Dr. Badrul H. Khan
What does it take to develop a sound National Virtual Education Plan for a Digital Bangladesh? I would say the answer to this question depends on a comprehensive understanding of "what does it take to create a successful e-learning system that meets the needs of all stakeholder groups?" I believe a broad understanding of all of the important aspects of an ODL environment is critical in developing the NVEP. Here, I will first describe various important issues encompassing various dimensions of the e-learning environment, and then provide an outline for developing the NVEP.
My involvement in ODL environments started with my genuine interest to share information and knowledge with others across the globe. While growing up in Bangladesh during the 1970s, I used to dream about having access to well-designed learning resources that were only available to students in industrial countries. In the 1970s it was unimaginable that we might ever have equal access to those resources. In the 1990s, however, it became a reality. We are blessed with the emergence of the World Wide Web as one of the most important, economical, and democratic mediums of learning and teaching at a distance. The Internet has become an increasingly powerful, interactive, and dynamic medium for sharing information globally. The Internet provides an open, dynamic, and flexible learning environment with implications for countless applications with respect to education and training. Internet technologies provide an opportunity to develop new learning experiences for students, which had not previously been possible.
With the advent of the Internet and online learning methodologies and technologies, providers of education and training are creating e-learning materials to fulfil an increasing demand. Online learning is becoming more and more accepted in the workplace. Institutions are investing heavily in the development and deployment of online programmes. Academic institutions, corporations, and government agencies worldwide are increasingly using the Internet and digital technologies to deliver instruction and training.
What does it take to create a successful e-learning environment for diverse learners? Well, a successful e-learning system involves a systematic process of planning, design, development, evaluation, and implementation to create an online environment where learning is actively fostered and supported. In order for an e-learning system to be successful, it must provide meaningful benefits to all stakeholder groups including learners, instructors, support services staff, and the educational institution itself.
Let us see what these stakeholder groups expect from an open, flexible and distributed learning environment. Since 1996, I have been communicating with learners, instructors, administrators, and technical and other support services staff involved in e-learning-in both academic and corporate settings-all over the world. Each stakeholder group has its own set of issues and concerns about e-learning. And they are critical! We must pay attention to these issues if we want to be successful in constructing an e-learning environment. If you group these issues, they fall into eight categories: institutional, pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support and ethical in e-learning.
If you want to know whether your e-learning programmes are meeting the expectations of your stakeholder groups, I am sure you will get a bird's eye view of your programme if you start asking questions on issues encompassing the eight dimensions. I learned that an e-learning system is meaningful to learners when it is easily accessible, well-designed, learner-centred, affordable, efficient, flexible, and has a facilitated learning environment. When learners display a high level of participation and success in meeting a course's goals and objectives, this can make e-learning meaningful to instructors. In turn, when learners enjoy all available support services provided in the course without any interruptions, it makes support services staff happy as they strive to provide easy-to-use, reliable services. Finally, an e-learning system is meaningful to institutions when it has a sound return-on-investment (ROI), a moderate to high level of learner satisfaction with both the quality of instruction and support services, and a low drop-out rate.
Next, I would like to discuss several important issues related to each dimension of the e-learning environment. One has to identify as many issues as possible for its own e-learning project by using the framework. One way to identify critical issues is by putting each stakeholder group (such as learner, instructor, support staff, etc.) at the centre of the framework and raising issues along the eight dimensions of the e-learning environment. This way one can identify many critical issues that can help create a meaningful e-learning environment for that particular group. By repeating the same process for other stakeholder groups, one can generate a comprehensive list of issues to be addressed by your e-learning project.
Let me present some important e-learning issues (as questions) that might be raised by different stakeholders groups:
Would I be awarded the same credit for the development of an e-learning course as I would receive for the publication of an article in a professional journal or magazine?
Developing a well-designed online course requires a great deal of time and effort. A non-tenured faculty member (i.e., instructor) would probably be more interested in publishing than developing an online course if the course development does not provide any impetus toward tenure and promotion. This is a type of question an instructor would ask when focusing on issues relevant to the academic affairs section of the institutional dimension.
How often is dynamic course content updated? In designing e-learning, we need to consider the stability of course content. Content that does not need to be updated can be categorised as static (e.g., historical events, grammar rules, etc.). Content that has the potential to change over time can be considered dynamic (e.g., laws, policies, etc.). Because dynamic content needs to be revised from time to time, it is necessary to identify such content in a course and establish an ongoing method for timely updating as needed. It will be very frustrating for learners if they find outdated or obsolete information. This is a type of concern that a student would have. This is an example of an issue relevant to the content analysis section of the pedagogical dimension.
Are all learning objects created for the course reusable and shareable? If the institution creates learning objects by following the international interoperability standards, they can be reused and shared by various courses within your institution and beyond. Reusable and shareable learning objects not only save money but also promote collaborations among e-learning partner institutions. This is a type of issue that an administrator would be interested in seeing included in the infrastructure planning section of the technological dimension.
Does the course make an effort to reduce or avoid the use of jargon, idioms, ambiguous or cute humour, and acronyms? To improve cross-cultural verbal communication and avoid misunderstanding, we should not use jokes or comments that might be misinterpreted by others. For example, in Bangladesh, thumbs-up sign means to disregard someone but in other cultures, it means 'excellent or job well done'. These points need to be noted while designing the interface. This is a concern for learners with different cultural backgrounds. It is an issue that is relevant to the page and site design section of the interface design dimension.
Are students actually doing the work? How do we know our assessments are fair and accurate? These are the types of questions that will always be in the minds of online instructors and administrators. Assessment of learners at a distance can be a challenge. Academic dishonesty is a major concern, and an institution offering e-learning should have a mechanism in place to combat cheating as well as provide fair and accurate assessments of student progress. This is an issue relevant to the assessment of learners' section of the evaluation dimension.
Does the course have encryption (i.e., a secure coding system) available for students to send confidential information over the Internet? No institutions are immune from hackers. Academic networks can be the targets of hackers if they lack security. This is a concern for the network manager, which falls under the security measures section of the management dimension.
Do technical and other support staffs receive training on how to communicate with remote learners in difficult situations? When students encounter repeated technical difficulties with e-learning, they become very frustrated. It is not easy for technical support staff to deal with learners in such situations. Technical staff should receive training to insure their possession of strong interpersonal skills. This is a concern for technical or help line staff. This is an issue relevant to the online support section of the resource support dimension.
The writer was teacher of The George Washington University. |
