[MUSIC] Welcome to Learning Technologies. In this segment, we're going to provide you with the course overview and the preliminary introductions to the field. In this segment, we're going to cover the following topics. First, we're going to talk about the course structure, major course assignment and ways for you to be successful in this course. Second, we're going to start to look at the field of learning technologies by discussing the relationships among learning, design and technology. Third, we're going to move on to the design aspect of this course, which is to translate learning technologies to the E-learning environments. Next, we're going to touch on some interesting issues in terms of technology and human interactivity, then we will conclude this segment with a reality check. Let's begin with the course overview. As you can see from this diagram, this course intends to cover six major things related to learning technologies. Let's begin with the top. Learning, design and the technology. Those are three major elements we are interested in sharing with you in terms of their values to the context within technologies, then we're going to look at the aspect of learning with technology. The applications of learning technologies for educational, instructional and performance improvement purposes in different context. Next, we will cover the theories, frameworks and models for designing learning technologies into E-learning systems, programs and environments. Next, we will look at the evolution of learning technology. What has driven learning technologies is to what we are seeing today. Well, some interesting facts in terms of the historic aspect of learning technologies. We also going to look at the immersive learning environments. This is more irrelevant to why we are using today while we are about to see in the future and while we would like to see for educational applications, instructional applications and performance improvement implications in the future. Finally, we would like to circle back to focus on the trends and values of learning technologies in various contexts for various purposes. By focusing on these six things, if you will, this course differentiates itself from other learning technology related courses you might have experience with by aligning with learning needs, learning issues for individuals to learning needs and performance improvement issues for organizations. The learning goals of this course first is to for you, to understand the role of technologies in learning and performance improvement context across organizations, of course. Second, for you to identify suitable learning technology applications for learning and performance purposes across organizations. Third, for you to design learning technology solutions based on existing theoretical and practical frameworks. Finally, the goal is to help you justify the selection of learning technologies according to sound theoretical frameworks and practical applications in solving organizational learning and performance problems. You can see the trajectory of the course moving in from individual learning needs to organizational level concerns when it comes to choosing and adapting learning technologies learning, and development for performance improvement purposes. This course consists of two major components. One is what we call low engagement. The other one is the high engagement. The low engagement course content will focus on video lectures, readings and asynchronous online discussion activities. The high engagement session of the course will be delivered by weekly synchronous meetings where you can discuss issues, interact with your peers as well as your instructors during those weekly synchronous meetings. In terms of assignments, first, we have the asynchronous online activities which would include online discussions, online group activities, then we have the synchronous online activities with peers that will be coming from the weekly synchronous sessions hosted by the course instructor and also participated by your peers in the same course. Then we have the exploring learning technology activities, ELT for short. These activities will allow you to gain first-hand experiences in various types of learning technologies for learning, educational, instructional purposes. Next, we have the case studies related to learning technologies. In these case studies, the instructor will provide you with case scenario and you and your team will develop case responses according to the topics we have covered in the course. Finally, we would like to showcase your accomplishment. Therefore, in this course, you are expected to develop an e-portfolio at the end of this course. With the e-portfolio, you will select one of the six things I discussed earlier as your topic area, then you identify at least one artifact according to the selected thing. Of course, you need to just try your selection. Therefore, you need to develop a short narrative explaining to the audience why you're defect is align with the select things. By the end of this course, you are expected to upload all your e-portfolio artifacts and narratives to the e-portfolio system and you will be releasing your e-portfolio. To the public for their excess. These are the major tasks for this course. If you have any further questions, please refer back to the course syllabus or you can contact the course instructor and the teaching assistants. We would like you to be successful in this course. Therefore, this is a short list of learning strategies you should apply in order to be an effective contributor to the course activities throughout the term. First, it is crucial to have a timely communication and interaction plan with your team members for your team projects. Once you have the plan, it is more important for you to follow the plan to carry out those activities. I also want to suggest you cover all the reading materials. Understand maybe due to other responsibilities you have very limited time engaging with the course content. The selection of the reading materials from your instructors are essential for you to be effective and productive for all your course assignments. Next, when you participate in our asynchronous and synchronous learning activities, your full attention is very highly appreciated. For example, the weekly synchronous sessions, we only have two hours trying to cover much more topics and address students questions. Therefore, if you can focus on those two hours, that will be very helpful. And more importantly, that will be very important for you to catch up with the rest of the class as well as understand where the course is going. When you communicate, be courteous, be polite, be professional and articulating your points, your emails and your text messages. I think that's very important for efficiency purposes when working with team members. It's also important when you communicate your questions, issues, concerns with your instructors and teaching assistants, but be concise and be professional. Those are two major things we expect students to follow. The next two points are very straightforward. You want to be a collaborative peer when working with team members and you always want to back up your work using a portable hard drive or using the cloud services. Those are good options for you to make sure that your work can be retrieved and accessed later. This is a learning environment where everybody could learn something from everybody else. I highly appreciated the input and experiences of students in this learning environment. Therefore, I encourage you to share resources. Learning technologies with the class, with me, with your teaching assistants. There are so many options out there when it comes to learning technologies and the speed for learning technology to advance in these days is very difficult to follow and I would like to leverage the power of this group and you and your peers. So we can all be up to date when it comes to learning technologies or vocations. Finally, I think that's the