Constructive Alignment - and why it is important to the learning process

What is Constructive Alignment? Constructive Alignment, a term coined by John Biggs (Biggs, 1999) is one of the most influential ideas in higher education. It is the underpinning concept behind the current requirements for programme specification, declarations of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and assessment criteria, and the use of criterion based assessment. There are two parts to constructive alignment: Students construct meaning from what they do to learn. The basic premise of the whole system is that the curriculum is designed so that the learning activities and assessment tasks are aligned with the learning outcomes that are intended in the course. Figure 1. Alignment is about getting students to take responsibility for their own learning, and establishing trust between student and teacher. Achieving Constructive Alignment Figure 2. If we are taking a single component of a programme, we can 'Constructively Align' that course by tackling the following steps: Further Reading Source

can-we-teach-digital-natives-digital-literacy.pdf The Use of Web Instructional Tools By Online Instructors (Study) Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source ( as: Lucio Teles "The Use of Web Instructional Tools By Online Instructors" The Technology Source, May/June 2002. Available online at The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. In studies comparing instructional tools and how they support online teaching, educators have stressed the importance of tools that support specific tasks, and thus allow more flexible teaching, facilitate access to resources and peers, and promote collaborative learning (Britain & Liber, 1999; Harasim, 1999; Bonk, 2001). To investigate how online instructors use instructional tools designed for the Web, we conducted a study with a group of 32 online instructors to address the following questions: (1) What tools are most commonly used by online instructors? Questionnaire respondents Each of the 32 respondents teaches one online course. Results References