e-Learning by Design E-Book

William Horton

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 725

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

From William Horton -- a world renowned expert with more than thirty-five years of hands-on experience creating networked-based educational systems -- comes the next-step resource for e-learning training professionals. Like his best-selling book Designing Web-Based Training, this book is a comprehensive resource that provides practical guidance for making the thousand and one decisions needed to design effective e-learning. e-Learning by Design includes a systematic, flexible, and rapid design process covering every phase of designing e-learning. Free of academic jargon and confusing theory, this down-to-earth, hands-on book is filled with hundreds of real-world examples and case studies from dozens of fields. "Like the book's predecessor (Designing Web-based Training), it deserves four stars and is a must read for anyone not selling an expensive solution. -- From Training Media Review, by Jon Aleckson, www.tmreview.com, 2007

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

About this book

Why is this topic important?

What can the reader achieve with this book?

How is this book organized?

Where did this book come from?

How can you get the most out of this book?

Where did the examples come from?

Where is the CD?

Who created this book?

About Pfeiffer

Chapter 1 - Designing e-learning

WHAT IS E-LEARNING?

WHAT IS E-LEARNING DESIGN?

DESIGN QUICKLY AND RELIABLY

THEN REDESIGN AGAIN AND AGAIN

IN CLOSING ...

Chapter 2 - Absorb-type activities

ABOUT ABSORB ACTIVITIES

PRESENTATIONS

SHARING STORIES

READINGS

FIELD TRIPS

IN CLOSING

Chapter 3 - Do-type activities

ABOUT DO ACTIVITIES

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES

GAMES AND SIMULATIONS

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 4 - Connect-type activities

ABOUT CONNECT ACTIVITIES

PONDER ACTIVITIES

JOB AIDS

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

ORIGINAL-WORK ACTIVITIES

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 5 - Tests

DECIDE WHY YOU ARE TESTING

SELECT THE RIGHT TYPE OF QUESTION

WRITE EFFECTIVE QUESTIONS

COMBINE QUESTIONS EFFECTIVELY

GIVE MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK

PERFECT YOUR TESTING

EXPLAIN THE TEST

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES TO FORMAL TESTS

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 6 - Topics

WHAT ARE TOPICS?

DESIGN THE COMPONENTS OF THE TOPIC

DESIGN REUSABLE TOPICS

INTEGRATE FOREIGN MODULES

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 7 - Lessons

COMBINE LEARNING ACTIVITIES

WAYS OF ORGANIZING LESSONS

DESIGNING LESSONS AS LEARNING OBJECTS

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 8 - Strategic decisions

WHAT IS A COURSE?

CHOOSE THE KIND OF E-LEARNING

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES TO PURE E-LEARNING

PLAN FOR REUSE

FOLLOW QUALITY STANDARDS

SET YOUR OWN TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

TITLE COURSES CAREFULLY

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 9 - Design for the virtual classroom

CREATE A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

SELECT AND USE COLLABORATION TOOLS

CONDUCT ONLINE MEETINGS

GUIDE DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

MANAGE VIRTUAL COURSES

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 10 - Visual display

FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN DECISIONS

WHOLE SCREEN OR WINDOW?

NUMBER OF WINDOWS

WINDOW CHARACTERISTICS

LEGIBILITY

LAYOUT

UNITY

IN CLOSING …

Chapter 11 - Navigation

HOW SHOULD LEARNERS NAVIGATE?

NAVIGATION MECHANISMS

BALANCE NAVIGATION MECHANISMS

IMPLEMENT NAVIGATION MECHANISMS

BEST PRACTICES FOR NAVIGATION

IN CLOSING

Chapter 12 - Conclusion

THE NEW MODEL OF LEARNING

HOW WE WILL LEARN

JUST THE BEGINNING

Index

Pfeiffer Publications Guide

What will you find on pfeiffer.com?

Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Right Reserved.

Published by Pfeiffer An Imprint of Wiley 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.pfeiffer.com

Book design and composition: William Horton Consulting, Inc.

All illustrations, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright © 2006 by William Horton Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Horton, William K. (William Kendall)

E-learning by design / by William Horton.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-8425-0 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-7879-8425-6 (pbk.)

1. Employees—Training of—Computer-assisted instruction. 2. Computer-assisted instruction—Design. I. Title.

HF5549.5.T7H6357 2006

658.3’124040285—dc22

2006010547

Printing

About this book

Why is this topic important?

The education required over a lifetime cannot be delivered by conventional means. People must learn more efficiently and at the time and place of their choosing. E-learning can deliver that education—but only if it is designed to do so.

