Copyright © 2006 Anthony ‘Skip’ Basiel & Alex Moon
References
(2/2)
SCORM:
Interoperability Standards:
Links to Types of
Discussion Boards below:
This List of
references comes from a research paper:
"Push
& Pull Pedagogy for
Web-based
Instructionally Designed Environments"
This paper can be
accessed at: www.elearning.mdx.ac.uk/research/
Discussion boards
that support images:
http://www.screenporch.com/sp/product/demo_conference.html
www.yahoo.com - for
Yahoo Groups
http://www.delphi.com/
2D virtual reality
discussion environments:
http://kmi.open.ac.uk/stadium/aboutstadium.html
http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/researchweb.html
3D worlds:
The greater the transactional distance, the more autonomy the
learner will exercise. Low transactional distance can be achieved by much
dialogue and little predetermined structure (Muelller 2000).
(+) = an increase, (-) = a decrease
(+) learner autonomy = (-) structure + (+) dialogue
Learner autonomy sees the student sharing responsibility for
their own education process. One illustration of this is when students make
presentations to the class (face-to-face or online). By acting as a resource
for their peers, motivation and self-direction is supported (Mueller 2000).The
transactional distance formula shows a relationship between dialogue,
structure and learner autonomy:
Structure is a measure of an educational programme's
responsiveness to the learner's individual needs. Some elements of structure
are the adaptability of learning objectives, teaching strategies, and
evaluation methods (summative and formative) to support the learning
experience. Highly structured programmes are determined for the learner in a
linear, content-driven design, while a loosely structured design allows
flexibility to support a student-centred pedagogy (Baume 1994).
Moore (1993) sees the extent of transactional distance in an
educational programme as a function of these three variables; dialogue,
structure and learner autonomy. Dialogue describes the extent to which the
learner and educator are able to respond to one another. Some elements of
dialogue are the content, educational philosophy and (virtual) environment
factors such as the medium / online tools for communication. For example,
dialogue is low in a one-way B.B.C. T.V. delivered programme, but high in an interactive
text-chat on the web.
Theory of transactional distance