Understanding your practice

The table below gives a sample of generic learning activities commonly used in learning and teaching contexts to provide a response to the question: What can e-learning offer the practitioner? The table highlights ways that e-learning can impact on pedagogy rather than offering a comprehensive guide to practice, and opens up rather than closes debate around what is effective practice that is needed to determine how, why, when and where e-learning is best deployed.

Click on the learning activities to find out how practitioners have used a combination of established and e-learning practice to tackle the challenges they found in each instance. Each case study provides opportunities to explore and evaluate the e-learning practice that evolved in response to those challenges, enabling you to arrive at a deeper understanding of your own practice.

The Understanding your practice table can be downloaded as a PDF file here.
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Learning Activity	Established practice	Example of e-learning practice	e-Learning advantage
Negotiate learning goals	Discussion with tutor face-to-face identifies learning goals and appropriate options. Practitioner consults with and guides learner in identifying the most appropriate options.	Online learning can provide an extended, cross-institutional choice of learning options. Practitioner facilitates learning pathway chosen by learner.	Learners have increasing choice over their pathways of learning. The focus of control moves towards the learner.
Explore new concepts	Face-to-face delivery through lectures and group work is supported by course notes and texts. Practitioner as expert dictates pace and structure of course delivery.	Interactive resources available outside of taught session can reinforce learning and offer opportunities to check understanding. Practitioner as expert scopes the learning domain and provides essential resources.	Learners can control the pace and place of learning. This can both support and extend learning, providing opportunities for differentiation. However, remote access to learning content must be available for maximum benefit.
Evaluate facts and concepts	Practitioner-led face-to-face sessions are supported by print-based and audio-visual resources. Practitioner as academic advisor creates face-to- face activities and provides resources to develop higher order thinking skills.	Discussion forums provide opportunities for peer-to-peer evaluation of online resources outside of classroom sessions. Practitioner as facilitator stimulates and mediates discussion generated by learners in reaction to online resources.	Every learner engages actively in constructing their own meaning, as peer-to-peer discussion develops learners' evaluative skills beyond classroom sessions.
Build and test theories	Course content is organised into component units, supported by demonstrations of expert skills. Assessment of learners' knowledge and skills is typically undertaken by the practitioner. Practitioner as instructor dictates structure of learning, demonstrates skills and assesses learners' performance.	Use of online resources offers opportunities for independent learning; integrated online self-testing quizzes provide immediate feedback and extend learners' conceptual understanding. Practitioner as facilitator creates and manages resources for learners. Practitioner and learners share role of assessors of learning.	Blended learning offers a mix of face-to-face and online activities to provide a wider variety of learning opportunities. Learners can receive timely feedback from online tests and quizzes to identify gaps in their knowledge and understanding.
Solve problems	Print-based problem-solving scenarios and experiments are used to support face-to-face group work. Solutions are assessed by practitioner. Practitioner dictates pace and content and supervises group work.	Online multimedia scenarios and simulations provide 'real life' interactive learning opportunities. Solutions can be discussed through asynchronous communication tools. Practitioner acts as content developer and facilitator of learning.	Learners work collaboratively to identify solutions and test their conceptual understanding through peer-to-peer discussion.
Share and discuss	Face-to-face group work is instigated by the practitioner but is restricted by factors of time and place. Practitioner sets objectives for the discussion, and is more likely to act as monitor and assessor.	Online discussion through chat, email and discussion boards can develop communities of learning. Practitioner instigates discussion to be taken over by learners and extended beyond class contact time. Practitioner may still act as monitor and assessor.	Learners collaborate in discussion, taking increasing ownership of the task, as the discussion extends beyond class contact time. Remote and distance learners are able to participate on an equal footing.
Apply concepts and skills	Classroom or homework tasks require learners to replicate or apply what they have seen demonstrated. Practitioner acts as coach or instructor and invites learners to apply what they have seen demonstrated to a new context.	Interactive whiteboards and voting systems enable all learners to participate in self-testing activities. Simple interactive activities acquire an element of fun. Practitioner facilitates learning by devising interactive learning activities.	Effective use of interactive functions in some technologies can engage and motivate learners, reducing disengagement with repetitive tasks. Learners can participate kinaesthetically to reinforce their learning.
Visualise and present concepts	Practitioner explains concepts and sets assignments to assess learners' understanding. Practitioner acts as coach and assessor. Learners improve their presentation by responding to practitioners' feedback.	Use of mind-mapping and assistive software enables learners to visualise structures and relate concepts to each other. Grammar and spell checking functions, predictive text and read-back facilities enable all learners to improve the expression and presentation of their ideas and knowledge. Practitioner inducts learners in the use of software and identifies learners who require additional one to one support.	Learners take more responsibility for the coherence and presentation of their written and oral work by using assistive software to plan, check and present their assignments. Disabled learners can use software functions to gain a level playing field with their peers.
Assessment for learning	Practitioner sets formative assessment activities and provides feedback. Practitioner acts as coach and assessor, providing written and oral feedback.	Online quizzes and activities enable learners to assess their own learning. Online assessment through a VLE can provide immediate feedback without practitioner intervention. Practitioner devises tests and activities and provides supporting resources. Practitioner workload in assessment decreases.	Online quizzes increase participation in face-to-face sessions as learners' confidence increases. Learners take an increasingly more active role in assessing their own progress.

An appropriate combination of learning activities arguably provides the strongest benefits for learners. This is illustrated in the case study Kemnal Technology College - Making learning active where the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) provides a newly emerging technological solution to the challenge of maximising learners’ potential.