MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses available to anyone who can sign up. MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, advance in careers, and provide quality educational experiences to a certain extent. Millions of people around the world use MOOCs for learning and their reasons are various, including career development, career change, college preparation, supplementary learning, lifelong learning, corporate e-Learning and training, and so on

Evaluation of knowledge transfer in an immersive virtual learning environment for the transportation community

In the year 2009, 667 individuals lost their lives in a highway construction or maintenance work zone (National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, 2010). Since the year 2003, 6,438 individuals have been killed in a highway construction or maintenance work zone, which is approximately 805 deaths per calendar year (National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, 2010). This eye-opening and unfortunate statistic points to the need for a re-evaluation of training methodology as it relates to work zone safety. This study reports on the use of virtual learning technology for work-zone training. This research tested the use of an Immersive Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) simulating real-world highway work zones. IVLEs go beyond traditional visual learning by presenting images that combine a new form of visual learning and virtual-experiential learning in a way that is more congruent with an individual’s visual images stored in memory, thus improving knowledge transfer and retention (Dede, 2000; Kapp & O’Driscoll, 2010). The visual cues that the learner experiences in the virtual world are so similar to the visual cues in the real world that recall of virtual world lessons stored in memory are triggered by the same cues in the real world. Additionally, the student can experiment, make mistakes, and repeat the activity as often as necessary, achieving a virtual-experiential understanding of the concept that can only be duplicated in real-world experiential learning, which is often not practical (Dede, 2000; Kapp & O’Driscoll, 2010). Such immersive engagement in the learning activity will allow the learners to move beyond the memorization of the presented concepts and into the application and synthesis of the material. A significant benefit of this research will be a better understanding of how educators can implement this advanced, user-friendly, semi-transparent technology to positively affect the inclusion of marginalized populations into virtual learning environments. This research will establish a solid theoretical and evidence-based link between use of the virtual world learning environment and improved knowledge transfer and retention for that marginalized population that forms the bulk of the employment pool for military, construction, maintenance, and many other industrial entry-level positions

OULDI-JISC Project Evaluation Report: the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches on institutional process and design cultures

This report presents research and evaluation undertaken by the OULDI-JISC Project (Open University Learning Design Initiative JISC Project) between 2008 and 2012. In particular, it considers the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches piloted by the project on institutional processes and design cultures. These tools and approaches include tools for sharing learning design expertise (Cloudworks), visualising designs (CompendiumLD, Module Map, Activity Profile) and for supporting design and reflection in workshops (Facilitation Cards, workshop activities, etc.). The project has adopted a learning design approach so as to help foreground pedagogy and learner experience. Nine pilots have been completed across six UK universities

The Utilization of Visual Design Systems to Promote Higher Levels of Learning in Educational Environments

Traditional higher education environments have changed very little in the last hundred and fifty years, while technology has advanced in nearly every other area of society making each more productive and more capable. This study identifies key aspects of a comprehensive and universal visual learning system that incorporates a more holistic approach to design and interactivity in educational environments. The desired effect of this is elevating classroom learning to higher levels as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy. In this thesis, I have collected and explored empirical and observational data to examine the relationship between effective learning environments and the use of visual aids and interactive experiences. Research in the forms of case studies and personae will present how effective educators are utilizing technology and visuals in and out of the classroom and how individuals associate information through relationships of color, shape, form, hierarchy and other visuals. This research has been applied to a brand identity system designed to facilitate deeper learning and specifically applied to the hypothetical department of Creative Arts at West Coast Baptist College. Visual support of a presentation must include powerful storytelling, the establishment of an emotional connection between speaker and audience, a rigorous and thorough preparation, and content mastery on the part of the presenter. Online learning-based video content should take advantage of bilateral cognitive processing of both visuals and audio, should be limited in length to capitalize on the ideal attention span of the viewer, and should be bundled with interactive, actionable content or questions for the best long-term retention rates. The aim of the research was to establish a set of guidelines for the evolution of education in the adoption of modern visual and interactive design systems to better engage a new generation of learners. The research has been applied to create a flexible, comprehensive, and universal design system that can be packaged for implementation in the classroom environment in nearly any teaching field

Networks Of Users And Powers: Blackboard Software Roadmap As Cultural Practice

With the rapid growth of eLearning applications - the software providing for learning through the Internet - it has become commonplace to describe those technologies as both simple tools and user-friendly. These two vague yet suggestive terms make the operating of the technology appear as social value and any related issues as a user\u27s problem. Interested neo-liberal groups take a step further when considering eLearning technologies as the solution for the problems faced in the field. STS studies recognize that technology fetishism is strategically employed to justify the latest developments of capitalism as technological and logical. This doctoral study examines the complexity of the LMS software, a widely used platform in higher education, from a learner\u27s perspective by both problematizing the term user and highlighting the systemic nature of user\u27s issues. Becoming an LMS user is viewed as a social process of sense-making in which the system is transformed to the point that learner feels in a personal relationship with the system. The surrounding fetishistic discourse represents a capitalistic philosophy not only associated with the industrial production of software but also aimed at the commodification of learner, contradicting the social image/function of education. This study draws mainly from an ethnographic data collection on the experiences and perspectives of a team in charge of updating and troubleshooting Blackboard software in an American higher education setting during the 2012-13 school year, from a selection of hundreds of Internet related documents, and from my personal experience with online teaching. The study first outlines the origin and historical rise and expansion of LMS technologies; it describes how the system was socially reconstructed for fitting technology and situating learner within consumer structures; and it explains the social processes through which a learner becomes a Blackboard user. By using Blackboard as a case study, this dissertation attempts to narrow the gap between similar studies in education that often take technology/user for granted and the valuable insights achieved by STS studies in surrounding areas to LMS

From Faculty Development to the Classroom: A Qualitative Study of How Nurse Educators Turn Faculty Development into Action

The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the transfer of learning by uncovering how various factors supported the integration of knowledge and skills gleaned from the Faculty Development: Integrated Technology into Nursing Education and Practice Initiative (ITNEP) programs into nursing education curricula. Through interviews with 20 participants from four ITNEP programs, this study confirmed the importance of learner characteristics, program design elements, and factors in the work environment for supporting successful transfer of learning and supports a variety of other transfer of learning research findings. New or seldom discussed supportive individual characteristics were found, including: leadership abilities, lifelong learning, ability to recognize limitations, persistence, creativity, and risk-taking. Study findings suggest that proactive personality may support transfer of learning. Participants maintained motivation from pre-training through post-training at a high enough level to successfully transfer learning. The importance of networking opportunities, a diversity of perspectives, post conference support, and teams in programs designs were found to positively influence transfer and were discussed in relation to social influence. The variety of supportive factors in the participants' work environments, including strategic alignment, strengthens the assertions that transfer may be individually context dependent. Barriers to transfer efforts in the work environment were also addressed. Additionally, while patterns of specific characteristics emerged, interacting findings were found threaded throughout