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Consider the following questions before starting this module:

 What are some advantages and disadvantages of teaching online?

 What do you foresee being your biggest challenge when teaching online?

 What do you need to consider when preparing your environment for online teaching?

 Is your environment ready for online teaching?

Module Content

 Theories of Online Learning

We will first look at the main theories of learning and how they apply to online education.
 Computer-Mediated Environments
In this lesson, we will look at the pros and cons of teaching online and explore different
elements of computer-mediated environments. .
 Your Working Environment
Finally, we'll take a look at some practical aspects of your working environment when teaching
online.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, you will be able to:

1. Differentiate between the main points of current learning theory: constructivism, community of
inquiry, and connectivism
2. Identify online teaching strategies based on each learning theory approach
3. Articulate the advantages and disadvantages of teaching and learning online
4. Understand and use some of the key terms used in the Online Learning Environment
5. List some of the elements of your current online learning environment
6. Note some factors in your current online environment that can be improved
Theories of Online Learning

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Welcome to Lesson 1: Theories of Online Learning. This lesson focuses on the big question, what is
learning? There are many factors that come into play to train us to be educators and to prepare our
learners to learn in an online setting.

Theories of Online Learning

To be an effective online educator, it is important to understand the different theories of how we learn
and why we learn. The question, what is learning? is almost as weighted as, what is knowledge? While
there is no widely accepted prescription or scientific theory of learning, educators are becoming more
and more aware of just how dynamic learning is.

So many factors come into play in learning. What did you know before? Where are you coming from –
what did you learn at home, in your community? Who are you – what is your culture, your learning
interests or preferences?

More specifically, in an online context, what is your previous experience with teaching online? Have you
taken online courses before? What have you liked or disliked about taking online courses? What sorts of
tools, websites, or resources have you used in an online setting? What is your social media
consumption? How many devices do you have? These are all important things to take into consideration
when thinking of yourself as an online educator or the background of the students that you will be
teaching.

In this part of the lesson, you will be asked to reflect on your own learning theory approach. Do you
want your online classroom to be teacher-centred, student-centred, discussion-based, work-sheet
based, or games-based? It is important to understand the goals you want to achieve in your online
classroom.

Reflection

Try answering the questions below. You might want to write down your answer.

 How do you envision your online classroom? Describe your classroom in at least 3 sentences.

 What are your own experiences with online teaching and learning? What do you like or dislike
about your online experiences?

 How do you think teaching in person differs from teaching online? How is it the same?

 What do you think are some of the challenges you will face when teaching online?

 I completed the task above.

Download all of the M1L1 Reflection Journal prompts:

Module 1 Reflection Journal 1.docx

708.2 KB

Module 1 Reflection Journal 1.pdf

245.9 KB

Some of the more widely used theories of learning take into account that learning is on a continuum
between what the educator intends the student to learn, and the abilities, skills, and backgrounds of the
student.

Three models or frameworks of learning can be used to understand what is happening in online
learning, even though they apply to other learning as well. Each will be discussed below.

Constructivism

A constructivist approach places students in the center of their learning. This is different than teacher-
centered, where only the teacher has the knowledge, and students must memorize the content. When
students are placed in the center of their learning, they are making meaning with their teacher and their
peers, and knowledge is constructed in many different ways.

Click below to see how various scholars define constructivism.

Jonassen

Constructivism claims reality is in the mind of the knower: the knower is the one who constructs reality
as they interpret it. For a constructivist, reality is how we interpret our own reality through our
experiences of the external world (Jonassen, et al., 1995).

Piaget

An early and influential constructivist researcher, Jean Piaget, traced how a child first constructs reality
based on their own world view. The child, he theorized, then only makes changes in what they believe if
a better theory is presented or suits their needs at the time (Akerman, 2014)

Vygotsky

Vygotsky is another significant figure who added to this developmental work. He explored the social and
cultural conditions for learning: the individual student learns as they make sense of their own
experiences (Swan, Garrison & Richardson, 2009).

Dewey

Dewey’s view is still more collaborative: he adds the value of the input of the community to the
inquiring nature of individuals. Knowledge and learning is not an individual pursuit controlled by only
the educator or only the student, but is more organic, a “fashion of our public and private worlds”
(Swan, Garrison & Richardson, 2009).

Constructivism involves educators making the learning active for students. Educators can give students
real life examples so students can use what they are learning. This gives students the opportunity to
make meaning of the facts (Avery, 2019).

The names of the researchers mentioned above may become part of your own community of
knowledge as you develop as a professional educator. What is key now is that teaching went from a
one-directional process, where educators lecture students, to a dynamic process, where learning is
understood as taking place in many directions and on many levels.

Constructivism in the Online Classroom

As you can surely assume, dated approaches such as behaviorism and facilitator-led, lecture-based
teaching are not going to engage students in an online setting. Constructivism has made a resurgence in
the 21st century and is particularly important when teaching online. What does constructivism look like
in your online classroom?

