When I started an e-learning subject in an adult education masters, I hoped that the course would bring together the two aspects of what I believed e-learning is all about - content (from the Ad Ed subjects) and process (from the e-learning unit).
The effect has been quite unexpected. I have now discovered that to get the message out there is a presentation skills requirement - beyond use of the tools, and now I am coming to realise that the biggest concern is a psychological one.
Early in the course I was attracted to an on line discussion group, TR Dev at Yahoo groups. This is a closed group, but you can apply for membership through a button on the sidebar of this weblog.
The first discussion I encountered was about the mythical statistic that we recall 10% of what we hear, 20% of what we see, 30% of what we see and hear together, and an ever increasing proportion until you reach 90% for the type of communication medium that the salesman is trying to push. Read the rest of this entry »
A client sent me a set of assessment instruments that he proposes to use and asked for my thoughts on them.
The first question was:
List the hierarchy of risk controls.
The answer is:
Substitution
Isolation
Engineering
Administrative controls
Personal protection equipment
The only way that you would know the answer to that question is if you had done a course or read a book and memorised them
The purpose of the hierarchy of controls is to reduce risk.
The higher the option is on the list, the better the risk control.
None of that information comes out in the question. It is also my experience that many people can recite the list, but have little knowledge of risk management principles.
I reworded the question and created a survey on Poll Daddy to allow him to ask the questions on-line in a way that would check understanding as well as recall.
It is not the ideal tool for on-line asessment, but does show how the questions ahould be worded for an assessment.
When I read my post “It must be true, I saw it on the web” the thought occurred to me “where do you find information on how people verify the information that they gain from web sites?” A Google search was the first thought that came to mind. And I was not disappointed. Overwhelmed maybe, but I was started on the right track.
The Stanford University Web Credibility Project was among the first of the attention grabbing offerings. It had links to 79 papers on the topic. So perhaps one criterion is lots of referenced papers.
Lorraine expressed concern about the amount of information available on the web and pondered the difficulty of validating it. Debra reported the frequency of travel businesses talking up their own products - flogging was the term she introduced.
Their thoughts were fresh in my mind when I found two other sites - one allegedly “debunking the learning styles myth” and another feel good video of a shop assistant who made a difference by inserting thoughts for the day in customers’ grocery bags.
Saunders (1999) discusses the Johari window with respect to Social Learning. Saunders’ comments were pre Web 2.0, so what can we learn by looking on line through a Johari window at social networking sites?
The traditional Johari Window was set on two axes to form four panes. Was the matter known to me? Was the matter known to others?
There are things that I know about me that I am happy to let you know about. These may include my name, age and / or gender in a face to face contact. I may be more reluctant to disclose those on line.
There are things that I would prefer to hide about me both in face to face and on line contacts.
There are also things that you have determined from our interactions that I am not aware of, or at least I am not aware that that is how you see me.
Entries (RSS)