Jess’ E-Learning Blog

I feel so light again…. I’ve finished two weeks of jury duty, completed my part of two groupwork assignments, missed two weeks of uni AND maintained decent stress levels. I’m giving thanks to bargain clothing shops for being right near the Sherrif’s Office, yoga for giving my brain a rest, my lecturers and groupwork people for being understanding and lastly to my family and my boyfriend for just being there when I needed them

I’d just like to make a quick note to anyone reading my blog that anything I post under the category ‘reflection’ is just that - only a reflection based upon something that I’ve read or seen. Some of it might be correct, some of it won’t be. Please don’t take it as fact, I’m just thinking out loud

Thanks

I have an assignment group assignment due for my e-learning subject and our topic is the use of blogging in organisations, preferably in terms of learning and disseminating knowledge. As I was researching, I came across a post on Steve Rubel’s blog concerning top-down and bottom-up blogging in organisations. There were two articles in the trackback (a list of people who had referenced the article in their blog) for his post which interested me.

The first trackback made a comment that a problem with blogging for organisation is the ‘public image’ of blogging is so light and fluffy that it would undermine the integrity of the organisation to invest in it. This is a valid point that I have thought about. Even writing a blog for the sole purpose of education, I still find myself falling into slang, informality and ’storytelling’, all of which aren’t very professional or academic. How easy would it be for a blogging tool to encourage informality and outright bluntness as a part of the organisational culture?

Of course, I’m thinking of a large, bureaucratic organisation here, one who probably wouldn’t take a risk on something like blogging. However, a smaller, more creative, team-based or matrix organisation might make desire a more informal, networked culture and use blogging as a platform to build it. In which case, posting biscuit recipes for staff morning teas may not be such a bad idea.

The second track caught my eye purely because of the word ‘wikis’. It only interested me because I was not expecting it in a post concerning blogs. However, it started me thinking: wikis may produce similar results to blogging in organisations. While wikis encourage teamwork and learning through many individuals contributing to one page - which is a considerable bonus point in favour of wikis - could this interaction bring about a change in organisational culture? Is it because blogs are an electronic medium, processed and stored on the internet, which allows for the informality - and sometimes irrelevance - of the content? If that is so, then wikis could also have the same effect being that they are an electronic tool, used to create and disseminate knowledge throughout a group of people, much in the same way as blogs.

So, it is apparent that pages are just pages and that one continuous piece of writing can be put on the page, but that is it. Separate postings cannot be put onto a page. So, instead, I will make more extensive use of the categories option to organise my posts and use pages for things like posting assignements, etc. a resolution

My groupwork assignment is based around the use of blogging as a tool for learning and disseminating information in organisations. While there is a lot of information on blogging and use uses of blogging in education, my group has found very few organisations which use it in the workplace, either formally or informally. Given that our course is using blogging as a tool for learning (both to familiarise the class members with technologies and also to share and search for knowledge) I would not have thought it such a stretch for organisations to implement blogging, even if it is used purely as a tool to connect the organisation and promote the organisations culture.

My brother took my laptop away for a weekend last month to network it with his friends for a weekend-long multi player gaming adventure. Normally, this isn’t worth much notice, aside from the disruption of not being able to use my computer. However, when he brought it back (and promptly fell asleep ;)) he hadn’t uninstalled his games. So, out of curiosity, I started playing them.

One game in particular caught my attention. MapleStory is an online RPG in which players can choose different worlds and channels to fight monsters and progress through one of four professions. Players have a high level of interaction between each other and can chat, trade items, join parties or guilds and even marry other avatars.

While playing this game, I witnessed instances where one person would need help (usually top find a place or object) and another would actually go out of their way to take them to the place or show them where to find the item. This started me thinking if games such as MapleStory could be adapted for learning processes. The interactive nature of this game is similar to blogging in that participants learn from other participants, but the interaction between members is much more immediate than when blogging.

I think that this could be a very useful tool if an educator wants to introduce children or teenagers to e-learning. Interesting and interactive graphics, interaction with other people and some form of structure are all aspects of MapleStory that could be used to keep young people interested and motivated to learn. Virtual classes could be held in a world similar to MapleStory, or such a world could be created with the purpose of teaching students. Students could be required to form groups in order to complete a quest or task, therefore developing teamwork skills. Learning in this manner could also be beneficial because it is self-paced. Individuals interact with other, but are not required to complete the same tasks as others, and therefore can learn what they are comfortable with, when they are comfortable with it.

Okay, that didn’t seem to work… so if anyone walks past here and knows how to put more than one post onto a page, can you please help me. I’m trying to put the reading overview I posted into the ‘Class Activities’ page I have created. I think I’m going to ask around as well to see if anyone I know knows how to do this.

Okay, this is an experiment to find out how to post to the new page ‘class activities’ that I have set up. I am hoping that this does not create a new page, as I’m not sure I know how to delete pages…

Here’s to hoping

This is a summary of Jennifer DeVries 2005 article, ‘E-Learning Strategy: A Framework for Success‘

An e-learning strategy is useful to set goals and measure the success of e-learning in the organisation. The goals are the main component of an e-learning strategy.

 Developing and Setting Goals:

1. Needs Assessmentaddresses the audience’ s needs and characteristics. Issues can include attitudes towards e-learning, computer literacy, motivation levels in regards to being trained, Internet connectivity and associated costs and hardware/software issues.
2. Review Team Readiness Training It is important to know how ready your team is to develop and initiate e-learning, both individually and collectively. These two steps will reveal skill gaps that need to be filled in order to have a successful program.
3. Obtain Management Direction This can be done in two ways:

• Top Down - Where management has instigated the process of creating an e-learning program you will want to be collaborative, asking if they have any particular programs in mind and why they want it.
• Bottom Up - If management has not instigated the development of a program, you will need to fit the program with the organisation’s strategic objectives and show examples of programs similar to the one that you are proposing.

Elements of an E-learning Strategy:

• Technology There are generally two categories that e-learning technologies fall into:

• Synchronous Technology - Interaction between the learner and educator with these technologies occurs in real-time. Examples include webinar, webcasting and chat technologies.
• Asynchronous Technology -Technologies in which the learner controls the time, place and content that they view.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) can be used to monitor both synchronous and asynchronous technologies and both types of technology can be blended into a learning program.

• Content This concerns what content you are going to design and how you are going to design it. Issues here include outsourcing, prioritising courses and how the instructor will perform. It is also important to evaluate the content now and also to develop a system of feedback for development once the program has been initiated.

•   Administration and Support need to be addressed to anticipate and address issues as they arise.  An e-learning strategy should include ways to “assign, track, manage, support, and report on your training course usage” (para. 25)

• Communication There are two issues regarding communication that need to be addressed in an e-learning strategy: change management and marketing communications. The change to an e-learning program needs to be handled carefully to avoid as much ill feeling towards the program as possible. Marketing is an issue as it is what draws students to the course and keeps the program viable.

•  Financial Analysis  Three words: Return on Investment (ROI). This is the ultimate reason that a program will or won’t be funded and it therefore needs to be considered. Issues that need to be considered include costs for development and maintenance, course prices multiplied by expected participation rates and estimates on how long it will take to break even.