Developing E-learning Activities

Imaginative ideas can lead to engaging, interactive, and meaningful learning experiences … and this is equally true for learners in either the traditional classroom or the online classroom. Creative ideas are not, however, always easy for us to come up with when we are designing, developing, or teaching online courses. While most of us can see the benefits of including engaging activities in our e-learning courses, the ideas (and the details) for how those can be developed and integrated often escape us (Watkins, 2005).To introduce learners, stimulate discussions, increase interactions, challenge presumptions, and achieve a host of course objectives, e-learning activities can be used throughout most any online course. From ice breakers to informal assessments, and from online debates to guest speakers, we can use activities in our online courses to engage learners and develop active learning.Online courses do not have to be digital correspondence courses that include few opportunities for interactivity and engagement. In contrast, online courses can effectively use Web technologies to facilitate e-learning that is exciting, interactive, purposeful, and beneficial for online learners.E-learning activities use online technologies, such as chat rooms, discussion boards, or e-mail, to facilitate interactions among e-learners in meaningful exercises related to the course. Much like the activities and games used in traditional classroom training, e-learn-ing activities can be used by instructors and trainers to accomplish a variety of goals, such as introducing learners to one another, sharing experiences, benefiting from team learning, increasing participation, or encouraging learners to develop constructive online relationships throughout the course (Watkins, 2005).For many e-learners and e-learning instructors, the online classroom is a new environment that requires a variety of technology skills and communications strategies that are not the same as those used in previous classroom experiences. Consequently, while developing and teaching online courses, we have a tendency to forget that the e-learning classroom can (and should) offer engaging and interactive learning experiences.Many e-learning activities can be adaptations of the training games used in traditional classroom instruction, and other activities can use the unique aspects of the online environment to develop distinctive activities for online courses. By including these interactive e-learning experiences, you should be able to improve retention rates, increase learner participation, achieve your learning objectives, develop online learning communities, and ensure that your online courses engage learners, regardless of the course topic.Developing e-learning activities does not have to be difficult or time-consuming. There are, however, a few considerations that should be made before selecting an activity to use in an online course:After considering these important issues, you should brainstorm the types of activities that will best achieve your goals and objectives. It is often helpful to reflect on activities you have used in traditional classroom courses to achieve similar goals, and to recall some of the positive training experiences you have been through as a learner. From these experiences you can begin to list the potential activities that would be valuable in your online course.For example, here is a short list of e-learning activities that may be helpful in sparking some creative ideas (sample activities from Wat-kins, 2005):When you have selected an activity, either one from the traditional classroom that you want to adapt for online learners or a completely new activity that uses the unique tools of the technology, you will then want to plan for successful implementation. In planning for implementation you will want to consider the following:E-learning activities can turn rather dull online experiences into entertaining, interactive, meaningful, and valuable learning experiences for learners; and getting the creative ideas for online activities does not require hours of meditation. By using adaptations of activities you are familiar with from the traditional classroom, along with imaginative ideas that take advantage of the unique online technologies, you can create e-learning activities that will both excite and engage learners.A headshot of Ryan Watkins, Associate Professor at George Washington University, with his contact and web information.Ryan Watkins, Associate Professor, Educational Technology Leadership Program, George Washington University, 2134 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052. Telephone: (202) 994-1701. www.ryanrwatkins.com