Tribune submission (continued)

The current classroom paradigm for teaching and learning has many

constraints. Many have adapted to these constraints and accepted them. Yet the principles of effective learning suggest that new environments that supplement the classroom are needed. Consider the difficulty of holding small group discussions in a large lecture hall with immovable seats. How effective is collaborative work in a computer lab where students cannot see their classmates over the monitors? How interactive can a class of 400 students be in the hour allotted for class? What interactive strategies for learning large amounts of content are useful to students?

These are only a few examples of the many challenges associated with

implementing interactive learning, the engaged learning now so strongly

recommended by researchers. The wonder and power of the online environment is that it provides an entirely new context for teaching and learning. It removes the physical and time constraints for instructors as well as learners. Moving a course to the web presents the perfect opportunity to re-examine the core principles of teaching and learning and to create a new pedagogical framework for practices.

BUILDING A FOUNDATION OF LEARNING

Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. It can guide us in rethinking the teaching and learning process for new environments. The fundamental unit of pedagogy is the educational experience, which contains these four elements:

* The learner

* The teacher

* Atask to be completed with the help of a teacher

* The knowledge needed to complete the task

This description of the four core components of the teaching and learning process is from Vygotsky (1962) and his theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Viewing all teaching and learning as a series of educational experiences sounds elegant and, in fact, it is. Every learning experience engaged in by a learner has these four elements. The learner is a given. The teacher element is either (1) explicitly present synchronously or asynchronously, at a distance or face to face, or (2) implicitly present by virtue of directed instruction or by virtue of being accessible if needed. The task to be completed is in a student's zone of proximal development, and the knowledge to complete the task is present in the form of resources and tools available to the student. This description of any learning experience combines the basic principle of readiness with the principle of manageable steps in learning supported by a teacher.

You might observe that teaching and learning with these four critical

elements can happen anywhere, anytime. Learning happens when a young child helps a toddler build a tower of blocks; when parents show teenagers how to barbecue chicken or drive a car; and when adults learn how to use new software, repair marine engines, or integrate new tools into teaching and learning processes. Teaching and learning experiences occur every day in many scenarios. Some of these experiences are structured and formal, while others are unstructured, informal, and casual. All fit the definition of a learning experience.

Vygotsky's four-element learning model provides a good place to start a

quest for the fundamentals of learning. The most significant aspect of this learning model is the focus on the task to be performed by the learner. Nothing so focuses a designer of instructional events as knowing the particular task or problem that a student must learn to solve. This task focuses and engages the learner and specifies an assessment of the learning. The learner who solves the problem or completes the task can move on to another problem or task.

Thus, our design task centers on the learning and the learner wherever the learner may be, and reduces the importance of the physical where of

teaching.

STRATEGIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

The field of pedagogy includes the principles of instructional design that specify instructional strategies for teaching and learning. An

instructional strategy is a simple concept: It is a communication activity that engages the learner in a task and assists the learner in acquiring the knowledge, skill, or attitude necessary to complete the task. Instructional strategies include, for example, lectures, discussions, problem solving, interviews, panel presentations, study projects, and assessments. The instructional strategies that assist learning are generally based on one or more of these three basic modes of dialogue and communication in teaching and learning:

* The dialogue between the instructor and the student

* The dialogue between the student and instructional resources

* The dialogue between and among students

Scholars have suggested that a useful design goal for undergraduate

education be an approximate balance of these three dialogues (Pelikan,

1992, p. 61). It can also be a useful design goal for courses, especially online courses (Boettcher, 1995). Designing learning experiences with a balance of these three modes of communication can be just as easy or even easier in an online environment than for campus courses. In the online environment, the spatial and physical limitations of the classroom vanish. Communication in the online environment can be synchronous or asynchronous, can be one-to-one dialogue, or one-to-small group, or one-to-many dialogue, as in broadcast email or website communication.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN FOR FACULTY

A principal characteristic of instructional design is its iterative and

multileveled nature. In other words, instructional design is seldom truly complete, and effective instructional design usually requires design at institutional and infrastructure levels as well as at program, course, activity, and assessment levels (Boettcher, 2003). The process that follows applies primarily to the design at the course, activity, and assessment levels. This overview is provided here as grounding for thinking about learning theory. Instructional design can be described as a four-step process:

1. ANALYZE THE COURSE. Course analysis is usually done by the faculty

member. For many online programs, a more extensive marketing and mission analysis is completed at the program level. This analysis asks questions about whether the program is a match with the students and their needs and expectations, whether it will attract sufficient students, and whether there is sufficient experienced faculty to support the program. The initial course analysis examines the following:

* Learner characteristics

* The learning contexts of the expected learner - where and when students will be learning

* The knowledge, skill goals, and expectations of the learners

* The knowledge and skill requirements of the instructor

* The relationship of the course to the context of the larger certificate or degree program

2. DETERMINE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES. The second step asks the following

Instructional Design 101 questions. If you ask no other questions while

planning a course, these are the most useful and fundamental. At the end of the course,

* What do I want my students to know?

* What do I want my students to be able to do?

* What do I want my students to think as a result of the instruction?

3. DESIGN THE LEARNING EXPERIENCES. The third step focuses on the design of the unit or modules and the learning experiences within those units. During this design step, faculty generally do the following:

* Frame the body of knowledge and select the core and recommended content.

* Identify and select a set of teaching strategies and resources.

* Determine the procedures and processes for assessing student learning.

4. PLAN EVALUATION OF COURSE. The fourth step focuses on evaluating the

design and effectiveness of the course and the program. The plan includes evaluating three dimensions of the program:

* Program design

* Instructor evaluation

* Delivery of the program

In the process of instructional design, we all make decisions based on our own theories and practices of learning. Immersing yourself in a learning theory or embracing principles from a set of theories can be the basis of your own theory and can inform the design of your courses, whether on campus or online.

Judith V. Boettcher mailto: is a lecturer at the University of Florida in distance, continuing, and executive education, and an independent consultant with Designing for Learning. Rita- Marie Conrad mailto: is the principal for RMC eDesign, where she focuses on the issues related to online course design, instruction, and evaluation.

This abstract is from the forthcoming League book, Faculty Guide for Moving Teaching and Learning to the Web, an update of the well-received 1999 guide. Both books are co-authored by Boettcher and Conrad. ______

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