Learning Networks: Background and Approach
The Otter Group's e-learning model is distinguished by its
emphasis on:
courses and teachers.
The content underlying Otter's courses and programs comes from the
world's top research universities and corporations. Rather than focus
on commodity courses that most e-learning programs currently
offer—like
introduction to finance, accounting or marketing—the Otter
group
develops challenging courses featuring faculty members, research, and
resources that are not widely available.
theory.
The research-based theories of our courses are applied to the real
business problems that your students face in their work. The results?
Wholly new ways of thinking about strategy and practice. This fresh
knowledge is of enormous value not only to Otter students, but to their
organizations, the professors who teach these ideas, and to the
institutions that sponsor the research.
communities.
The best education relies on the easy exchange of vital ideas; put
another way, learning is fundamentally social. This holds doubly true
online, so ensuring an environment that encourages communication among
students and between students and professors is a critical element in
any successful e-learning experience. Our course designs reflect that
philosophy by steering clear of static, one-way programs and actively
tapping into and building learning communities of sophisticated
professionals.
levels of interactivity and scalability.
To facilitate the exchange of vital ideas, e-learning programs demand
higher than average student-to-teacher ratios, yet a major benefit of
online education is that a single professor's course can be made
available to thousands of learners at once. Our solution to this
dilemma? The
Learning Director.
These school alumni or corporate managers, recruited and trained by
Otter, are experts in how a course's subject matter is most relevant to
a select group of students. The Learning Directors' perspectives makes
them ideal facilitators, and they ensure that students feel connected
to the professor, the material and one another by highlighting student
comments and prodding quiet participants for ideas. We like to think of
them as the Avon Ladies of the Knowledge Economy.
One of the great advantages of the Web is that it allows information to
be organized and presented for each individual's needs. Indeed,
personalization is an area where the power of databases can rival
offerings in the physical classroom. Otter's education model is built
on our ability to capture deep profiles of students and use them to
create personal, unique learning experiences.
platform.
The technology platform that the Otter Group prefers for our e-learning
programs should support collaboration and knowledge-sharing among
a community and place social interaction
and collaboration at the center not only of its design, but also of its
operating philosophy. We have developed programs on SloanSpace (built
on the Ars Digita Community Education System), as well as on
LiveMeeting (formerly PlaceWare) and Blackboard. Currently we have been
achieving great results with programs that employ blog networks.
