while students listen, take notes, and do homework to reinforce what they have learned; and providing interaction by question periods and peer-to-peer activities. This transfer of knowledge approach is teacher-centred. It requires that students be present in the classroom. because it assumes that learners learn better when they are exposed to classroom lectures and discussions with the instructor combined with individual work done at home. Low attendance rates may affect student grades and whether they pass or fail. Today’s face-to-face classroom is an improved version of last century’s classroom, but it still provides instruction on the assumption that the characteristics of this physical classroom are the best way to support learning. As a result, most researchers investigating learning in the classroom assume that the place-based classroom is the "natural" model and ignore the challenge of the existence of the online classroom or online environments. There is a great deal of new evidence, however, that learners have improved performance in online environments. The foundations of the online classroom are based in the philosophy and practice of the place-based classroom, but at the same time, many new learning practices are being developed in the implementation of the online classroom. In some cases it requires very different methods than those used in the place-based classroom. An online instructor cannot afford to ignore those differences. For example, an instructor accustomed to using the place-based model of collecting all student assignments and marking and returning them together later may let student messages in an online course accumulate and then reply to them all in one day. Students do not like this approach, however; they feel neglected and complain that instructors who act this way are not interacting with them. In addition, instructors need to use very different approaches in the two environments when they dealing with issues related to classroom behaviour or class attendance and participation. The Online Classroom The online classroom as we know it now originated in 1973 when Murray Turoff created the Electronic Exchange Information System (EIES), an online groupware application that implemented the Virtual Classroom (Hiltz, 1978). Since then many other groupware applications for education and training have been developed. Many of the attributes of the contemporary online classroom were identified by Harasim (1989): it is asynchronous, collaborative, place independent, time independent, and text-based, with communication mediated by computers. In the last decade, the evolution of media and instructional design has added multimedia (hyperlinks, sound, video, etc.) to text to create a new online communication mode.
While the online classroom opens a new paradigm for learning, it may still uses metaphors that are typical features of the place-based classroom and schools to convey its functions. Course designers create rooms, halls, and cafés other similar virtual places as areas for different kinds of activities. The use of metaphors for designing virtual environments is seen as able to provide familiarity and to facilitate learning (Suchman, 1988). However, it is important to remember that the place-based and the online classroom have different characteristics and operate on different grounds. Not only does the role of the instructor change in the online classroom (Davie, Wang and Teles, etc.), but also the student is required to be more proactive and task oriented. The online classroom can thus be defined as a designed Web environment to support learning with a group of students supported by an instructor, conducting collaborative and individual tasks supported and operating in a Web environment. Various learning theories inform the design of the online classroom, from behaviourist approaches to constructivist models for learning.
Designing Online Environments While the name online classroom is often used, the concept of online learning environment seems to better address the type of design issues we need to cover in addressing these Web-based learning tools. The places or sites where learners and their instructors, mentors, or peers interact are called learning environments (Collins, Brown, and Newman, 1989). These environments are shaped by participants according to various approaches to instructional design, moderating, and self-paced learning. An experienced designer always has a few principles s/he wants to be part of the design of his/her object: balance, harmony, equilibrium, perspective, unity, movement, proportion, contrast, rhythm, simplicity, consistency, and clarity. An experienced instructional designer also wants to include another principle, that of the the production of optimal learning environments. How are generic principles of good instructional design applied to the creation of optimal learning environments? Collins, Brown, and Newman, 1989 identify several dimensions and characteristics of online environments to support apprenticeship learning. These principles can be extended to designing collaborative online environments. The four dimensions and their respective characteristics should be considered: content, methods, sequence, and sociology. If careful attention is given to these dimensions, an ideal learning environment can be attained (Collins, Brown, and Newman, 1989).
