Designing for Participation, Understanding, and Achievement in E-Learning Contexts

• In Event: Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments

Abstract

Expository e-learning emphasizes coverage and tests while constructivist e-learning emphasizes choice and projects. The former is efficient but shallow; the latter is uneven and exhausting. They combine problematically, and neither embraces new participatory perspectives needed to exploit the potential of interest-oriented social networking. Designing for Participation (DFP) is a comprehensive design model that embraces participatory perspectives while also affording constructivism’s enduring conceptual understanding and the efficiency and accountability of expository methods. DFP is organized around five general design principles. This paper presents examples and evidence of how these principles were translated into useful e-learning features in graduate education courses. These include wikifolios and group wikis, threaded wiki commenting, “merit badges,” reflective assessments, and timed examinations with conventional items.

Authors

• Daniel T. Hickey, Indiana University

• Andrea M. Rehak, Indiana University