e-Learning by Design

by Horton, William

• ISBN13: 9780470900024
• ISBN10: 0470900024
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-11
• Publisher: Pfeiffer

Summary

E-Learning by Design provides a comprehensive, detailed look at the concepts and processes of developing, creating and implementing a successful e-Learning program. Horton's practical, down-to-earth approach offers clear information and instruction without over simplifying. Readers will learn to build customized e-Learning programs from scratch, building on core principles of instructional design to: - develop meaningful activities and lessons - create and administer online tests and assessments - design learning games and simulations, and - effectively implement an individualized program The second edition will feature chapter-by-chapter revisions and add new sections and updates that address: new delivery technologies, including social networking, mobile learning, and the use of other new mobile devices; learning from available content; repurposing content; setting and following quality Standards, a revised Catalyst Model and Examples, How We Will Learn Model and Examples, and designing for International and Multi-cultural Audiences, as well as all-new contemporary case studies, examples, and activities. New edition will also include two free online resources: a downloadable instructor's manual, and a premium content site featuring additional examples and case studies, tools and resources.

Author Biography

William Horton is a leading e-learning consultant and president of William Horton Consulting, Inc. He is the author or co-author of numerous books including E-learning by Design, Designing and Writing Online Documentation, Leading E-learning, Evaluating E-learning, Using E-learning, Secrets of User-Seductive Documents, E-learning Tools and Technologies, Getting Started in Online Learning, and The Web Page Design Cookbook.

Table of Contents

Designing E-Learning

What is e-learning? Definition of e-learning

Varieties of e-learning

What is e-learning design? Start with good instructional design

Apply design to all units of e-learning

Design quickly and reliably

Identify your underlying goal

Analyze learners' needs and abilities

Identify what to teach

Set learning objectives

Identify prerequisites

Pick the approach to meet each objective

Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives

Create objects to accomplish objectives

Create tests

Select learning activities

Choose media

Then redesign again and again

Re-design but do not repeat

Not your sequential ADDIE process

Make steady progress

In closing

Summary

For more

Absorb-Type Activities

About Absorb activities

Common types of Absorb activities

When to feature Absorb activities

Presentations

About presentations

Types of presentations

Best practices for presentations

Extend presentation activities

Readings

About reading activities

Assign individual documents

Create an online library

Rely on Internet resources

Best practices for reading activities

Extend reading activities

Stories by a teacher

About sharing stories

Tell stories that apply to learners

Best practices for stories by a teacher

Extend stories by a teacher

Field trips

About field trips

Guided tours

Virtual museums

Best practices for field trips

Extend field-trip activities

In closing

Summary

Pick Absorb activities to accomplish objectives

For more

Do-Type Activities

About Do activities

Common types of Do activities

When to feature Do activities

Practice activities

About practice activities

Drill-and-practice activities

Hands-on activities

Guided-analysis activities

Best practices for practice activities

Extend practice activities

Discovery activities

About discovery activities

Virtual-laboratory activities

Case studies

Best practices for discovery activities

Extend discovery activities

Games and simulations

Use games as single activities

Extend game activities

In closing

Summary

Pick Do activity to accomplish learning objective

For more

Connect-Type Activities

About Connect activities

Common types of Connect activities

When to feature Connect activities

Ponder activities

About ponder activities

Rhetorical questions

Meditation activities

Cite-example activities

Evaluation activities

Summary activities

Extend ponder activities

Questioning activities

Why use questioning activities? Encourage learners to ask the right people

Encourage good questions

Insist on good answers

Best practices in questioning activities

Mechanism for asking questions

Enable questioning at the right time

Assess learners and learning

Extend questioning activities

Stories by learners

Have learners tell stories

Good stories are hard to tell

Evaluate storytelling fairly

Best practices for storytelling activities

Extend storytelling activities

Job aids

About job aids

Glossaries

Calculators

E-consultants

Best practices for job aids

Extend job aids

Research activities

About research activities

Scavenger hunts

Guided research

Best practices for research activities

Extend research activities

Original-work activities

About original-work activities

Decision activities

Work-document activities

Journal activities

Best practices for original-work activities

Extend original-work activities

In closing

Summary

Pick Connect activities to accomplish learning objectives

For more

Tests

Decide why you are testing

When are formal tests needed? Why are you testing? What do you hope to accomplish? What do you want to measure? Measure accomplishment of objectives

Select the right type of "question"

Consider the type question you need

Common types of test questions

True/false questions

Pick-one questions

Pick-multiple questions

Fill-in-the-blanks questions

Matching-list questions

Sequence-type questions

Composition questions

Performance questions

Pick type question by type objective

Write effective questions

Follow the standard question format

Ask questions simply and directly

Make answering meaningful

Challenge test-takers

Combine questions effectively

Ask enough questions

Make sure one question does not answer another

Sequence test questions effectively

Vary the form of questions and answers

Give significant feedback

Report test scores simply

Provide complete information

Gently correct wrong answers

Avoid wimpy feedback

Give feedback at the right time

Advance your testing

Hint first

Use advanced testing capabilities

Monitor results

Make tests fair to all learners

Test early and often

Set the right passing score

Define a scale of grades

Pre-test to propel learners

Explain the test

Prepare learners to take the test

Keep learners in control

Consider alternatives to formal tests

Use more than formal, graded tests

Help learners build portfolios

Have learners collect tokens

Adapt testing to social learning

Adapt testing to mobile learning

In closing

Summary

For more

Topics

What are topics? Topics are learning objects

Examples of topics

Anatomy of a topic

Design the components of the topic

Title the topic

Introduce the topic

Test learning in the topic

Specify learning activities for the topic

Summarize the topic

Link to related material

Write metadata

Design components logically and economically

Design reusable topics

Craft recombinant building blocks

Design consistent topics

Avoid the "as-shown-above" syndrome

Integrate foreign modules

Example of a docking module

What to include in a docking module

In closing

Summary

Templates for topics

For more

Games And Simulations

Games and simulations for learning

Example of a learning game

How are games, tests, and simulations related? Do you call it a game or a simulation? Demos are not true simulations

How do games and simulations work? What do we mean design? Why games? What can games do for us? When to use games

Types of learning games

Quiz-show games

Word games

Jigsaw puzzles

Branching scenarios

Task simulations

Personal-response simulations

Environmental simulations

Immersive role-playing games

Design games for learning

Design to accomplish learning objectives

Express the goal as a specific task

Pick the right sized game

Emphasize learning, not just doing

Specify challenge and motivation

Manage competitiveness

Provide multiple ways to learn

Create a micro-world

Specify the game's world

Specify characters and important objects

Create a storyline

Create a back story

Specify the game structure

Assign the learner's role

Make the game meaningfully realistic

Specify rules of the game

Design a rich, realistic environment

Provide a deep, unifying challenge

Define indicators of game state and feedback

Specify the details

Sketch out the user interface

Write the words

Specify the graphical style

Specify other media

Engage learners

Hook the learner

Ask learners to suspend disbelief

Set the context

Provide real-world prompting and support

Present solvable problems

Adapt to the learner's needs

Challenge with time limits

Let learners try multiple strategies

Program variety into the game

Involve the learner

Teach through feedback

Provide intrinsic feedback

Inject educational feedback where needed

Provide continual feedback

But give crucial feedback immediately

Confront bad behavior and choices

Defer lengthy feedback

Anticipate feedback (feedforward?)

Enable learning through a variety of experiences

Provide complete, detailed feedback

Help learners correct mistakes

Offer abundant practice

Acknowledge achievement

Progressively challenge learners

Challenge learners

Ratchet up the challenge

Give closure between phases

Control the rhythm of difficulty

Require consolidating small steps

Manage game complexity

Beware combinatorial explosion

Menu excursions

Mission-sequential structure

Short-leash strategy

Safari structure

Breakthrough structure

Simplify learning the game

Guide actions with instructions

Explain the game clearly

Start with training wheels

Assist when needed

Show solution after a few attempts

Let learners request assistance

Include pertinent hints

Simplify the display for quick response

Minimize distractions

Accept all successful actions

Design coached task simulations

Plan progressive interactivity

Architecture of coach-me activities

Let the learner control coaching

Design branching-scenario games

Harvest storyline ideas

Pick a situation

Map objectives to scenes

Derive specific objectives to teach

Translate objectives to a story

Specify each scene

Thread together the scenes

Add context-setting scenes

Use games as e-learning courses

In closing

Summary

For more

Social Learning

What is social learning? A definition, sort of So what? Consider the varieties of social learning

