Chapter 2 from the book Theory and Practice of Online Learning

1. Chapter 2 :
Towards a
Theory of
Online
Learning
HAFIDZAH ABDUL AZIZ
http://www.slideshare.net/HafidzahAziz

2. The
Semantic
Web

3. The Semantic Web
 In Web 1 the scope of web pages are to just give
out the information to the viewers as we see in TVs.
 In Web 2.0 WebPage became dynamic in
behavior, they provide information and also
accepts data from the viewers and produce results
based on those data. The current version of Web
we are using is Web 2.0.
 Web 3.0 provides a better efficient searching of the
web using the semantics of the content in the
pages. That means the search engines work not
with the keywords we use to search, but with the
meaning of the search query we gave. So the main
and most important feature of Web 3.0 is Semantic
Web.

4. Attributes of Learning

5. Learner-centered environments focus on the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students
bring to the learning situation.
Instructors should be aware that students:
 bring knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs
with them.
 may have misconceptions and biases.
 are often novices and have no construct
knowledge.

6. Knowledge-centered environments focus on
content that is organized around big ideas or
core concepts.
Instructors can:
 help students organize knowledge.
 promote the idea that new information
should make sense in context.
 promote learning one's way around the
discipline.
 promote the qualitative as well as
quantitative understanding.

7. Assessment-centered environments help students' thinking
to become more visible so that both they and their teachers
may assess and revise their understanding.
 Online learning can provide many forms of assessment by
both the instructor and peers. Well-designed online
learning environments should encourage self-assessment .
 Online assessment can come in the form of computer-
graded quizzes, simulation exercises and virtual labs,
collaborative learning environments where students can
assess their own growth and learning through virtual
groups and automated tutors.
 For e-learning, the most difficult task is providing high
quality and quantity of assessment, while at the same time
maintaining student interest.

8. Community-centered environments capitalize on local
expertise to create a sense of collaboration among
students.
 A well designed online learning community will provide
for a social environment.
 Based on Vygotsky's "social cognition", a community-
centred online learning environment will provide a space
for students to work collaboratively in creating new
knowledge. Members of these communities will support
and challenge one another in an effort to create and
build knowledge.
 Members of these communities feel a strong mutual
sense of belonging to the community and thus, share a
commitment to contributing and participating to the
community of learning.

9. Affordances
of the
network
environment
and the
attributes of
“How people
learn.”

10. Anderson’s
Model of
Online
Learning

11. The Role of Interaction in Online Learning
Student / Student
STUDENT
Student / Content Student / Teacher
CONTENT TEACHER
Content / Content Teacher / Teacher
Teacher / Content
Modes of Interaction in Distance Education from Anderson and Garrison, (1998).

12. Anderson outlines six categories of
educational interaction:
 Student-Student Interaction - Students construct
and develop meaning and perspectives through
peer interaction. Student-led teams can often
result in higher levels of learning and a deeper
understanding of material.
 Student-Content Interaction - The internet
supports traditional forms of text-based but also
provides for micro-environments, learning
tutorials, and virtual labs.

13.  Student-Teacher Interaction - Interaction through
asynchronous and synchronous communication
such as audio, text, and video. Online learning in
its best form is much less teacher centric in
comparison to traditional classrooms.
 Teacher-Teacher Interaction - Assists teachers in
professional development in a supportive
community. Through these interactions, teachers
can continue to build on their knowledge.

14.  Teacher-Content Interaction - This allows for
teachers to be able to continually monitor, update
and create new course activities and content.
 Content-Content Interaction - Programmed
content interacts with other information to acquire
new abilities. This allows for up-to-date sources of
information. Tagging and RSS feeds provide can
help facilitate this.

15. Benefits and Affordances of Online Learning
 Less constraints and more flexibility in participation,
removal of distance problems.
 Highly flexible compared to traditional campus-
based learning.
 Highly accessible for most people living in the
developed world and continually improving in less-
developed nations.
 Online learning content is easily updateable and
revisable.
 Access to a vast quantity of information.
 Highly compatible with constructivist learning
theory as students can work towards a desired
learning path.

16. The Barriers of Online Learning
While the benefits and affordances of online
learning are great, some barriers exist including:
 Less flexible than thought even with the ability
of asynchronous communication.
 Access to the internet can be a concern in
less-developed nations.
 Access to the internet can be problematic for
people with physical disabilities.

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