Facilitation and Evaluation part 1

To Be an Elf

the end is nearly there


What is Good eLearning
As we near the end of the eLF training the final segment is on evaluation.

The last edition of the "Professional Educator", Vol 8 No 3 Sept 2009, Australian College of Educators, has a really interesting article (reflection) on what is good and bad elearning. (from Page 10)

A very good question!

Has it to do with technique? the attitude of the learner? maybe some element of the facilitator or is it the technology? More about the article in a minute.

The further we have travelled this semester, I have found myself pondering on this very thing. A week or so ago I (and a co-facilitator) received a thank you card and box of choccies from a certificate 4 Web student who has just completed the course. The comment in the card is her evaluation (- I might copy it and post the picture on my elf page)
Nothing major in that except she was in London and we in Wentworth Falls. This makes my most distant elearner.

What made the difference with her that others haven't got?
We used electronic files sent by email and wikiversity and a couple of books for the materials; questions asked and responded to via email - that 10-11 hour time difference was a killer! Only once did I have what could be considered an email conversation with her - late evening our time - and several emails flew around the world in a very short time. Almost like we were on the phone.

But was it good eLearning?
I think so.

Too often people try to replicate the learning as if it were a normal class room group and plan accordingly and then get frustrated when the learners are everywhere between week 2 and 18.

For me the value of elearning is that it allows the learner the opportunity to engage with the learning in a way that they want, at a time they want, at the speed that they want. It is about their learning and we as facilitators should aim to keep them on their target not ours! This semester I have lost (as in can't find) 2 (what I class as remote) students. I have no contact info - have spoken to both - one from Victoria and one from Bankstown.

Am I concerned? Yes. But there is almost nothing I can do but wait on them to get back to me.
Luckily - I found 1 - she had moved and said sorry for the lack of contact - she will restart next year.

But at the same time I have several others: The one above, a diploma student who is about to finish his IT Diploma (Systems Admin) from the Reserve Bank in Sydney and a fellow in Canberra, who is retraining after an accident. To mention but 3.
They will get there because of the efforts of themselves and the facilitator.

Are the lesson plans good? Not particularly - how hard it is to plan for a phone hook up that can change direction the moment the student asnwers (and no, Kerrie, I am not making excuses.)

What has made most of my elearners successful?

The ability to reach them where they are at, to use the skills they have, to encourage them, to get back to them - even if the game of tag goes on for a week (sorry, Allen). Being adaptable, but above all else it is the responsiveness to facilitate someone who wants to learn.

To quote from John Connell's article...

‘Individual freedom realised in personal interdependence’ – what better way to describe the nature of the relationships we have to nurture in education today?

The quality of personal interdependence in learning now achievable on a global scale, through web technologies, is immeasurably greater than it was before. (from http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=2247 - There’s Good eLearning and there’s Bad eLearning: how do we tell one from the other? [Reprise] posted September 15,2009)
The complete article that is in the magazine can be downloaded at:
http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/files/elearning_jconnell.pdf

originally posted on WSI elf4us wiki as part of the eLF course on 7/11/2009