very important part is that I want you to truly enjoy the learning experience with the class. Learning from your peers, communicating your thoughts and ideas with your instructor and teaching assistants. And finally, reflecting your experiences for the benefit of your personal professional growth. Teamwork is an essential component of any asynchronous learning processes, which is the major characteristics of this course. So here is a show list of how to become effective team members when it comes to working a course projects in a collaborative manner. First, you need to get to know your team members their expectations, their experiences and their schedules. Knowing their schedules, then you can further develop a feasible communication plan to make sure that all team members are on the same page when you find all projects move forward. Establishing group norms, this goes into communication plan. For instance, which day of the week would be the best time for everybody to meet outside your regular synchronous sessions with your instructor? Also, you want to get a sense in terms of how your teammates might be comfortable in accessing one way of communication venue versus the other. Someone might prefer to use email, someone might be good with text. So that's the point of establishing group norms. Group leaders to manage and facilitate the process. I also want to add on to that. Each of the team members should take turn to lead and manage the group work process. This is to ensure that there is less bias when groups are working together and everyone can get some experience in leading, and managing the project. Individual accountability is very important in the team work setting. Do what you say and say what you do. Those are two short sentences I can share with you in terms of establishing your accountability as a collaborative team member. Plan ahead, you need to have plans for your communications. You need to have plans for your project development according to the expectation of the instructor, also the guidance from the course syllabus. You also need a plan as a back up. If the plan A doesn’t work, you’re better to have some contingency plan to ensure that you can move forward as a team. Meeting regularly for different purposes. First is to make sure the projects are moving forward as expected. Second is to get to know your team members better. You might find some interest beyond the class setting you could explore once the class ends. So the social preferences, I think that's also could be served by your regular meeting. Active, clear and transparent communications. When you communicate with your course instructors on behalf of the team, please CC, if you're using e-mail, carbon copy, CC, you're communication to the instructors, or TAs, with all your team members. So everyone will be in the loop, and also will save some time for you later on to relay the message to all other team members. So use the carbon copy or CC functions the e-mail. That's the best way to go. Finally, this is a learning technology course. And I'm sure you have a lot of options and experiences in using technology to help you. So select the ones you are most comfortable with, and just go from there. So, this is a short list for effective online team work as a collaborative team member. I'm sure you can also apply this list to other on-line learning environments. Let's begin with the first topic which is learning, design, and technology. Those three independent components, they must be integrated together in order to provide effective learning experiences when it comes to the adoptions of learning technologies. Throughout the course you will hear the course instructor and you will read from the reading materials to remind you that those three components are essential if you want to identify suitable learning technology applications for your educational purposes, or you wanted to design and develop efficient e-learning environments for your clients or organizations. Let's begin by describing what learning is for the purpose of this course. First, what is learning? Learning is an action for individuals and organizations to develop new knowledge, skills, and abilities. We also use abbreviation KSA to represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities as the result of learning. Learning is motivated by many reasons. Sometimes it is for personal goals, sometimes it is for academic goals, sometimes it is for professional goals. Learning is an ongoing process allowing individuals and organizations to remain capable once acquiring the new knowledge, skills, and abilities. In terms of learning outcomes, the result of learning should be observable and measurable, and also meaningful to the context within which the learning activities occur. Finally, learning is a cognitively, emotionally, and socially constructive process. This speaks to the complexity of the learning processes and the learning experiences in order to attain the desirable individual or organizational learning outcomes. This is how we frame learning in this course. So what is design for the purposes of this course? Design is also an action carried out by individuals and organizations in order to make decisions to solve problems. The problems in this case will be problems related to learning technologies and how to utilize them for educational, instructional, and performance improvement purposes. Designs should be guided by proven theories and models, particularly grounded in pedagogical and androgogical foundations in order to enhance the intended learning experience. Design also should focus on learner or user-centered experience based on their characteristics, motivation, and goals. Design is to work with limitation. Limited resources, limited time, limited space. If such limitations are not existent, then there is no reason for us to make design decisions since we can do whatever we want. So design actually is a process of making decisions with limited resources. Design is an outcome will create a blueprint, and that should guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of the learning systems for the purpose of this course. Enriched and enhanced by learning technologies. Design also is a socially constructive process, requires a team of experts to come together in order to solve a common problem. And for the course will be the problem of learning or the problem of performance improvement. When it comes to effective e-learning program and systems, or effective integration of learning technologies, one important goal for us to have in mind is that we want to provide interactive learning experiences to our audience by utilizing different learning technologies and their applications. So what does technology mean for the purpose of this course? First, technology could be seen as a systematic application of scientific knowledge in order to solve problems. Problems regarding learning, problems regarding performance improvement, problems regarding instruction delivery, problems regarding broadening access to a wider population when it comes to quality learning experience. So very broadly speaking, technology entails systematic applications of empirical evidence to help us solve problems. And of course, it's applicable to the learning and performance improvement context. Christiansen, Horn, and Johnson, 2010, they proposed that technology is the process by which an organization transforms input of labor, capital, materials, and information into products and service of greater value. So this perspective speaks to the organizational aspect of technology. Key words here would be transformation. How we transform information to services, for instance. How we transform materials into tangible products. So the transformation process is a very important part of the function where we can see, provided by learning technologies for our purposes. There are other perspectives when it comes to what technology means. These two we just looked at will be the most relevant ones to guide our course work. [MUSIC]
