Worth Reading features books and articles that may be of interest to faculty and instructors teaching online and at a distance, instructional designers charged with designing online and distance programs and courses and academic administrators and policy makers.
Worth Reading is featured in each edition of Online Learning News.
Agasisti, T. & Bowers, A.J. (2017). Data Analytics and Decision-Making in Education: Towards the Educational Data Scientist as a Key Actor in Schools and Higher Education Institutions. In Johnes, G., Johnes, J., Agasisti, T., López-Torres, L. (Eds.) Handbook of Contemporary Education Economics (p.184-210). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. For those new to the ways in which analytics can be used to shape policy and administration / management, this chapter is a significant resource. It both introduces the work and the possibilities, but also takes a reflective critical approach. Clearly written, the chapter has both concrete examples of this work (both for K-12 and higher education), as well as a catalogue of cautions. Mangaroska, K. & Giannakos, M. (2018). Learning Analytics for Learning Design: A Systematic Literature Review of Analytics-Driven Design to Enhance Learning. This is a prepublication research paper from IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies There is a growing and important literature on how learner analytics can be used to improve the design of learning and teaching. While a new space for designers, analytics creates opportunities to use rigours data to shape better and smarter decisions about what works and doesn’t work for different kinds of learners. This well-written paper is a great “kick-off” for anyone new to this work. Beethan, H. and Sharpe, R. (2019). Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Principles and Practices of Design (3rd Edition). London: Routledge. This valuable collection of materials from a variety of authors provides real insights that will be helpful in designing a new course. Chris Jones, for example, challenges all of us to think about the foundational issues that should inform our design using social science and psychology while Marti Cleveland-Innes explores the whole idea behind building a community of inquiry as the basis for peer to peer learning. There are also some helpful chapters, which explore the ways in which we as teachers can leverage our experience and practice as the basis for new designs. It’s a great collection, very much improved in this third edition – new cases, new resources, new connections. Rennie, F. and Smyth, K. (2019).Digital Learning: The Key Concepts. (2nd Edition). London: Routledge. When you start exploring online and flexible learning, one thing that strikes you is that you need to master a new language. This is a quick to use and helpful reference guide to key constructs and ideas which shape the world of open and distance education. Vivolo, J. (2019). Managing Online Learning – The Life-Cycle of Successful Programs. London: Routledge. This edited collection focusing on the issues which college and university administrators face with online learning – getting to scale, funding, supporting the technology needed for engaged learning and overcoming faculty issues. It also has helpful information and resources related to analytics and offering STEM-based online learning and the special challenge such courses can create. Very readable and helpful resource which will be of help to those just starting to work on the management of online learning. Butcher, C., Davies C. and Highton, M. (2019). Designing Learning – From Module Outline to Effective Teaching (2nd Edition). London: Routledge. This is a “hands-on” and practical book, aimed at helping those new to instructional design to do a great job quickly and those with experience to reflect on their practice. This second edition contains many new examples and vignettes which fully illustrate the basis of their practice. There are strong sections on designing for diverse groups of learners and on student engagement. It should be on all of our shelves. Kretovics, M. (2019). Understanding Power and Leadership in Higher Education – Tools for Institutional Change. London: Routledge. A characteristic of our time is that change is constant. Yet a great many (up to 70% according to McKinsey) of change efforts fail to deliver the results intended. This book focuses on change management and uses the idea that positional power and the power of a big idea, when combined, can be used to enable effective change. An interesting and challenging book, which will be of great interest to those in new leadership positions. Larson, M.B. and Lockee, B.B. (2019). Streamlined ID – A Practical Guide to Instructional Design. [2nd Edition]. London: Routledge. A revised edition of this clear, focused and well-written guide to the instructional design process. It will be especially helpful for those new to instructional design roles or for those finding themselves having to design a course for the first time. It follows the basic analyze – design – develop – implement – evaluate (ADDIE) framework and is full of examples and ideas. It is much a reference work as a guide and will be of value to seasoned professionals as a sourcebook for when, as we all do, they feel “stuck”. Topping, K., Buchs, C., Duran, D. & van Keer, H. (2017). Effective Peer Learning. From Principles to Practical Implementation. London: Routledge. The aim of this book is to help instructors and their colleagues establish well-structured and effective peer learning projects using a variety of methods. It introduces and defines cooperative learning (mutual peer interaction) and peer tutoring (directional peer interaction). The book also outlines general organizational principles that will help practitioners implement peer learning in either of these forms in a blended or online environment. The advantages and problems, and the potential and challenges, of peer learning are examined. Deimann, M. & Peters, M.A. (Eds.).