Comments on: Six steps to a successful synchronous session http://sclater.com/blog/?p=118 Reflections on virtual learning Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:33:58 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: links for 2008-09-09 « Mike Taylor’s Learning Resources http://sclater.com/blog/?p=118&cpage=1#comment-2439 links for 2008-09-09 « Mike Taylor’s Learning Resources Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:36:31 +0000 http://sclater.com/blog/?p=118#comment-2439 [...] Virtual Learning » Six steps to a successful synchronous session (tags: webinar elearning) [...] [...] Virtual Learning » Six steps to a successful synchronous session (tags: webinar elearning) [...]

]]> By: brianmmulligan http://sclater.com/blog/?p=118&cpage=1#comment-934 brianmmulligan Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:59:15 +0000 http://sclater.com/blog/?p=118#comment-934 We brought in conferencing to our distance learning courses (www.itsligo.ie/online) specifically because students found it difficult to learn mathematics independently and because irregular tutorials did not seem to be as useful as weekly classes. It worked a treat, to such an extent I am now wondering if I have underestimated the pedagogical of good old talk and chalk. This has certainly led me to question the relative cost effectiveness of live online classes (or even listening to recordings of same) compared to interactive multi-media. The trade off between these two is often expressed in terms of an enrolment level below which multimedia is not cost effective (ROI is not high enough). I would suggest that this enrolment level may be generally higher than we have previously thought. It is a complex, multi-variable problem, but to generalise I think we may have miscalculated based on the following possible three main errors: underestimation of the impact of good live teaching; overestimation of the impact of interactive multimedia; overestimation of the reusability of multimedia. If I'm right on this we should see a significant move from multimedia to live and simple recordings. Time will tell (I hope). We brought in conferencing to our distance learning courses (www.itsligo.ie/online) specifically because students found it difficult to learn mathematics independently and because irregular tutorials did not seem to be as useful as weekly classes. It worked a treat, to such an extent I am now wondering if I have underestimated the pedagogical of good old talk and chalk. This has certainly led me to question the relative cost effectiveness of live online classes (or even listening to recordings of same) compared to interactive multi-media. The trade off between these two is often expressed in terms of an enrolment level below which multimedia is not cost effective (ROI is not high enough). I would suggest that this enrolment level may be generally higher than we have previously thought. It is a complex, multi-variable problem, but to generalise I think we may have miscalculated based on the following possible three main errors: underestimation of the impact of good live teaching; overestimation of the impact of interactive multimedia; overestimation of the reusability of multimedia. If I’m right on this we should see a significant move from multimedia to live and simple recordings. Time will tell (I hope).

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