Creating elearning experiences

A powerful learning experience

In my recent times in learning a new career path, I have had many learning experiences. One such experience stems over a short period of time where by I was in the beginning stages of learning PHP. The reason why this sticks out as being a more prominent learning experience is due to the fact I was somewhat mentored. There was always someone to bounce ideas off, discuss and debate different topics and also work through examples if needed.

A not so powerful learning experience

Back in the day of my undergraduate degree in Commerce, there was a subject that was taught by an individual who did not want to be teaching the subject, let alone an evening class. His motivation was deflated by the fact he had to teach school leavers during the day and they were rowdy and provided little in terms of class participation and feedback.

Why was my learning experience so powerful?

Easy! Powerful collaborative learning existed. The learning was meaningful and participants were actively engaging in learning. As characterised by Jonassen, Peck and Wilson (1999)(p6) and further endorsed by Redmond and Lock (2006)(p268) meaningful learning is “active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative”. We would engage in discussions about why do things a certain way and also what to do if we wanted to achieve a certain result. We also would work through smaller/simpler examples to help with my understanding. Baumgartner (2004)(p2) stated “the learner is an active entity and it is his/her activity which supports or even is a neccessary condition for the learning process” and in being active in the learning process increases the chances of actually aquiring the information.

Also the learning was interactive and also verbal which seems to match in with my own “learning intelligences” as I am more kinaesthetic and verbal (Multiple intelligences). I also believe the process fitted within a more social cognitive style of learning. I believe the approach of my mentor and his encouraging style of teaching fuelled my motivation, I already had a great deal of interest in the subject and my previous “hobby” experience, the learning seemed to flow and I became rather intuitive in the subject matter. We discussed solutions and occasionally worked back from the solution to understand the process and figure out where each cog fitted into the programming chain.

Why was that learning experience so painful?

Firstly, the subject matter was rather dry. It was learning about accounting theories. The teachers lack of motivation and quiet possibly lack of teaching skills reflected on the rest of the class and how we learnt. The teachers style of learning was not delivered in a manner that I could relate to with my learning style, his style was rather authoritarian and structured his learning solely around behavioural learners.

What is learning?

Learning is a storage of information that we as individuals may recall later on to use in everyday life. It can be divided into three main categories, behavioural, cognitive and social cognitive. I also believe that learning is motivation. The amount of information one may ‘take in’ as part of a learning experience directly relates to motivation of the teacher and learner, as demonstrated with my own past experiences.

• When we think of behavioural learning its common grounding based on the reward system, where a student may receive some form of reward for good behaviour or it could also be about learning via repetition. If you repeat something often and for long enough it becomes rather instinctive.

• Cognitive learning is more a reflection on problem solving and thinking.

• Social cognitive learning is more based upon a learners behaviour would change based upon the social aspects surrounding the learner and the learning environment.

References

Baumgartner P, 2004, ‘Communication and Interactions in eEducation’, The Zen Art of Teaching, pp 1-18 Article Link

Redmond P & Lock J, 2006, ‘A felxible framework for online collaborative learning′, Internet and Higher Education, 9, pp 267-276 Article Link

Unknown, 2005, ‘Executive Summary’, OECD/Canada/Alberta Conference on E-Learning in Post-Secondary Education: Policies, Practices, and Research, 26-28 June 2005, Calgary Alberta Canada, viewed 1 April 2008, Article Linkl

Wikipeadia.org, Multiple Intelligences, viewed 1 April 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences>