EDUCAUSE | ELI 7 Things You Should Know

7 Things You Should Know About Navigating the New Learning Ecosystem

Wed, 02 May 2012 15:01:31 +0000

The LMS was once the undisputed center of the digital learning ecosystem. But on many campuses, the situation has changed such that the campus online learning environment might be better viewed as a continuum, with the LMS at one end and a student’s own collection of applications, tools, and websites at the other. This proliferation of tools has created a more robust and varied teaching and learning environment, one that is frequently managed actively by students or by faculty who are seeking alternatives not offered by local IT. The value may extend beyond students’ relationship with technology, helping them become better organizers and more savvy consumers as they assume more responsibility for their own learning.

The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues.

In addition to the "7 Things You Should Know About…" briefs, you may find other ELI resources useful in addressing teaching, learning, and technology issues at your institution. To learn more, please visit the ELI Resources page.

7 Things You Should Know About the Evolution of the Textbook

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:35:05 +0000

Tablet devices and the publishing they enable are leading us to reconsider what constitutes a textbook, and they certainly change the landscape of what it has traditionally meant to write and publish one. A new breed of rich-media publishing tools offers an evolving set of opportunities both for the creation process and for the kinds of resources that can be produced. These resources could include 3D charts and tables, interactive maps, continual updates, and quizzes with instant feedback. The integration of text with various kinds of media, coupled with broad access to new creation tools, could result in these resources becoming valuable parts of students’ digital learning landscapes.

7 Things You Should Know About Projecting from Mobile Devices

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:34:06 +0000

Emerging technologies allow users to connect to classroom projection systems from mobile devices, including tablets and some smartphones. Such tools can change the character of interaction in the classroom by allowing multiple users to easily access the projector and by enabling projection of mobile-device features such as free-hand drawing. Freeing an instructor or student presenters from a lectern or other fixed projection station can increase engagement and collaboration in an educational setting.

7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:11:37 +0000

The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. The notion of a flipped classroom draws on such concepts as active learning, student engagement, hybrid course design, and course podcasting. The value of a flipped class is in the repurposing of class time into a workshop where students can inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities. Although implementing a flipped classroom places different demands on faculty and forces students to adjust their expectations, the model has the potential to bring about a distinctive shift in priorities—from merely covering material to working toward mastery of it.

7 Things You Should Know About Challenge-Based Learning

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:50:07 +0000

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is similar to problem-based learning, but with CBL, students formulate the challenges they will address. Through a process of discussion and research, students identify a selection of questions that might be workable for their project, work on solutions, and publish those solutions online. In this way, CBL provides the satisfaction that comes from figuring out both the issue to be tackled and the solution to it, even though CBL requires a heavier time commitment than more traditional academic activities. Students gain meaningful skills through these projects, including how to share work, collaborate, organize, and express themselves more effectively.

7 Things You Should Know About First-Generation Learning Analytics

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:44:28 +0000

Learning analytics (LA) applies the model of analytics to the specific goal of improving learning outcomes. LA collects and analyzes the “digital breadcrumbs” that students leave as they interact with various computer systems to look for correlations between those activities and learning outcomes. The type of data gathered varies by institution and by application, but in general it includes information about the frequency with which students access online materials or the results of assessments from student exercises and activities conducted online. Learning analytics tools can track far more data than an instructor can alone, and at their best, LA applications can identify factors that are unexpectedly associated with student learning and course completion.

7 Things You Should Know About MOOCs

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:22:50 +0000

A massively open online course (MOOC) is a model for delivering learning content online to virtually any person—and as many of them—who wants to take the course. Course activities can be scheduled or asynchronous, and a fluid structure is valuable because students can choose their level of participation and many will do so in an à la carte manner. A MOOC throws open the doors of a course and invites anyone to enter, resulting in a new learning dynamic. Although this dynamic will make some students uneasy and will force instructors to rethink at least some of the elements of their courses, the MOOC can potentially alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community. As MOOCs evolve, expectations and methods of presentation will likely crystallize, becoming more consistent and more predictable. Those enrolling in a MOOC are likely to discover learning at its most open on a platform that invites the world not only to see and hear but also to participate and collaborate.

7 Things You Should Know About Service Design

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:01:53 +0000

Service design is a process that examines the relationship between those who use a service and the service environment. By focusing on and making improvements to the points at which users interact with other people or the environment, service design enables an organization to run smoothly, provide the best service to its users, and reduce the kind of situations that that can generate complaints. It has been effective in traditional customer-centric industries like retail and hospitality and is now seeing use in areas like healthcare, public services, and educational services. Even as it leads to improvements in services and spaces, service design maximizes limited resources and increases accountability, and many of these benefits bear directly on the processes and spaces designed for learning.

7 Things You Should Know About WordPress

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:03:56 +0000

WordPress is an open-source web application that is fundamentally a tool for publishing content, and a broad array of colleges and universities have made use of WordPress and encouraged its use among faculty members, staff, and students. For campus-wide use, IT staff can install a local instance of WordPress with the multisite feature enabled; where institutions have not undertaken an installation, some individual instructors have set up their own WordPress instances. WordPress offers a stable, flexible, and highly configurable platform that provides a one-stop shop as a web development tool and a publishing forum for students and faculty. It offers students the chance to write reflectively for various audiences, giving them practice in having their voices heard and their views considered by a wide variety of individuals.

7 Things You Should Know About Gamification

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:02:19 +0000

Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. The rewards or the spirit of competition can spur students’ concentration and interest and lead to more effective learning. The use of gamification is wide-ranging in higher education, from extra-credit awards and in-class team competitions to complex multi-level schemes that can pervade a course. Although gamification can be deceptively difficult to employ effectively, it has the potential to help build connections among members of the academic community, drawing in shy students, supporting collaboration, and engendering interest in course content that students might not have otherwise explored. Gamification offers instructors numerous creative opportunities to enliven their instruction with contests, leader boards, or badges that give students opportunities for recognition and a positive attitude toward their work.

7 Things You Should Know About Personalized Digital Magazines

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:31:35 +0000

Applications like Flipboard, Zite, RSS5000, and Taptu aggregate content from personal social media networks and other sources, presenting the information in a snappy magazine-style format complete with headlines, images, column formatting, and multimedia. Users set up sections, like those in a newspaper, and each section provides content from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or other social media account or pulls data from an RSS feed or a website. As students contribute their own text, photos, videos, and related links to the network, the emerging content can engage classmates and encourage participation in the conversation. These products change who has control of content and raise new questions about copyright. Although implementation of these products in academic settings remains in the early stages, we can expect similar content-delivery products on smart phones and laptops.

7 Things You Should Know About Organizing Files in the Cloud

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:47:37 +0000

File storage and management has become a potentially limiting factor in the usefulness of new technologies, and cloud-based file services such as Dropbox, SugarSync, AeroFS, and Box.net attempt to fill that need. With these services, files are stored “in the cloud,” and each time the user accesses the service, the files are synced with whatever device is currently being used. Many students have found that cloud-based file management provides the convenience and flexibility needed for their mobile, always-connected lifestyles, and growing numbers of them show up at college having used such services in high school. The seamless, cross-platform functionality of cloud-based file services provides high levels of access and flexibility, though education and awareness are necessary to minimize activities that could expose private information. Cloud storage offers students and faculty the option to work in real time more effectively because it increases the range of files available for on-the-spot access.

7 Things You Should Know About LMS Evaluation

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:46:49 +0000

At many institutions, the current LMS is five or more years old. In that time, the teaching and learning context might have changed considerably, and other products, including open-source options, have emerged, raising the question of whether an institution should conduct a complete evaluation of its LMS strategy. The LMS serves as the linchpin of an institution’s teaching and learning enterprise, and as such it should provide maximum value and flexibility for the faculty. The examination of the LMS forces an institution to take a hard look at its teaching practices, to educate the faculty that the LMS can be more than a “course website,” and to invite them to use the full spectrum of teaching tools it provides. If a decision is made to replace the LMS, such an undertaking can bring with it a steep learning curve. As changes in education delivery and redefinition of student needs continue to reshape the modern campus, colleges and universities might find themselves adapting to pedagogical changes more frequently than in the past.

7 Things You Should Know About the Modern Learning Commons

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:47:00 +0000

The learning commons, sometimes called an “information commons,” has evolved from a combination library and computer lab into a full-service learning, research, and project space. As a place where students can meet, talk, study, and use “borrowed” equipment, the learning commons brings together the functions of libraries, labs, lounges, and seminar areas in a single community gathering place. The cost of a learning commons can be an obstacle, but for institutions that invest in a sophisticated learning commons, the new and expanded partnerships across disciplines facilitate and promote greater levels of collaboration. The commons invites students to devise their own approaches to their work and to transfer what they learn in one course to the work they do for another.

7 Things You Should Know About Open Textbook Publishing

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:50:09 +0000

The open educational resources model, including textbooks, has emerged as a response to rising text prices, a need for greater access to high-quality learning materials, the proliferation of e-reader devices, and a trend in publishing toward electronic media. Many contend that educational resources should be open and that instructional models increasingly depend on open content. Open textbooks can be offered by commercial publishers or found in open repositories. Open resources can promote active learning through student interaction with the text, particularly when they contribute to authorship. Although open textbooks face questions about the accuracy and reliability of their content, they allow higher education instructors to design content for their courses on an as-needed basis, choosing from an array of books, articles, videos, audio recordings, and readings.

7 Things You Should Know About iPad Apps for Learning

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:35:32 +0000

Applications designed for the iPad offer interactive content that takes advantage of touch-screen navigation. The iPad combines robust computational functionality with a screen large enough to serve as a legitimate replacement for printed textbooks and other course materials. Where the iPad applications have led, other tablets and their attendant applications can be expected to follow, creating a more competitive and diverse market for tools of this type. Applications that live in the spaces where education and entertainment overlap can capture the imagination, enticing students to learn on their own.