(2016). The Philosophy of Open Learning – Peer Learning and the Intellectual Commons. Bern, Switzerland:Peter Lang. In this book, internationally recognized scholars provide in-depth insight into the emerging field of open education. The Philosophy of Open Learning provides an overview of the current debates and introduces the reader to the overall discourse on open education. The broad range of topics, including MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and OERs (Open Educational Resources) is aimed at demonstrating that open education has emerged as a new principle for organizing higher education. Based on this idea, the book covers various issues that are backed up and provides context for the heated debates that occur in organizations seeking to adopt and adapt these ideas. Open education is discussed in its various imbrications to other open movements, such as open access, and its relevance for education over the last fifteen years. Rheingold, H. (Ed.). (2014). The peeragogy handbook. Jointly published by Pierce Press and PubDomEd. The Peeragogy Handbook isn't a normal book. It is an evolving guide, and it tells a collaboratively written story that you can also help write. It is a living document, and the team behind it release a new version every year as they improve the material. The latest version is available on peeragogy.org and the source is at git.io/Handbook . You can comment on each page in the online edition. And you can also talk directly with the contributors and connect with others who are interested in applying peeragogy in the Peeragogy in Action community. There is a print edition, which lets you do some things that the web doesn't. From a design point of view, this is a resource to mine for new ideas. Millis, K.K., Long, D., Magliano, J. & Wiemer, K. (eds.) (2018).Deep Comprehension – Multi Disciplinary Approaches to Understanding, Enhancing and Measuring Comprehension London: Routledge. Many instructors complain that their students “don’t get it” or are not understanding the complexity of a topic or subject. Yet, we design online courses in ways that do not encourage “deep learning” and comprehension. This book, which is a collection of chapters from a variety of different perspectives, helps focus on the ways in which we can better use online learning to promote deep learning and comprehension. Using a variety of approaches – psychological, psychometric and educational – the chapters explore ways for promoting a deeper understanding of subjects. The chapter on scenario-based assessments or the one focused on scaffolding adult learning, as well as many others, are full of practical suggestions. Van Rooij, S.W. (2017).The Business Side of Learning Design and Technologies. London: Routledge. Administrators and policy-makers make assumptions about the costs and impact of online and distance learning, which are often not well informed by evidence. For example, many policy-makers assume that online learning represents a cost saving. It can if the business model used for delivery does not resemble that used for face-to-face learning – cost savings come from scale, not from the technology. This book will help all engaged in this work better understand the business side of the online learning business and provide practical tools. Not all chapters are helpful – the book is a little uneven – but there are enough substantial chapters to make this book worthwhile. Fanfarelli, J.R. & McDaniel, R. (2019).Designing Effective Digital Badges – Applications for Learning London: Routledge. Designing Effective Digital Badges is a hands-on guide to the principles, implementation, and assessment of digital badging systems. Based on the authors understanding of the fundamental concepts and research-based characteristics of effective badge design, this book uses concrete examples to convey the advantages and challenges of badging and showcase its application across a variety of contexts. Professionals in education, game development, mobile app development, and formal education will find strategies for practices such as credentialing, goal setting, and motivation of their students. They will also deepen their understanding of the challenges of this work, including both ensuring validity and gaining acceptance. Bryan, C. & Clegg, K. (Eds). (2019). Innovative Assessment in Higher Education: A Handbook for Academic Practitioners[2nd Edition]. London: Routledge This updated edition is even more practical, focused and useful for faculty members than the first edition. It explores the bridge between theory and practice of engaged assessment with a strong emphasis on the practice. There are critical reflective chapters (strongly UK oriented) focusing on written feedback, emotional literacy, employability assessment, standards-based assessment and many other topics. While online learning is not the primary focus for this book, those of us who teach and work online can quickly translate ideas outlined here into our own practice. It is a rich resource, full of innovative thinking. Salmon, E. (2011). E-Moderating: The Key to Online Teaching and Learning (3rd Edition). London: Routledge. Though not a new book, it will be of value to those new to online learning and the challenge of facilitating highly engaged learning. Professor Salmon provides a five-stage model to enable and support online socialization, information exchange, knowledge construction and true learning engagement and development. With a substantial evidence base, lots of examples of this model in action and suggested approaches, this is a practical “hands-on”, how-to book that is good to review prior to any online teaching. Coates, H., Zlatkin-Troitchanskaia, O. and Pant, H.A. (Eds). (2017). Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in Higher Education. London: Routledge. College and university administrators need to understand the outcomes of learning, both to review the effectiveness of learning but also from a resource allocation perspective. Governments are increasingly looking for evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in terms of learning outcomes. But how do we evaluate outcomes? This collection of chapters helps understand some of the options and challenges associated with this work, using examples from around the world. Clearly written and helpful, the book will provide insights and suggestions, which might trigger new approaches in your institution. James, N. & Busher, H. (2018). Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning: A Study of the Access to Higher Education Diploma. London: Routledge. Many colleges and universities see access and continuing education in functional terms – skills, competencies and capability development for adults seeking to improve their career opportunities. The real potential – personal change, development and transformation – is rarely the focus for such work. This book argues that change and development is not only as important as competency development, but is the key function of a college or university. It is not a polemic – it is an in-depth exploration of how institutions can sometimes get in the way of the learning agenda of their students. The book helps us think about what tutors and coaches in our colleges and universities are really doing when they provide access and enabling courses – they are transforming lives. The book makes suggestions about how this work could be better facilitated. Clouder, L., Borughan, C., Jewell, S., and Steventon, G. (Eds). (2012). Improving Student Engagement and Development through Assessment: Theory and practice in higher education. London: Routledge. Assessment is the key to unlocking learning and engagement – this is the emerging mantra for many engaged in educational change and development. But it is not a new theme. This 2012 book explores how assessment can enable learning and unleash new forms of instruction. From a design point of view, scaffolding learning around a varied range of assessment processes provides a starting point for rethinking course design. There is also a strong focus on retention and the ways in which assessment can be a “trigger” for effective coaching and mentoring. This is a very good resource – fifteen chapters full of practical, evidence-based suggestions. Well worth a look. Wills, S., Leigh, E. and Ip, A. (2010). The Power of Role-Based e-Learning: Designing and Moderating Online Role-Play. London: Routledge. One feature not well used in online learning is role-play – assigning different roles to members of a learning syndicate and asking them to solve a problem, engage in a journey or to co-create a learning object. This book provides advice and practical support for such design work and outlines the ways in which teaching and mentoring can occur when role-play is part of the course design. Very practical design advice here with several convincing examples of effective use of role-play. Dabbagh N., Marra, N., & Howland, J.L. (2018). Meaningful Online Learning: Integrating Strategies, Activities, and Learning Technologies for Effective Designs. London: Routledge. This is a substantial (206-page) book, which outlines a set of practices for design, delivery, support and assessment for online learning. Written by three American practitioners, the book is practical, focused and helpful, especially for those new to the challenges of instructional design. It is not especially focused on the work of colleges and universities – some examples are from the K-12 domain – but all of it is relevant to effective instruction. What the book lacks is a sense of the real advances in some fields, especially assessment. It is somewhat traditional. Fanfarelli, J.R. & McDaniel, R. (2019). Designing Effective Digital Badges - Applications for Learning. London: Routledge. Micro-credentials, especially digital badges, are emerging all over the world in both corporate and industry learning and in the offerings of colleges, universities and MOOC providers as a means of recognizing competencies and capabilities. But how do we design, develop and deploy a digital badge? What are the emerging best-practices and challenges associated with this work? This practical book, full of examples, will help you explore this opportunity. Written by experienced educators from Florida, it is very accessible and insightful. The book will be available in early 2019 Tanaka, M. (2019). Student Engagement and Quality Assurance in Higher Education - International Collaborations for the Enhancement of Learning. London: Routledge. Quality assurance and quality design principles for online and distance education often appear problematic to quality assurance agencies and policy-makers. Indeed, it is still the case that many quality assurance organizations struggle to understand how highly engaged and participative online learning can be. As quality assurance evolves, students are becoming increasingly engaged in design and assurance practices both within their own college or university or across a college or university system. This edited collection of papers explores both the current state of student engagement in quality assurance and the possibility of strengthening their role in the future. With cases from around the world, there are chapters looking at student roles in Finland, US, Australia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, China and Japan. Canadian quality assurance agencies could learn much from this collection, edited by Masahiro Tanaka from University of Tsukuba, Japan. This book will be available January 2019. Gunawardena, C., Frechette, C. & Layne, L. (2018). Culturally Inclusive Instructional Design: A