Penn State Learning Design Community Hub

I was reading some articles from IRRODL (International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning) and found an interesting article on social loafing in online student teams. As you may or may not know "social loafing" is the act of slacking off in team scenarios, and as we also know, it happens on student teams, even the online ones.

This research bulletin examines what the literature refers to as “new learners” or “critically engaged learners.” It explores the responsibilities our institutions have to create opportunities for these learners to actively engage in creative discovery, problem definition, and appropriate use of information technologies. It is based on a literature review and accompanying conceptualizations that begin to answer important questions about institutional development for a technologically sophisticated age.

PDF at http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ECAR/Learners20ITand21stCentur/46519

1) I have added a Research Notes forum based on past brainstorming sessions, and I've added first note. Please feel free to add your own notes - either reviews or your own data. I know that being able to access more quality research data is an area that interests us all.

2) If you the "All Forums" page (link on top). You'll also see that I've added some temporary subcategories to the forums just to get the list more manageable.

This is an online version of Lloyd Rieber's chapter on reviewing research on educational animations and simulations from the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning.

Although it shows that physics animations can be effective, there are some interesting caveats to consider:

1. Simulations need to be combined with structured explanation (even a short text was better). That is students, especially at beginning stages, may not be able to use discover learning alone.