Gagne’s Events of Instructions

What are some of the necessary things that should be included in the e-learning slides to grab hold of the learners’ attention?

1) Gain the attention of the learners throughout the whole process
- Pictures
- Videos
- Interesting quotes
2) Informing learners regarding the objectives of the particular topic
- State what they should learn by the end of these slides
- Make sure that they have learnt these objectives after the end of the slides
3) Stimulating recall of prior learning
- Some questions can be asked regarding the previous slides to see whether the learners can recall what they have learnt previously
- Also can act as a form of revision for the learners
4) Presenting the stimulus
- Make sure that the content is understandable and user-friendly
- Try not to insert too many words in one slide as the learners would tend to get bored easily
5) Provide guidance to the learners
- Provide some relevant examples to the learners to help them better understand the topic they are learning
- A simple scenario regarding the topic can also be included to help them understand how this topic can be applied to their everyday life.
- Audio can be included in the presentation to guide the learners throughout the slides
6) Eliciting performance
- A short quiz (consisting of MCQs) can be given at the end of the topic to test them on their understanding towards the particular topic. However, they will not be graded as this is to provide opportunity for them to perform
- Other than a short quiz, there could be some online exercises for the learners to do after the topic. These online exercises can act as homework to the learners for them to perform
7) Providing feedback
- Learners must have the opportunity to give valuable feedbacks to the instructor to see what the instructor can improve on to make the e-learning more interactive and enjoyable to the learners
- From here, the instructor must make use of the feedbacks and review its e-learning package
8) Assessing performance
- Instructor can do this by giving a test regarding some topics that have been taught to the learners. From here, the marks reveal whether the learners got learnt anything from the online e-learning or not.
- Can be given through MCQs, Open-ended questions, Case-study questions, discussion questions etc
9) Enhancing retention and transfer
- Instructor is recommended to provide review after the learners have completed the test so as to see where they went wrong and learn their mistakes
- Additional exercises can be given to learners to complete so that as they practice more, they understand more regarding the topic. Thus, they will not commit the same mistakes again in the test
To conclude, it is the best to include all of these in your e-learning package. If there is anything missing, things might not go your own way...

Hot Potatoes

Review of Hot Potatoes

Many people think that this application is associated with food. However, this is not so. This application is specialized in creating assessments to test the learners what they have learnt during their e-learning, as well as to interact with the learners too. These include cloze passages, quizzes, crossword puzzles, matching exercises and jumbled-sentence exercises. Learners are also able to learn their own mistakes after the completion of their assessment as the correct answers are always shown after they complete the respective assessment.

For cloze passages, learners are given a passage related to their learning with blanks in it. The task for the learners is to read the passage carefully and fill up the blanks with the correct answer to obtain the allocated marks.

For quizzes, it is somehow similar to the MCQ (Multiple-Choice Questions) test. Only MCQ are given in the quiz and the learners are expected to read the MCQ carefully to select the correct option for it. This then enables them to obtain the marks allocated for each MCQ.

For crossword puzzles, the learners are given a puzzle with blanks to fill in the correct letters to form different words. How would the learners know what to fill into the blanks? They are given a hint to each word and the number of blanks corresponds to the number of letters that form that word. Therefore, 1 of the criteria to obtain the correct answer is to see whether the word fills up the blanks given or not. If the blanks are filled up, you are most probably getting the correct answer.

For matching exercises, the learners are tested to match the correct sequence when given “The process of distillation” for example. This is to test their understanding on the process of distillation to see which comes first and which comes last. If the learners have the correct sequence of “The process of distillation”, then they are able to obtain the allocated marks.

Lastly for jumbled-sentence exercises, the learners are expected to re-arrange the jumbled words to form the correct sentence. There might be more than 1 correct answer to it. Therefore, the learners must read the jumbled-sentence question carefully so as to understand it and correct the sentence to obtain the marks given.

To conclude the review of Hot Potatoes, this application is free for download and easy to use. Therefore, this application is mostly recommended for the instructor who creates the respective e-learning website to test the understanding of the learners.

Audacity

Review of Audacity

Audacity is a useful application for users to record and edit audio files. Many people would think that Audacity is complicated to use and required some training before they could use them. However, they are wrong. Audacity is a quick and easy application to be used for. Since it allows the individual user to record his voice, he must have a microphone attached to the computer to complete this step. Moreover, he must be in a quiet environment so as to record high-quality and non-distorted voice. The user could also import the audio file to Audacity to edit the audio file such as cutting the length of the audio file to make it short and sweet, adding effects to the imported audio file, adjust the volume of the audio file and more! After creating your own audio file or editing your current audio file, the user is able to export the file in these 3 common formats. They are MP3, WAV and Ogg Vorbis. One special feature about MP3 is that the user gets to add the track info on the audio file, which gives the user a satisfaction that he has created his own audio file. There are still many features awaiting you to try in Audacity. So, why wait now? Go and get one today by downloading it from the official Audacity website!

