Clive’s e-learning theory mashup

There are lots of theories about learning and e-learning, and some are quite good, but most people don’t have time to explore them. So here is a ‘mashup’ to try to link some I find the most useful.

I made it earlier this year as part of my OU MA in Online and Distance Education …and have just found it languishing half-forgotten on my OU blog.

So here goes, bearing in mind in the words of Anna Sfard (1988) this is a “patchwork of metaphors rather than a homogenous theory of learning“.

According to Sfard the aim of a higher education is mainly

“a process of becoming a member of a certain [discipline] community…the ability to communicate…to act according to its particular norms“.

However to give awards universities – in their role as gatekeepers of the discipline community – have to assess something more concrete i.e. the acquisition of knowledge. So there is a tension, but both are actually linked (Sfard again);

“the act of acquisition is often tantamount to the act of becoming a participant…competence means being able to repeat what can be repeated while changing what needs to be changed“.

So to go from novice to discipline expert therefore the student needs to go through a process, a number of steps or components. This may be partially sequential, as a student moves from basic understanding towards community-sanctioned competence, but not necessarily so.

The components below are based on the classification Mayes and de Freitas did for JISC in 2004  but renamed. This classification formed the pedagogical underpinning of JISC’s Effective practice in a digital age: A guide to technology-enhanced learning and teaching (2009), a significant expression of the ‘official’ UK approach to e-learning pedagogy. The Mayes and de Freitas framework can also – in my view – be readily mapped on to other frameworks such as the well known Bloom’s Taxonomy or the nowadays more respected (but more complex) Laurillard ‘conversational framework’ or Gilly Salmon’s influential e-tivities.  I have also tried to link the theory to ‘practice’, inspired by Bonk and Zhang’s (2008) Empowering online learning.

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Four ways students learn:

1. Knowledge acquisition

1.1 Content – student acquires knowledge of subject area vicariously from experts.

• Ideas: behaviourism, instructional design (easy to difficult), memorisation.
• Bloom: remember, understand.
• Practice: expert lecture (capture), web resource libraries, lab training, guided readings, language study, FAQs, expert tutorials, handouts, videos, podcasts, self-assessment quizzes and diagnostics, e-books, classroom clickers, literature reviews/critiques, concept maps, news feeds, timelines, image libraries, diagrams, maps, virtual tours, animations .

1.2 Construction – student develops own understanding of the subject through reflection on own hypothesis and testing.

• Ideas: constructivism, experimental learning, scaffolding, Kolb cycle, reflective learning, Laurillard’s ‘internal dialogue’.
• Bloom: apply, analyse.
• Practice: case studies, ‘fuzzy’ problems, individual projects, model answers, placements, fieldwork, personal blogs, portfolios, simulations and models, web research, digital storytelling, data analysis, critique, ranking and rating.

1.3 Collaboration – student develops understanding of the subject further through dialogue (articulation, dealing with alternative views) and collaborative activities (testing understanding through persuasion and practice).

• Ideas: learning as conversation (Laurillard), Salmon’s higher e-tivities, problem-based learning (PBL).
• Bloom: evaluate, create.
• Practice: brainstorming, discussion,  ‘apprenticeship’ with experts, PBL and group projects, online discussion, wikis, collaborative blogs, resource gathering and sharing, social networking, role play, team writing, position papers, creating a video, action research, collaborative glossary, games, tutoring/mentoring.

2. Participation

2.1 Contribution – student develops professional identity through ‘social practices’, becoming part of disciplinary communities of enquiry. This pre-professional learning is challenging in a university contexts.

• Ideas: Wenger ‘communities of practice’
• Bloom: create (and I would add, contribute).
• Practice: communities of practice, communities of enquiry, learning groups, networked learning, professional blogging, tweeting, proposals, reviews, projects, papers and publications, presentations at discipline events.

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Ok, maybe a bit reductionist but in my mind this all fits together. Of course there is more to learning theory, so as a bonus…

Three other influential factors on student learning worth investigating

• Deep and surface approaches (Marton etc,19 70s) – students engage at different levels depending on personal priorities and motivations.
• Educational environment (Engestrom, 1990s) Learners influenced in their engagement by various elements of the educational system such as culture, aims (explicit and hidden), tools, environment etc
• Constructive alignment (Biggs, 1990s) – students approaches can be modified by designing the learning context). ‘Constructive alignment’ is congruence between what the teacher intends learners to be able to do, know or understand (can be described as outcomes), how they teach i.e. the activities and above all how they assess.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcmom/63762918/