Though this is the first course I have
taken in the new ELC platform created by brilliant people at Hopkins'
Center for Technology in Education, it is the 9th course I
have taken in a mostly or completely online format. The actual
format of learning in this new platform is largely the same as the
old ELC, but now that I am explicitly studying the design and
evaluation of e-Learning environments, there are several components
of improvement that I have noticed and feel are worth mentioning.
For instance, here's a look at the main page of a course in the old
ELC:
And now, here's a look at the welcome
page for a course in the new ELC:
When I first logged into the new ELC
for this e-Learning course, I noticed the change in color first, and then the
menu. I thought it was more aesthetically pleasing than the old
edition, and generally a simpler look; I did not, however, notice the
core upgrades in the Essential Elements of a course. For instance,
on the main page of the new ELC, one can see all of the content
presentations sorted out by week right away as opposed to having to
select the coursebook. This is a major upgrade in the Essential
Element of Tone & Style, as it links the content presentations
with course announcements in such a way as to say, “Welcome to
class, here's what's going on now, what we've done in the past, and
what's coming up next.” This thoughtful change is a great upgrade,
but I think the most striking positive change addresses the Essential
Element of teaming. Here's a side-by-side image of the team work
space comparing the old ELC with the new:
As one can see, the new ELC team space
includes updates, a collaborative blog, discussion, simple chat
functions, and places to share resources amongst the team and keep a
collaborative calendar. The old version of the ELC included a team
space only for discussion. Any other collaboration had to be
improvised elsewhere within the course shell or maintained outside
the ELC.
There's also the newly improved
communication features, such as the ability to very easily track
updates to a particular discussion or area of the ELC using the
“Subscribe to Email Updates” function. All of the changes in the
new edition of the ELC seem positive to me, and I have learned a lot
about how I might take that with me into course design myself –
including the e-Learning PD initiative I am currently designing and
will be soon implementing at my school.
There is a wide range of instructional
technology abilities and interests at the school where I currently
work (lots of digital immigrants on the faculty). As the new
Technology Coordinator, I have made it my core mission to provide
more scaffolding and differentiation in professional development
opportunities for all faculty and staff. My initiative will involve
providing a place for asynchronous learning of Web 2.0 and
school-specific tools. These will sometimes be intended as
stand-alone resources and other times as follow-ups to face-to-face
interactions. I am going to be looking for more ideas in the coming
weeks about how to best support digital immigrants in the
asynchronous e-Learning environment to ensure the best possible
success of the initiative.
