Online E-Learning – Part 1

Wednesday 30th October – North Eastern University and Washington State Board/Online

After a couple of long days it was nice to head into a more sedate pace with a day of two halves (Check Part 2 – Microsoft). Using Blackboard Collaborate video conferencing we met 2 representatives from North Eastern University (NEU) in Boston, MA. We discussed approaches to ‘Instructional Design’ and the way in which this informs how e-learning content is manufactured and delivered. One highlight of this discussion was around Adaptive Learning. I suppose this is the online equivalent of differentiation a class tutor would do in the classroom. However it is so much more in many ways. Its the intelligent data that reacts to what a user does online be get tasks correct or if they struggle. NEU were looking at ways to use this to better enhance and inform the online experience. This was also evident in some of the course that Shoreline were producing in collaboration with a firm called Cog Books.

Our next discussion was with a representative from the Washington State Board for Community Technical Colleges. We had heard much about the way in which the state supports community colleges and some of the framework around it. In this meeting we looked a little deeper at some initiatives that were of benefit to all community colleges. The biggest was using the consortium of 34 colleges to obtain a range of e-learning software platforms at reduced cost because of the huge partnership. This included Blackboard Collaborate, Tegrity Lecture Cast and Canvas LMS software. All colleges could buy into these tools at a fraction of the cost and were freely available to all staff. This posed an interesting alternative for our visiting project group.

Also as something unrelated. One of the tutors at Shoreline was really keen to show us some newly acquired Moon rocks from NASA. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

We managed to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off to Microsoft to meet the E-Learning team.