Week 5 Discussion Summary: "Social and Self-Paced Instruction

One of eLearning’s touted advantages is the learner’s ability to study at her pace and convenience. Should the social aspect be sacrificed for the sake of this benefit?

Our discussion this week focused on the importance of addressing the social values in self-paced instruction, and the options for doing so:

Designing Social Experiences after Individual Learning
Experiences were shared about how individual learning enabled basic knowledge acquisition, and how social interactions were used thereafter to enhance and deepen this. These would include “sandboxes”, discussion groups, communities of practice (CoPs), live or virtual Q & A sessions. These interactions allowed the learners to calibrate their understanding and strengthen knowledge absorption as they tested their concepts alongside others’.

Despite its benefits, some social activities present challenges to instructional designers. In particular, user groups/CoPs and Q&A sessions: the fading participation in the former, and lack of participation in the latter. Defining the causes of these (whether design, process, or motivation problems) will empower the instructional designer in developing a holistic self-paced cum social learning experience.


Embedding Social Experiences in Individual Learning
With advances in technology, social interactions can be simulated using characters the learner can “converse” with. Depending on the desired effect, these characters can provide directions, instructions, reactions. Although limited in capabilities compared to human interaction, this allows self-paced learning and integrates elements of social instructional value.


I think my best contribution in the discussion was about the common failure of purely online learning due to motivational (and cultural elements):
“My suggestion is to use learning from computers for declarative knowledge areas (Knowledge and Comprehension in Bloom). This would keep the duration of such “isolated” learning events manageable. I would recommend blending this with classroom or online discussion groups, or team activities/projects (virtual or f2f). All these activities provide opportunities to interact with others. Another option that will be valued highly is the ability to communicate with the instructor.”
It earned Karma Points from Kay Tucker, a cohort member for stating a workable guideline in determining self-paced and social blend. I also think that my contribution reflects the reality that I observe in my work regularly, and something I should consider in improving the products and services I offer my clients.