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A member Website called The Virtual Learning Space (VLS) (2006) is an example of self-directed interactive learning. It is “an environment dedicated to facilitating learning in information and communication technologies via online collaboration” (¶ 1). It allows professionals to come together to share best practices and new ideas. A Discovery section includes general references, space to support eWorkshops, and eNewsletters.
“Ontologies can support group interaction and discussion, role-playing, team learning, and other forms of collaborative, cooperative, and conversational learning” (Beck, 2006, p. 32). Ontologies are concept maps that represent a single concept and links between pairs of nodes that express relationships between them (Beck, 2006). They could be called tools for the construction of e-learning systems. One example of how ontologies can create a tailored adult learning experience is when “the topic ontology drives the overall search whose results are organized to give precedence to elements that match students’ learning styles” (pp. 35-36). The idea of ontologies as databases are new but the connection between computer-based knowledge representations and cognitive processes involved in learning looks promising (p. 37).
“Informal and less structured, e-learning has done wonders for learners’ ability to be self-directed” (Chapnick & Meloy, 2005, p. 33). Yet “when an asynchronous, off-the-shelf type of e-learning is used that has a teacher-knows-best tone, it not only is not self-directing, it is actually disempowering” (p. 33). Interactivity alone is not enough to engage adults in online learning. Chapnick and Meloy (2005) introduce a new learning theory created by Stewart Hase, an Australian professor of organizational learning, called heutagogy. As a relatively new theory, it adds to andragogy by giving special emphasis to one of its cardinal principles—self-directed learning. Heutagogy supports the following: