V2L: eLearning & eResearch

The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education. The object and reward for learning is continued capacity for growth. (Dewey, 1916)

Why is eLearning important?

Online learning offers diverse learners and participants access to new skills or educational opportunities. Meaningful online learning promotes synthesis of content, student experiences, and interactive collaboration among students and instructors. The online class as virtual community is dynamic and invites learners to engage with each other and the content in new ways. In order to create and deliver high quality learning experiences online, new instructional approaches and course design are needed.

Why is eResearch important?

Today’s learners want to go a step further, and conduct scholarly research online. Learners may be accustomed to live social interaction on the Internet. Text or chat have become a part of everyday culture. We use video calls to stay in touch with distant friends and family members, attend online meetings or webinars; we jump into Second Life for fun or learning. We may know how to use synchronous tools, but do we know how to use them for scholarly research? While social conversation and research interviews share some characteristics, the purpose, protocol, and context are quite different. Guidance may be needed on ethical, design and data collection. Additionally, faculty who teach research, chair committees or review proposals may need a greater understanding of the issues related to online research.

 Areas of online learning and research where we focus efforts:

• Online curriculum needs assessment, design and course development;
• Collaborative e-learning, including ways to apply the Taxonomy of Online Collaboration;
• Assessment of e-learning and collaborative e-learning;
• Faculty development:
  • course course design and development;
  • online  instruction;
  • online coaching and mentoring; and
  • custom Guide the eResearcher^SM webinars or workshops on principles from Online Interviews in Real Time.

E-learning platforms we can work with include:

• WebCT Vista & BlackBoard,
• eCollege,
• BlackBoard, and
• Moodle.

Synchronous webconferencing systems we can work with include:

• Blackboard Collaborate/Elluminate;
• Adobe Connect/Breeze;
• WebEx;
• WizIQ; and
• Vyew.