Ikarus: Teaching and Studying in Virtual Learning Environments Home -> Weekly -> Forums -> Studygroup Technology -> Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason MODELS OF ONLINE COURSES - ROBIN MASON by Johan Nilsson - Tuesday, 11 March 2003, 01:53 PM Mason does a good job in trying to straighten out the muddle which surrounds the terms “online course” and “online learning. It made me think of my own definition of online-learning and what criterions i read into it, and im sure all of you participating in this seminar all have different definitions of this. I found my definition of an “online course” was much more narrow that Masons.For example, the characteristic Mason ascribes to his “Content + Support Model” are things that I feel are naturally integrated in most of the “other” educationthat I attend at my university, i.e. usage of first-class group communication software with course-specific areas/topics and reading material made available over the Internet.I cannot testify that this is the case elsewhere, but I have started to perceive it as a natural part of the education. A number of important issues are raised in the article, the two which feels most valid to me is the parts which discusses “online assessment” and “Interactive course materials”. First off, the part where Mason discusses “online assessment”. Mason points out the outdated methods that are used in the assessment in higher education, he argues that “using information is more important than remembering it, and where reusing material should be viewed as a skill to be encouraged, not as academic plagiarism to be despised”. This is one of the biggest benefits with this kind of teaching, the possibility to go “beyond” the standard (written) exams and see, not just WHAT you know but how you utilize that knowledge. I personally think that the fact that so many (technical) universities are reluctant in changing their way of assessing student results is attributed to the fact that in the academical world a natural inertia is inherent to the system. But perhaps new methods in (on-line) teaching with a usage of “online assessment” can act as a contributing factor in changing the assessment system as a whole in the academic world? Regarding “Interactive course material” Mason explains that: “the technology exists to design and produce teaching material which offers the learner genuine choice of learning routes and methods, a range of video, audio and text materials, and opportunities to interact meaningfully with content”. BUT “Technology is rarely the problem - and equally rarely the solution! Sharing computer-based teaching material amongst consortia or on a commercial basis, is the holy grail - much talked of and aspired to even in funded programs, but so difficult to achieve. The Web and to some extent CD-ROMs overcome the early interoperability problems in sharing computer-based software, and quality of teaching material is now the major stumbling block. Many computer-based teaching programs whether stand alone, on an Intranet or the Web, fall into one of two categories: all glitz and no substance, or content which reflects a rote-learning, right/wrong approach to learning.” Once again Mason touches the core of the problem, the problem lies not in the distribution of -or the quality of the interaction in the material, It all comes down to the basics. Is the material relevant and is it up-to-date. I personally think that “interactive course material” offer somewhat unneccesary features. Not in the sense that it don’t fulfill an important function, I am sure that it’s very helpful in the learning process. But I think that online-learning is not dependent of such specific functions, the important part is the interaction with the teachers and the students and the synergic effects that can (hopefully) arise from that interaction. ...well. that was not many technical apects touched,, but i didn’t feel the article was techically centered ..? Re: Models of Online Courses - assessment methods by Monika Hanesch - Tuesday, 11 March 2003, 05:50 PM Hi Johan yes, the article does not touch many technical aspects, but I think it touches the right problems one should think over before creating a course. The techniques we use will much depend on what features we want to offer. But the most interesting aspect of your posting is the criticism of assessment. How do you want to change the assessment? Judging the use of knowledge instead of the knowledge itself is only done when you write a thesis. It is much more work than judging knowledge – it is also more interesting but here we come back to the basic problem of (at least German and Austrian) universities: money for the people who teach. I do not see how this can be done for a huge amount of people. You think online assessment can help in this change. This sounds promising to me but I lack phantasy in this point: which new methods could help us here? Monika Re: Models of Online Courses - assessment methods by Christer Lind - Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 05:23 PM Hi Johan and Moncia! I agree that Mason's paper is a good attempt to begin to define what the online educational world is all about. (Even though I'm a student of the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University my focus is primarily on "Management & IT" - how to use IT..