http://www.geocities.com/arthavelina/ElearningDesign/ConflictMgtQuiz.htm

    Part II: Visual Design Evaluation
Due: Exercise will be conducted in class Wed 28 May
Weighting: 10%
Task:
Evaluation of visual design components from 3 existing e-Learning courses. Explanation of how the screen designs effectively addresses the principles of visual design.

Read Mayer & Moreno

•    Describe the screen layout
•    Visual Hierarchy (evaluate the use of contrast to draw attention to the key elements) eg movements, color contrasts, pictures, size, bold texts, placing t on the left because we read from left to right, audience?

•    Placement of Graphics (evaluate in terms of multimedia principle and alignment and proximity principles) ie, learn better with pics than words alone, graphic and text should be near each other,

•    Style of graphics (describe in terms of appropriateness and multimedia coherence principle) ie. choice of graphics – apply to the text?  Purpose of graphic, is it distracting learner? static/motion/interactive/video
•    Use of colours (do the selected colours enhance or distract the learning context)
•    Do you consider the visual design effective from the learning perspective? Why or why not

Cognitive load – too much informations

 Albert Bandura (1977) combines behaviourist reinforcement with cognitive processes for understanding the behaviour of others. Bandura empasises the importance of observing and modeling – his 2 key elements for learning are: experience and expectations§         Experience enables us to learn the consequences of our actions§         Expectations are formed by our experiences Four processes underlie this type of observational learning:1.       Attention: focus on the features of behaviour to be modeled2.       Retention: how well the behaviour is remembered3.       Reproduction: observed behaviour must be turned into action, practice and feedback4.       Reinforcement: to motivate learners to reproduce and perform the behaviours How could you apply Bandura’s Social Learning Theory in an e-Learning context?  

  Read: Social Constructivismhttp://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Social_Constructivism  Watch/listen to the brief lecture:http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/impaticas/Social-Constructivism-PPT.html

 Bruner’s Constructivist Theory: 

Bruner (1966) based his theory on learning by discovery – information should be  organised in a spiral manner that allows the learner to re-arrange and re-assemble content to create new insights.

According to Bruner, discovery and meaningful learning enhances recall and transfer of learning. The main objective is to build upon knowledge the learner already has.

“By creating learning environments that foster the self-development of learners as they explore a situation or problem, teachers can enable learners to arrange, rearrange, and transform evidence so they can gain new insights and experience a sense of achievement in making their own discoveries.  The problem–solving strategies they develop are more transferable, as they have personal meaning and value in terms of the learner’s own purposes and intentions.”

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney.Applying principles of Bruner’s theory: 

1.       Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and context that make the learner willing and able to learn (readiness)

2.       Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the learner (spiral organisation)

3.       Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and/or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)

 The Current Debate:There is a great deal of current debate in education fields that can be summarized into distinct views:1)       Directed InstructionPrimarily the behaviourist and cognitive learning theories2)     Constructivist Learning Characteristics of the 2 types of instruction:             Directed Instruction                             Constructivist Learning

 
How could you apply constructivist learning principles in an e-Learning environment? 

 The Humanist approach developed from the Cognitive but focuses on experiential learning and the assumption that the individual is ever seeking greater personal adequacy, self-esteem and self-actualisation. Humanists emphasise the individual’s innate need to achieve personal worth, dignity and creativity and believe a better society will evolve by nurturing these qualities. Humanist teachers can create a positive classroom climate and encourage the psychological growth towards the creation of self-actualising people.  Humanists believe that learners respond to their environments as they experience it – part of that is the person themselves – the self. Feeling and emotions play an important part in learning. 

What effect might e-Learning contexts have for the Humanist approach?

  Principles emphasised by Humanist theory: 

§         People learn by relating the world to their previous experience – they learn by doing

§         People learn in a free environment that permits and encourages development of potential, self-expression and self-determination

§         People learn co-operatively, which includes constructive feedback in a non-competitive environment

§         The learning that has most meaning for people is that which is contructed by individuals out of their experience

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney.

