Theory and Practice of Online Learning
I E W I N G O P T I O N S
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Editors:
Te rry Anderson &
Fathi Elloumi
cde.athabascau.ca/online_book
Athabasca University
CONTENTS
Contributing Authors / i
Foreword / ix
Dominique Abrioux
Introduction / xiii
Te rry Anderson & Fathi Elloumi
1 Foundations of Educational Theory Part 1 – Role and
for Online Learning / 3 Function of Theory in
Mohamed Ally Online Education
Development and
2Toward a Theory of Online Learning / 33
Delivery
Te rry Anderson
3Value Chain Analysis: A Strategic
Approach to Online Learning / 61
Fathi Elloumi
4 Developing an Infrastructure
Part 2 – Infrastructure
for Online Learning / 97
and Support for Content
Alan Davis
Development
5Technologies of Online Learning
(e-Learning) / 115
Rory McGreal & Michael Elliott

Kay Johnson, Houda Trabelsi, & Tony Tin
15 Supporting the Online Learner / 367
Judith A. Hughes
16 The Quality Dilemma in Online
Education / 385
Nancy K. Parker
8
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Mohamed Ally, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Centre for
Distance Education at Athabasca University. He teaches courses in
distance education and is involved with research on improving
design, development, delivery, and support in distance education.
Vincent Ambrock works as a Multimedia Instructional Design
Editor in the Athabasca University School of Business. He holds a
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of Alberta
and has worked extensively as an editor and writer on an array of
electronic and print-based publishing projects.
Terry Anderson, Ph.D. (), is a professor and
Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca
University, Canada’s Open University. He has published widely in the
area of distance education and educational technology and has
recently co-authored two new books: Anderson and Kanuka, (2002),
eResearch: Methods, Issues and Strategies; and Garrison and
Anderson, (2002), Online Learning in the 21st Century: A Frame-
work for Research and Practice.
David Annand, Ed.D., M.B.A., C.A., is the Director of the School
of Business at Athabasca University. His research interests include
the educational applications of computer-based instruction and
computer-mediated communications to distance learning, and the
effects of online learning on the organization of distance-based

and performance dashboard frameworks to optimize online
learning decision initiatives and tie them to organizational vision.
The second perspective deals with the operational aspects of online
learning and mainly focuses on the internal processes of the online
learning institution. Subjects such as strategic costing, value chain
analysis, process re-engineering, activity-based management,
continuous improvement, value engineering, and quality control are
the focus of his research program related to online learning.
Patrick J. Fahy, Ph.D. (), is an associate
professor in the Centre for Distance Education (CDE), Athabasca
University. His career has included high school and adult education
teaching, and research from basic literacy to graduate levels, private
sector management and training experience, and private consulting.
Currently, in addition to developing and teaching educational
technology courses in the Master of Distance Education (MDE)
ii
program, Pat coordinates the MDE’s Advanced Graduate Diploma
in Distance Education (Technology) program and the CDE’s annual
Distance Education Technology Symposium. He is Past-President of
the Alberta Distance Education and Training Association (ADETA).
His current research interests include measures of efficiency in
online and technology-based training, and interaction analysis in
online conferencing.
Colleen Huber has worked at Athabasca University since 1994,
when she was the first facilitator in the Call Centre. Since then, she
has moved to the position of Learning Systems Manager where she
is responsible for the systems used to deliver courses and manage
information within the School of Business at Athabasca University.
Now that these systems are available, Colleen spends a great deal of
time presenting them to the Athabasca University community and

in which she is conducting research with partners from institutions
such as Indira Gandhi University and the University of the Arctic.
Deborah C. Hurst, Ph.D. (), is an
Associate Professor with the Centre for Innovative Management,
Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. Her area of specialization
is the study of cultural organization change, with an interest in
knowledge work and development of intellectual capital through
on-going competency development and virtual learning. Her work
is a balance of applied and academic research that draws from a
diverse background in her pursuit of this specialization. Her current
research program is concerned the experiences of contingent
knowledge workers, the development, retention and valuation of
intellectual capital, the use of virtual learning environments to
enhance intellectual capital, transmission and alignment of cultural
values, and the de-institutionalization of the psychological
employment contract. For more information regarding Deborah’s
work or background check the Athabasca University Centre for
Innovative Management Web site.
Kay Johnson (), is Head, Reference and
Circulation Services at the Athabasca University Library. Kay
received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from University
of Ottawa and her Master of Library and Information Studies from
McGill University. In addition to providing reference and
instructional services to Athabasca University learners, she has
been actively involved in the development of the digital library at
Athabasca University, and serves as a consultant for the Digital
Reading Room project.
Kerri Michalczuk has been with Athabasca University since 1984.
For the last five years, as Course Production and Delivery Manager,
she has managed the day-to-day operation of the School of Business