Characteristics of ideal learning environments Content Methods Sequence Sociology Domain knowledge Modeling Increasing complexity Situated learning Heuristics strategies Coaching Increasing diversity Culture of expert practice Control strategies Scaffolding Global before local skills Intrinsic motivation Learning strategies Articulation Exploiting cooperation Reflection Exploiting competition Exploration (Table reproduced from Collins, Brown and Newman, 1989, pp. 476) Learning environments may combine these characteristics in different ways, based on various assumptions, needs, and teaching approaches. All combinations and designs aim at facilitating
Issues for Design As we have discussed, the online classroom is a concept based on the use of a metaphor. For designers it is important to keep this consideration in mind as many times the use of metaphors may be restrictive, limiting the designer to replicate features available in the face-to-face model. Online environments, however, offer new challenges for design that we may take into account. Issues such as the appropriate media applied to particular learning tasks, in which time mode (synchronous or asynchronous) are also factors influencing design. Some considerations for designing online environments are: 1. The online environment can operate in synchronous or asynchronous time, and also in a combination of both. The designer may explore these options and have both real and non real time learning tasks. 2. Web media such as text, hypertext, sound, graphics, animations, virtual reality, are tools that need to be identified as useful in supporting specific learning tasks. For example, video clips may be useful in providing an initial introduction to the instructor (face, voice, comments) but text is still the best medium to convey conceptual understanding. 3. The use of collaborative events and tasks is essential to obtaining quality in online environments. The use of self-directed learning only does not create optimal environments as learners need support from peers (Scardamalia . & Bereiter, 1996; Kollock, 1996). Collaborative tasks also support and reinforces group cohesion, further facilitating peer learning. 4. The use of tools and intelligent artifacts to support human-computer interaction, access to Web-based Knowledge sources are important considerations in designing environments. 5. Navigation is one of the most challenging design components. Designers have used metaphors, others have found that metaphors are limiting. A basic consideration is to test the navigation system with real uses. The designer may want to have a goal that the navigation "seem intelligent", i.e. responds to what the user needs. The use of site maps to facilitate navigation or hierarchical trees is often applied. A more challenging approach is called the use of intuitive maps. Some of the earlier experiments of Xerox, Palo Alto and more recently the Imac interface (Macintosh) seem to rely on this concept on intuitive navigation. 6. The social protocol or netiquette of online environments is also an essential component of design. Learners need to know how they are expected to behave and what are the protocols and rules for online learning and interaction. 7. The bandwidth is a factor that affects design in many ways: which real time and non-real time tools can be used, given the bandwidth available. While designers want to maximize the Web and design for broadband use, this is still not readily available and may affect learning in a negative way, if communication lines are too slow and unable to handle the learning interactions. Considerations such as the use of sttreamable or downloadable audio and video, or the use of DVD and CD-ROM to deliver video are necessary to better support learning. Similarly, the use of cgis, plugins, animations and virtual reality, while desirable, may better operate in particular bandwidth environments that are not yet readily available. 8. Data mining and data collection of users to determine patterns, problems, and to support the instructor in identifying participation and class attendance are necessary to foster knowledge building (Munakata, T., 1999). 9. Text is still the basic path to information and knowledge and designers need to think of text in a dynamic format to better support learning. Long text files, or long messages, are better delivered in print format rather than Web-based environments. Conclusions Designing optimal learning environments is a challenge eductors need to address by taking into consideration all the factors discussed above. If these principles are addressed in the design stage, and environments are then tested and reshaped via user feedback, it is expected that we can obtain superior type of learning outcomes online than we have today in the face-to-face classroom. Bibliography Collins, Brown, and Newman. (1989) Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Crafts of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics. in Resnick, L. Knowing, Learning, and Instruction. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Harasim, L., Hiltz, R., Teles, L., and Turoff, M. Learning Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1995. Hiltz, S.R. The Virtual Classroom: Learning Without Limits via Computer Networks. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1978. Kollock, P. 1996. Design Principles for Online Communities. Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society, University of California, Los Angeles Also published in PC Update 15(5): 58-60. June 1998. Munakata, T. Knowledge Discovery, in Communications of the ACM, v 42, Number 11, November 1999. Ong. W. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Methuen, New York, 1982. Teles, L., & Duxbury, N. The Networked Classroom — An Assessment of the Southern Interior Telecommunications Project. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University. October, 1991. ERIC ED 348 988. Suchman, L. Plans and Situated Actions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987. Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C. Student Communities for the Advancement of Knowledge. CACM 39(4): 36—37 (1996).
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