“It’s not fun anymore”

An ongoing evaluation of an online learning course

Learning is social

You can encourage social interaction:

• Discussion boards• Real time chat activities• Activities which require interaction

with course materials• Collaborative activities • Tutor available for support and

feedback

“it’s not fun anymore”

Background

• Promoting continence course for registered nurses, 30 credits at level 3.

• Delivered online, with 3 face to face study days.

• Commenced January 2005 and recruited 7 students, 2 from N. Ireland.

• Course end postponed until August 2005. Evaluation anecdotal.

Learning

Learning is transformation of knowledge that

occurs when a student interacts with

informationCarr-Chellum and Duchastel 2000

more interactions = more learning

Structure

Family

Activities

Resources

Session introduction

Discussion board

Real time chatsTutor feedback

Face to face

1 ensure students had the skills to use the website and the tools

available such as real time chats.

2&3 to allow students to discuss and learn about specific clinical skills, which would be more difficult to learn

online e.g digital rectal examination.

Tutors

• Two tutors; one academic and one specialist in continence

• Role to guide the weekly real time chat sessions and to give feedback to students on discussion postings

Evaluation

• The tutors experiences throughout the course

• The ongoing comments from students as they progress through the course

• The transcripts from the weekly RTC

• Course questionnaire - ongoing

• Learning from others• Energy• Time

- employers- management- research- 3 month course extension

• Feedback• Relationships

Issues

There is something missing and what is missing is what made the learning fun

Learning

Learning is transformation of knowledge that

occurs when a student interacts with

informationCarr-Chellum and Duchastel 2000

more interactions = more learning

Learning

“Learning is in the conditions that bring people together and organize a point of contact that allows for a particular piece of information to take on relevance; without the points of contact, without the system of relevance's, there is not learning, there is little memory. Learning does not belong to individual persons, but to the various conversations of which they are a part”

Lave and Wenger 1991:29

Learning

Learning is not just the acquisition of knowledge by individuals so much as the process of social participation.

Lave and Wenger 1991

Situational Learning

Rather than asking what kind of cognitive processes and conceptual structures are involved, ask what kind of social engagements provide the proper context for learning to take place

Hanks 1991:14

Social learning

The process by means of which an agent’s acquisition of new information is caused or favoured by their being exposed to one another in a common environment

Social facilitation and social imitation

Social Facilitation

A mechanism by means of which a given agent updates his/her knowledge base, including social and pragmatic knowledge, by observing and perceiving others’ relationship with their physical or social environment, their features and behaviours.

Social Imitation

Where the agent is ruled by two social goals

concerning someone:1. Know what the other persons does,

how he behaves and how he looks in order to find out standards, rules or as a means to achieve own goals

2. Adopt other persons goals as long as the person is perceived to be a suitable model in the circumstances

How can we extend the classroom walls yet still retain what students’ value most from the classroom setting ?

Thoughts• With experience can learners learn how

to develop social relations online? E.g emails

• Should online learning only be used to supplement/enhance classroom learning, not replace?

• Is collaboration online really the same as face to face relationships?

• How can the fun be put back into online learning?

Discussion