OnlineHE_Toolkit

14 The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095434 Step 2: Conduct instructional analysis The next step involves analysing the goals, to define which skills and knowledge should be included in the instruction for the achievement of these goals. It is also required to identify the skills, knowledge, and attitude that learners should possess before the new instruction begins, to smoothly engage with the learning procedure. Step 3: Analyse the learners and the context Along with the analysis of the goal, we have to analyse the learners themselves. This is the foundation for the personalised instruction that has been identified as a crucial method of modern curricula. By analysing learners' current skills, preferences, and attitudes, the instruction could be aligned with their own individual characteristics. To achieve this, we can conduct a pre-assessment (diagnostics), distribute questionnaires, and hold (online) discussions with students. It is also crucial to identify and address students’ distinct characteristics such as their self-regulation skills, their attitudes toward distance learning that influence the level of satisfaction along with their overall emotional state and well-being (Demetriou, Hadjicharalambous, & Keramioti, 2021; Sereti & Giosos, 2018; Souleles, Laghos, & Savva, 2021). However, people are not independent of the context where they work. Therefore, we should analyse the exact environment in which learners will practice and use the skills. In our case, they will work in an online context. On the one hand, e-learning platforms offer many advantages to learners such as control over the content and the time spent learning. Thus, the process can be adapted according to the learners’ needs and the objectives of learning. One the other hand, we need to tackle obstacles that derive from potentially decreased motivation and self-regulation in students, instructors’ delayed feedback or help, since they might not be available at the time students need assistance while learning, possible feelings of isolation due to lack of physical presence of classmates over a long period . Along with that, it is also important to define the unique characteristics of an online environment. In an online setting, the interaction among the participants varies. There is not a linear communication, but each one can respond any time while living in various parts of the world. Therefore, there are multiple asynchronous dialogues (e.g. in forums), with short or long interruptions (from some minutes to days), which are being developed at varied speed. The more experienced users are usually those that initiate and lead the dialogue, offering relevant feedback while there are multiple representations of meaning through audiovisual material. One of the most important tools that works as the main online learning environment is the LMS. It is a complete, highly flexible, standards-based e-learning system that provides a fully customizable and scalable online learning and training environment,