Theory and Practice of Online Learning - Second edition released

Theory and Practice of Online Learning, edited by Terry Anderson and Fathi Elloumi, is concerned with assisting providers of online education with useful tools to carry out teaching and learning transactions online. It presents, in an easily readable form, the theory, administration, tools, and methods of designing and delivering learning online. By doing so, the authors bring to the teaching community a valuable product which should go a long way to popularising the use of learning technologies.

Back in 1982, one reviewer hailed Athabasca University's book Learning at a Distance: A World Perspective as "a miracle of educational publishing". Open and distance learning has evolved through several mutations since then, and Athabasca has now brought us up to date with a perceptive and complete guide to the theory and practice of online learning. Most of the authors are from Athabasca University and their shared experience of developing online learning within that successful Open University allows them to analyse online learning for the wider world in an admirably coherent manner.

Starting with a comprehensive summary of relevant educational theory, the book revisits the great dichotomies that have marked the history of open and distance learning. How should we balance the social and individual aspects of study? What is the right mixture between independent and interactive learning? Should courses be paced for cohorts of students, or unpaced for the benefit of individuals? Succeeding chapters give helpful and well-informed guidance on vital aspects of online learning practice, such as copyright, multimedia editing, supporting asynchronous discussion, library support, and quality assurance. The concept of the value chain is used to set online learning in the context of today's competitive educational marketplace in order to help institutional leaders decide where their own advantage might lie.

"Educators from all over the world are able to download this book at no cost, because, in the true spirit of an open university, Athabasca has published it as an open source book under a Creative Commons Licence. UNESCO strongly encourages this form of publication as a way of bridging the digital divide and thereby helping to bring online learning to all the world's people", said Sir John Daniel, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO, 2001-2004 on the occasion of the release of the first edition.

The second edition features updates on all chapters from the first edition and the addition of four new chapters (on Mobile Learning, Social Software, Distance Education Philosophy and Financial Decision Making). Two chapters (Chapter three - Value Chain Analysis and Chapter nine - Copyright Issues) were not updated, nor included in the second edition. These two chapters (in addition to all of the original first edition chapters) are still available for download; however, readers are encouraged to access the revised chapters to receive more current and updated content.

The ebook can be downloaded here.

More on this:

Visit: http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/