Badrul H. Khan Exploring What We Know About the Capacity of Educational Tools to Improve Education Quality to Promote Learning National Instructional Design Workshop: Improving the Quality of Education through Good Instructional Design November 2-4, 2006, Bangalore, India

“India has the capacity to become a major e-Learning hub with its IT prowess and strong education system” (Badrul Khan, 18 Nov, 2003, Times of India ). Times of India Times of India (Please remove the source from the slide)

If we can meaningfully integrate Technology with Pedagogy, then India will be a world leader in e - learning. Technology Pedagogy (Instructional Design)

Designing and delivering e-learning requires thoughtful analysis and investigation, combined with an understanding of both the Internet and digital technologies’ capabilities and resources and the ways in which instructional design principles can be applied to tap the Internet and digital technology potential (Khan, 1997). E-Learning deals with open and distributed learning environment, different than our traditional closed system of Instructor-led classroom-based instruction.

E-Learning can be viewed as an innovative approach for delivering well-designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to anyone, anyplace, anytime by utilizing the attributes and resources of various digital technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and distributed learning environment.

Digitizing instructor-led classroom content does not necessarily mean that you are creating meaningful e-learning materials. E-learning materials must be designed with proper instructional design principles and learning theories by addressing critical issues encompassing various dimensions of open and distributed learning environment.

To develop quality e-learning, we need policies and standards to participate in e-learning in India. The government must play an important role in developing policies for e-learning design and implementation by following international instructional & technical standards.

A Framework for Meaningful Learning

By

Ethical Institutional ResourceSupport On-line and off-line resources & support Management Meaningful Pedagogical Evaluation Technological InterfaceDesign Learning and teaching issuesInfrastructure, hardware and software Physical layout and navigation Content development and maintenance Academic, administrative & student services Ethical considerations in e-learning Assessment of learner, evaluation of learning environment Learning

5. MANAGEMENT 5.1 E ‑ Learning Content Development 5.2 E-Learning Maintenance 6. RESOURCE SUPPORT 6.1 Online support 6.2 Resources 7. ETHICAL 7.1 Social and Political Influence 7.2 Cultural Diversity 7.3 Bias 7.4 Geographical diversity 7.5 Learner diversity 7.6 Digital Divide 7.7 Etiquette 7.8 Legal issues 8. INSTITUTIONAL 8.1 Administrative Affairs 8.2 Academic affairs 8.2 Student services 1. PEDAGOGICAL 1.1 Content Analysis 1.2 Audience Analysis 1.3 Goal Analysis 1.4 Medium Analysis 1.5 Design approach 1.6 Organization 1.7 Methods and Strategies 2. TECHNOLOGICAL 2.1 Infrastructure planning 2.2 Hardware 2.3 Software 3. INTERFACE DESIGN 3.1 Page and site design 3.2 Content design 3.3 Navigation 3.4 Accessibility 3.5 Usability testing 4. EVALUATION 4.1 Assessment of learners 4.2 Evaluation of the instruction & learning environment

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods What types of content are appropriate to teach via a variety of e- learning approaches?

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Who are the learners? Does the institution have adequate information about the learners?

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals & Objectives Medium Design Organization Methods Do we provide clear expectations of what the student is required to do? Goal  Umbrella Objectives  Spokes of an Umbrella

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Doe we utilize multimedia attributes of the Internet and digital technologies? - text - audio - video - graphics - other (specify)

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods What is the instructor’s role? - more facilitative than didactic - more didactic than facilitative - a combination of both

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Does your e-learning or Computer Aided learning program provide a sense of continuity? (e.g., each unit of the lesson builds on the previous unit, etc.)

Pedagogical Content Audience Goals Medium Design Organization Methods Does your e-learning program promote Inside Collaboration by providing a supportive environment for asking questions, clarifying directions, suggesting or contributing resources and working on joint projects with class members?

Technological Infrastructure Planning Hardware Software Do you have personnel who can assist learners to set up for starting the course?

Technological Infrastructure Planning Hardware Software Are the hardware & software requirements for the e-learning program clearly stated?

Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Do the appearance and functionality of the screen look good?

Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Does the design follow “one idea per paragraph” rule?

Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Does the program provide structural aids or site map to guide learner’s navigation?

Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing Is the program designed to be accessible by a wider user population? (A common accessibility concern in the USA -- Is the course 508 compliant?)

Interface Design Page and Site Design Content Design Navigation Accessibility Usability Testing How quickly users find answers to the most frequently asked questions in the program?

Evaluation Assessment of Learners Evaluation of Instruction & Learning Environment Does the program have a mechanism in which a learner can be truly measured and not cheat?

Evaluation Assessment of Learners Evaluation of Instruction & Learning Environment Does the program have a system to accept students evaluation of the following? - content - instructor - learning environment - learning resources - course design - technical support

Management Content Development Maintenance Is there a project support site for e ‑ learning production team?

Management Content Development Maintenance Does the program notify students about any changes in due dates or other course relevant matters (e.g., server down) via following means? - - announcement page - alert boxes - running footer added to a page - phone call - mail

Resource Support Online Support Resources Does the course provide troubleshooting (or expert technical support from specialized staff) assistance or a help line?

Resource Support Online Support Resources Does the program provide examples of previous student's work available in digitized format?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the institution have to get approval from any external entities (who can serve as political barriers) to implement e-learning?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues To improve cross-cultural verbal communication and avoid misunderstanding, does the program make an effort to reduce or avoid the use of jargon, idioms, ambiguous or cute humor, and acronyms?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the program present more than one viewpoint on controversial issues?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Is the program offered to geographically diverse population? If yes... Is the program sensitive about students from different time- zones (e.g. synchronous communications are scheduled at reasonable times for all time zones represented)?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Is the program designed to have patience for learners who adapt to individualized distributed learning environment slower than others?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Information accessibility issue must be expressed in terms of digital “haves” and “have nots,” a gap expressed in the term “digital divide.” Is the digital divide issue considered in designing the e ‑ learning content?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the program provide any guidance to learners on how to behave and post messages in online discussions so that their postings do not hurt others’ feelings?

Ethical Social/Political Influence Cultural Diversity Bias Geographical Diversity Learner Diversity Digital Divide Etiquette Legal Issues Does the program get students’ permission to post any of the following on the Web? - students’ photographs - students’ projects

(An excerpt from a listserv posting by Kathy Murrell of South Africa): “In multiple choice questions the selected option was marked by a "tick" symbol (as apposed to a "cross" sorry no ascii equivelent). I presume the American equivelent to be a check mark, but for most South Africans' this represents the mark next to a correct answer, - it was most disconcerting to get an error or wrong message next to the mark and many students may not even bother to read the message as they would presume it to be the correct answer. “

Institutional Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services Is the institution ready to offer e-learning?

Institutional Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services Does the e-learning prgram provide academic quality such as one would expect in a traditional course?

Institutional Are instructor/tutor and technical staff available during online orientation (if any)? Administrative Affairs Academic Affairs Student Services

Within the scope of today’s presentation, I have presented few learning issues in the form of questions that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating or implementing meaningful e ‑ learning.

As the scope of e ‑ learning design expands, design projects change from one-person operations to complex team efforts. The Meaningful Learning Framework can be used to ensure that no important essential factor is omitted from the design of e ‑ learning, whatever its scope or complexity.

India has the greatest potential for e-learning.

Ethical Institutional ResourceSupport Management Meaningful Pedagogical Evaluation Technological InterfaceDesign Learning

The Meaningful Learning Framework can provide guidance in the design, development, evaluation and implementation of: - e-Learning Programs - Blended-Learning Programs - Distance Education Programs - Virtual Universities - Learning Management Systems - Learning Content Management Systems

Furthermore, the Framework can be used by the Ministry of Education to formulate and evaluate: - Virtual Education Policies for Education - Accreditation Criteria for eLearning Programs - Technology Infrastructure for eLearning Programs - Research Funding Criteria for eLearning Projects - National Orientation Plan for eLearners - Online Faculty and Staff Training

Ideas for preparing e-learning professionals in India …

There is a tremendous need for educational and training professionals in the Indian sub-continent to have sound Instructional Design skills to create meaningful learning materials.

Need to see more and more professionals in the Indian sub- continent trained in Instructional Design and e-Learning to improve education quality using locally available technology tools.

Looking forward to the bright future of e-learning in India.

Questions and comments?

BadrulKhan.com/khan