Training the Trainers in the Essentials of Online Learning

Abstract

PCF2 // The use of information and communications technology in education is transforming learning and teaching practices in significant ways. For instance, as a result of the utilization of computer mediated communications technology with multimedia courseware, electronic libraries and databases, a whole new kind of educational experience is emerging, namely elearning or networked learning (Rosenberg, 2001; Steeples, & Jones, 2002). E-Learning refers to the use of networked information and communciations technology to leverage the core processes of learning and teaching namely; subject matter representation, activation of learning and engagement of students with that subject matter content, encouragement of socialization and interaction between and among students, assessment of learning outcomes, and provision of feedback to students. // Affordances and opportunities offered by information and communications technology (ICT) are also causing educators and educational providers to rethink and reengineer the nature of their conventional educational practices (Gibson, 1977; Turvey, 1992). A significant product of this reengineering includes a shift in the roles of teachers from being "providers and deliverers of subject matter content" to becoming "moderators and facilitators of learning" within student-centered approaches to learning. Some of these approaches include "computer supported collaborative learning" (Koschmann, 1996; McConnell, 2000), “computersupported problem based learning (Koschmann, Kelson, Feltovich, & Barrows, 1996), and "distributed problem based learning" (Koschmann, 2002). // These approaches to learning and teaching are closely associated with a growing interest among educators and educational technologists in the capabilities of information and communications technology for leveraging the learning and teaching transaction. Educators are enthusiastic about how they can use information and communications technology to improve their teaching activities which include the engagement of students with the subject matter content, activation of learning, assessment of learning outcomes and provision of feedback to their students. Educational technology researchers, on the other hand, are inquisitive about the influences of ICT on the achievement of content specific, as well as generic learning outcomes, and the processes of learning, including students’ approaches to study, their motivation for learning and engagement with the subject matter content. // This paper is an attempt to address that interest, and that enthusiasm of educators and educational technologists. It is not so much about the tools and technologies for elearning, but about how networked information and communications technology can be used to leverage the core processes of learning and teaching towards the achievement of a rich and productive elearning environment. As such, the disussion in this paper is organized around these core processes of learning and teaching namely subject matter content representation, activation of learning and engagement of students with that subject matter content, encouragement of socialization and interaction between and among students, assessment of learning outcomes, and provision of feedback to students. Together these contributions show how the opportunities that information and communications technology afford, can be used creatively to leverage the entire elearning and teaching transaction, and individually they show how these opportunities can be used to leverage particular activities in the transaction. //