PAR for July 8, 2009 by Dr. Irene Boland
Practical Applications of Research: How instructors’ roles have changed from the classroom to online learning using an LMS to online learning using virtual worlds. Digital Natives’ expectations demand we move away from traditional learning activities. The absence and replacement of physically visible social cues change how we communicate in each venue.
Background: This article updates a model of the “many hats” that instructors wear when they conduct online learning. The model was originally developed to document the experience of online learning using a Learning Management System. Now, it’s updated to reflect the unique demands of online learning using a virtual world. Also discussed: how digital natives want to learn; and how to cope with the missing “body language” information that could guide you to change gears during classroom instruction.
Practical Application: Virtual Instructor Lead Training (vILT) can be done using an LMS or a Virtual World (amongst other possible technologies). The instructor roles model can serve as a preparedness checklist for the instructor. It advises you what to expect and provides guidance about how to prepare to best support your learners.
Digital Natives Expectations for Learning
Why are learning experiences moving to richer multimedia environments? Today’s newest adult learners are Digital Natives. Learners born after 1980 are referred to as digital natives because technology such as computers and the internet, and more recently always-on mobile devices, have been a normal part of their everyday lives for their whole lives. They are accustomed to having unrestricted access to information and having to evaluate its quality, accuracy and usefulness; and make sense of it in terms of their own life. Traditional classroom teaching methods, even when taken online into an LMS, don’t resonate with these learners.
The visual summary: How instructor roles change with technology
How instructors' roles change from LMSs to virtual worlds.
Definitions:
– Upskill – helping learners gain or improve technical skills that are required to use the course technology.
– Griefing – bad behavior between avatars which can inhibit learning.
– Avatar – cartoon-looking character that represents (and is controlled by) each person.
– In-world venues – places in the virtual environment that, when properly built or selected, can enhance the learning experience. Realistic environments can reproduce historical locations, people and events. Extraordinary environments can enable learners to engage in superhuman activities such as creating the big bang. Selection or creation of the appropriate environment can enhance learning.
– Balanced participation – asking very active participants to delay their actions to encourage others to jump in; asking very inactive participants to increase their participation.
Social Signaling: The visual cues evident during in-person communication that help us judge whether the other person finds the content interesting, understands or agrees. These cues include facial expressions, head movements, hand gestures, and sounds such as yawns, sighs or laughs. When making the move from traditional classroom to LMS, these cues go missing and need to be replaced with specific conventions such as the use of acronyms (lol) or emoticons : ) When we move again to a virtual world, expert manipulation of an avatar can convey many of these social signals, eliminating the need for the stop-gap inventions used in the LMS environment.
How body language changes from classroom to LMS to virtual worlds.
Important: The original article cited extensive resources for more information. For brevity in PAR, we only reference the primary article.
Reference: Zane L. Berge, The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, volume 9, issue 4, year 2008, pages 407-414.
PAR (Practical Applications of Research) is a weekly publication of eLearningFuture.com. We summarize recent learning research to help you understand what is proven to work, or not. We also provide guidance for how to apply that research to your learning projects.
Is there a subject you want to learn more about? Propose a topic for an upcoming issue of PAR by emailing your request to: editor@elearningfuture.com . Please put PAR in the subject line.
Follow us on twitter (elearningfuture) to receive the link to PAR each week.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the matrices are great and very thought provoking.
I am wondering about the number of virtual world users who are “expert” in the use of non-verbal cues and how this relates to the continued readiness to use “stop-gap inventions” as one would on an LMS?
Regards, Gordon
You raise a very interesting point, Gordon. The time and effort involved in learning to “drive” an avatar may prevent many learners from becoming proficient in non-verbal communication in the virtual world. So, we may not be able to completely abandon the stop-gap replacements for non-verbal communication we invented for LMS.
Hi,
I am curious about the cost effectiveness of integrating virtual worlds into an LMS. Do you think that online learning is moving to a point where avatars and instructors will function as one within the online learning environment?
Michele
Things are changing so fast. How are institutions and instructors going to keep up? How will they create virtual worlds for each class?
bye for now
Linda
Great question, Linda. Several commercial providers of virtual learning environments are working to make the learning curve for creating and using these environments short and sweet. Unlike virtual worlds that are trying to be all things to all people, these purpose-built training environments help facilitators and learners move past the novelty of the virtual world and onto the learning activities at hand. It will scale, eventually.
“Several commercial providers …”
Could you possibly list two or three that are taking a crack at this?
Thank you in advance:)
Hi Pat,
What we’d like to do is present a future publication that compares them on features and functionality/flexibility. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and we would not want to prematurely list them here and make it seem as though we were endorsing some and not others without explaining the criteria. The status of each of these platforms varies and changes frequently. Stay tuned.
Good string of discussions. We have been in the “Business of Learing and Develpment” which in itself is an oxymoron, but, strangely we have hit upon something called “blended learning” which is working well for us. This is a combination short class room sessions followed up with rigourous online sessions, blogging and project submissions.
It has an element of assessments to keep the interest among the participations. We are currently building on these successess.
The things in the virtual world are changing very fast. How does one keep pace and introduce change, specially when majority of students in many developing countries still follow the traditional mode of education – via classrooms. Some teachers I know find it difficult to associate themselves with the changing scenario.
There is always much discussion of the true impact of interactive whiteboards on instruction and learning. Is that a topic that might be of interest?
Ellen Afromsky
Instructional Technology Specialist at Katonah-Lewisboro Schools
As an Instructional Coach with 6 years of experience, whose job is to coach veteran/new teachers, this is the wave of the future to meet the demands of the classroom. The digital divide exists amid stale chalk boards, archaic approaches, and bored students. My notes/observations point to this analysis/observation….I’d like to get onboard ! We must look to Game Systems used by the Now generation: SIMS is one!
Thanks Dr. Boland. My goal for all my upcoming research is their practical application. I’m so tired of reading about theories and ideas that sound great, but show little true avenues for application. It seems in many cases that the researchers get their ideas published and then forget about them.
Dean Reed, Learning & Development Consultant, Johnson & Johnson