Framework and Guide to Building Online Wisdom Communities. London: Routledge To move beyond openness to inclusion requires a focus on the different needs of different learners, including the consideration of cultural differences in the learning process. Indigenous learners in Canada, for example, often make extensive use of oral learning and the wisdom of elders and the learning circle, not just the "materials" sent in an online learning package. This insightful book explores the experience of the authors in building and supporting _Wisdom Communities_ which use collaborative learning focused on real-world problem solving and inquiry-based learning as a basis for their online learning work. The authors, based in the US and Venezuela, offer many insights of value for instructional designers. The book was released in July 2018. Hamilton, M. (2018). Deep Dreaming of AI in Education. London: JISC. JISC is the collaborative network for technology in England and Wales, which enables universities and colleges to leverage their collective technology wisdom in the service of learning and the institution. This short online report captures what is happening with respect to AI and education around the world and explores the implications of these developments, and raises ethical and other issues about these developments. A quick and easy red, but nonetheless thought-provoking. A faculty member reading this will see many opportunities to explore the topic further, and the report contains helpful links. Seldon, A. (2018). The Fourth Education Revolution: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Face of Education. Buckingham: University of Buckingham Press. Anthony Seldon is Vice Chancellor of the University of Buckingham and, as such, is a leading voice in private post-secondary education in the UK. In this clear, well-written book, he outlines the coming “revolution”, which AI and related technologies will stimulate and the implications he sees for higher education. It is polemic, but nonetheless focused. His challenge to the sector is simple: “respond or face the consequence”. He foresees the emergence of uber-like universities and colleges, powered by AI (something which is already happening in a start-up from academics at the University of Oxford), that learners will be able to learn through stackable micro-credit and obtain credentials from collaborating “progressive” colleges and universities; that self-directed, personalized learning will become the norm. What he does not address, except indirectly, is the role of government policy, finance and quality assurance agencies in these developments. But it is a good read and a must read – it will help clarify the readers own thinking about these issues. Velestianos, G. (Ed). (2016). Emergence and Innovation in Digital
Learning - Foundations and Applications. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University Press. A fascinating and powerful collection of papers which help us explore the foundations of online and technology enabled learning and the applications of these developments in practice (several Canadian authors make contributions). Some of these contributions, for example the chapter on arts-based technologies or the work on personal learning environments, challenge the way many think about online and distance learning. It will certainly help policy makers understand some of the dynamics of this work. It is fully downloadable for free, either chapter by chapter or as a whole e-book. Burge, L., Gibson, C.C. & Gibson, T. (Eds). (2011). Flexible Pedagogy,
Flexible Practice. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University Press. This is an international collection of materials - US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Japan - focused on the nature and practice of flexible learning. Immensely practical, focused and insightful, this collection will help instructional designers think about the work they need to do to increase the flexibility of their program and course designs and to enable a better and stronger focus on engaged and authentic learning. It is fully downloadable for free, either chapter by chapter or as a whole e-book. Saba, F. & Shearer, R.L. (2018). Transactional Distance and Adaptive Learning - Planning for the Future of Higher Education. London: Routledge. The theory of transactional distance (TTD) might sound a little off-putting. Yet it is a very helpful framework to analyze the current state of online, flexible learning at a system, institutional or program level. TTD has been around for some time - developed by Michael Moore at Penn State in the 1970's - but remains a useful starting point for evaluation, change and development of online learning. This book shows us how to make practical use of this framework, gives examples of TTD in action and shows how it can improve institutional strategies, program design and course delivery. Krumm, A., Means, B. & Bienkowski, M. (2018). Learning Analytics Goes to School: A Collaborative Approach to Improving Education. New York: Routledge. Learning analytics is growing in importance in colleges, polytechnics and universities. A new consortium in the UK of some thirty institutions are sharing data and building algorithms, which can be used to both support the more focused recruitment of students, support students on their learning journey and aid retention and completion. But how does an institution start this work and what challenges will they face? This very "hands-on" book helps administrators think through this journey and helps them understand the challenge of taking analytic data and turning it into meaningful action. The book emphasises the importance of collaborative design and deliberate engagement of faculty and student support staff at the beginning of this journey. Adoption of learning analytics is not a technological solution, it is an institutional one.
