I wondered if anyone else on the list had any comments about the proposal
published earlier this week in the UK for an e-university.
The Gurardian Higher carried a news item(
http://www.educationunlimited.co.uk/news/story/0,5500,379950,00.html ) and a
piece by Tim O'Shea who helped draw up the plans for the project(
http://www.educationunlimited.co.uk/higher/story/0,5500,379675,00.html ).
There were several bits that caught my attention.
1/ Tim O'Shea argues for a minimum unit of a 1/2 semester module and against
learning bits and bites. He does this on the grounds that interactive support
can be given to that 'grain size' of learning module and that reusable learning
objects would present potential difficulties.
As he rightly points out this raises important issues about economies of scale.
The e-university seem to have steered towards learning coherence at the expense
of cost.
2/ The article points to the need for an e-library and points toward copyright
and intellectual property rights as great difficulties an e-library would face.
When I read this I wondered about the kinds of issues raised by Nardi and O'Day
in relation to the work librarians do. Tjhe idea of an e-library may well be an
impoverished version of what library services currently deliver.
3/ The article discusses isues of assessment and argues that traditional
assessment is a bad fit to technology-based courses. Do members of the list
think there is a clear divide between assessment in a networked learning
environment and in a traditional setting. If so what would the differences be?
I think we should start to discuss these issues and perhaps relate them to the
current vogue for e-learning. What exactly is e-learning and does it differ
from the networked learning adressed by this list?
Chris
Dr Christopher R. Jones,
[log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0) 1524 593421
Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT),
Department of Educational Research,
Lancaster University,
Lancaster LA1 4YL,
United Kingdom.
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