Information Technology Reference
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process may involve designing questions to help learners apply the
learning contents in a practical situation. It also facilitates personal
interpretation and relevance. Garrison and Shale [25] claim it has
a significant impact on the learning experience if in the learning
process students interact with the content, with other students, and
with the instructors to test and confirm ideas and to apply what
they have learned.
Second, learners organize the information they learn. The e-learning sys-
tem can help students learn by presenting organized information. Learners
should be given control of the learning process. There should be a form of
guided discovery where learners are allowed to make decisions on learning
goals, but with guidance from the instructor [40].
According to Ertmer and Newby [23], the above three theories can in fact
be used as a taxonomy for learning.
•
Behaviorist strategies [49,51] can be applied to teach the “what”
(facts).
Cognitive strategies can be applied to teach the “how” (processes and
•
pri nciples).
Constructivist strategies can be applied to teach the “why” (higher
•
level thinking that promotes personal meaning and contextual
learning).
These educational research results and findings are taken into account in
designing the instructional learning contents and tasks in different cases.
In order to tailor the instructional contents to individual students effec-
tively, a concept of delivery approach becomes critical. Bransford et al.
[8] provided a comprehensive analysis on “how people learn” and pro-
posed a conceptual framework for e-learning design. Indeed, the major
elements in the conceptual framework include learner centered, knowl-
edge centered, community centered, and assessment centered. To realize
this conceptual framework in an e-learning system, Anderson and Elloumi
[2] added a further enhancement on this framework based on agent tech-
nology. Bransford et al. proposed the “how people learn framework” and
is summarized by Table 2.1 in his work [8], and the “affordances of the
current web” and “affordances of the semantic web,” as proposed by
Anderson and Elloumi [2].
According to the above discussion on the learning theory, the design of
learning materials plays a critical role that can directly affect the success of
the e-learning system. Thus, the “how people learn framework” in Table 17.1
is also a good reference to design the personalized learning environment.
