Effective learning strategies for the on-line learning environment: including the lost learner

Abstract

Much has been said about different learning styles, but it not always clear how learning strategies should be adapted to accommodate different learning styles in the on-line learning environment The question arises as to how does one ensure that there are no lost learners, especially working with extremely heterogeneous groups in the South African context, where learners may be from eleven different cultural and language groups, urban or deep rural settings, varying computer abilities and often from disadvantaged educational backgrounds. It indeed proves to be a vety challenging task, and iricluding first year learners from the subject Journalism Practice at the Technikori Pretoria, with the cooperation of the lecturer, Ms Wiida Fourie, l attempted to firstly design activities (instead of using an on-line survey) which in a fun way assessed these learner characteristics, and secondly using this information by giving students a choice of activities and assessments instead of limiting them to one or two methods. This study was aimed at encouraging learner autonomy, increasing learner confidence and trying to include the lost or "invisible" learner. This paper will report on the findings and conclusions from this study. LearningOnline. httD:/lwww.cvbercorp.net/-taniniv/lo/oned2.html Hartman, Virginia F. 1995. Teaching and leaming style preferences: Transitions through technology.

Evaluating learning behavior of Web-Based Training (WBT) using Web log

“…On the other hand, the Information session was found to be the least used component with only a few students have tried to post message to the message board. This can be explained as most learners want to create or join the discussion only if marks or extra bonus would be given for their contribution [1]. …”

Knowledge Construction for Wiki Education Applied in Moodle 2.3

“…Active learning can be defined as the environment where learners are actively participated in their learning process. 14 It involves action of higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Those actions are enabling them to construct personal knowledge through problems solving and experimentation environment.…”