Macromedia Breeze Presenter a.k.a Adobe Presenter

Basic Review of Macromedia Breeze Presenter (Currently known as Adobe Presenter)


Adobe Presenter is always associated with Microsoft Powerpoint as it allows you to create online presentation slides for your learners so that your learners would learn the content presented in the slides. One of the features that Adobe Presenter has is to allow you to have audio in the online presentation slides. The producer of the online presentation slides (one of the components in the e-learning package) is able to import its personal audio created using Audacity or Sound Recorder. However, the producer must bear in mind that the audio files imported must either be in MP3 or WAV format. Other types of audio files are not entertained. Another method for the producer to have audio in its online presentation slides is to record audio using Adobe Presenter, with the use of microphone. The presenter must have the script with him so that he knows what to say when recording the audio. Next, this interesting feature allows the producer to add a quiz mostly at the end of the online presentation slides. The purpose is to see whether the learners have learned anything from the slides so as to complete the quiz accurately. The quiz also reflects how many people have done it. If many people do it, it means that the e-learning content is interesting. However if not many people do it, it means that they are not interested in the e-learning content, not to say the quiz. Attachments could also be added to the online presentation slides to show information in spreadsheets, which cannot be created in Adobe Presenter. It is important to create themes for the online presentation slides so that the slides look appealing and interest the learners to learn the content from the slides. That’s all the basic review of Adobe Presenter.

Summary of the Design process of ADDIE

Summarise what must you do in the Design process


The design is important in the making of the e-learning package. During the design process, lesson maps must be out so as to view the topics available for the users to learn. Learning objectives cannot be forgotten as well as it shows the users what they will learn at the end of the day. Activities could also be designed to incorporate interactivity in learning such as designing a SIMS related game so as to incorporate the importance of saving money and not spending every bits of it. In order to view what the users would be learning in an ordinary order, the lesson structure must be created to show the order of the available topics. Thus, users would be able to understand the basic of the e-learning content before proceeding to the next. Example is that they would learn the concept of savings first, followed by the ways of savings. The layout of the e-learning website should be user-friendly and convenient so that the users would be comfortable with the website. Last but not least, instructional strategies are also found in the design process. For the users to comprehend the knowledge they learned, tutorial questions could be set to see whether they learned fully from the content. Problem-Based learning situations could also be given to check whether the users are able to apply what they have learnt in the situations or not.

Application of Development and Implementation phases in ADDIE for developing an e-learning package

Comment on how you will apply the Development and Implementation phases in ADDIE for developing an e-learning package


For Development, I have to come out with storyboards in order to make sure which respective learning content come first. The learning contents must be in an order so that the users using the e-learning package would learn in a respective way. I could also use storyboards to produce videos so that the users would be able to learn something regarding to the learning contents. As for the learning contents, the production of these could be in many forms. As for me, I prefer to produce contents in the form of text with images, presentation slides with voice recording, video shooting, editing, animation and programming. Sometimes, I would ask myself what are the effective design and development tools for my e-learning website. The answers for it are that I would use the Windows Movie Maker to create home-made videos, sound recorder for voice recording, Microsoft Powerpoint for presentation slides, Flash CS3 for animation, Firework CS3 to create site designs and Dreamweaver CS3 for the design of the website template. Well, is there a need to start from scratch in finding the content for my e-learning package? The answer is NO! I would be able to obtain my contents from lecture notes, books and other relevant sources that can help the users to understand the learning contents.

For Implementation, it is a must to implement the SCORM and AICC standards in my e-learning package. In this way, the small e-learning objects could be reused over and over again to prevent the wasting of precious time, which could be used to do other stuffs. Also, the AICC aids in the development, delivery and evaluation of my e-learning contents. Next, a tracking icon would be added to my e-learning website to keep track on the number of visits of the users. A high number of visits mean that a lot of users are visiting the e-learning website to learn, while a low number of visits mean that very little users visit the website to learn. Next, I would use the two most commonly used browsers for the delivery of my e-learning package. These two browsers are Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox. Lastly, the uploading of the e-learning contents is a must and I must test out whether everything works perfectly well or not. If not, I would have to evaluate on how I can improve to make sure that the users would be able to access to my e-learning package perfectly well.
Feedbacks are equally important as well. With feedbacks, we are able to check whether the users have learned anything from the e-learning package by giving them online assessment. Then, improvements could be made to the e-learning package if the users have low grades for the online assessment.

