Fawaz'+Heuristics

Hi All I am Fawaz alghamdi, I want share with you my **Draft Heuristic** and I am waiting for your comments,

first Heuristic: //** Management in online education is a key component to quality online learning, thus it needs to be monitored closely by instructors**// Seconed : //**Wikis can encourage students’ collaborative learning, but should be well-designed and well-implemented.**//
 * and**

//**Online learning should provide asynchronous and synchronous interaction among participants.** //

//**Regards,** //

Comments: SG - Personal opinion only, but I reckon a heuristic should be SIMPLE, LOUD and STRONG. (or maybe, I'm just simple, loud and strong???)

SG Fawaz, when should online learning be synchronous versus asynchronous? Since these exhaust all options, it doesn't provide much guidance as is.

Hi Fawaz, What studies are you basing your heuristics on? At this stage you really haven't provided enough information for detailed comment. I agree with your first and second statements, management is important in online education and well designed wikis can support collaborative learning. Please provide a bit more information and check the guidelines on how to write a heuristic statement. Please have a look in "Other resources"/"Heuristic Writing Hints" in the EDGE 904 topic space.

Regards, Chris

What about:
Management in online education is a key component to quality online learning (I don't think it needs the additional comment)

PS. Are these from three separate papers? They kind of sound like they're from the same one.
Shirley 13/8/10: These 3 heuristic statements sound great! Suggestion - add a phrase to say how this should be achieved, eg: Well designed wikis encourage collaborative learning - so make sure the purpose and editing protocol is made clear to all participants

==== Online learning requires interaction among participants so ensure that.... ==== Hi all

Thank you for your comments, I am working in my heuristic again, because after reading i change my idea, my new heuristic are as following: ** Management of online interactive education is a key component to quality online learning, thus it needs to be monitored closely by instructors**

This heuristic has been taken from DiPietro et al. (2008). This article focuses on how virtual teachers can use the subject discussion forum as a monitor students progress closely and interact with students to determine where gaps in knowledge may exist

__**Wikis can encourage students’ collaborative learning, but should be designed and implemented depend of age of learner.**__ Shirley 19/8: Suggestion - sounds good - refine to make more specific, eg., For Wikis to engage learners and encourage collaborative learning, make sure the learning activities are age appropriate.

This heuristic has been taken from Hughes and Narayan (2009). The study examines wikis used as a supportive tool for cooperation and learning

__**To be or not to be.... to be Digital or Diligent**__

In the article by Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan and Erica McWilliam entitled: ‘Digital or Diligent: Web 20’s challenge to formal schooling’, the two authors address the possible inherent conflict that can occur for students between being ‘ digital kids’ and ‘diligent students’. This research examined findings from a survey of 481 students in the school (Pei-Ling & McWilliam, 2008, p.1).

__** Authentic tasks plus Web -Base learning equal quality interacting learning **__
This heuristic has been taken from This article focuses on how instructors use authentic tasks to improve the quality of student interaction and learning in online learning. I hop this is better, and i am waiting your comments, Sorry for all about Regards,

My Heurisyic:

** Management of online interactive education is a key component to quality online learning, thus it needs to be monitored closely by instructors.** This heuristic has been taken from DiPietro et al. (2008). This article focuses on the ways virtual teachers can use the subject discussion forum to monitor student progress closely, and to interact with students to determine where gaps in knowledge may exist. A subject discussion forum can be defined as a web site or web page (e.g. our subject discussion forum for EDGE904), created and designed for the purpose of keeping better communication between the students, and between student and their lecturers for a particular subject, that is delivered online, face-to-face, or in a mixed mode. In general, management of online learning requires special skills to control discussion in the forum. According to DiPietro et al., the direct transference of good instructional practice in face-to-face settings does not always translate to good teaching in online environments (2008). Therefore, it is important to acknowledge different sets of skills for teaching in online learning environments. That means virtual teachers should have online monitoring skills to help students and to better understand the gap in their knowledge. For example, teachers need to be interactive with student questions and the comments should be delivered with high speed, meaning they need to know what questions to ask the students to really make sure that they understand the material (DiPietro et al., 2008). Moreover, as I am now a student of the University of Wollongong experiencing the chat forum in our subject (EDGE904), we, as students participate in the content of this chat forum, we use it to receive help either from each other or from our subject instructor. For example, the lecturer gives us opportunities to share our heuristics on discussion forum and to receive comments from other student and to make sure we are on the right track. Moreover, virtual teachers who monitor the forum can give students a full answer to their questions in a short time, which will enable students to understand subjects without overload. For example, on same subject EDGE 904, the lecturer post as announcement the following: **//feel free to email me if you have any concerns. I will try and respond to you within __1 working day__//**. This form of communication is a good example of monitoring and managing the online learning and give student well-guiding and quality that give student opportunities to collabora t. Additionally, this idea is also be supported by Wills and Bunnett (2002). The authors found that to significantly increase the number of transactions, instructors should make use of varied strategies.

