This document provides an overview of e-learning and discusses different types of learning activities. It summarizes absorb-type activities as presenting information for learners to absorb through reading, listening, and watching. Do-type activities engage learners in seeking, selecting, and creating knowledge. Connect-type activities link learning to learners' lives, work, and future learning through activities like pondering, questioning, storytelling, research, and original work. The document also discusses social learning, connectivism as a model of learning through connections between information sources, and myths about social learning. It provides tips for building an effective social learning environment through design, facilitation, interaction, appropriate tools, and creativity.

1. Introduction to E-Learning
EDCI 56900 – Summer I, 2013
--- Dr. Yi Yang

2. REVIEW OF WEEK 2
1. Absorb-type activities:
1) Present information to learners
2) Learners absorb the knowledge offered
by the content by reading, listening, and
watching.
2. Do-type activities:
1) Put learners in action
2) Engage them active seeking, selecting,
and creating knowledge.

3. WEEK 3 PREVIEW
1. Connect-type activities: link learning to
learners’ life, work, and future learning.
2. Six common types of Connect
activities:
 Ponder activities: motivate learners to think deeply and broadly
about a subject
 Questioning activities: motivate learners to ask questions to fill
in their knowledge gaps
 Stories by learners: have learners recall events from their own
lives to prepare them how to apply the new knowledge
 Job aids: help learners apply learning to real-world situations
and tasks.
 Research activities: help learners research and discover their
own sources of information
 Original Work: have learners perform genuine work and submit
for critique

4. THREE ACTIVITIES
A simple analysis of the three activities:
Absorb Activities Background information
Do Activities Hands-on Production
Connect Activities Correlates all
information from above to real-life
Part
I
Part 2
Part 3

5. SOCIAL LEARNING
What is social learning?
- NOT Bandura’s social
learning theory!
- Conte and Paolucci (2001)
define social learning as a
process of learning
caused or favored by
people being situated in a
common environment and
observing one another.
- Horton (2012) define it as
learning by interacting
with other people.

6. CONNECTIVISM (SIEMENS, 2005)
1. Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic
shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity
(Siemens, 2005).
2. Principles of Connectivism:
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information
sources.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual
learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core
skill.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and
the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting
reality.
3. Implications:
• Management and leadership
• Design of learning environment
• Media, news, information.

7. FOUR MYTHS ABOUT SOCIAL LEARNING
1. Social Learning Is New?
2. Social Learning Is the Same as Social Media?
3. Social Learning Is Just for Fun?
4. Social Learning Doesn’t Have Broad Appeal?
Check this article to find out:
http://www.blackboard.com/sites/social/thought-leadership/myths.html

8. HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT?
1. Effective design
2. Facilitate the learning
3. Build effective interaction patterns
4. Use appropriate technology tools
5. Use your creativity!
- Read Horton’s Chapter 8
- Jane Hart wrote three articles on how to build a social learning
environment. Links are provided in Week 3 Overview and Assignments
Summary Announcement.