Evaluation

The five levels of evaluation are: reactions, learning, transfer, results and return on investment. (The first four levels are by Kirkpatrick and the fifth is by Phillips.)

As the levels increase, the difficulty in evaluating grows. All five levels of evaluation are useful and serve a specific purpose. The fifth level, return on investment, is the most comprehensive in my opinion. This "bottom line" approach will ultimately determine if using the resource was worth it. This is especially true in a business setting. Does the training make a difference in future performance? Hopefully the answer is not "I don't know." In a perfect world we would have resources available to thoroughly evaluate to determine if our approach is successful and learning and improvements are taking place.

Accessibility and open resources

With increased use of the Internet there is opportunity for people of all abilities to learn, benefit and contribute. We can ignorantly block others from using our site or materials by not taking the extra steps to make them accessible. This is so important as we consider using and re-mixing open resources. The idea is for materials to continually expand and be used in multiple applications. If we are not careful, we can stop the progression by not providing them in accessible formats.

As professional teachers/trainers it's a good thing to keep this as a recurring thought in whatever project or lesson we are preparing or participating in.

Issues in online education

This week was very interesting. Each student got to select an article related to online learning on a topic that had not already been covered. The variety is amazing. In fact, I think this has been my favorite week because of that. From educational gaming to motivation to student characteristics, there are many issues surrounding the ongoing improvement of distance education.

One thing this week puts into perspective is the many directions you can go in teaching online. There are multiple tools available for each need. The challenge is to find the one that will be easy enough to use quickly and promote the desired outcomes.

Effectiveness of distance education

After reading the articles this week, I am convinced that distance learning can be just as effective as face to face. There are elements that need to be present for this to happen. They include a well thought out teaching plan, effective communication and interaction between the teacher and student-to -student as well as timely feedback.

I was thinking that in the US, there wasn't a stigma about online learning. Then I was watching a Glee re-run. Once again Sue was telling Mr. Schuester that she was better than him. This time it was because she had her PhD and he didn't. Mr. Schuester said, "Yeah, but you got it online!"

Okay, the line was funny, but I still felt guilty while I laughed!

Distance Education

I am amazed at the variety of online classes that are being offered. One would think that there are subjects that would naturally lend themselves to being difficult to learn online. With the variety of tools that are either being developed or being used in innovative ways, it seems the limitations are few. There is also a sense of freedom and control over your own learning that I enjoy.

Another advantage of online classes is the decreased cost to the student. Of course, institutions need to be diligent in controlling costs associated with distance education. They experience reductions in cost as additional courses are added, each subsequent class costing less than the previous. As administrators get better at implementing this process, I believe the costs will decrease so that more emphasis will be placed on this avenue.

Student collaboration

Web 2.0 tools are making the distance disolve between online students. We are fortunate that we have the available resources to collaborate together without actually being together.

Because students learn from each other, it's critical to facilitate communication. I have been teaching a class on how to verify income using tax returns for the last couple of weeks. The students always end up collaborating at their tables to get the solution. I encourage this. By combining their respective experience and knowledge they all learn more.

If the right tools are used, I'm starting to think that there are only a few subjects left that can't be taught asynchronously online.

Open Educational Resources

I just got done browsing MIT's open course ware site. Wow! I looked mostly at the literature courses and was impressed by all of the free resources, from readings and books to supplementary resources and syllabuses. Looking at the required assignments should spark ideas to be applied in individual teaching settings. I wish I had many more hours in the day to use these resources for my own learning...maybe after I finish this MEd degree!
I would hope to see more institutions use this approach to improve teaching and learning. Having access to a variety of resources, being able to add to and modify the content, would allow teachers to individualize instruction for their students in more cases.
That would be a good thing for all.