Online Learning's Tools Remain Indispensible

The easing of pandemic restrictions promises a return to more classroom instruction. But is it so easy to cast aside all the clear advantages that online learning provided?

“For some, the urgency of the pandemic created a negative impression of online learning,” says UCN Instructional Specialist Larry McCallum. “Courses were developed quickly. But when used carefully, online instruction has some clear advantages over classroom.”

A blended approach to instruction can leverage the best aspects of classroom and online learning.

“Online technology isn’t just for now — it’s the future of higher education,” says Associate Vice-President Harvey Briggs.

Don't forget me!

Take dropboxes, for example. They eliminate the ambiguities and logistical challenges that come with receiving assignments by other means. A UCNLearn dropbox time-stamps students’ submissions. This removes any possible doubt when students claim they’ve submitted assignments but haven’t.

“To me, there’s no better way,” says Briggs, who began using digital dropboxes in 2000.

A dropbox also provides marking tools to make marking easier for the instructor — and feedback clearer for the student. And it integrates with other UCNLearn features — the rubric and the gradebook, both labour-saving tools.

An LMS like UCNLearn also supports classroom learning by reinforcing the course’s structure and sequence. “It gives students a ‘place’ or locus for their asynchronous course work and helps them stay on track,” McCallum says.

Video: Grading & Annotating Assignments in Dropbox

Objectives & Outcomes: What’s the Difference?

The terms “Learning Objectives” and “Learning Outcomes” are often used interchangeably, but in fact they’re not the same. It’s a temporal difference but also one of planning versus assessing.

Learning objectives are statements of intent (as 'objectives' should be — see sidebar). When you’re sketching out the learning event (e.g., class or course), learning objectives can indicate how it should proceed and what you want to accomplish. Objectives are well suited to a lesson plan or course outline. What will the learners do during the course? (Not what they demonstrate at the end — those are the outcomes.)

A lesson plan — or course outline — lays out the objectives along with the time, activities and resources to be used to pursue those objectives.

Outcomes, on the other hand, are the terminal analogue, indicating the end of the learning event (or milestones during the learning event, such as midterm exams). They express the learners’ measurable achievements or capacities.

In other words, learning outcomes are the new, measurable and observable capacities that the learners should have attained by the end of the course. And the course must include assessments to test or demonstrate those capacities.

A course outline is largely concerned with objectives. But at some point it will list the learning outcomes, too. Each outcome must have a strong verb indicating how the learner will demonstrate (in an assessment) a competency s/he must attain by the end of the course.

For example, a verb such as “learn”, "explore" or “participate” might be congruent with objectives, but they wouldn't suffice for outcomes. “Apply” could work for an outcome because a learner's application of something is observable and measurable.

Further Reading:

• Useful Verbs for Developing Learning Outcomes. Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation, University of Toronto.
• Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes. Teaching Commons, DePaul University.

• We consult with instructors on the contents and structure of their existing courses.
• We advise instructors on how the learning-management system (UCNLearn) and its components can be best utilized, and how external applications might be incorporated.
• We offer templates to guide instructors in building out their course shells.
  
  

Learning Object Design & Development

We can:

• Use software or online applications to develop interactive learning objects to support the learning objectives in your online course.
• Integrate those learning objects into course modules in UCNLearn.