Yobornwinner: Distance Learning Blog

There is often a confusion between Open Learning (or open education) and Open Educational Resources (OER). Opening learning is much more complex than simply providing open educational resources, or OER. But OER can help because they are resources that are freely available on the Internet – you can download them for free, without having to go through the lengthy and often costly process of asking for permission to use them. TheSAIDE OER policy expresses this as follows: At its core, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) describes educational resources that are freely available for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees. A broad spectrum of frameworks is emerging to govern how OER is licensed for use, some of which simply allow copying and others that make provision for users to adapt the resources that they use. The most well known of these are the Creative Commons (CC) licences, which provide legal mechanisms to

Where learners have access to computers and to the Internet, the opportunity for opening access to learning is increased enormously. There are many courses which can be studied completely online – and at your own pace. The existence of Web 2.0 means that more learning may happen informally than through formal accredited courses. But the mere existence of courses and other learning material and information online does not mean that learning will automatically happen. In fact, these learning resources are so various and abundant that they may be much more bewildering or inaccessible than conventional courses. Also, learners not only have to understand the content of what they want to learn, they also have to use new tools for learning. They may be familiar with these tools and have the technology to support the use of these tools. But they may not. Without support, without courses designed with particular learners in mind, access may be closed more firmly than ever before. Supporting

The expansion of access to the Internet over the past decade has opened new possibilities for learning and teaching. The term e-learning incorporates all learning and teaching activities carried out by individuals or groups using electronic information and communication technologies in different modes: Individualized self paced learning online  Individualized self paced learning offline  Group-based learning synchronous, i.e. interactions between participants on the Internet or Intranet occur in real time  Group-based learning asynchronous, i.e. interactions between participants on the Internet or Intranet occur with a time delay. [Commonwealth of Learning, E-Learning Guide Book of Principles, Procedures and Practices, Naidu, S., 2006] Creating stimulating e-learning environments in which students have a high likelihood of success is a curriculum development activity. As with any course and design process it requires a thorough understanding of the course, the context,

Learning materials that enable students to achieve the intended outcomes of a course or programme would probably be considered to be of an acceptable standard or quality. But is learner success the only criteria for establishing the quality of learning materials? In South Africa distance education practitioners have debated issues around quality learning materials, materials development and course design for a number of years. As a way of working towards a common understanding of quality in distance education provision, a set of criteria was developed and published by NADEOSA ( National Association of Distance Education Organizations in South Africa ) in 2005. The criteria specify clearly what the requirements are for quality course materials, online materials and the materials development process. Sloan-C, a Consortium of Institutions and Organizations committed to  Quality Online Education  identifies five pillars of quality online education: student satisfaction, access, learning

A person may be considered an educational psychologist after completing a graduate degree in educational psychology or a closely related field. Universities establish educational psychology graduate programs in either psychology departments or, more commonly, faculties of education. Educational psychologists work in a variety of settings. Some work in university settings where they carry out research on the cognitive and social processes of human development, learning and education. Educational psychologists may also work as consultants in designing and creating educational materials, classroom programs and online courses. Educational psychologists who work in k–12 school settings (closely related are school psychologists in the US and Canada) are trained at the master's and doctoral levels. In addition to conducting assessments, school psychologists provide services such as academic and behavioral intervention, counseling, teacher consultation, and crisis intervention. Howeve

Motivation is an internal state that activates, guides and sustains behavior. Motivation can have several impacting effects on how students learn and how they behave towards subject matter: Provide direction towards goals Enhance cognitive processing abilities and performance Direct behavior toward particular goals Lead to increased effort and energy Increase initiation of and persistence in activities Educational psychology research on motivation is concerned with the volition or will that students bring to a task, their level of interest andintrinsic motivation, the personally held goals that guide their behavior, and their belief about the causes of their success or failure. As intrinsic motivation deals with activities that act as their own rewards, extrinsic motivation deals with motivations that are brought on by consequences or punishments. A form of  attribution theory  developed by  Bernard Weiner    describes how students' beliefs about the causes of academi

Constructivism is a category of learning theory in which emphasis is placed on the agency and prior "knowing" and experience of the learner, and often on the social and cultural determinants of the learning process. Educational psychologists distinguish individual (or psychological) constructivism, identified with  Piaget's theory of cognitive development , from  social constructivism . A dominant influence on the latter type is  Lev Vygotsky 's work on sociocultural learning, describing how interactions with adults, more capable peers, and cognitive tools are internalized to form mental constructs. Elaborating on Vygotsky's theory,  Jerome Bruner  and other educational psychologists developed the important concept of  instructional scaffolding , in which the social or information environment offers supports for learning that are gradually withdrawn as they become internalized