Management at the Centre for Innovative Management, Athabasca
University in Alberta, Canada. She is also an adjunct professor in
the University of Calgary joint Engineering and Management
Project Management Specialization, and a visiting professor with
the University of Technology, Sydney, where she supervises Master
and Ph.D. research students. Prior to becoming an academic, Janice
spent ten years as a project manager in the fields of Information
v
Technology and Organizational Change. Janice is now an active
researcher presenting and publishing her research to academic and
practitioner audiences at various sites around the world. Janice's
research interests include organizational change, project manage-
ment, team building and leadership, complexity theory in relation
to organizations, the professionalization of knowledge workers,
and the impact of codification of knowledge on performance.
Ultimately all of her research is aimed at improving the practice of
project management in organizations. For more information
regarding Janice’s work or background check the Athabasca
University, Centre for Innovative Management Web site.
Tony Tin () is the Electronic Resources
Librarian at Athabasca University Library. Tony holds a B.A. and
M.A. in History from McGill University and a B.Ed. and M.L.S.
from the University of Alberta. He maintains the Athabasca
University Library’s Web site and online resources, and is the
Digital Reading Room project leader.
Houda Trabelsi () is an e-Commerce course
coordinator at Athabasca University. She received a M.Sc. in
business administration from Sherbrooke University and a M.Sc. in
information technology from Moncton University. Her research
interests include electronic commerce, business models, e-learning

19, 2004, from http://
the benefits of emerging information communication technology
www.unesco.org/iiep/vir
tualuniversity/index.html
(ICT) infrastructure to their core business, with a view to improving
the quality and cost-effectiveness of the learning experience afforded
their students.
By the mid 1990s, Canada’s Open University®, Athabasca
University, was ripe for change.1 Not only was the technological
world that had hitherto enabled distance education undergoing
radical and rapid change, but so too was the University’s political
environment, as debt reduction and elimination became the rallying
cries of provincial public policy. Moreover, Athabasca University,
Alberta’s fourth public university, had under-performed during the
ten previous years, as evidenced by the fact that in 1994-1995 it
suffered from the highest government grant per full-load-equivalent
student, the highest tuition fee level amongst the province’s public
universities, and a dismally low graduation rate. Concerned with
this state of affairs, the Government of Alberta announced that it
would reduce Athabasca University’s base budget by 31 per cent
over three years (ten per cent more than the reduction applied to
the other universities), and that it expected significant increases in
enrolment and cost effectiveness.
Today, this institution has risen to the challenge and serves some
30,000 students per year (a threefold increase over 1995), has more
than tripled its graduation rate, commands the lowest tuition fees
and per full-load-equivalent student base grant in the province,
and, most importantly, enjoys the highest ratings among sister
institutions in the biannual, provincially administered learner satis-
faction surveys of university graduates.

• electronic formative and summative evaluation
• the exploitation of distributed learning systems (e.g., the
World Wide Web)
• the provision of assistance to students learning to use
systems2
This book, authored principally by current and past staff
members integral to the implementation of this strategic vision,
presents individual practitioners’ views of the principal pedagogical
and course management opportunities and challenges raised by the
move to an online environment. Although grounded in a discussion
of online learning theory (itself presented and developed by
academics who are engaged daily in developing and delivering
electronic courses), it does not seek to be either a complete guide to
online course development and delivery, or an all-inclusive account
of how they are practiced at Athabasca University. Rather, each
chapter synthesizes, from a practitioner view, one component piece
of a complex system.
One of the main advantages of digital content is the ease with
which it can be adapted and customized. Nowhere is this more true
x Theory and Practice of Online Learning
than in its application to online education in general, and at
Athabasca University in particular, where three complementary
values characterize the organization’s different approaches to how
work is organized and how learning paths for students are
facilitated: customization, openness, and flexibility.
Consequently, and notwithstanding the inevitable standard-
ization around such key issues as quality control, copyright,
materials production, library, and non-academic support services
(all of which are discussed in this book), considerable variation in
operational and educational course development and delivery

