[Xerte] Elearning Authoring Paper

[Mark Berthelemy]

Hi Fred,

You're right in that the needs of corporate learning & development, and
Higher Education, are different. But I would not go so far as to say that
corporate = behaviourism, and HE = cognitivism

There are four different theories of learning: behaviourism, cognitivism,
constructivism and connectivism. All of them are perfectly valid models of
how learning works. Each context for learning might need to use a different
balance of the four approaches.

For example, the post-grad course I was doing primarily used a
constructivist model. Much current thinking about workplace learning is
based on social-learning experiences within a connectivist approach.
Behaviourist and cognitivist approaches both have their place in workplace
learning too.

Similarly, there will be times in HE that a behaviourist approach is
required (I'm thinking here of experimental methods in a Physics degree).

Yes, they're chalk and cheese - but we can still learn from each other.

Cheers,

Mark


On 22 February 2010 12:32, Fred Riley <Fred.Riley at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> > Quite. The idea that HE is somehow immune from the need for
> > faster or cheaper is naïve.
>
> The point is, and this goes back to at least 1992 when I got started in
> educational technology (as was), that corporate and HE needs are
> fundamentally different: in brief, companies want training, HE wants
> education. One is behaviourist, the other cognitive. In the corporate world,
> CBT (as was) is a way of cutting training budgets and substituting for
> people; in HE, CAL (as was) is a way of improving the student experience and
> is complementary to teachers.
>
> In the corporate world, the bottom line is the bottom line - profit or
> loss. In HE, the bottom line is producing graduates capable of independent
> meta-thinking in a wide variety of environments. Chalk and cheese.
>
> Fred
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