News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
The Obama administration is pushing for creating free online courses at the high school/community college level, focusing on basic skills and job training. Some sort of examination/assessment is also possible, plus the idea of mixing free and paid courses at community colleges to reduce the cost of tuition.
more fromwww.insidehighered.com
Meta-Analysis Shows Online Learning Better, Blended Even Better
According to a meta-analysis by the US Department of Education, face-to-face courses are less effective than online and blended learning. They caution against viewing this as simply a matter of the medium though. It's the changes in what online and blended learning allow (like opportunities for collaboration) that are likely making the difference.
more fromwww.brandon-hall.com
Clive on Learning: It's not enough to be a professional, you also have to act like one
Good points on acting like real professionals, not just "order takers" when developing training/learning
more fromclive-shepherd.blogspot.com
5 Common Visual Design Mistakes - The Rapid eLearning Blog
Common visual design mistakes made by instructional designers, plus links and resources for further reading.
more fromwww.articulate.com
Communities of practice
Introduction to communities of practice by Etienne Wenger
more fromewenger.com
Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
This summary doesn't say how large the sample size was, and the researchers clarify that it's only about teaching new concepts. However, it is interesting to note that animation in PowerPoint slide decreased recall and comprehension.
more fromwww.sciencedaily.com
The Snack Bar | TechIntersect
Tech companies can provide snacks for their employees without worrying that people will spend all day gorging themselves at the snack bar. So why don't companies and schools trust that if they give people access to social media that they won't spend all day on Facebook? I like the analogy here.
more frombillgx.edublogs.org
Wired Campus: Electronic Portfolios: a Path to the Future of Learning - Chronicle.com
Argument for the use of electronic portfolios as a more student-centered assessment of learning
more fromchronicle.com
flickrCC
Search for Creative Commons images on Flickr and edit in Picnik right from the search
more fromflickrcc.bluemountains.net
Flickr: Reinventing Project-Based Learning
Pictures of project-based learning with digital tools
more fromwww.flickr.com
CITE Journal - Science: Blogs: Enhancing Links in a Professional Learning Community of Science and Mathematics Teachers
Small study of reflective blogging to build a learning community with teachers. Overall, the results were positive and the teachers felt the experience was beneficial, but there were some technical and other difficulties.
more fromwww.citejournal.org
What Is a "Professional Learning Community"? // Richard DuFour
Three "big ideas" about professional learning communities
more frompdonline.ascd.org
A List Apart: Articles: In Defense of Eye Candy
Why aesthetics are important to web design (and by extension, online learning)--we shouldn't approach visual design as an add on, but a core part of the design
more fromwww.alistapart.com
GoErie.com: High-tech instruction method 'facilitates learning'
Nice write-up in the Erie, PA paper about a high school teacher (and new PLS online facilitator) using the technology skills he learned in the Building Online Collaborative Environments course I helped develop
more fromwww.goerie.com
Will at Work Learning: New Research Report on Using Culturally, Linguistically, and Situationally Relevant Scenarios
Research on how to support learning with scenarios that are relevant to the specific situation. Even though this is explicitly about workplace training, the major recommendations could be adapted for instructional design in education contexts too.
more fromwww.willatworklearning.com
Only for MY Kid
1998 article by Alfie Kohn on barriers to progressive changes in education, with some proposals for better approaches for working with parents to help them see the benefits
more fromwww.alfiekohn.org
Innovate: A Learning Theory for 21st-Century Students
The author calls this a new learning theory combining behaviorism & cognitivism. I see a new instructional design model that combines elements from a number of different sources, but I'm not sure I see a new learning theory. The model seems very complex; how long would you have to work with this before you internalized all the separate parts of the model?
Student results were better using this model. However, the control group was tested before doing a roleplaying game and the experimental groups did the game prior to testing. This could just show that roleplaying helps students understand characters in the Aeneid. Free registration required.
more frominnovateonline.info
Inside Higher Ed: The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Want to improve diversity at a college without spending a lot of money? Drop the requirement for SAT or ACT as part of admissions.
more fromwww.insidehighered.com
Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Great summary of research points on our perceptions of media with implications for using media effectively for learning. For example, audio quality matters a lot, but video quality can be low and still effective. Large, wide screens are preferred over higher quality images on smaller screens.
more fromdonaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
Summary of research which compared courses with the same content but with specific elements of Gagne's instructional events removed. The strongest correlation with student performance and satisfaction was with practice with feedback.
(This is an old post, but it's moved since I originally bookmarked it.)
more frombrandon-hall.com
Notation: * = Private bookmark and comment|… = Clipping [?] | … = Public highlight [?]
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