E-tivities: The key to active online learning

Abstract

E-tivities – the Key to Active on-Line Learning (G.Salmon, 2002) published by Routledge, is a comprehensive, informative and accessible text which addresses processes for promoting participation and active engagement in asynchronous on-line learning. In the university setting, and especially in the Gulf, where technology plays a hugely important role in the delivery of learning, this book holds a wealth of knowledge and practical advice for anyone enticed into taking on the essential role of e-moderator in an on-line learning environment. The text suggests a five stage framework for developing a systematic way of organizing successful and enjoyable on-line learning, which simply requires access to the Internet. The author claims that e-tivities are cheap, easy to run, and designed to be efficient. The framework can form the whole course, replace, or support all kinds of learning and teaching methods in any discipline and for any topic. The book is written and compiled by a member of faculty at the UK’s Open University Business School, and has arisen from action research in a bid to stimulate achievable actualization of enjoyable on-line learning activities. The book is a collection of evidence of processes involved in promoting participation and active engagement of learners in systematic ways, accompanied by pictorial representations of the processes, and examples of on-line communication which are given as highlighted examples in the text. Clearly this text is invaluable for anyone in the Gulf region who would like to learn how to avoid the pitfalls and learn from the merits of this systematic approach. As the author states, this book is written in the context of all the hype and failures of distance learning which provides a real niche for this understandable and highly practical book. The book is enticing and has the aim of encouraging the reader to become an action researcher and participant collaborator in the e-learning process.