xi
Foreword
xii Theory and Practice of Online Learning
INTRODUCTION
Terry Anderson & Fathi Elloumi
The Online Learning Series is a collection of works by practitioners
and scholars actively working in the field of distance education.
The text has been written at a time when the field is undergoing
fundamental change. Although not an old discipline by academic
standards, distance education practice and theory has evolved
through five generations in its 150 years of existence (Taylor,
2001). For most of this time, distance education was an individual
pursuit defined by infrequent postal communication between
student and teacher. The last half of the twentieth century wit-
nessed rapid developments and the emergence of three additional
generations, one supported by the mass media of television and
radio, another by the synchronous tools of video and audio tele-
conferencing, and yet another based on computer conferencing.
The first part of the twenty-first century has produced the first
visions of a fifth generation—based on autonomous agents and
intelligent, database-assisted learning—that we refer to as the
educational Semantic Web. Note that each of these generations has
followed more quickly upon its predecessor than the previous ones.
Moreover, none of these generations has completely displaced
previous ones, so that we are left with diverse yet viable systems of
distance education that use all five generations in combination.
Thus, the field can accurately be described as complex, diverse, and
rapidly evolving.
However, acknowledging complexity does not excuse inaction.
Distance educators, students, administrators, and parents are daily

blending of scholarship and of research, practical attention to the
details of teaching and of provision for learning opportunity,
dissemination of research results, and mindful attention to the
economics of the business of education.
In many ways the chapters represent the best of what makes for
a university community. The word “university” comes from the
Latin universitas (totality or wholeness), which itself contains two
simpler roots, unus (one or singular) and versere (to turn). Thus, a
university reflects a singleness or sense of all encompassing whole-
ness, implying a study of all that is relevant and an acceptance of
all types of pursuit of knowledge. The word also retains the sense
of evolution and growth implied by the action embedded in the
verb “to turn.” As we enter the twenty-first century, the world is in
the midst of a great turning as we adopt and adapt to the techno-
logical capabilities that allow information and communication to
be distributed anywhere/anytime.
The ubiquity and multiplicity of human and agent communi-
cation, coupled with tremendous increases in information
production and retrieval, are the most compelling characteristics of
the Net-based culture and economy in which we now function. The
famous quote from Oracle Corporation, “The Net changes
xiv Theory and Practice of Online Learning
everything,” applies directly to the formal provision of education.
Institutions that formerly relied on students gathering in campus-
based classrooms are suddenly able (and many seem eager) to offer
their programming on the Internet. Similarly, institutions
accustomed to large-scale distance delivery via print or television
are now being asked to provide more flexible, interactive, and
responsive Net-based alternatives. Each of the chapters in the book
reflects the often disruptive effect of the Net on particular

others, and thus feel bound to return this gift of knowledge to the
wider community.
Second, we believe that education is one of the few sustainable
means to equip humans around the globe with the skills and
resources to confront the challenges of ignorance, poverty, war, and
environmental degradation. Distance education is perhaps the most
powerful means of extending this resource and making it accessible
to all. Thus, we contribute to the elimination of human suffering by
making as freely available as we can the knowledge that we have
gained developing distance education alternatives.
Third, the Creative Commons license provides our book as a
form of “gift culture.” Gift giving has been a component of many
cultures; witness, for example, the famed Potlatch ceremonies of
Canadian West Coast First Nations peoples. More recently, gift
giving has been a major motivation of hackers developing many of
the most widely used products on the Internet (Raymond, 2001).
Distributing this text as an open source gift serves many of the
same functions gift giving has done through millennia. The gift
weaves bonds within our community and empowers those who
benefit from it to create new knowledge that they can then share
with others and with ourselves. Interestingly, new recent research
on neuro-economics is showing that freely giving and sharing is a
behavior that has had important survival functions for humans
groups since earliest times (Grimes, 2003). David Bollier (2002)
argues that gift cultures are surprisingly resilient and effective at
creating and distributing goods, while protecting both long-term
capacity for sustained production and growing cultural assets.
Bollier also decries the private plunder of our common wealth, and
discusses the obligation that those employed in the public sector
have to ensure that the results of publicly funded efforts are not

