The author: Julie Tollefson is Managing Editor of the Center for Research on Learning. This article originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of Strategram, a newsletter for SIM teachers.
These days, it seems nearly everyone is networked. The Internet, the World Wide Web, e-mail, and list serves have become part of daily vocabulary for many people. Just as individuals are finding uses for this technology in everyday life, so are more researchers and practitioners finding effective ways to use the Internet and the Web in educational settings.
Recognizing this, we want to look at why Strategic Instruction Model teachers should be concerned with online instruction. After all, we know that SIM's eight-stage instructional process of working closely and face-to-face with individuals and small groups of students works well. What can online instruction offer us and, more importantly, what can it offer our students beyond the proven effectiveness of our traditional methods of teaching?
A recent conference at the University of Kansas, "Creating Effective Online Instruction," introduced participants to four award-winning online courses:
These courses, and the online instruction pioneers who developed them, offer us a glimpse of things to come in education and in SIM.
We are committed to incorporating the best practices of online instruction into SIM when those practices make sense. Already we know of one SIM Trainer who is teaching learning strategies to a student in another state using the Internet as the primary communications tool. Two projects developed by doctoral students at the Center for Research on Learning have explored the feasibility of adapting learning strategy instruction to a CD-ROM format. In addition, the Center recently received a grant to explore the feasibility of adapting our reading strategies to an online format.
We expect to see more such projects as the technology matures and our understanding of how to make the best use of it grows. Our experience with providing solid, effective instruction and helping students develop learning, organizational, teamwork, and social skills will be more vital than ever in a future in which visionaries foresee learners as self-motivated and able to share information, develop their own routines, and organize their time (Martin, 1999). We want to be prepared for and enthusiastic about the possibilities the future presents, not intimidated by the challenges.
Online instruction, multimedia instruction, and educational multimedia are all similar terms used to refer to a young and still fairly undefined segment of the education field. One current definition, which fits nicely with the SIM philosophy, describes educational multimedia as programs whose primary purpose is to teach in an active and deliberate manner (Stansberry, 1998). The following examples give us an idea of the range of instruction included in this definition:
All of these examples have in common the use of the computer to deliver information. The field of online instruction is complex and evolving, but the following are some of the observations presented during the conference at KU:
Some of the greatest benefits of online instruction may be associated with accessibility. The learning strategies instruction now being conducted over the Internet, in which the teacher and the student live in different states hundreds of miles apart, is an example of how online methods can be used to provide instruction to more students in more locations. Students in rural areas and adult learners who work full time are among those who benefit from online instruction because physical presence in a classroom at a predetermined time is no longer required. Students learning in an online environment can download a lecture or contribute to a list serve discussion in the middle of the night, if that is the best time for them to participate in the class.
A related benefit of online instruction is that it allows both students and instructor to tailor the content of a course to meet individual learning needs. Students can create their own pathways through the information presented in a course and make connections in a way that interests them individually and that reflects the associative way in which the human mind operates (Bush, 1945), jumping from topic to related topic, exploring one in detail while skipping over another that seems less relevant. In this way, the student takes more ownership in the material and the learning process than he or she might in a traditional classroom.
Instructors can leverage the multimedia elements of online instruction to present the same content in a variety of formats, increasing the accessibility of the material for people with disabilities (Meyen, Lian, and Tangen, 1997). For example, information presented as text can be read by a computerized speech synthesizer for a person with visual difficulties. A combination audio/video presentation can be accessible to individuals who cannot hear as long as it includes synchronized descriptive text.
The instructor also can take advantage of the multimedia and nonlinear characteristics of online instruction to address diverse learning styles (Bogley, Robson, and Schori, 1999; Negroponte, 1995). By packaging audio, video, text, graphics, and hands-on activities into a flexible presentation of content, instructors increase the channels through which individual students will be able to connect with the material in a manner that is meaningful to them.
We know from our own research that for students to be successful, they must be active learners. Online instruction requires students to manipulate the information in some way. At its most elementary, online instruction requires students to click a button to move to the next screen. At its best, it fully engages every learner in the activity at all times, encouraging the use of critical thinking skills, analysis, and creativity, as Oliver and Nelson have discovered in "Murder on the Internet." In this way, online instruction can provide more authentic learning experiences for students. Oliver and Nelson found that students in their foreign language classes showed greater interest in learning the required material when they had a tangible reason for doing so--solving a mystery was more compelling for students than simply doing well on a test.
One of the primary goals of SIM teachers is to equip students with the tools they need to be successful learners. Professionals in the multimedia industry see multimedia education as a method of accomplishing this goal (Garrand, 1997). Garrand writes that multimedia education "reflects current learning theory, which rejects the concept of empty heads waiting to be filled and replaces it with the goal of teaching students how to learn."
Online instruction, when implemented thoughtfully, with the students' needs as the primary concern, can increase communication between teacher and students and among students, as Schori has found in his Web-based calculus classes. Communication in online courses can be very personal (in the form of e-mail messages from the instructor to individual students, for example). This kind of attention can fulfill students' desire for direct validation of their efforts in class (Kilian, 1997) while alleviating some of the challenges faced by students who find many classroom settings too impersonal and thus difficult settings in which to learn (Deshler and Berry, 1998).
The permanence of communication also can benefit both student and instructor. Readings, quizzes, announcements, and assignments posted on a Web page are available continuously (Meyen et al., 1997), for example, while the same information given orally in class is fleeting.
Along with the benefits of increased communication comes a potential increased burden for the instructor in an online setting. The time spent communicating with students can be extensive. Meyen found that he spent nearly 600 minutes per student throughout the duration of his Curriculum Development course.
For SIM teachers ready to explore in more detail this new instructional territory, information and advice about how best to accomplish your goals are available from the online instruction pioneers and multimedia professionals.
One of the first things to remember is that teaching online is not the same as teaching in a traditional classroom. Adapting traditional course material to be delivered online requires a great deal of thought, planning, and time. But much of what you already know about effective teaching can be applied to online instruction (Meyen et al., 1997). First and foremost, you must put the needs of your students first (Stansberry, 1998). Effective online instruction meets the needs of students. A very simple online application, without extensive bells and whistles, can be more effective than a slick multimedia presentation. In "Murder on the Internet," for example, most of the learning activities take place in e-mail form as students read and write messages designed to elicit information from others to enable them to solve the mystery. All of the presenters at the KU conference emphasized that technology must be used to support pedagogy. Using technology for its own sake is not an effective instructional process.
To ensure that you have a firm understanding of your students and a clear concept of what you want them to learn before you begin developing an online course, write a simple statement describing what the students will be able to do or what they will have learned as a result of your course (Horton, 1994). Supplement this with specific goal statements before you begin to design the content (unit and lesson plans as well as interactive exercises) of the online course (Stansberry, 1998).
The time you will invest in developing online materials can be significant. For a full online course, one estimate is that it takes 200 hours of development time to produce one hour of online instruction, compared to 60 hours of development time to produce an hour of traditional classroom instruction (Horton, 1994). Meyen found that his team spent nearly 900 hours developing the online Curriculum Development course.
Once your course is online, be prepared to evaluate its effectiveness and continue to modify it to meet the changing needs of your students. All of the successful pioneers in online instruction mentioned in this article continually evaluate and revise their courses. As technology advances make new features possible and as students come to the courses with more background knowledge of technology, the instructors tweak and sometimes completely overhaul their courses to make sure they continue to be relevant and effective for new students.
Your first foray into online instruction need not be a full-blown course. Here are some suggestions for getting your feet wet in the online world:
The promise online instruction holds for improving access and for meeting the needs of students with diverse learning styles is exciting. The recurring themes of online instruction--active learning, communication, tools for the future--are an exact match for SIM principles and goals. These are the reasons, along with all the benefits we have yet to discover about multimedia, that we should be concerned with online instruction. As educators committed to improving the instruction of students with learning disabilities, we can contribute our knowledge of what effective instruction entails as we take an active role in developing this new way of delivering instruction. Because these changes are most surely coming, we have a responsibility to keep abreast of new technology, participate in the current research, develop our own online courses, and share our experiences with others who also are interested in learning more about this new pedagogy. By accepting this responsibility, we model our commitment to lifelong learning, which will only benefit our students.
Bogley, W., Robson, R., & Schori, R. (1999, May). CalculusQuest. Paper presented at Creating Effective Online Instruction conference, Lawrence, KS.
Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. The Atlantic Monthly, 176(1), 101-108.
Deshler, D.D., & Berry, G.C. (1998, Summer). The critical issue is how not where. Perspectives, 6-8.
Garrand, T. (1997). Writing for multimedia. Boston: Focal Press.
Horton, W. (1994). Designing and writing online documentation: Hypermedia for self-supporting products. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Kilian, C. (1997). F2F: Why teach online. Educom Review, 32(4), 31-34
Martin, C. (1999) Net Future: The 7 cybertrends that will drive your business, create new wealth, and define your future. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Merickel, M. (1999, May). Integration of the Disciplines. Paper presented at Creating Effective Online Instruction conference, Lawrence, KS.
Meyen, E.L., Lian, C.H.T., & Tangen, P. (1997). Developing online instruction: One model. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 12(3), 159-165.
Meyen, E.L., & Tangen, P. (1999, May). Curriculum Development. Paper presented at Creating Effective Online Instruction conference, Lawrence, KS.
Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital. New York: Knopf.
Nelson, T., & Oliver, W. (1999, May). Murder on the Internet. Paper presented at Creating Effective Online Instruction conference, Lawrence, KS.
Stansberry, D. (1998). Labyrinths: The art of interactive writing and design. Belmont, CA: Integrated Media Group.
Return to Article Archive