Over the past decade, e-learning has moved from an experimental procedure used to teach technical subjects within computer companies to a mainstream staple teaching everything from life-saving medical procedures to spiritual vision. If you are concerned with educating others, you cannot ignore e-learning.

There are lots of books on instructional design and lots on how to operate particular tools to create e-learning, but few on how to apply instructional design to e-learning. This is that book.

What can the reader achieve with this book?

This book provides instructional designers, teachers, faculty, information technologists, subject-matter experts, individual consultants, and others tasked with moving to e-learning a clear path to the goal of effective e-learning.

The pragmatic and practical advice in this book is not limited to any particular tool or system. Most of the techniques here can be implemented with simple tools you already know how to operate.

You can acquire a rapid, yet systematic, design process that covers the hundreds of decisions necessary to create great e-learning.

How is this book organized?

The twelve chapters of this book lead the reader systematically through the decisions necessary to design effective e-learning. It starts with an overview of the design process for e-learning. Then it builds up from small pieces to course-wide issues. There are three chapters on how to use technology to create the learning experiences that really teach. Covered are learning games and simulations, guided tours, virtual labs, storytelling, guided research, and many other kinds of practice and discovery activities. Next follow instructions on how to create tests and other assessments that verify and measure learning progress. The next two chapters tell how to integrate activities and tests into learning objects that completely accomplish learning objectives and how to combine topics and activities into lessons that accomplish more ambitious goals. The next chapter covers strategic issues, such as whether to include real-time meetings or an instructor and what standards to follow. The book ends with chapters on how to design and teach instructor-led e-learning in the virtual classroom, how to design the visual display and navigation scheme within the course.

Where did this book come from?

E-Learning by Design is the logical successor to Designing Web-Based Training. This book is more than a second edition, but not an entirely new work. It evolves the ideas started there.

This book, as its title implies, is squarely about design. It is not about development tools or other technologies. Design of e-learning involves instructional design, but goes beyond instructional design to include aspects of media design, software engineering, and economics. The goal is to tell readers how to design e-learning that works as well as the best classroom learning.

This book contains my best advice from my experience creating online learning. Since 1971, I have designed, built, researched, and evaluated what we now call e-learning. I have worked in electronic media most of my career from perspectives of design, management, and technology,

How can you get the most out of this book?

Read actively. Skim, scan, skip. Look at the pictures. Find something that interests you and read it in detail.

Where did the examples come from?

All examples were designed by William and Katherine Horton of William Horton Consulting. Unless otherwise noted, all examples were also built by William or Katherine Horton. Many of them are on exhibit at horton.com/eld/. We want to thank The Alban Institute and Indianapolis Center for Congregations, Brightline Compliance, The Gantt Group, Jones International University, The Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, the Veterans Administration Office of Research and Development, and Web Courseworks for having us design them and letting us show them.

Where is the CD?

This book has an extensive Web presence with dozens of complete examples and supplementary materials. Check it out at: horton.com/eld

Who created this book?

William Horton wrote, typed, and indexed it. Katherine Horton designed the layout and formatted the book. William and Katherine drew the graphics. Rebecca Taft contributed proofreading. William and Katherine Horton suggested the cover design. And Pfeiffer took it from there.

About Pfeiffer

Pfeiffer serves the professional development and hands-on resource needs of training and human resource practitioners and gives them products to do their jobs better. We deliver proven ideas and solutions from experts in HR development and HR management, and we offer effective and customizable tools to improve workplace performance. From novice to seasoned professional, Pfeiffer is the source you can trust to make yourself and your organization more successful.

Essential Knowledge Pfeiffer produces insightful, practical, and comprehensive materials on topics that matter the most to training and HR professionals. Our Essential Knowledge resources translate the expertise of seasoned professionals into practical, how-to guidance on critical workplace issues and problems. These resources are supported by case studies, worksheets, and job aids and are frequently supplemented with CD-ROMs, websites, and other means of making the content easier to read, understand, and use.

Essential Tools Pfeiffer’s Essential Tools resources save time and expense by offering proven, ready-to-use materials—including exercises, activities, games, instruments, and assessments—for use during a training or team-learning event. These resources are frequently offered in looseleaf or CD-ROM format to facilitate copying and customization of the material.

Pfeiffer also recognizes the remarkable power of new technologies in expanding the reach and effectiveness of training. While e-hype has often created whizbang solutions in search of a problem, we are dedicated to bringing convenience and enhancements to proven training solutions. All our e-tools comply with rigorous functionality standards. The most appropriate technology wrapped around essential content yields the perfect solution for today’s on-the-go trainers and human resource professionals.