7 Things You Should Know About Open-Ended Response Systems

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:31:56 +0000

An open-ended student response system is an electronic service or application that lets students enter text responses during a lecture or class discussion. Open-ended systems give faculty the option of collecting such free-form contributions from students, in addition to asking the true/false or multiple-choice questions that conventional clicker systems allow. Such tools open a channel for the kind of individual, creative student responses that can alter the character of learning. The great strength of open-ended student response systems may be that they create another avenue for discussion, allowing students to join a virtual conversation at those times when speaking out in live discourse might seem inappropriate, intimidating, or difficult.

7 Things You Should Know About Android

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:49:20 +0000

Android is a Linux-based, open-source operating system designed for use on cell phones, e-readers, tablet PCs, and other mobile devices. Android has been selected by many hardware manufacturers to run on a wide range of devices, including cell phones, tablets, e-readers, netbooks, and others. Android may bring smartphone and tablet functionality to a much wider cross-section of students and faculty members. In this way, Android might hasten the integration of mobile technology into the learning experience and give students and faculty new ways to interact with content.

7 Things You Should Know About the HyFlex Course Model

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:39:58 +0000

HyFlex is a course design model that presents the components of hybrid learning in a flexible course structure that gives students the option of attending sessions in the classroom, participating online, or doing both. Students can change their mode of attendance weekly or by topic, according to need or preference. Models like HyFlex, which present multiple paths through course content, may work well for courses where students arrive with varying levels of expertise or background in the subject matter. Courses built on the HyFlex model help to break down the boundary between the virtual classroom and the physical one. By allowing students access to both platforms, the design encourages discussion threads to move from one platform to the other.

7 Things You Should Know About Online Media Editing

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:39:55 +0000

As multimedia resources have become increasingly common, everyday users have a need to perform basic manipulations, such as touching up photographs, mixing music, and editing video. A new breed of online tools facilitates these sorts of activities without the cost or complexity of full-scale software editing suites. Online media editing tools are typically free or low-cost, and because they are web-based, they are available to more users, more of the time, including from mobile devices. Such tools might encourage more instructors and students to explore learning activities and assessments that use new media.

7 Things You Should Know About Privacy in Web 2.0 Learning Environments

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:08:20 +0000

New media, social networking, collaboration sites, image and video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs offer tremendous teaching and learning opportunities to educators and students, but their use raises concerns about privacy, especially as it relates to work that students are asked to complete as part of a course. New learning environments often leverage Web 2.0 or cloud-based tools that offer limited or no privacy protection. When they do, those privacy settings are frequently outside the control of either the institution or the faculty member. Nevertheless, FERPA places the burden of ensuring the privacy of the education record on the institution. Institutions are beginning to explore the connection between FERPA and student work along with their responsibilities in this area. Information and policy provided at the institutional level can help faculty members make choices about which tools to use and how to use them, and students should be educated about the risks of providing identifying personal information on third-party sites that may be public.

7 Things You Should Know About Assessing Online Team-Based Learning

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:12:44 +0000

In team-based learning, students work in groups on outcome-based or problem-based assignments. Assessing the work produced by teams, however, presents a significant challenge, and this difficulty is especially prominent in online environments. Developing and implementing a transparent assessment process that both supports and recognizes individual and group learning can generate a powerful combination of interdependency and peer cooperation. Online assessment tools that evaluate both individual and group effort support this dynamic, fostering the reliance on community that is becoming an increasingly important feature of the online academic landscape.

7 Things You Should Know About LMS Alternatives

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:25:48 +0000

A traditional learning management system (LMS) provides a set of tools to manage learning resources, administrative functions, assessments, and grading. Alternatives to conventional LMSs include social bookmarking tools, document sharing applications, social networking sites, timeline tools, and media options available in the cloud. Institutions or individual faculty increasingly use various combinations of these and other resources to support their unique learning environments and goals and to perform all of the functions of a traditional LMS tool.

7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:37:56 +0000

Open educational resources (OER) are any resources available at little or no cost that can be used for teaching, learning, or research. The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other educational material. Open resources are issued under a license that spells out how they can be used: Some may only be used in their original form; in other cases, resources can be modified, remixed, and redistributed. OER expand the access to educational resources to more learners, more of the time, and they have the potential to spur pedagogical innovation, introducing new alternatives for effective teaching.

7 Things You Should Know About Mobile Apps for Learning

Tue, 04 May 2010 15:18:20 +0000

Mobile learning, or m-learning, can be any educational interaction delivered through mobile technology. The software that underlies m-learning includes not only mobile applications designed specifically for learning purposes but also those designed for other uses that can be adapted for educational purposes. M-learning hardware can include mobile phones, handheld PCs, tablets, the iPad, and netbooks, as well as devices such as the iPod touch that are able to run mobile applications. The use of mobile devices is a natural fit for distributed learning and field activities in that handheld technology can accompany the learner almost anywhere. Ease of use offered by mobile devices supports lifelong learning, and because the devices themselves are integrated into everyday life, they facilitate authentic learning.