What is not social learning? What is the group? How do we "design" social learning? What do we mean by design? The role of the designer

Decide where and when to use social learning

Make learning more reliable

Make learning more enjoyable

Teach difficult subjects

Implement learning quickly and inexpensively

Build a network to support the learning in the future

What social learning requires

What is required of learners

What is required of the organization

Patterns of interaction

The elements of social learning

Combine patterns for complete activities

Social capabilities of software

Send targeted messages

Meet real-time

Discuss asynchronously

Broadcast sporadic messages

Post message sequences

Collaboratively create documents

Share creations

Vote and rate

Filter messages

Establish a point of contact

Set up and administer a team or other group

Facilitate rather than teach

Define the duties of the facilitator

Establish a code of conduct

Intervene in cases of bad behavior

Grade fairly in social learning

Assess against objectives

Use available evidence

Ways to assess learners

Set criteria for messages and posts

Or, forego individual assessment

Extend conventional activities for social learning

Extend Absorb activities for social learning

Extend Do activities for social learning

Extend Connect activities for social learning

Use proven social activities

Share what you learn

Back channel for presentations

Brainstorming activities

Team-task activities

Role-playing scenarios

Comparison activities

Group-critique activities

Encourage meaningful discussions

Design discussion activities

Ensure learners have necessary skills

Moderate discussion activities

Perform message maintenance

Promote team learning

Meet the requirements of a successful team

Form a team from individuals

Align goals of team members

Learn who can do what

Adopt team roles

Pick a leader, at least to start

Team processes

Set norms of behavior

Team warm-up activities

Fade out support

Design activities for teams

Engage in open inquiry

In closing

Summary

For more

Mobile Learning

What is mobile learning? Start with worthy goals

Learn from the whole world

Take advantage of teachable moments

Teach in the context of application

Teach "outdoor" subjects

Make learning healthier

Learn more of the time

Enable virtual attendance

Reduce infrastructure costs

Prepare for an increasingly mobile world

Adapt existing learning for mobile learners

Enable participation in classroom learning

Accommodate mobile learners in the virtual classroom

Let mobile learners take standalone e-learning

Make social learning mobile

Performance support

Use the capabilities of the device

Design for the learner, environment, and device

Design for the mobile learner

Design for the environment where learning occurs

Design for the mobile device

Design guidelines for overcoming limitations

Design for easy reading

Maintain contact with learners

Design for the devices learners already have

Use learners' time efficiently

Fit text and graphics to the display

Provide low-bandwidth alternatives

Design for imperfect network connections

Enable "download and go"

Simplify entering text

Follow established user-interface guidelines

Remember, paper is a mobile device

Reuse existing content

Real mobile learning

Mobile discovery learning

Distance apprenticeship program

Architecture tour

Inject mobile activities into other forms of learning

Extend conventional activities for mobile learning

Extend Absorb activities for mobile learning

Extend Do activities for mobile learning

Extend Connect activities for mobile learning

In closing

Summary

For more

Design for the Virtual Classroom

Create a virtual classroom

Why create a virtual classroom? What are Webinars and virtual-classroom courses? Decide whether you need a live meeting

Select and use collaboration tools

Select your collaboration tools

Slide shows

Breakout rooms

Conduct online meetings

Plan the meeting

Prepare for the meeting

Announce the meeting

Manage the live online meeting

Activate meetings

Include follow-up activities

Design Webinars

When to use Webinars

Pick activities to teach

Design virtual-classroom courses

Select a qualified teacher

Teach the class, don't just let it happen

Plan predictable learning cycles

Respond to learners

Provide complete instructions

Simplify tasks for learners

Deal with problem learners

Follow up after the course

In closing

Summary

For more

Conclusion

How we will learn

Where we are headed

How we will get there

What has to happen

Secrets of e-learning design

Just the beginning

Appendix Essentialism

Essential essentialism

Set up the test

Supervise the test

The role of test subjects

The role of the expert

Role of the test conductor

Analyze test results

Record needed learning

Identify the learning approach

Infer design principles

Make testing better

Overcome the Hawthorne effect

Leave the lab-coat behind

Test a twosome

Provide all real resources

Reassure test subjects

Watch the video fully

Conduct enough tests

Pick valid test subjects

Recap: Master the essentials of essentialism

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.