United States Distance Learning Association

easoning as to how they are built, and you
even know locations that you can retrieve
them from; so now the question is, why use
them at all One of the most difficult situations
facing the education profession today
is the fact that technology has almost created
a demand for its usage and students
are expecting the same type of technology
in their classrooms as they get in everyday
life. Music, videos, gaming, text messaging,
e-mail—the list goes on and on, and these
forms of technology are used every day in
today’s society, and the education profession
must be prepared to incorporate them
into the learning environment. This is
especially true in online education. Referring
back to our beginning scenario of how
online classes were first designed as nothing
more than electronic textbooks, we
realize that learning object usage will help
engage the students and offer them an
environment to learn in as opposed to one
to learn from. Videos, audio notes, discussion
boards, Web logs, and instant messaging
can all be incorporated into an online
course and will help keep the students
engaged. Of course, to do all of this, the
instructor must be able to use the technology
and will have to use learning objects
either that he or she has constructed or that
he or she has pulled from a repository or
other location. This is where a breakdown
or a “choke point” is identified.
Educational and training professionals
must make time to learn technologies so
they can take advantage of where this
movement is taking the professions.
Administrations must allow staff development
time specifically for the technology
training needed to enable their faculty and
staff to acquire the knowledge and skill sets
required to design and develop learning
objects. In addition, the educators who grab
hold of this movement now will be way
ahead of the pack 3 or 4 years down the road
when all courses face-to-face and distance
are using learning objects as part of the
everyday learning experience. On campus
courses are becoming more hybridized and
Web-enhanced, and are utilizing the same
technologies that the online courses are
using to deliver the content at a distance.
This means that most of the faculty will need
to know how to utilize, design, develop, and
incorporate learning objects into their
everyday lesson plans.
Learning objects have become the new
training aids of our day. They are a movement
unto themselves. The only constant
about learning objects is that they will continue
to expand and evolve. They will be a
part of the educational and training profession
for as long as the digital revolution
lasts and perhaps longer. For all we know,
in the future, we’ll all be using telekinesis
to download the information directly from
the instructor’s to the student’s brain. Educators,
trainers and administrators all need
to prepare for the usage and expected
involvement of learning objects both on
campus and in distance education. The
student of tomorrow will expect and
demand technology usage in his or her
learning experience, and educators and
trainers will need to be prepared to meet
their demand. That demand will be met by
engaging and involving the students
through the incorporation and usage of
learning objects.
REFERENCES
Learning Object Metadata. (2005). Retrieved
July 20, 2007, from http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching. (2007). Retrieved July
20, 2007, from http://www.merlot.org/merlot/
index.htm
Web Based Training Information Center. (2007).
Retrieved July 20, 2007, from http://www
.webbasedtraining.com/trends_ objects.aspx
Wiley, D. (2000). The instructional use of learning
objects. Retrieved July 20, 2007, from
http://www.reusability.org/read/
Wisconsin Online Resource Center. (2007).
Retrieved on July 20, 2007, from http://
www.wisc-online.com/
Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 77