100% Online Course - All course activities, resources, interactions, and communications occur online, typically through an institutional learning/course management system (Diaz & McGee, 2008).

Accessibility - Accessibility compliance means meeting the standards that allow people with disabilities to access information online. (edu•tools) Persons with disabilities (e.g. the blind, deaf, learning disabled, etc.) require special design considerations that may include alternation of online elements such as fonts, images, colors, etc or devices to 'read' the screen (McGee).

Active Learning- Learning that actively engages the learner so that they make decisions about the learning process and outcomes.

ADDIE - An instrucitonal design model that involves Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Adult Learning Theory  -  A body of theory that focuses on the manner in which an adult changes behavior occurring through experience. Knowle’s theory of andragogy (1985) is commonly referenced and includes increasing self-reliance, tendency to draw upon personal experiences to make sense of learning, can assume new role as new learning requires, and a desire to apply new learning once learning it.

Assessment - Characterizes the value and appraisal of the individual; well institutionalized, if not always accurate in determining learner achievement (McGee).

Asynchronous Learning - Learning that is designed to occur when the instructor and the students are not in contact with each other in the same time frame (McGee).

Blended/Hybrid Course - Classroom courses that include between class meeting activities use learning systems or other information communications technology (Diaz & McGee, 2008).

Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy –A framework for mental/intellectual assessment that builds from basic knowledge to complex creativity (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).

Case-based Learning – Well-bounded cases are presented to students as a focus for discussion and analysis. One situation or case becomes the focal point for an instructional sequence.  Cases can illustrate a real world situation that requires application of learned course content. Cases can be provided in segments, as learners become prepared to address different components of the case. 

Context - Situated information and/or environment that have specific characteristics that may not be transferable to other contexts (McGee).

Communities of Learning - “… groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, n.d.).

Collaborative Learning - Individuals work independently to contribute to a goal.

Cooperative Learning – Individuals work together where each person contributed a piece of the whole’ requires interdependence to achieve a goal (McGee).

Open Entry, Open Exit - Provides for flexible time, multiple ways to complete assignments, controlled assessment, typically no required attendance, variable credit, and is considered a form of “Correspondence” delivery (Diaz & McGee, 2008).

Distributed Engagement Course - This approach allows the learner to complete instructional modules at his or her own pace, in various learning environments and with various supports. Usable for both face-to-face and online environments, the intent is to allow students to progress through material in the way and speed that is most appropriate for the individual. This approach is often structured in a modular format and has success with underprepared students (Diaz & McGee, 2008).

Evaluation - Makes a judgment about the value of instructional experiences and designs; less documented across programs colleges, institutions (McGee).

Formative Evaluation- An assessment that determines progress towards achievement of a goal; typically covers one or more objectives.

Goals -  Usually stated as skills, knowledge and attitudes (SKAs) that some learners must acquire to satisfy the identified need. A goal statement is created that usually include verbs such as solve, apply or manage. Focus is on what learners will be able to do when they complete the instruction, and the real-world context in which they will have to use their new skills (McGee).

Instructional Design – The systematic developing of instruction using learning and instructional theory.

Learning Objective - A statement that describes what the learner should be able to do by the end of a learning activity or task. Typically learning objectives are written as measurable and behavioral outcomes, and often use used as an advanced organizer for the learner to focus on desired knowledge acquisition (McGee).

Module - Groups of readings, activities, tasks, and assignments that are organized around a central topic or theme. Breaking content into components supports the organization of knowledge and reduces the cognitive load of the learner (McGee).

Problem-based Learning – Originally defined as both a process and a curriculum, PBL focuses on a specific real or imaginary ill-structured problem within an authentic real world context, whereas questions often originate from the learner as they seek a specific solution. Students work collaboratively and instructor serves as a guide, thereby preparing from problems that will be encountered in the field (Barrows & Kelson, 1993). A dilemma that must be solved is presented and learners seek solutions.

Project-based Learning – A long term instructional activity in which students work as a group as they focus on a question, problem, event or interest, investigate and negotiate understanding, and produce a product that represents their understanding (Brown & Campione, 1994).

Research-based Learning – learners are asked to pose a question or hypothesis that can be answered through research.

Scenario-based Learning - Small situations provide examples and challenges illustrating the real world. Spiker (in press) suggests that scenario-based trainings (SBT) are effective because they provide small chunks of information that are typically action-based, accessible to the learner, can provide contextually relevant lessons to the learner, and are most effective when highly structured.

Self-directed Learning – “… any study form in which individuals have primary responsibility for planning, implementing, and even evaluating the effort. Most people, when asked, will proclaim a preference for assuming such responsibility whenever possible (Hiemstra, 1994).

Self-paced Learning – Learning that is individualized for a single learner who proceeds through a set of learning experiences at his or her own pace.

Storyboard - A typically graphic outline of a course.

Syllabus – An outline of a course of study that provides logitistic and organizational information, as well as scope and sequence of content, and intended learning outcomes.

Summative Evaluation- Evaluation that assesses what has been learned over a period of time or experiences.

Web 2.0 - Tools that are strictly web-based, typically free to the user, support collaboration and interaction, and are responsive to the user (O’Reilly, 2005).

Web-enhanced Course - Classroom courses that include between class meeting activities using learning systems or other Information Communications Technology (Diaz& McGee, 2008).

Wicked Problems – These are problems that everyone recognizes and agrees are problematic. They are not easily solved,  there exist no specific alternatives (alternatives must be discovered), it is difficult to tell when they have been solved, and difficult to measure success at solving. Wicked problems are complex in nature and rarely if ever have right or wrong solutions, but rather better or worse solutions (Shum, 1997).

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives. Complete edition. New York : Longman.

Barrows H. S., & Kelson, A. M. (1993). Problem-based learning: A total approach to education. Monograph. Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois.

Brown, A. L., & Campione, J. C. (1994). Guided discovery in a community of learners. In K. McGilly (Ed.), Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 229-272). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Diaz, V., & McGee, P. (2008). Finding the good fit: Faculty members, instruction, evidence, and technology. Pre-conference workshop for EDUCAUSE 2008, Orlando, FL. See http://net.educause.edu/E08/Program/14627?PRODUCT_CODE=E08/SEM07P

Hiemstra, R. (1994). Self-directed learning. In T. Husen & T. N. Postlethwaite (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Education (second edition), Oxford: Pergamon Press.

McGee, P. (n.d.). NLII Learning Object Glossary, see http://faculty.coehd.utsa.edu/pmcgee/nlii/glossary/

Shum, S. (1997). Representing hard-to-formalise, contextualised, multidisciplinary, organisational knowledge. AAAI Spring Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Knowledge Management, 24-2.. From http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs/org-knowledge/aikm97/sbs-paper2.html.

Spiker, A. V. (in press). Using scenarios to archive experience and organize training. In D. Andrews (Ed.), Storytelling as instruction. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Sullivan, R. (2001). Alternative learning methods: Self-paced learning. The Reading Room. Retrieved from http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6issues/6jtn/v4/tn110lrngmthds.htm/