Control & Constraint in E-Learning: Choosing When to Choose

Jon Dron Control and Constraint in E-Learning
Publisher: Idea Group International (Information Science Publishing, 30 Mar 2007)
ISBN-10: 1599043904
ISBN-13: 978-1599043906

Official publisher's site about the book

Preface by Prof. Michael G. Moore

This is a book in progress that seeks to establish a meta-theory of learning and a very good reason for building online learning environments in a particular way. The main gist of the book can be condensed into two central arguments:

Argument 1:

Michael Moore's theory of transactional distance implies an inverse relationship between structure and dialogue in distance learning, but I demonstrate that this is actually a facet of a deeper dynamic of what I call transactional control. I argue that the inverse relationship Moore observes arises because dialogue implies negotiated control, structure implies control by the teacher (used in this context as an all embracing term that might equally include authors of books or AI programs).

A learning trajectory is shaped by choices which are made by someone, usually the learner or teacher, within a context of constraints, some of which are external to the system and some of which arise from within it. To a large extent the way we model this trajectory depends on the scale that we choose to look at it. Different approaches to education necessarily imply different dynamics of control - for example, the learner's transactional control in a televised lesson is (in some ways) quite low, whereas in a discussion forum it may be much higher.

Different learners need different amounts of control at different times. Effective education therefore requires a clear understanding of how much control is needed by the learner within a given learning context and providing greater or lesser choice depending on the learner's autonomy within that context. This is tricky, but the successful resolution of the problem is what distinguishes the great from the ghastly in teaching.

I provide a few examples of the application of this principle in a traditional institutional learning setting. Amongst other things and to my own surprise, this shows lectures to be quite a good idea and socratic dialogue to be quite a bad idea.

Argument 2:

In most natural and human systems it is the large and slow moving that influence the small and fast more than vice versa. In most systems, structure influences behaviour, more than behaviour influences structure. An exception to this is the process of stigmergy (communication through signs left in the environment), a process that drives the formation of termite mounds, movements of money markets, ant trails and footpaths in forests. In some ways we may view this process as one in which structure arises from dialogue and, by corollary, one in which dialogue arises from structure. A learning environment built using this principle could therefore almost paradoxically provide both high control and low control at the same time, enabling the learner to choose to choose at any point. The level of transactional control is therefore under learner control. The only kind of environment that can achieve this effectively is one supplied by networked computers which, because of the dual nature of computers as both tools and media, provide the (largely unfulfilled) potential of restructuring the environment dynamically as a result of the behaviour of its inhabitants. This is exactly the kind of effect achieved in social software, one of the fundamental foundations of Web 2.0.

I describe a number of ways that this is partially achievable within conventional online learning environments, including social software such as blogs and wikis, as well as a number of learning environments which are explicitly designed to take advantage of this effect, leading to a set of principles that should be followed when building such environments (drawing in evolutionary theory, complexity theory and other self-organising principles) and establishing an agenda for further research in the area.

The book provides ten general principles for the design of e-learning environments which relate to:

For example, this leads to precepts such as

There's a lot more - for more information, buy the book! If you'd like a flavour, try a paper or two first...

Relevant papers

Designing the Undesignable: Social Software and Control, article in Educational Technology and Society, 2007 that covers the main arguments of the book (extended version of ICALT paper cited below)

Award winning paper from ICALT 2006 covering some of the main conclusions

Paper presenting the main arguments from WBC2005

Presentation on the subject for CMIS research seminar, April 2005