We hope that much of this commentary will make its way back to
the authors or flow into the discussion forums associated with the
text’s Web site. Through review within the community of practice,
ideas are honed, developed, and sometimes even refuted. Such
discourse not only improves the field as a whole, but also directly
benefits our work at Athabasca University, and thus handsomely
repays our efforts.
In summary, we license the use of this book to all—not so much
with a sense of naïve idealism, but with a realism that has been
developed through our life work—to increase access to and oppor-
tunity for all to quality learning opportunities.
xvii
Introduction
Book Organization and Introduction to the Chapters
In the following pages, we briefly review the main themes covered
in this book and its chapters. We used the value chain of online
learning framework to help organize our themes and chapters. The
value chain framework is an approach for breaking down the
sequence (chain) of an organization’s functions into the strate-
gically relevant activities through which utility is added to its
offerings and services. The components of an online learning or-
ganization’s value chain are depicted in the following figure.
Delivery,
Inbound Outbound
collaborations, Operations
logistics logistics Service
and marketing
Inbound logistics involves preparations for course development,
including curriculum planning and related activities. Operations
involve the actual process of course development, including writing,

Theory in Online
Education Development
and Delivery
456789101112 13 14 15 16
PART 2: PART 3: PART 4:
Infrastructure Design and Delivery, Quality
and Support Development Control, and Student
for Content of Online Support of
Development Courses Online Courses
Delivery,
Inbound Outbound
collaborations, Operations
logistics logistics Service
and marketing
“Part 1: Role and Function of Theory in Online Education
Development and Delivery” provides the theoretical foundations
for this volume. Chapter 1 presents the foundation of education
theory for online learning. It opens the debate by discussing the
contributions of behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist theories
to the design of online materials, noting that behaviorist strategies
can be used to teach the facts (what), cognitivist strategies the
principles and processes (how), and constructivist strategies the
real-life and personal applications and contextual learning. The
chapter mentions a shift toward constructive learning, in which
learners are given the opportunity to construct their own meaning
from the information presented during online sessions. Learning
objects will be used to promote flexibility and reuse of online
xix
Introduction
materials to meet the needs of individual learners, and online

to accommodate changing student needs, technologies, and
curricula.
Chapter 5 examines some available and potential technologies
and features used in online instruction. Rather than continue to
focus on how technology has helped or can help the instructor,
teacher, or tutor, this chapter concludes with a look at how
technologies—existing and emerging—can aid the first generation
of online learners.
xx Theory and Practice of Online Learning
Chapter 6 discusses some attributes of media and of the modes
of teaching presentation and learning performance they support, in
relation to some influential learning models. It also clarifies some
of the implications in the choice of any specific delivery or
presentation medium. The author notes that the decision to adopt
online technology is always complex and can be risky, especially if
the adopting organization lacks structural, cultural, or financial
prerequisites, and concludes that, while education has a
responsibility to keep pace with technological change, educational
institutions can reduce the costs and uncertainties of invention by
following the technological lead of the corporate sector. Chapters 4
through 6 thus present three perspectives on the inbound logistics
value chain for online learning, and open discussions about
opportunities and challenges in selecting, developing, and adapting
infrastructure and support for content development.
“Part 3: Design and Development of Online Courses” is
concerned with the two following segments of the organization’s
online learning value chain: operations and outbound logistics.
Four chapters are organized to shed light on these processes.
Chapter 10 describes the role of instructional design, multimedia
development, and editing in the design and development process by

professionals are involved from the beginning, to consult with and
advise course team members on development-related topics as they
arise. The author presents pedagogical standards designed to help
all those involved in online instructional development to ensure
that their efforts are rewarded, ultimately, with satisfied learners.
Chapter 8 describes several experiences in developing knowledge of
team dynamics and communications, and accomplishing team
project work, in an online environment. In describing aspects of
teaching and applying team dynamics online, the authors highlight
the unique values and capabilities of an online learning
environment.
“Part 4: Delivery, Quality Control, and Student Support of
Online Courses” is concerned with the last two parts of the
organization’s online learning value chain: delivery and service.
Chapter 11 focuses on the role of the teacher or tutor in an online
learning context. It uses a theoretical model that views the creation
of an effective online educational community as involving three
critical components: cognitive presence, social presence, and
teaching presence. The chapter provides suggestions and guidelines
for max-imizing the effectiveness of the teaching function in online
learning.
Chapter 12 presents the call center concept for course delivery
and student support in online courses. In distance education in
particular, the call center can be an effective communication tool,
enabling the institution to provide and improve service to students
in many areas, including instruction. This chapter describes how
the call center concept is used at Athabasca University and how it
has proven to be effective in three areas: increasing student service
and retention, allowing for direct marketing, and enhancing
management information and learner feedback.