Alison Rossett presented at the e-Agenda Summit, cutting to the real issues with wit and humour. Potentially a good hotseat guest for the Ultraversity workplace degree! She has recently edited a book called The ASTD e-learning handbook and although I have only skimmed it thus far, I am sure there will be much interesting stuff in it.
Alison offered three ways to “hold them†linked to learning objects or assets. What she was talking about was engaging students at the outset of an online course or module and enthusing them sufficiently so that they stay the course. What I liked about her ideas was that they were simple ‘rules of thumb’ that any programme designer could work to. These were:
1. Clear alignment of assets to purpose with assets that are:
2. Learn something valuable at the start – show the gap in students knowledge and then bridge it in an accessible way
3. Guide choices – students like to make choices but will get it wrong
I related this to Knowles (1984) and his model for adult learning which pulls together the ideas of self-direction and learning from experience, but also adds the notion of life and task, or a problem-centered orientation to learning as opposed to a subject-matter orientation.
Stephen Powell 