- so I'm not so unhappy that the discussion is not very technical). About the issues in online learning Mason points to the need of structuring discussions. I believe this is very important, especially in large groups. You need a clear goal and focus, and some instructions for the job, otherwise you get completely confused of the amount of contributions and the difficulty to evaluate them. This was my impression of this site the first days when looking at the Cafe discussions. Now I feel we have more structure in smaller study groups. The three models Content + Support, Wrap Around, and Integrated model make sense to me, even though the distincitions between them are not crystal clear. Each of the model has its pros and cons. And you have to choose model after the current educational situation and needs. In the Integrated model (this is the one we are using, isn't it?) content is fluid and dynamic, and is largely defined by the individual and the group's activity. About "online assessment"; You two discuss the need for refreshing outdated university methods. The issue of how to evaluate contribution is important when you want to apply the integrated model. Monica asks HOW this new assessment can be done. I have no answer, but I saw that "ratings" were discussed in the RIPE article. So, I will read more and come back on this subject under the RIPE heading. :-) Christer Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Robel Altun - Thursday, 13 March 2003, 06:37 PM Hello Johan I agree with you when you write that the article does not touch so many technical aspects ass it should because this is the technical study group. I also agree with Johan’s writing about the text: Mason is trying to explain the terms online course and online learning. My own thought about online learning that it is a good way to get to know other people from other countries and exchange different ides and different knowledge between each other. Best regards Robel Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Martin Koetter - Friday, 14 March 2003, 11:50 AM While reading Mr. Masons article, Í´ve been asking myself: What´s the whole point of online-teaching or in my case, online-learning? I don´t think there is a simple answer to the question, nevertheless I consider it important to think about it for a second. Since my response should somewhat focus on the tecnical spects of the problem, I want to start looking at the possibilities that online-teaching/online-learning offers the individual participant. Never before has a single forum provided an enourmous amount of information (useful and/or useless) as has the internet. Never before have people been able to access that information from almost anywhere on the planet in such a short time as today. And never before have so many people relied on the information provided by the internet, have life´s depended on that information and fortunes been made or lost based on these informations. The possibilities are endless, as is the use of the information. So why not use the internet as a forum for exchange of knowledge in the classical sense, as a classroom?as in most things in life, there is a downside, or perhaps, more than one. Modern day society requires a lot more knowledge and information in order to be succesful than it has just a couple of years ago. In order to get the information that would help to keep up with the rapid changes, especially as far as technology is concerned, one has to invest a lot of time, a lot of energy and sometimes even a lot of money. Mr. Masons article about the history of online-teaching and online-seminars is really pretty short (no offense) and if would be written down completly would certainly fill libraries. Realization of the huge amount of information available to a single individual trough online-teaching could bring every High-school teacher to tears. To make online-learning worthwhile and attractive for everybody, one has to be able to separate the useful from the useless information.That is probably the hardest part for anybody who seeks useful information on the internet. Who hasn´t searched the web for an important piece of clueage and in response has gotten tons of pornographic material and other useless information? Now, this problem could be solved in a technical way, but is still being worked on. Nevertheless is online-teaching, without a doubt, the teaching-method of the future, were the mere presence of a teacher is no longer required and larger amounts of students can profit from knowledge and experience of teachers hundreds of miles away. Therefore, the pedagogical value of online-teaching should no longer be questioned, because the advantages are obvious to anyone. In addition to that, no other form of education demands so much independent study from the student, as does online-teaching. The student has to realize and acknowledge the value of the things he or she is being taught, the stundent has to understand that learning is for their own good and not forced upon them by mean and cruel teachers. The opportunity to study should be considered a privilege, not an obligation. I think, that is the key to successful studies, which sort of exterminates the concept of "pedagogical evolution" (again, no offense intended). To summarize, online-seminars certainly point the way into a brighter future, educationalwise, but there´s still a long way to go, also as far as the technical aspect of the problem is concerned. The basic concept of online-teaching is the right way to go, but will have to be extended, cultivated and improved. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Martin Koetter - Friday, 14 March 2003, 11:52 AM While reading Mr. Masons article, Í´ve been asking myself: What´s the whole point of online-teaching or in my case, online-learning? I don´t think there is a simple answer to the question, nevertheless I consider it important to think about it for a second. Since my response should somewhat focus on the tecnical spects of the problem, I want to start looking at the possibilities that online-teaching/online-learning offers the individual participant. Never before has a single forum provided an enourmous amount of information (useful and/or useless) as has the internet. Never before have people been able to access that information from almost anywhere on the planet in such a short time as today. And never before have so many people relied on the information provided by the internet, have life´s depended on that information and fortunes been made or lost based on these informations. The possibilities are endless, as is the use of the information. So why not use the internet as a forum for exchange of knowledge in the classical sense, as a classroom?as in most things in life, there is a downside, or perhaps, more than one. Modern day society requires a lot more knowledge and information in order to be succesful than it has just a couple of years ago. In order to get the information that would help to keep up with the rapid changes, especially as far as technology is concerned, one has to invest a lot of time, a lot of energy and sometimes even a lot of money. Mr. Masons article about the history of online-teaching and online-seminars is really pretty short (no offense) and if would be written down completly would certainly fill libraries. Realization of the huge amount of information available to a single individual trough online-teaching could bring every High-school teacher to tears. To make online-learning worthwhile and attractive for everybody, one has to be able to separate the useful from the useless information.That is probably the hardest part for anybody who seeks useful information on the internet. Who hasn´t searched the web for an important piece of clueage and in response has gotten tons of pornographic material and other useless information? Now, this problem could be solved in a technical way, but is still being worked on. Nevertheless is online-teaching, without a doubt, the teaching-method of the future, were the mere presence of a teacher is no longer required and larger amounts of students can profit from knowledge and experience of teachers hundreds of miles away. Therefore, the pedagogical value of online-teaching should no longer be questioned, because the advantages are obvious to anyone. In addition to that, no other form of education demands so much independent study from the student, as does online-teaching. The student has to realize and acknowledge the value of the things he or she is being taught, the stundent has to understand that learning is for their own good and not forced upon them by mean and cruel teachers. The opportunity to study should be considered a privilege, not an obligation. I think, that is the key to successful studies, which sort of exterminates the concept of "pedagogical evolution" (again, no offense intended). To summarize, online-seminars certainly point the way into a brighter future, educationalwise, but there´s still a long way to go, also as far as the technical aspect of the problem is concerned. The basic concept of online-teaching is the right way to go, but will have to be extended, cultivated and improved. Re: Models of Online Courses - assessment methods by Johan Nilsson - Friday, 14 March 2003, 02:14 PM I don't have any clear solutions how as to change the assessment. I can only take as a starting point my own experiences from the university where I study, and my opinion is that they generally give emphasis to traditional assessment of knowledge in favour of assessing how you utilize it.. i.e. the balance between theoretical and practical knowledge is abit askew.. My experience of online(distance) learning has mainly been of programming, hence highly aimed at evaluating how you use your knowledge,.. but I guess that lies in the nature of the subject.. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Jessica Smaaland - Friday, 14 March 2003, 05:45 PM I also don’t have an answer how to measure how students use their knowledge, but I do believe it’s possible one way or another. My online learning experience is also mainly in the programming area, and I think it worked great. The assessments let us use our knowledge and it gave us a deaper understanding of the subject. In similar practical subjects it shouldn’t be too difficult to do something similar. Take for example a basic course in accounting. Let students ”be” a business, and let them exchange transactions between each other, which then is accounted. A bit more work for the teacher maybe, but the students will surely get a better understanding of the subject. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Pia Wennek - Saturday, 15 March 2003, 05:00 AM I find the article of Robin Mason very interesting and I agree with most of his statements. In the following cases I do not agree. From my viewpoint the content+support model as described by Robin Mason does not count as an online course. With an online component which represents not more than 20% of the course it seems to be a face-to-face course with online support. I do not agree with the following statement: “They are particularly ill suited to the digital age in which using information is more important than remembering it, and where reusing material should be viewed as a skill to be encouraged, not as academic plagiarism to be despised.” Reusing material is of course a skill in our world, but it is called plagiarism when the used material is not properly cited. “The underlying aim of such courses is learning how to learn; that is, facilitating knowledge management skills such as searching, selecting and synthesizing information, discovering how and where to find answers and solutions, and understanding, transforming and presenting ideas. The Web provides both the cause and the means for doing this.” This is not only valid for online courses, I think that is generally valid for every learning techniques. Re: Models of Online Courses - assessment methods by Dennis Reil - Sunday, 16 March 2003, 03:23 PM Hi, I think the struturing is one of the most important issues. Christer, you talked about the structuring in this seminar. I too think, that it's now better in the studygroups, but it's also hard to follow discussions, because there is nothing indicating new messages in a thread or a forum. This seems to be a weak point in this learning environment. Regarding online assessment: I think Mason outlines that one can make extensive use of self-tests in an online course. Students can try out their knowledge right after learning a chapter, etc. For me, this seems to be a good possibility to improve the results and a learning environment can provide powerful functions for creating these tests, e.g. automatic test generation by the use of question pools. Furthermore, question pools could be exchanged or supplemented with question pools from other universities. kind regards Dennis Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Dennis Reil - Sunday, 16 March 2003, 03:31 PM That's a good point, but it can go a step further with learning games. The effort for creating such a game is high and therefore can't be done by one teacher, but technology can give us the possibility for integrating such a game e.g. from a "game service provider" into our learning environment. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Joerg Schulze - Sunday, 16 March 2003, 05:51 PM Comment on the articles RIPE: Rapid Instruction and Production Environment Models of Online Courses Compared to the article comparing CD-ROM and Internet as media for online learning, the two articles mentioned above are much more agreeable. This is mainly due to their systematic approach to the problem. Especially the second one classifies the sorts of online courses and allows the reader to draw conclusions regarding own online projects. Although technically oriented, Models of Online Courses partly includes the view of the teacher. Between the lines you can find the general understanding that is not enough for a new technology just to be there in order to be used, but that it needs to provide some new potential. The RIPE article only speaks about a "critical mass" that has to be reached before computer-aided learning can be successful. None of the articles elaborates on special shortcomings of online teaching, but they do mention that the two main limitations are - assessment of the student's work (with the exception of multiple choice testing) - individual feedback from the tutor (which can be more time consuming than in traditional teaching) In both articles I missed the following points that came to my mind after reading and which could be worth discussing: 1. In a traditional classroom situation the tutor sees mistakes while they are made. He can influence the working progress. In an online situation mistakes have to be completed before they are noticed. This can easily result in frustration. 2. Most of the texts I have read so far have the adult professional in mind and totally ignored the aspect of motivation. For pupils, however, the technical fun-factor, which almost certainly will be a starting motivation, can be easily destroyed by any little inadequacy. These are much more difficult to correct in a technology-based teaching situation than in a face-to-face tutorial. The very obvious example for my theory is the questionnaire in this course. After I had completed it, it told me that I had forgotten one of the questions and that I had to go back. I confirmed that and was offered a blank new questionnaire and my previous work was lost. Because I didn't like the questions anyway, I cancelled the process (OK, I promise to complete it in a minute). Again: Danger of frustration. 3. Much of the discussion in this course and the materials I read claim to speak about online learning, but mainly talk about online literature. The web is very often regarded as a huge document management system (which it probably is). This, however, does not automatically mean online learning in the same way as the pure existence of textbooks in our schools cannot be called teaching. It might be interesting to find out in this course, what technical means we need to utilise the Web best and where the content comes from. The two extremes seem to be A: the web is the medium, the tutor provides content B: the web is the content. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Helena Nilsson - Sunday, 16 March 2003, 09:23 PM Elearning is indeed a very blurry concept and I think Mason do a great effort to define the word. The paper might not have a technical aspect, but Mason points out that ‘the technology is rarely the problem - and equally rarely the solution’. I can totally agree with him. There are so much more things that are of importance when creating an elearning course. For example Mason discuss the importance of being a good online teacher. I believe you can be a great face-to-face teacher, but fail as an online teacher. You have to be aware of what medium you are using and it limitations. Jennifer Hofman is listing some basic tips for an online teacher to think of in her article Light! Camera! Action! Getting ready to teach online. For example she is mention: Keep an open mind. Many new online instructors aren't convinced that the learning medium is effective. Prepare a script. Don't assume that you don't need a leader guide. Plan what you want to say and how you want to say it. Prepare the team. It takes more than one person to get an online class off the ground. Prepare a back-up plan. Sometimes technology just doesn't work, no matter how much you prepare Her advises might seem simply, but it will be a disaster for the participants if the teacher don’t take care. However it does not only depend on the teacher, it also matters how the online course is designed. In Terms of Engagement: Keeping Learners Online by Jim Elsenheimer, Elsenheimer points out the importance of making the course entertaining and interactive. Other things that are of importance are: Control- Modern learners don't want to be prisoners of a restrictive program. The liberating aspect of the Internet is that it empowers individual users to control their access to the online world. Usability- If learners can’t figure out what to do, they won’t stay learners for long. Customisation- Enhances engagement by connecting with learners at the personal level. I agree with Mason that online courses have developed a lot, but I still think there are much to do. An online course expects much from its participants. I can sometimes get stressed of the tough of not take part enough in the course. You can also notice this in the acting of the other participants. Because you partly are giving a grade after activity some contribution are irrelevant. This leads to information overflow and that is a big problem for online courses. It is of importance how the information is structured and managed. Therefor a key concept is to success to motivate the participants and that is not easy task. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Håkan Jeppsson - Tuesday, 18 March 2003, 04:50 PM Interesting article especially in the end under the discussion new learning environment I personally think that it is a challenge to build a learning environment where participants could teach each other to do the right thing. If controlled it can give a more dynamic dimension to online learning. Re: Models of Online Courses - Robin Mason by Ingo Wagner - Thursday, 20 March 2003, 10:10 AM The author R. Mason (1998) recommends to generate good discussions breaking large numbers of students into small groups. I wished the presenters of Ikarus: Teaching and Learning in Virtual Learning Environments would have organized the discussions like this. By the way where is the teacher? How do they motivate people to post their information for other participants? Up till now I cannot recognize any difference to the innumerable other e-leaning discussion groups. Perhaps this wasn't intended. Re: your unreadable contribution, Martin by Martina Gajewski - Saturday, 22 March 2003, 12:47 PM Martin, without having read your contribution: Could you please do me the favour and break up your text into many smaller paragraphs??? That will make it more readable. Thanks Martina Re: Models of Online Courses and assessment by Martina Gajewski - Saturday, 22 March 2003, 01:33 PM Hi Monika, Johan, Christer and Dennis, instead of opening up a new thread I'll try to refer to your postings, because I think that's what an "Integrated Model"-Course like this one is there for ;-) ...and not having individualized "consuming" learning and spitting it out again by "reproducing" the knowledge that one has - more or less - acquired. Being able to interact with you - even internationally - is the most valuable aspect for me in this course. I think the distinction Mason makes with his 3 models is very valid. One has to be very much aware of which of these "3 models" to apply for an online course, and what the criteria of assessment are supposed to be. One has to avoid the possible conflict Mason speaks about of "learning the materials" on the one hand and "participating in discussions" on the other hand. It is indeed the question what should be in the center of a course's activities: researching information and fulfilling tasks about it + having additional discussions OR putting the discussions = the interaction among the students into the centre of a course and let the tasks be developed from there. I have made the experience that it is the interaction and collaborative work that makes online learning much more interesting and challenging. As to assessing these activities I agree that it costs more effort on the side of the instructors to assess a) a dynamically developed product and b) the process of developing it. But there is high potential in the group's self-evaluation of its activities and process. One needs criteria to assess them to have something to cling to. The cost aspect that goes along with all that which Mason mentions is important to keep in mind. I can imagine that tutor costs rise in the integrated model (unfortunately Mason does not really speak about the costs here). And I like the idea of having real time events for, for example, peer marking. Martina