Definition of a learning object and the characteristics of it, what are the SCORM and AICC standards?

Define what is a learning object and what are the characteristics of a learning object? There are various standards for learning objects, what are the SCORM AND AICC standards?


A learning object is a self-standing, reusable and discrete piece of content that meets an instructional objective. It may be partnered with meta-data so that users can easily identify and locate the other specific learning objects in a Web-based environment.

There are lots of characteristics of a learning object. These include accessibility, interoperability, adaptability, reusability, durability and granularity.

To understand the characteristics, the explanation for each of the characteristics would be given.
Accessibility is important due to the instructional components are often accessed from one remote location and delivered to many other locations in the distributed learning environment.

For interoperability, it uses instructional components developed in one location by using one set of tools or platform. If the instructional components are developed in another location, it will be using a different set of tools or platform. While transferring the learning objects from one CMS (Content Management System) to another, the integrity of the object must be well preserved. Thus, it is important to use an interoperable model while constructing a learning object. Moreover, Meta-data and learning object standards enhance the interoperability of a learning object.

To make sure that we have met the individual and situational needs, a learning object must be adaptable (Adaptability).

Out of all the characteristics, reusability is the most important one. A well designed learning object should allow the users to incorporate it into multiple applications without any additional efforts. Storing, searching and retrieving learning resources have always been a challenge in the traditional teaching and learning media world. Learning object repositories provide solutions to the problems by distributing and reusing the knowledge sources. Therefore, reusable instructional components should be made so that it can be distributed into the learning object repositories in order to share and reuse the object in the future.

Durability operates instructional components when base technology changes, with redesign or recoding. Therefore, by creating a learning object that allows easy updates and republication would extend the durability of the learning object due to the improvement in technology.

Last but not least, Granularity means how rigorously we choose to break down and store our learning object. The unit of a learning object can be in any form such as a course, a lesson and more. Generally, a finer level of granularity promotes reusability, by allowing for use in multiple contexts. But, an increase number of smaller objects mean an increase in costs too.

Now for the SCORM standard, it stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. SCORM is a set of specifications that produces small and reusable e-learning objects when SCORM is applied to the course content. SCORM-compliant courseware elements are easily merged with other compliant elements to produce higher quality and better training materials.

On the other hand, AICC stands for Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee. It is an international association of technology-based training professionals that develops training guidelines for the aviation industry. AICC could also be applied to the development, delivery and evaluation of training courses that are developed through technology. One example could be through a learning management system.

References: (http://adlcolab.uwsa.edu/lo/what.htm)
(http://www.syberworks.com/articles/SCORM.htm)
(http://www.loaz.com/learning-objects/learning-object-characteristics.html)

Advantages - Kirkpatrick's learning model

Advantages of using Kirkpatrick's learning model

There are advantages and disadvantages of using Kirkpatrick’s learning model. In this post, I would be discussing the advantages of using Kirkpatrick’s learning model.

1) Advantage of “Students’ Reaction” – This involves low cost and it is easy to administer. It provides insights to audience’s personal feelings about the course. Moreover, it provides quick feedback on successes and failures to the training provider who provides the e-learning package.

2) Advantage of “Learning Results” – In comparison to “Reaction”, it provides more compelling evidence of whether the training program works or not.

3) Advantage of “Behavior in the Workplace” – Provides stronger evidence that the investment in training yields the desired return. If it is designed in a proper way, it can identify barriers and obstacles to improve performance.

4) Advantage of “Business Results” – It provides strong evidence that training program has a positive / negative impact on the organization. It also addresses whether the performance is important to the organization’s bottom line such as production, safety, sales and more.

Reference: http://www.internationalmta.org/1998/9821.html

Disadvantages - Kirkpatrick's learning model

Disadvantages of using Kirkpatrick's learning model

There are advantages and disadvantages of using Kirkpatrick’s learning model. However in this post, I would be discussing the disadvantages of using Kirkpatrick’s learning model.

1) Disadvantage of “Students' Reaction” – It only reflects a quick opinion of the audience while they are in the class. The results should not be used as a solid basis for changing the educational content or strategy of the e-learning package.

2) Disadvantage of “Learning Results” – More time and money is needed than “ Students' Reaction” as it requires greater insight to the evaluation process to develop valid measures of learning.

3) Disadvantage of “Behavior at the Workplace” – Even more time and money is needed than “Learning”. The reason behind it is that it requires in-depth insight into performance interventions and the causes of performance deficiencies.

