(Page 19 of 37) - Beyond Best Practices: Creating Effective E-Learning Communities Outside the Virtual Classroom authored by Dierks, Rosa Gomez.

Barbara A. Solomon and Richard M. Felder at North Carolina State:

http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/ilsweb.html

or by outlining different learning styles and letting students identify and
communicate their learning preferences (e.g., How do we learn? Power
Point Presentation, Appendix 5).

Interactive materials do not need to replace conventional textbooks,
academic articles, or research assignments. The web offers opportunities
to link course materials to web casts, videos, interactive computer
simulation games, and “learning-ware” which can effectively engage
students in learning by doing.

In the first week of class, students need to have an opportunity to
articulate their course expectations, goals, and ways by which they intend
to meet objectives. This exercise commits students to take responsibility
for their own learning beyond well- structured course requirements.
Individualized study plans do not make course structure obsolete. In fact,
course design enables students to work at their own pace combining
choice and responsibility to complete assigned tasks.

Continuous assessment and prompt feedback of all student contributions
is essential to keep students engaged in online course activities. Only
through continuous assessment, can students adjust, gain necessary
study skills, or move beyond their performance levels to accomplish
course goals. Assessment without faculty interaction is void of meaning.
Regular communications to explain, clarify, and reconfirm evaluation
criteria is necessary to maintain high levels of student engagement.

Finally, in developing effective strategies to improve online learning,
faculty need to find avenues for sharing what Bransford and his
colleagues brand “knowledge capturing” within and across campuses
(Johnstone, 2004, 397). Online teaching and learning is still in its infancy
compared to the more traditional methods of teaching and learning in
higher education. Thus, it is imperative to figure out how to overcome the
cultural barriers across disciplines to share “lessons learned” in this field.
MERLOT is an example of efforts to create a free and open resource
designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. This site
includes links to online learning materials and annotations such as peer
reviews and assignments:

http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

MERLOT is an emerging online attempt to create a forum for sharing
online teaching materials, but many barriers persist.

Although technology can contribute to the standardization of online
assessment rubrics across disciplines, technology cannot standardize the
core requirements in each discipline and its related subfields. Academic
sharing can be encouraged through a campus-wide website where faculty