Book review
Blended Learning: how to integrate online and traditional learning
E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning
Kogan Page, August 2002
Author: Gilly Salmon
Review by John Harris, Epic Group plc
E-tivities are teaching techniques for promoting online
and interactive learning through, primarily, written message contributions
to discussion forums. The e-moderator is a facilitator (the guide
on the side) rather than content expert (the sage on the stage),
guiding the participants through a structured set of online activities
(e-tivities).
Gilly Salmon's techniques have been developed at the
Open University Business School, where she is a lecturer, and throughout
the book there are examples of real postings drawn from her extensive
experience as an e-moderator.
At the heart of the e-tivity is a tightly structured five-stage
model that defines the stages the e-moderator goes through to complete
one. The five-stage model can be summarised as follows:
1. Access and motivation - Getting learners onto the system, welcoming
them and encouraging them.
2. Online socialization - Prompting participants to send and receive
messages and familiarising them with the conventions of this kind
of interaction.
3. Information exchange - Providing a "spark" that initiates action
(e.g. studying course content) or interaction (e.g. online discussion).
4. Knowledge construction - Promoting the process of actively thinking
and interacting with others online, using analytical, creative and
practical skills.
5. Development - Learners coming up with ways of developing and
applying their skills in new contexts.
Typically, the five stages would take place over five weeks, one stage per week, with participants spending around five hours per week posting messages or reviewing postings.
This is a sophisticated model in that it recognises that there are issues around motivation and engagement, the three big issues being participation, emotions and time. A skilful e-moderator will increase the motivation of the learners by offering encouragement and support. They will recognise when a learner is 'lurking' and needs to be drawn into engaging with the other learners online. They will also prompt participants to reflect critically on how they have learned.
The book is illustrated throughout with plenty of examples of online interactions, drawn largely from a particular staff development programme. Given that the subject being explored in the examples is e-moderation, it is easy to see the applicability of the e-tivity approach. It is also easy to see how it can be transferred to other academic subjects where there are strong discursive and reflective components.
This title should be essential reading for those universities incorporating
the extensive use of online collaboration in their courses. Equally,
people in more corporate contexts will find it useful to look at
the issues associated with this form of delivery. However, it is
unlikely that any non-academic corporate development programme would
adopt the five-stage model wholesale. In suggesting that the five
stages should take place over five weeks, with five hours each week
spent posting messages or adding postings, Salmon begs some interesting
questions for those involved in corporate development programmes.
How many busy employers would feel comfortable with employees spending
all this time on e-tivities? And would they perhaps prefer that
they undertook e-tivities in their own time?
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