A guide to authentic E-learning

Part of the groundbreaking Connecting with e-Learning series, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning provides effective, working examples to engage learners with authentic tasks in online settings. As technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective teaching and learning opportunities, students and teachers are no longer content to accept familiar classroom or lecture-based pedagogies that rely on information delivery and little else. Situated and constructivist theories advocate that learning is best achieved in circumstances resembling the real-life application of knowledge. While there are multiple learning design models that share similar foundations, authentic e-learning tasks go beyond process to become complex, sustained activities that draw on realistic situations to produce realistic outcomes.

A Guide to Authentic e-Learning:

develops the conceptual framework for authentic learning tasks in online environments provides practical guidance on design, implementation, and evaluation of authentic e-learning tasks includes case studies and examples of outcomes of using authentic e-learning tasks

Written for teaching professionals in Higher Education who teach online, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning offers concrete guidelines and examples for developing and implementing authentic e-learning tasks in ways that challenge students to maximize their learning. This essential book provides effective, working examples to engages learners with authentic tasks in online learning settings.

Author Notes

Jan Herrington is a Professor in the School of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.
Thomas C.Reeves is a Professor of Learning, Design, and Technology at the University of Georgia, USA.
Ron Oliver is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia.

List of Figures	p. ix
List of Tables	p. xi
Series Editors' Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Impediments to Authentic Learning in Higher Education	p. 3
Inert Knowledge	p. 4
Emerging Technologies and Cognitive Tools	p. 7
Technologies of Participatory Culture	p. 8
Participatory e-Learning	p. 10
Learning Management Systems in e-Learning	p. 11
1 What is Authentic e-Learning?	p. 14
The Foundations of Authentic Learning: Situated Learning Critical Characteristics of Situated Learning for a Model of Authentic Learning	p. 17
Elements of Authentic Learning	p. 18
A Framework for Implementation	p. 39
2 Authentic e-Learning Tasks	p. 41
Activity as Practice	p. 41
Academic Problems vs Practical Problems	p. 43
Defining Authentic Tasks	p. 45
Elements of Authentic Tasks	p. 46
Authentic e-Learning Tasks	p. 48
The Underlying Logic of Online Authentic Tasks in Higher Education	p. 62
A Logic Map of an Authentic Tasks-based Higher Education Course	p. 65
3 What is Not Authentic e-Learning?	p. 72
Non-authentic Tasks	p. 72
Misconceptions of Authenticity of Tasks	p. 74
Continuum of Authentic Characteristics	p. 79
4 How Real does Authentic e-Learning Need to be?	p. 85
Increasing Relevance in Learning	p. 85
Simulations and Virtual Reality	p. 86
Realistic or Real?	p. 89
The Nature of Authenticity	p. 90
5 Authentic e-Learning and the Conative Learning Domain	p. 97
What should Higher Education Students Learn?	p. 98
Are Today's Postsecondary Students "Millennials" or "Generation Me"?	p. 103
Alignment is the Key	p. 108
Putting it all Together	p. 111
6 Designing and Producing Authentic e-Learning Courses	p. 112
Revising an Existing Course	p. 112
Designing a New Course	p. 114
Implementing Authentic e-Learning Courses	p. 133
7 Assessment of Authentic e-Learning	p. 136
Assessment versus Evaluation	p. 136
The Issue of Assessment	p. 137
The Value of Assessment	p. 137
Assessment and Student Learning	p. 138
Restraints of Institutional Assessment Policies	p. 139
Characteristics of Authentic Assessment	p. 140
Authentic Assessment for Authentic Learning	p. 146
8 Evaluating Authentic e-Learning Courses	p. 148
Evaluation Planning	p. 148
Preparing an Evaluation Proposal: An Example	p. 151
Evaluation Project Management	p. 163
Evaluation Reporting	p. 167
Summary	p. 171
9 Researching Authentic e-Learning	p. 172
The Need for a Different Kind of Research	p. 173
Design Research	p. 175
Phases of Educational Design Research	p. 177
Reporting Design Research	p. 187
A Research Agenda for Authentic e-Learning	p. 188
Conclusion	p. 189
References	p. 191
Index	p. 211

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Table of Contents