Best Practices for Online Learning

As Library 2.0 becomes part of the fabric of our lives and we develop ever more sophisticated collections video tutorials, the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA) offers some some best practices in developing online content for students.

• Orient students to the new online venue
• Reach out & mentor your students
• Help students overcome obstacles
• Respond to calls for help
• Model civility for your students

IDEA warns that technology may discourage learning in some settings.

"For instance, very often the value proposition of small colleges revolves around building education on strong personal relationships and personalized stewardship of the student’s educational experience. Nothing threatens this deliverable like moving classes online. Technology can start off as a supplement for enriching face-to-face quality, and wind up replacing it..."

I embrace new technologies because I enjoy exploring and learning them and it's easy to lose track of how the technology actually improves student appreciation of the content. Educational technologist Martin Weller notes that:

[M]ost students want the structure, the support and the filter that higher education provides. Technology isn’t the solution, or the problem [but] the medium through which the cultural differences between traditional higher education and web 2.0 will be realised. We can think of the learning systems we use as the metaphor for the way we approach pedagogy, the learner experience and the role of the educator.

Therefore, Library 2.0 is arguably a metaphor for learning in the Internet age. [NA]