4) Disadvantage of “Business Results” – Investment and expertise is a must in order to develop Level 4. In addition, it is difficult to link from training to organization’s results. Thus, it is hard to decide whether to continue develop Level 4 or not, which is “Business Results”.

Reference: http://www.internationalmta.org/1998/9821.html

The things that I would do in the Analysis phase in the ADDIE model (Summarised Version)

Summarised version of the things that I would do in the Analysis phase

For the Analysis phase, we must understand our audience and their characteristics as they would be the one using our e-learning package. For instance, our audience could be either primary or secondary school students. Their characteristics could be different from each other as primary school students could do basic algebra, while secondary school students could do advanced algebra, which primary school students cannot do.

By saying the above, this shows us that we must fulfill the needs of our audience. Different audiences have different needs. Therefore, knowing our audience is the first, yet most important step.

After knowing our audience, we could then come out with the learning objectives for our e-learning package so that the audience should be able to learn and explain certain type of theories. It is also important to create a suitable learning environment for the audience as noisy and distracted learning environment affects the learning process of the audience.

Learning constraints are unavoidable in reality. It affects the learning process of the audience. Music and web-based games are examples of learning constraints that affect audience. There are a few delivery options available for us to communicate the contents through e-learning. We could make use of words, visual aids, audio and more to deliver our e-learning contents to our audience.

We must think what different applications / tools to use in our e-learning package so as to make e-learning more interactive and interesting such as Macromedia Breeze Presenter, Windows Media Player, Macromedia Flash CS3, Macromedia Fireworks CS3, Macromedia Dreamweaver CS3 and more.

Some e-learning websites that I have used

As the title stated, these are some of the e-learning websites that I have used before.

1. Ace-Learning -Specialized at teaching mathematics to students
(http://www.ace-learning.com.sg/sys/index.html)

2. ETS Criterion Online - Specialized at checking and marking of English composition
(http://criterion4.ets.org/cwe/index.php)

3. Online Learning Environment – TP - Most of the modules run through this website. Sometimes, useful information such as project matters is given through this website, unlike other e-learning websites
(http://ole-bb.tp.edu.sg/)

4. EduPOP – Primary and secondary students in Singapore are able to learn from this interactive e-learning website. Students can learn their mistakes if they have done wrong for some questions. (http://www.edupop.com.sg/)

Drawbacks of having e-learning

Drawbacks


1) The learner may be distracted by other programs such as Facebook while having e-learning.
2) Not everyone has internet at home, so not all learners can do e-learning.
3) The learner may not be able to access to E-learning due to lack of software such as Adobe Flash that is required to do so.
4) Learners tend to scan through the information given through e-learning, and not read it word by word. In this way, the learners may not fully understand the information given.
5) For e-learning, the learner has to stare at the screen of an electronic device such as the computer screen. This may affect his eyes and vision for long-hours e-learning.
6) The learner cannot clarify any doubts on the spot with the tutor during e-learning.

Characteristics of E-Learning

Characteristics of e-learning


(Related to 1. from 'What is e-learning? (From website)'
- Access it anytime and anywhere (Convenience)
- Provide trainings to learners
- Delivery of just-in-time information to learners
- Provide guidance to learners

(Related to 2. from 'What is e-learning? (From website)'
- Digital learning of new information
- Online interaction between learners and teachers
- Distance learning

(Related to 3. from 'What is e-learning? (From website)'
- Deliver broad array of solution to learners
- Enhance the knowledge and performance of learners

What is e-learning? (From website)

What is e-learning? (From website)

1) E-learning is the use of technology to enable people to learn anytime and anywhere. E-learning includes trainings, the delivery of just-in-time information and guidance from experts.
(http://www.e-learningconsulting.com/consulting/what/e-learning.html)


2) Learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learners and their teacher or peers.
(http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz/Resources/Glossary-of-Key-Terms/)


3) The use of internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhance knowledge and performance.
(http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/hrd/elearning/define.html)

What is e-learning? (Own words)

What is e-learning? (Own words)

1) Online self-learning for students
2) Posting of lecture notes and videos online to educate students
3) For students to practice self-responsibility for their own learning if there is no lecture/tutorial for the week
4) Most convenient way to acquire new information electronically
5) Every student is able to access and learn new things anywhere, regardless of at home or at institution
6) Delivery of information online and learning without guidance
7) The use of internet webpage and various applications such as Windows Media Player
8) For tutors to access the students online of what they have done / learnt through quizzes and tests

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See you around for the next 17 weeks. Our common goal is to score well for EELD! :D