Activity 1.2 – Glossary of Terms

From the article:

“E-Learning Alphabet Soup: A Guide to Terms”
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art1_1.htm

“E-Learning is really nothing more than using some form of technology to deliver training and other educational materials … E-Learning is the latest, in vogue, all-inclusive term for training delivered by a number of means. In the past, these have included the use of mainframe computers, floppy diskettes, multimedia CD-ROMs, and interactive videodisks. Most recently, Web technology (both Internet and Intranet delivery) have become preferred delivery options. In the near future, e-learning will also include training delivered on PDA’s (e.g., Palm Pilots) and even via wireless devices like your cell phone. This new, mobile form of education is called, predictably enough, m-learning.”

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From the very start of this subject it became clear that e-Learning was going to be difficult to understand because of all the jargon that is linked to the term. As such, this activity attempts to assist in understanding new terms as they come along.

Why do you need an e-Learning Glossary? E-Learning as a topic comes with an array of confusing acronyms and technology related buzzwords. An e-Learning glossary assists in understanding these terms. It is a reliable source to refer to define unfamiliar jargon.

Where do you start searching? A variety of search engines can be used to find e-Learning glossaries that are already established.

How do you judge their relevance and credibility? Relevance and credibility can be found by looking at the publishing date as well as the publisher, references (e.g. Government and educational departments etc). Also the domain of the URL can indicate relevance and credibility, country code domains (.au, .nz, .de, .ch, .uk), generic domains (.com, .edu, .org, .net, .gov).

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Here are some URLs of online glossaries that I have found using Google:

http://www.e-learningguru.com/gloss.htm
http://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary
http://www.internettime.com/itimegroup/eglossary.htm
http://www.knowledgenet.com/helpdesk/dictionary/index.jsp
http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/encyclopedia
http://reviews.cnet.com/Internet_services_glossary/4002-6554_7-5116108.html

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Some of the new terms, and their definitions, that I have come across using the group discussion board on UTSOnline include:E-JOURNEY – is a guided tour of web sites designed to amuse, educate and develop the e-journey user. An e-journey is one form of e-learning or online training, but it is more like a map than a formal learning program. It takes the user to places of interest. Some will have a quick tour by skipping some sections. Others will have a detailed, all encompassing experience exploring important information resources.

CHUNKING – It is the process of separating learning materials into smaller/simpler sections in order to improve learner comprehension and retentionE-BOOK – Information and graphics that have been organized in electronic or computerized lessons or chapters and made available via computer

BLOG – Blog is short for “Web Log” and refers to short messages that are posted onto a web site by an author. Blogs are typically informal and personal messages almost like daily diary entries.

PRESCRIPTIVE LEARNING – Training content that is suited for the individual needs or skill level of a particular learner

NETIQUETTE – is simply the etiquette we use on the internet, that is how we act and behave on line

JPEG - A popular file format for photographs intended for display on web pages. The file extension is JPG.

STRUCTURED QUERY LANGUAGE (SQL) – used in relational databases to perform queries and searches. Important to know who to use in order queries and searches conducted according to criteria.

PODCAST – a podcast is an audio file that allows media to be downloaded or streamed from the internet. Most commonly used by radio stations, broadcasts are recorded and then made available to listeners via a podcast.

WEB-BASED LEARNING – is associated with learning materials delivered in a Web browser, including when the materials are packaged on CD-ROM or other media.

ONLINE LEARNING – is associated with content readily accessible on a computer. The content may be on the Web or the Internet, or simply installed on a CD-ROM or the computer hard disk.

DISTANCE LEARNING – involves interaction at a distance between instructor and learners, and enables timely instructor reaction to learners. Simply posting or broadcasting learning materials to learners is not distance learning. Instructors must be involved in receiving feedback from learners.

Just an additional comment in regards to this particular glossary … we were asked to post the definition of one word on the discussion board and were meant to write this definition in our own words. In going through this discussion board what I found was that it was very difficult to go through for several reasons:

1. As the discussion board in which the posting was to be made was open to all the classes in the subject, students from other classes were posting up work that their teacher had directed them to and so I was sifting through material unrelated to this exercise

2. Some students posted up a whole glossary that they had copy and pasted rather than one term

3. The threads that were added in the discussion board were merely titled “definition”. What would have made it easier would be if students had titled their threads with the word they were defining. Also, it would’ve avoided duplication of terms.

Already, I can see some problems with using e-Learning. I think the resolution would have been to give clearer guidelines.