Week 12
Blog # 6
Shelly Wright
What does learning mean? What does it mean if you say that “students have learned”? How do you assess learning outcomes? Respond to this question based your understanding of the readings.
I found several different definitions of learning while surfing the net:
Wikipedia defines Learning as the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. It is the goal of education, and the product of experience.
Marilyn vos Sanants in “Train Building”, states that learning is what allows us to make sense of the confusing array of stimuli that reach us from every part of our environment, So, essentially learning is what allows us to be who we are, and live the lives that we live.
Probably my most favorite definition and I don’t remember where it came from is:
It is through learning that we are able to define who we are and what we want to accomplish with our lives. If we were unable to learn, then we would be unable to gain anything significant from the experiences that we all have each day. Everything that happens to us on a daily basis would lose all significance if we were unable to learn from it. Every tiny little thing that happens to you in the course of your day is in fact a learning experience, whether you realize it at the time or not.
So, if a student has learned, it means that the student was able to take newfound information and incorporate it into their life. An example would be by taking this class, we have learned that there is much more to creating an online learning environment than just putting a syllabus and lecture notes online, and by taking this knowledge and being able to apply it in “real” life, I feel as if we (I), have learned.
Assessing learning outcomes is more than just a test at the end of a unit. I feel that students need multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning. Scott Howell, speaks of using a test blueprints to help ensure that the outcomes are in line with the instruction. He speaks of the importance of reconciling test items with learning objectives to ensure accountability.
In a excerpts from Good Teaching is Good Teaching: An Emerging Set of Guiding Principles and Practices for the Design and Development of Distance Education by Lawrence C. Ragan, he states that assessment should be aligned with the learning goals and objectives, and should be utilized as integral parts of the learning environment, both formative and summative opportunities should be provide in order to enable learners to assess their progress, identify areas that need review and revise lesson goals or create immediate learning goals.
Based on your review and synthesis of the readings, what does “quality” of online learning mean to you? Please backup your statement with references.
Quality of online learning means different things to different people, but basically includes aspects of learning effectiveness, student and faculty satisfaction, as well as cost effectiveness and access. Others aspects of quality include course structure, teaching and learning and support from your institution. I personally think that quality of online learning means that the student is able to comprehend and apply the material that was taught. To me this means that the instructor and the teaching theories are the most important part of online learning.
In reading Quality On the Line, Benchmarks for success in Internet-Based Distance Education, which was prepared by The Institute for Higher Education Policy states that there are several benchmarks that are essential to the success of an Internet-Based education program: These benchmarks can also be considered quality measures.
Institutional Support Benchmarks: including electronic security measures, reliable technology delivery system is as failsafe as possible, and a centralized system provides support for building and maintain the distance education infrastructure.
Course Development Benchmarks: guidelines regarding minimum standards are used for course development, design and delivery, while leaning outcomes determine the technology being used to deliver course content, instructional materials are reviewed periodically to ensure they meet program standards, and courses are designed to require students to engage themselves in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation as part of their course and program requirements.
Teaching/learning Benchmarks: students have interaction with faculty and other students, and it is facilitated through a variety of ways, feedback to assignments and questions is constructive and provided in a timely manner, and students are instructed in the proper methods of effective research, including assessment of the validity of resources.
Course Structure Benchmarks: Students are instructed regarding the minimal technology required by the course design, they are provided with supplemental course information, they have access to sufficient library resources, and faculty and students agree upon expectations regarding times for student assignment completion and faculty response.
Student Support Benchmarks: Students are provided with hands-on training and information to aid them is securing material through electronic databases, etc., throughout the course, and their questions are answered accurately and quickly, as well as have a structure in place to address student complaints.
Faculty Support Benchmarks: Faculty members are assisted in the transition from classroom teaching to online instruction, they have proper training and assistance, including peer mentoring, and are provided with written resources to deal with issues arising from student use of electronically-accessed data.
Based on your review and synthesis of the readings and discussions this semester, brainstorm a conceptual framework to evaluate the quality of an online learning community. What dimensions and factors would you consider?
I agree with the Quality Matters Rubric Standards that came from the Quality matters website. They have a rubric stands with assigned point values that address all of the quality features of on online learning environment. They cover the following areas, course overview and introduction, learning objectives, assessment and measurements, resources and materials, learner engagement, course technology, learner support and accessibility.
7 comments:
Shelly,
I like how you incorporated several definitions of learning. I really like the one that you said you didn't know where it came from. That was good. The quality assessment rubric is a good tool for judging quality of an online learning community. Good Job!
I like all of your definitions of learning, and I especially like your overall idea that learning is what makes us who we are. We all tend to think of learning in formal environments and forget the informal learning that we engage in every single day. Excellent points all and thanks for broadening my scope. I completely forgot to address cost effectiveness in my discussion of what quality means!
Shelly - I really liked the six benchmarks you used in describing quality for online learning. Two of these benchmarks that I had not thought of included the Institutional Support and the Faculty Support. We always hone in one the design and delivery of the instruction, even on the tools and techniques; however, without the institutional / technology support and the support provided to the faculty - including the peer mentoring - an online learning community could be at risk. Wouldn't it be interesting to have an online learning community just to support online learning instructors? Good posting.
Karla
Shelly,
Thank you for providing the benchmarks. Thinking about the faculty benchmarks, I wonder how well these are implemented at various institutions? That is, I would guess that most instructors have access to tutorials and maybe some workshops or even a help desk for using the online interface, but what about help with the instructional design of courses? Not all university faculty (not many!) have instructional design experience. Do you have any feel for this where you are? I'm curious as to what is common practice at universities and other organizations.
Shelly, I also liked your definitions. Instructors cannot stay in a vacuum, they have to stay abreast of changes in learning environments and have to tap into resources that keep the community grounded and focused in the primary objectives of a course. The learner influences the quality as well as the instruction. Enlisting students to fulfill the goals for their own future learning experiences, I think is key.
Shelly,
I was really struck by what you said about the student being able to take what they have learned and incorporate it into an authentic situation in their life. I think that sometimes we get so wrapped up in the rules and proceedures of teaching that we forget that this is the bottom line. Thanks for putting that into perspective.
Assessment without a doubt needs to be aligned with learning goals and objectives. During my undergraduate degree, teachers would lecture about a topic and when test time came around they would just pull some question out of a question bank. So, some of the questions will be entirely off topic, which is really frustrating for a student. It seems as if some students are set up for failure because a professor gets lazy and does not base test off of his/her original leaning goals.
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