for Effective Teaching through Online Environments

Workshop: Using Learning Objects in Online Courses
Karen Hornsby, North Carolina A&T University
Wade Maki,University of North Carolina Greensboro

Overview

Learning objects are interactive digital tools designed to enhance a student’s learning of specific concepts in short chunks of time. Pedagogically focused this definition stresses the student-centered learning attributes of learning objects rather than its technological design. Many tools can be utilized to create these exercises including video clips, mazes, and other readily available software applications. How might an instructor create engaging exercises that capture authentic problem-based scenarios? This workshop compares a traditional discussion exercise assignment to an exercise integrating a learning object discussion prompt. (See "Creating Quandary Exercises for the Virtual Learning Environment" for instructions on building an interactive Learning Object like the one featured in this Brief Hybrid Workshop.)

This brief hybrid workshop demonstrates the differences between a static and interactive discussion exercise.

Initial Activity

Briefly record your responses to the following:

  • What method might you use in an online course to help students grasp disciplinary concepts or problems?
  • Do your students find these types of activities engaging and relevant?
  • Are these activities interactive?

 

eClip - Quandary Exercise: Interactive Learning Objects

Quandary Exercise: Interactive Learning Objects

Reflection Activity

Consider the following questions and record your responses. Then pair with a partner and share your thoughts.

  1. In what ways, if any, does the learning object model improve on the traditional methods?
  2. How might the learning object model be further improved?
  3. What techniques might you use to adapt learning object exercises to your discipline?

Follow-up Resources

The Virtual Philosopher: Designing Socratic Method Learning Objects for Online Philosophy Courses
Hornsby, Karen & Maki, Wade (September 2008)
(A case study on designing digital learning objects to replicate the Socratic dialectic process of inquiry in a digital learning environment. Contains links to several learning objects. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 4, No. 3. Retrieved, June 15, 2009 from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no3/hornsby_0908.pdf.)

Guidelines for Authors of Learning Objects
Smith, Rachel (2004)
(An exploration of the what, why, and how of learning object construction. Austin: New Media Consortium) Retrieved June 15, 2009 from http://archive.nmc.org/guidelines/NMC%20LO%20Guidelines.pdf

MERLOT (Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
(A digital repository of peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials including thousands of portable learning objects.) http://www.merlot.org

Evaluating the Learning in Learning Objects
Kay, R. H. & Knaack, L. (2007)
(Discusses a number of problem areas in the evaluation of learning objects including emphasizing technology ahead of learning, over-reliance on informal descriptive data, etc. The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 22(1), 5-28)

Creating Quandary Exercises for the Virtual Learning Environment
Maki, Wade (2009)
(A Brief Hybrid Workshop which provides instructions on using Quandary to create interactive Learning Objects.)http://www.uncg.edu/tlc/hybrid/online/PromTeachStrat/quandary.html