**For Wikis to engage learners and encourage collaborative learning, make sure the learning activities are age appropriate** This heuristic has been taken from Hughes and Narayan (2009). The study examines Wikis used as a supportive tool for collaborative and learning. I have come up with this heuristic as I am an instructor in a technical training centre in Saudi Arabia where efficient use of Wikis with my students may help them to learn cooperatively, especially in technical subjects such as pump, turbine and boiler technology because we have many subjects that require the cooperative work with other students. In our courses there are many students who have experience in the field and can share their knowledge with others. For instance, working in a group from different plants via Wiki to do a specific work or solve a technical problem as a group project, will probably assist students to improve their personal skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Wiki, means quick in Hawaii, which was used for the first time by Ward Cunningham to describe his invention of a cooperative web tool in 1994 (Augar, Raitman and Zhou 2004 cited in Hughes and Narayan 2009). A Wiki can be defined as a web site on the internet that its users can create and edit web postings collaboratively, without the need for knowledge in programming. Wiki can be used as a collaborative tool between students, or students and subject instructor. However, for Wikis to encourage students’ collaborative learning, they should be well-designed. That means Wikis should have features that support students cooperation, and be well-implemented. These factors are important aspects and should be considered by Wiki designers. According to Beldarrain, various Wiki providers make available important features and structures that should be given attention when educational wikis are created (2006). For example, from my experience in our subject (EDGE904), in week 2, our lecturer set up a Wiki using Wikispaces to help students share their ideas about Task 1. The facilitator/ lecturer introduced the activity by emailing the link ( http://edge904-2010.wikispaces.com/ ) to all students in the weekly guide on the subject website (Janison) to help students share their vision of collaboration. However, tools were not implemented very well and the students’ comments were not organized properly. One student put this comment: **// I'm noticing that having all our heuristics on one page makes navigating very difficult. It means you have to scroll through the entire (and growing) document each time to catch new comments. Is there another structure that could organize this material better? //** From that time, only a few students participated in uploading their comments or heuristics on “Wiki” website within this activity, about three in total. However, the lecturer reorganized the Wiki page in order to encourage students to participate. Now there are ten students participating their heuristics and comments to other students. This idea is supported by Schwartz, et al. (2004) cited in Beldarrain (2006), they suggest that when wikis are to be created, ‘ complexity, control offered, clarity, common technical framework used, desired features’. That means when wikis are created, there are many important factors should be considered as clarity to make collaborative learning between group more easily and efficiently.

** To be or not to be.... to be Digital you should make Integration between Digital Technology and understanding of contents ** ** in order to support the process of learning. ** In the article by Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan and Erica McWilliam entitled: ‘Digital or Diligent: Web 20’s challenge to formal schooling’, the two authors address the possible inherent conflict that can occur for students between being ‘digital kids’ and ‘diligent students’. This research examined findings from a survey of 481 students in a school (Pei-Ling and McWilliam, 2008, p.1). After quantitative regression analysis a number of concepts emerged. Using the following nomenclature terms such as ‘peer support’, ‘perceived ease of use’, ’usefulness’, ‘learning goals’, and ‘cognitive playfulness’, emerged as significant predictors of students’ abilities to decide and resolve the fundamental conflict of being both digital and diligent. (Pei-Ling and McWilliam, 2008, p. 1). Technology has grown dramatically and people are becoming aware of the importance of technology and its’ vital place in every society. It has contributed to almost every sector in development especially, in science and education. Education has been revolutionized with the expansion of technology. This technology has brought many benefits not only to students and teachers, but also to educational institutions and training centers. The use of technology in education has enabled students and teachers to have positive applications, including access to different educational sources and various types of learning methods which are reflected positively in institutions and training centers. In the eeducation and training field, there are ever increasing requirements to integrate new technologies into educational contexts in order to support the process of learning. This increase ‘has drastically changed the teaching/learning process’ (Al-Ansari, 2006, p. 791). In fact, all contexts of education and training benefit from the integration of new technology, starting from primary education, and reaching until high levels of education. My experience is based on when I was working as a maintenance manager in SWCC training centre, Saudi Arabia, where my responsibilities were to educate and train the staff and students. One of the main reasons for me to be successful in my career was to provide new educational technologies such as multimedia systems, interactive simulations, and computer assisted instructional materials for all courses in the training centre. All these technologies that were implemented have resulted in the introduction of modern technologies and facilities that have made the staff work much in easier conditions. Also, the curriculum has been revised and the classrooms in the training centre have been equipped with more modern facilities. There is a more pleasant environment with improved levels of communication. Skills were enhanced and the staff and students felt more comfortable than before. As there has been constant improvement of the system and the institution’s policies, the error rate has been reduced to a certain extent and once again SWCC had good management skills and productive staff which resulted in producing talented and well qualified graduate students, which is directly reflected on the institution’s name and fame.

**Authentic tasks //plus// Web Base Learning //equal//  quality interacting learning.** This heuristic has been taken from This article focuses on how instructors use authentic tasks to improve the quality of student interaction and learning in online learning. According to Newmann and Wehlage, authentic tasks can be defined as the real-world tasks that a person can expect to encounter on the job, in the home or in other social contexts. Many theories state that authentic tasks on web-based learning are important for transferring knowledge from educational settings to practice as well as providing opportunities for significant learning (Bennett, Harper and Hedberg, 2001). Many teachers attempt to involve their students in different authentic activities and incorporate them with authentic practical exercises, because they know that these experiences are useful in practice. Certainly, one authentic activity could be personally significant to the learners, so that they are engaged and relevant to their own learning can provide students with interesting topics. This would allow a greater interaction with the system and of higher quality also. From my experience, in the SWCC training centre, there are many technologies that are used such as multimedia systems, interactive simulations, and computer assisted instructional materials. I concentrate on simulation system and computer with interactive program. There are many workshops in the SWCC training centre which are used for practical training, and in each workshop there is a simulation system (interactive) that helps both instructors and trainees. Using the simulation system for teaching technical tasks such as boiler or turbine system is a good example for authentic tasks.