O7.1.1

=Promotional materials available to students prior to enrolment describe e-learning pedagogies.=

Evidence
The term ‘e-learning’ encompasses a wide range of applications and activities, making confusion on the part of learners a real possibility (Clarke, 2004). Because e-learning includes many different, and often new, technical and conceptual approaches, students need to be fully informed about why and how elearning is being implemented and applied to their study programme, and the consequential benefits to their learning (Hillesheim, 1998). Such information should be made available at the earliest opportunity to ensure students are able to understand the competency and technical requirements of a programme before enrolling. Many students will need to make particular arrangements to ensure that they get the most benefit from e-learning, and supplying them with the information in advance ensures that they are not forced to withdraw at a later date or to struggle to raise their skills (Waterhouse and Rogers, 2004).

E-learning involves learner-centred pedagogies and anticipates that students engage with more critical and self-directed approaches to learning (Garrison and Anderson, 2003). Clarke (2004) emphasises the importance of making appropriate choices because ‘e-learning is a mix of different features and services, so many combinations are likely to be effective’ (p. 21), and presents a checklist of topics to enable students to systematically enquire about a programme.

Also concerned for learner-centred teaching, Bates and Poole (2003) argue that the choices and uses of technology in e-learning programmes depend on epistemological beliefs and assumptions and pedagogical principles that underpin them (p. 25). Adding that perhaps ‘the term should be learning-centred teaching, [thus] focusing on the process rather than the person’ (p. 43), they point to the importance of explicating and initiating collaborative and cooperative teacher-learner relationships from the outset. Quoting Bates (1995) they conclude that ‘[c]lear objectives, good structuring of learning materials, relevance to learners’ needs, etc., apply to the use of any technology for teaching, and if these principles are ignored…teaching will fail, even if the unique characteristics of the medium are stylishly exploited’ (in Bates and Poole, 2003, p. 45).

Students’ approaches to learning and their perception of learning contexts are interconnected (Ramsden, 1998); it is therefore crucial to provide access to all relevant information about learning approaches and technologies to ‘[e]nsure that the logistics of the academic context allow students to study effectively and efficiently’ (Laurillard, 2002, p. 208).

The Student Induction to E-learning (SIEL, draft March 2010) report emphasizes that one of the criticisms and weaknesses of e-learning is that its retention rate is demonstrably lower than traditional face to face classes. Online courses have a failed retention rate 10-20% higher than traditional courses. It is argued that total support for new e-learning students is needed to ensure good retention rates. This support necessarily must take many forms in a complete package. ‘A student’s first set of experiences with e-learning can be either a barrier to retention or contribute to the likelihood of persistence’ (p. 7). Consequences of a poor set of first experiences with e-learning include individual and social effects, disruption to a student’s goals, cost to the student, negative testimonials, and loss for future participants in e-learning in general. The SIEL report reviews the literature on best practice for student support and lists many recommendations.

Resources
The primary focus for institutions, according to (SIEL draft March 2010) is to anticipate the needs of the students. Improving post-secondary student e-learning and retention involves putting mechanisms in place to assist with communicating student and institutional expectations prior to the student’s first e-learning experience. Understanding best practice for student induction, undertaking self-assessment to evaluate institutional e-learning induction practices, and preparing first-year students for e-learning all during the early weeks of their first course. The SIEL report details in a matrix how all this can be done.

Evidence of capability in this practice is seen in the incorporation of clear statements describing the use of various media and technologies and the requirements that this will impose on students. This description should also provide access to any support information or documentation. All of this should be provided publicly for students prior to enrolment and preferably also in enrolment packs.

Unless objectives are stated clearly and are fixed in the minds of both teachers and students, tests are at best misleading; at worst, they are irrelevant, unfair, or uninformative (Mager 1997).

‘A learning objective must clearly communicate not only the content of the aim and the action to be taken, but also how what it describes can be assessed as having been achieved’ (Laurillard 2002, p. 182). Furthermore, ‘a well written objective will prescribe the form of the test items by which the objective can be assessed.’ (Mager 1997, p. 148)

Rust (2002) describes Biggs (1999) ‘constructive alignment’. This is the process whereby teachers identify learning outcomes, then design appropriate assessment to assess if the outcomes are met, and finally, design learning opportunities so that students are ready to face the assessments. This ensures that learning objectives are linked explicitly to learning activities.