Dear prospective eLearner!
If you have not already had experience with virtual teaching and studying, then perhaps you ask yourself what eLearning actually means and what advantages or opportunities this innovative form of teaching and studying provides. On this page, we want to give a brief overview of this topic. We hope to thereby inspire new ideas for your own teaching.
Essentially, "eLearning" can be understood as a form of studying supported by the use of digital media. The breadth of digital media encompasses web-based study software,
community and study platforms to support collaborative studying as well
as off-line study programs. In particular, the use and integration of
such study programs and other interactive tools in courses constitute
an essential part of eLearning.
If you do not view eLearning purely as a means for self-study, in which students or teachers work alone using their software, eLearning can be used in university teaching in the form of digital media (videos, animation, websites, powerpoint), for example, in a lecture. The use of interactive media can make, for instance, complex and obscure processes visually clear.
A further "virtual" step is the supplementation of a traditionally attended course with on-line study material and homework (digitalized seminar texts, videos and animation, study programs, multiple-choice tests, interactive tools). These can be made available to students using, for example, a study platform, which makes them accessible around the clock.
Perhaps you have heard of "blended learning," which means a course involving both traditional attendance as well an virtual elements, for example, within the work space of a study platform. In virtual phases, students can, for instance, communicate and exchange ideas in a forum or they can pursue group work or prepare group presentations. Attendance phases serve, among other things, to clarify thematic, technical or organizational questions and to present results.
A purely virtual seminar ideally begins with a traditionally-attended class so that participants can prepare their virtual cooperation. The rest of the seminar is conducted on-line in a teaching and study environment which allows instructors and students to communicate and to provide and complete study material and homework.
Due to technical developments in the last several years, there are now many possibilities to improve traditional teaching and study situations using new technologies and to supplement seminars in a meaningful fashion with eLearning tools.
Below, we want to show you a few of eLearning's advantages, taking "blended learning" as an example. This is a combined form of instruction involving traditional class attendance and computer and internet-supported studying as well as virtual group work.
By integrating blended learning practices into courses with traditional attendance, the following areas can enhanced:
Enhancing Traditional Class Attendance and Improved Studying
- Enhancing traditionally-attended classes and self-study by providing access to information resources and study objects, as well as data and media
- Increasing currentness and availability of study material by integrating the Internet into teaching
- Treating interactively material which is otherwise available only in book form or on blackboards
- Making complex, invisible, abstract, static or numeric processes and topics visible allows access to material which might otherwise be impossible or very difficult to penetrate, such as in ecology or in connection with virtual patients in medicine
Improved Communication and Supervision Possibilities
- Improved comunication between instructors and students as well among students
- Better supervision of students using computer-supported communication methods, as well as in the periods between courses
- Relieving instructors by providing prepared material and tests, which also permits more time for the individual supervision of students
- The possibility of creating common courses with students and instructors from other countries
Promoting Equal Opportunity and Individual Study
- Due to the fact that e-material is available around the clock, integrating eLearning into traditionally-attended courses enables students to prepare and review seminars where and when they choose
- eLearning promotes flexibility because it makes asynchronous cooperation possible
- It improves opportunities for students who can only attend traditional courses on a limited basis: disabled students, temporarily ill students, half-time or fully-employed students and students with families as well as students with fellowships for travel abroad can take part, regardless of time or location, and do not have to miss a semester
Promoting (e) Skills
- Integrating eLearning into traditional courses promotes students' independence and responsibility in using new technologies and developing work methods
- It enables students to familiarize themselves with the challenges of virtual group work during their studies
Digital media and eLearning are not cure-alls for course program reforms and they are not suitable for every form of instruction or object of study. In almost every course program, there are types of study and material best treated in traditional courses. Examples include internships involving experiments, training in therapy and bed-side teaching. In many cases, virtual courses facilitate preparation for and review of traditional coursework (for example: excursions, biology internships, laboratory internships), but they never replace these. Some subjects are better than others when it comes to using multi-media to support instruction. Direct feedback from instructors or from the group cannot be replaced by program or net-based interactions.
- eLearning Strategy Paper of the University of Hamburg (2006 - 2010)
http://www.uni-hamburg.de/eLearning/eL-Strategie.pdf
- R. Schulmeister, K. Mayrberger, A. Breiter, A. Fischer, J. Hofmann, M. Vogel: "Didaktik und IT-Service-Management für Hochschulen - Referenzrahmen zur Qualitätssicherung und -entwicklung von eLearning-Angeboten". Bremen/Hamburg 2008.
http://www.uni-hamburg.de/eLearning/eLearning_broschuere_lic.pdf
- e-teaching.org with further information about eLearning in general and teaching and study scenarios in eLearning http://www.e-teaching.org