Essential resources for training and HR professionals

1

Designing e-learning

Planning the development of online learning

For tens of thousands of years, human beings have come together to learn and share knowledge. Until now, we have had to come together at the same time and place. But today, the technologies of the Internet have eliminated that requirement. Soon anybody will be able to learn anything anywhere at any time, thanks to a new development called e-learning.

WHAT IS E-LEARNING?

E-learning marshals computer and network technologies to the task of education. Several definitions of e-learning are common. Some people hold that e-learning is limited to what takes place entirely within a Web browser without the need for other software or learning resources. Such a pure definition, though, leaves out many of the truly effective uses of related technologies for learning.

Definition of e-learning

There are a lot of complex definitions of e-learning, so I’ll offer you a simple one:

E-learning is the use of information and computer technologies to create learning experiences.

This definition is deliberately open-ended, allowing complete freedom as to how these experiences are formulated, organized, and created. Notice that this definition does not mention “courses,” for courses are just one way to package e-learning experiences. It also does not mention any particular authoring tool or management system.

Varieties of e-learning

E-learning comes in many forms. You may have taken one or two forms of e-learning, but have you considered them all?

• Standalone courses. Courses taken by a solo learner. Self-paced without interaction with an instructor or classmates. There are numerous examples of standalone courses cited in this book. Search the index for Using Gantt Charts, GALENA Slope Stability Analysis, and Vision and the Church. You can also go to the Web site for this book (horton.com/eld/) to find links to live examples.

• Virtual-classroom courses. Online class structured much like a classroom course. May or may not include synchronous online meetings. Just such a course is described starting on page 336. Also read Chapter 9, starting on page 415.

• Learning games and simulations. Learning by performing simulated activities that require exploration and lead to discoveries. Read more about games and simulations starting on page 141. Also go to horton.com/eld/ for links to live examples.

• Embedded e-learning. E-learning included in another system, such as a computer program, a diagnostic procedure, or online Help. Learn more about embedded e-learning starting on page 387. Also, view an example at horton.com/eld/.

• Blended learning. Use of various forms of learning to accomplish a single goal. May mix classroom and e-learning or various forms of e-learning. Start reading on page 381.

• Mobile learning. Learning from the world while moving about in the world. Aided by mobile devices such as PDAs and smart phones. Mobile learning examples are shown in Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 10.

• Knowledge management. Broad uses of e-learning, online documents, and conventional media to educate entire populations and organizations rather than just individuals. To learn more about practical knowledge management, go to horton.com/html/whckmt.asp.

And that is just the start. As you read this, clever designers are creating even more forms of e-learning.

WHAT IS E-LEARNING DESIGN?

At its best, e-learning is as good as the best classroom learning. And at its worst, it is as bad as the worst classroom learning. The difference is design.

Creating effective e-learning requires both design and development. Design is not the same as development. Design is decision. Development is doing. Design governs what we do; development governs how we carry out those decisions. Design involves judgment, compromise, tradeoff, and creativity. Design is the 1001 decisions, big and small, that affect the outcome. This book is about design.

Start with good instructional design

Instructional design requires selecting, organizing, and specifying the learning experiences necessary to teach somebody something. Good instructional design is independent of the technology or personnel used to create those learning experiences.

What is instructional design?

In this chapter I use the term instructional design in its broad meaning, which includes pedagogy and androgogy, although my usage is closer to the strict meaning of androgogy (teaching adults) than the limited definition of instructional design popular in some quarters. By instructional design, I definitely do not mean the heavy-handed, Stalinesque distortion of theory required to accompany many ponderous instructional systems design (ISD) methodologies.

Instructional design is a vast subject. This humble chapter cannot cover it all. Here you will find a streamlined, rapid instructional-design method. The process taught here is simple, quick, informal, and pragmatic. Use it as your survival kit when you do not have time or money for more. Or use it as a check on your longer, more formal process.

Before you fast-forward to another chapter with more screen snapshots and fewer diagrams, take a moment to decide whether this chapter might have something to offer you.

Instructional design determines everything else

Instructional design translates the high-level project goals to choices for technology, content, and everything else. The instructional design of e-learning informs decisions on what authoring tools, management systems, and other technologies to buy or license. Instructional design directs the development of content and the selection of media. It orchestrates decisions on budget, schedule, and other aspects of project development. So, design your instruction—at least on paper—before buying any technology or recruiting new staff members.

Please do not skip this chapter

True, not everybody needs to learn about instructional design. To decide whether you need this chapter, ask yourself these questions?

• Has your instructional design education and experience been primarily for the classroom?