 Applying real-world scenarios

 Making connections directly to students; honoring their interests

 Building on students' prior knowledge

 Building on students' experiences and funds of knowledge

 Flipped classrooms

 Student-to-student teaching

 Peer assessment

 Self-reflection

 Discussion forums

 Break-out rooms (splitting your online forum/meeting into a number of smaller meetings for
your students to work together)

 Freedom and encouragement to share ideas and ask questions

A community of knowledge can be professional and formal, or informal. For an educator (and a learner)
those who contribute to your learning skills and knowledge are part of your own community of
knowledge. It is very similar to a community of inquiry in that the elements (people, resources) in your
community of knowledge should be adding in a meaningful way to what you know.
Community of Inquiry

Early distance education used to be one way: there was no discussion with students. The learning
community idea was not popular because the locus of control was on the educator (Anderson and Dron,
2011; Siemens, Gasevic & Dawson, 2015).

Web 2.0 developed functionality for multiple perspectives at a time when educators were also looking
into how learning was optimally more co-constructed and could allow multiple perspectives. Knowledge
was seen as individual AND community. There can be, often, more than one understanding. There is
more than one way to solve a problem (Vrasidas, 2000).

Educators were learning about social presence online, and the focus shifted to the “purposeful nature of
a community of learners collaboratively constructing meaning, to the development of online
communities of inquiry (COI)” (Swan, Garrison, Richardson, 2009, p. 44). The key in this idea of an online
community is to find ways that students and students, and students and educators can interact in a way
that is meaningful and that builds on the knowledge a student has, to make new knowledge or to find
new ways of applying that knowledge.

The Community of Inquiry Model

Infographic - Text Version

Infographic - Text Version

The Community of Inquiry Model

Social Presence

 Engagement with Participants

 Risk-free Expression

 Encouraging Collaboration

Cognitive Presence

 Exchanging Information

 Applying New Ideas

 Connecting Ideas

Teaching Presence
  Setting Curriculum

 Sharing Personal Meaning

 Focusing Discussion

Social Presence + Cognitive Presence

 Supporting Discourse

Social Presence + Teaching Presence

 Setting Climate

Cognitive Presence + Teaching Presence

 Selecting Content

Social Presence + Cognitive Presence + Teaching Presence

 Educational Experience

Match the following indicators taken from Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Teaching Presence
to an action.

 Sharing Personal Meaning

 Connecting Ideas

 Risk-free Expression

 Exchanging Information

 Social Engagement

 Setting Curriculum

 Class-wide icebreaker

 KWL Chart used over a unit

 Outline learning objectives in a welcome video

 Break out groups

 Self-and peer-assessment

 Creating a real or mock social network profile

SUBMIT

TAKE AGAIN

If an educator adopted a community of inquiry model in their classroom, they would have to ensure a
combination of supporting productive conversations or discourse, make sure they selected meaningful
content, and create a safe learning environment for their students.

For an educator, being part of a community of inquiry means that we understand our students do not
exist in a vacuum. Ideally, we build communication strategies that place our students in situations where
they can act and react and use their knowledge meaningfully.

Connectivism

Connectivism was advanced as a term by George Siemens who wanted a theory of learning more
consistent with the needs of the 21st century. Connectivism as a framework addresses the more
student-student and student-educator trends of learning of a constructivism view, but also includes
relevant technology affordances.

Another trend connectivism addresses is the shrinking “half-life” of knowledge, which means that half of
what is known today was not known 10 years ago; and new knowledge doubles about every 18 months
or faster (Siemens, 2005).

Connectivism includes technology and connection making: integrating ideas of chaos, network,
complexity and self-organization theories. Learning, in a connectivist model occurs in a more nebulous
environment where the core elements shift and are not necessarily in any individual’s - educator’s or
student’s - control.

This is a growing field, and much more complex than we can represent in a short lesson. But, there are
some key ideas an online educator, in this age of information can use to navigate the rapidly changing
world of online learning.

To find out more about Connectivism visit:

https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/3-6-connectivism/

Educators can help students draw distinctions between important and unimportant information and to
"recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday” (Siemens,
2005). Skills we want to instill in our learners include not only how to acquire and use information, but
the decision-making itself about the learning process. Siemens’ connectivism stresses that our ability to
“learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today” (Siemens, 2005).

Reflection

Try answering the questions below. You might want to write down your answer.
  Now that you have learned about Learning Theories, write a short reflection on which theory
resonates with you most.

 Alternatively, write how one or more of the theories will influence your teaching practice.

 Try to add some of your own examples as you explore the ideas.

 Write about 200-300 words and try bolding the main ideas or summarizing in point form for
your own reference later.

 I completed the task above.

Add your answers to the above questions to your portfolio document.