Theories of Learning

Behaviorism

• observable behavior
• conditioning
• cause and effect (in response to a stimulus)
• learning is a modification of behavior by application of stimuli, shaping of responses and the provision of reinforcement.
• practice and feedback
• classic conditioning can also be demonstrated by our ability to generalize our responses to stimuli.
• operant conditioning- ppl learn to behave in ways that help them obtain things they want or avoid things they don’t want (positive and negative re-inforcement)
• ignoring reinforcements, response will die out.
• learner must be able to respond actively
• frequency of repetition
• reinforcement is vital
• generalization suggests the importance of practice in varied situations (learning transfer)
• Immediate feedback of results is strongly motivating
• shaping behavior by the reinforcement of approximate responses is essential in learning new skills.
• feedback straight after or before the next attempt

Cognitivism

• one difference from behaviorism- cares for the process between learning and being able to do the skill
• learning is based on the re-organisation of experiences into systematic and meaningful patterns that lead to problem solving and insight
• Meaningfulness and insight
• use of groupings, pegging, hooking,
• has pre-test to see what they already know and post test

Humanist

• based on cognitive approach but focusing on individuals need seeking personal adequacy, self-esteem  and self-actualisation.
• blend with another

Constructivism

•  schema-mental model build by personal interactions with others, unique to each individual,
• learning highly dependent on prior knowledge
• go over but in more detail each time (spiral)
• take knowledge and apply it into live situations
• no final formal assessment

Social Learning Theory

•  blend with other
• observing and modeling (mentoring)
• experience
• four processes: attention, retention, reproduction, reinforcement

Social Constructivism

• blend of social and constructivism
• http://tip.psychology.org

  Cognitive psychologists emphasize the role of experience, the development of meaning, and the use of problem-solving and insight as the sources of learning. The individual learner will perceives organised wholes – rather than disconnected pieces.  Each person will behave and learn in terms of what is real for them. Learning is therefore based on the re-organisation of experiences into systematic and meaningful patterns that lead to problem-solving and insight. This will mean that interpretation is subjective – reality is what each of us perceives and understands at any given time. TASK: Watch the following video from the Wharton University of Pennsylvania:http://www.learningwiki.com/theory  Part 2 – Cognitivism  Examples you may be familiar with: Meaningfulness:

According to cognitive theory – our brains look for patterns and completion.

 Our brains have the capacity to associate anything with anything else and will find associations if we allow it to! This allows us to be creative and problem-solve. Each person will create their own meaning based on the current context and their past experiences. Insight:

The sudden Blinding Flash of the Obvious!

The realization of how to solve a problem by a cognitive restructuring of the environment – looking at things differently!

 Until we start thinking around the problem (restructuring and reorganizing) we will not be able to gain any insight into how to solve the problem. 

What effect might meaningfulness and insight have in e-Learning contexts?

  Principles emphasised by Cognitive theory: 

§         The perceptual features of the problem as interpreted by the individual affect what is learned

§         A learning problem should be structured by the teacher so that the essential features are open to the learner’s inspection

§         The organisation of knowledge should move from simple to complex to create a meaningful whole

§         Feedback as hypothesis testing is a basis for correcting faulty learning

 Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney

What is learning?

the process of acquiring knowledge or skills, understanding, making meaning, building on existing knowledge, retaining and applying

How does learning occur?

through changing information to knowledge, practice and feedback,  doing activities, creating meaning and connecting mental schema , teaching and experiencing, self exploration

What factors influence learning?

learning style, context of learning,  motivation, learning environment, content, definition of outcomes, goals, feedback, attitude, individual learner characteristics (eg. age, culture), interest

PERSONAL EPISTEMOLOGY -your own understanding about what is learning to you, will effect the way you will create learning