Pedagogical Considerations in Developing an Online Tutorial in IL

Journal Club Discussion MeetingLoreena Sandalwood

a.k.a. Eleni ZazaniInfolit ischool, Wed 23 Feb 2011

“Didactic” defined

As:

Having the character or manner of a teacher or instructor; characterised by giving instruction; having the giving of instruction as its aim or object; instructive, preceptive.

Pronunciation:  /dɪˈdæktɪk/

Etymology:  modern < Greek διδακτικ-ός apt at teaching, < διδάσκειν to teach.

Source: didactic, adj. and n. Second edition, 1989; online version November 2010. <http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.lib.bbk.ac.uk/Entry/52341>; accessed 15 February 2011. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1895.

Learning Conditions

Settings

Learning GoalsContent

Learning Process

Assessment

Didactic Conditions:

Learning Conditions

Settings

Learning Goals

Content

Learning Process

Assessment

The Didactic Relationship Model

The Didactical Relationship Model (Hiim & Hippe, 1998)

Learning Conditions

Settings

Learning Goals

Assessment

Learning Process

Content

The “Search and Write” Didactic ConditionsDistance Education Students Relate their studies to their

Previous experiences

Student-centred

Process-centred

National Program For Digital Literacy 2004-2008 (Norway)

Undergraduate Level

Postgraduate LevelInformation-Literate &Digitally-Literate Students

Basic

AdvancedLearning Objects (LOs)

Learning-by-doingLearning-by-reflecting

Based on Social-constructivisttheories

Encourages Interaction,Dialogue and Collaboration among peers

Product

Process

Online Feedback is Integrated in the VLE.

Educators initiateProcess-based Assessment

The final presentation will incorporate your input from the discussion anonymously and be made available at http://www.slideshare.net/e_zazani

Discussion

Participants formed an International Discussion Group...

• ...with a multicultural perspective, from:– Australia– Poland– UK– USA

The term “Didactic”

• Both in the UK and the USA, the term brings transmissive connotations.

• It tends to coincide with the action “to teach” but in a more “teacherly way”

Are you involved in creating online tutorials/learning Objects?

• The majority of the participants are designing and developing online tutorials and LOs– for HE and FE students– for On and Off campus usage– to be used by a wide range

of disciplines

The Didactic Relation Model ...

• Was seen as– useful not only for

planning online tutorials but also for planning teaching in general

– Logical– Flexible; different

institutions could adapt it to their individual circumstances

Image available under the Creative Commons Licence at http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaljingsr/3915514724/in/photostream/

Are there any Information Literacy barriers?

• Some aspects of Information Literacy seem more suited to tutorial format than others

• Student-centred approaches for designing tutorials may fail as it is difficult for many students to recognise their information gap

• “Recognising the information need“ is very difficult to teach in a tutorial!

Image: Information skills model available at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/papers/Seven_pillars.html

Are there any Information Literacy barriers?

• "Google Generation" searchers are more likely to cut and paste the words they are given while web-searching

Are there any Information Literacy barriers?

Other standards (IL or pedagogies), used for planning tutorials

• ADDIE approach – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and

Evaluate (ADDIE) process – The Dick and the Carey Systems Approach

Model for Designing Instruction

Focus on Learners’ needs and contexts

Other Didactic conditions of factors to be considered while creating online Tutorials

• Time needed– for the tutorial to be

completed (length) by the students;

– for the instructor/ lecturer to go through a process-centred assessment

We liked this paper because ...(1)

• It addressed the situation & planning of the online tutorial – (not often seen in articles about tutorials)

• Proposes a “Process-centred assessment”– A very useful approach. Getting students to

talk and reflect about the process through blogs reveals whether or not they have learnt. It can also provide a more holistic assessment rather than focusing on competencies and learning outcomes.

“Process-centred assessment” vs. Quizzes

• Quizzes are difficult to design

• Following links can be seen as a race rather than a learning experience

• Quizzes as a formative self-assessment exercises have proved more effective rather than as a summative assessment.

• Students are not engaged with quizzes if they are not marked.Image: Geek quiz, available under the Creative Commons License at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernissimo/920761824/

We liked this paper because ...(2)

• It points up how impossible it is to create one tutorial for "everybody"

Image: 3d boxes, available under the Creative Commons License at http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaljingsr/3915512282/in/photostream/

What we would like to have seenin this paper....(1)

• How the designers work with different academic staff and disciplines to embed the tutorials within courses

• Whether they run a separate course or module on IL

• How faculty in different disciplines use the tutorials differently

Image: 3D Character and Question Mark, available under the Creative Commons License athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaljingsr/3914729343/

What we would like to have seenin this paper....(2)

• Whether instructors are able to put emphasis on different aspects, while “Search & Write” are being used on face-to-face teaching.

• Evaluation of the project and whether distance education students found it useful and easy to follow.

• Any difficulties in finding partners and initiate discussions with students.

Thank you for coming along!

• Pictures from the meeting and other events I have attended at http://www.flickr.com/photos/45598251@N05/

• I am sending tweets @EleniZazani

• Feel free to download the presentation from my Slideshare profile

Click on the “play” button to see a short video created by Sheila Webber

Alternatively follow this link: http://screenr.com/Nbv

Join us at the next Journal Club Meeting ...

Wed 23 March It will feature Yazdan Mansourian, the Iranian researcher, talking

about his information visibility model