proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING

The implementation of online education and learning
At a pragmatic level, there’s evidence of a substantive degree of consensus with repect to the
adoption of particular pedagogic strategies in online learning, based on the perception of students as
independent learners. By providing facilities for collaborative dialogue and task completion, with greater
emphasis on small group work and exploratory learning, in other words, by ‘empowering the learner’,
students are supported in their learning process. Tutor-student interactions, mentoring, promoting student
dialogue and the design and evaluation of virtual seminars are examples of aming at better quality and
efficiency of online learning (Curran, 2001). Debande (2004) claims that four strands must be integrated
into a comprehensive policy: infrastructure and equipment, high-quality educational multimedia sevices
and content, training services and facilities for teachers and for lifelong learning, and dialogue and
cooperation at all levels. Moreover, the implementation of a comprehensive online learning strategy should
incorportate three stages: infrastructure, content and teacher training (Debande, 2004).
Although research in remedial education in physical settings provide important factors for success
(Kozeracki, 2002; McCabe & Day, 1998; Roueche & Roueche, 1999), based on literature and research
concerning online education and the role of ICT in education, the following aspects are to be taken into
consideration (Rienties, Dijkstra, Rehm, Tempelaar, & Blok, 2005a; Rienties, Rehm, & Dijkstra, 2005b;
Rienties et al., 2006):
• 24/7 online availability and accessibility: the use of the internet makes it possible for students
to work or study wherever and whenever they want to (i.e. ubiquitous learning)
• Adaptiveness: every student carries his personal luggage of (prior) knowlegde and has a
unique learning style. Therefore every course should offer an individual learning path, based
on this prior knowledge, learning style and the preferences of the student. In other words, a
course should adapt to the individual needs of the students
• Interactivity: in an electronic learning environment, the communication between teachers and
students should be actively stimulated. Therefore there needs to be an intensive use of the
communication and interaction methods in order to enhance the involvement, the learning
profit and the active and authentic learning of the students
• Responsiveness of feedback: feedback seems to play an important role in the interaction of an
online course or programme. Students seem to have an interest in quick and direct feedback
on their performances. Furthermore, rapid feedback stimulates interaction in an online course
• Flexible learning methods and assessment: the learning environment should not be hindered
by the limitations of the technical, organisational and didactical organization of the electronic
learning environment
Brown and Bradley (2005) encourage a participatory design and implentation approach, where the
e-learning system is a two-way street, allowing early and ongoing communications between designer and
users (Brown & Bradley, 2005). The authors suggest some additional elements at the heart of effective elearning
design:
• Activity: a rich activity refers to an activity that opens up opportunities for action rather than
an activity that directs students down a prescribed pathway. It implies an active involvement
of the learner in making choices about what experiences they will engage in. The action must
be considered from the perspective of the actions and challenges it affords to the student
• Scenario: besides activity, there needs to be a reason or motivation to undertake an
educational activity if the learning has to be memorable and considered valuable. An
interesting context or scenario can assist the activity to have meaning
• Delivery: good educational design relies on appropriate delivery to reach its full potential
• Context: not only the context in which the e-learning will be used is partially predictable for
the design of the e-learning resources, the broader context to address the learning needs is
relevant as well. Elements of activity, scenario and feedback need to take into account the
users’ profiles and the delivery element needs to consider the technical infrastructure.
However, additional contextual considerations include the institutional objectives of the e-
Conference proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING overcome barriers of Life-Long learning?” 153