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= Introduction =

I am Sandra Brás, an online student of the Master's degree in E-Learning Pedagogy at the Open University (Lisbon) and I built this wiki to show you my work for **P****PEL (****E-Learning Pedagogical Processes)** from October 2009 to February 2010 **.** = =

I decided to create a single Learning Object with the result of my ideas and work about Cooperative Learning, Online Teaching and Transparency in Online Education during the PPEL course. I hope you learn with it and enjoy it as well.

Each Unit starts with some resources made by [|Professor Morten] that really helped us succeeding throughout the last 6 months.
 * Check the Table of Content that you can find on the left hand side of this wiki.**

Before we started our activities for PPEL, we checked the Learning Contract to see what was expected from us. Find below the main aspects of the Learning Contract:

Course Objectives
The purpose of this course was to provide adult learners with a shared base of knowledge, skills, and values regarding central issues in e-learning pedagogy, irrespective of their special area of interest. Through theory and practice, the students should acquire:


 * **knowledge** of and insight into general issues related to cooperative online education, online teaching techniques and transparency in online education.
 * conscious and substantiated **values** on issues regarding cooperation and individual freedom as well as consequenses of transparency in online education.
 * practical **skills** in designing online learning objects.

After completing the course the students should be able to:
 * identify and discuss the fundamental issues with regard to collaboration, cooperation and individual freedom in online education;
 * distinguish between and assess various online teaching methods, techniques, and devices;
 * understand the implications of including individual and group assignments;
 * discuss teacher workload and strategies to reduce the workload;
 * understand the implications of transparency in online education and discuss pros and cons regarding various levels of transparency.

Course Content
The course consists of the following four curricular units: 1. Cooperative online education 2. Online teaching techniques 3. Transparency in online education 4. Final project

Methodology
The work methodology underlying this curricular unit rests in Universidade Aberta's Pedagogical Model. It has two main components: individual study and reflection and collaborative/cooperative work. The students are expected to study and reflect upon the materials and resources made available, making notes, confronting new information with what they already know, distinguishing the essential from the accessory, developing a critical perspective and elaborating personal syntheses. Based on this individual study, students should prepare their participation in the asynchronous discussions or other follow-up activities regarding the themes being addressed (when applicable). Ultimately, the learning process should be collaborative, in the sense that students share information, ideas and reflections, argue different points of view, discuss problems and solutions, analyze the application of the concepts or theories they are learning or produce artifacts in cooperation with others. Activities can have several stages - individual, small group work, whole class, individual, for example - and last for several weeks. Working at the weekend is not required. It's up to the students to manage their time in a personal and flexible way. Students are expected to work an average of 8 hours a week in this curricular unit. Daily access to the C.U. is recommended, in order to follow adequately the development of the activities.

The last four weeks are reserved for the elaboration of a final project.

Learning Environment and Communication
The main virtual environment used in this curricular unit is Moodle, the VLE adopted by Universidade Aberta. All information and resources needed to perform the tasks assigned are made available here. Other external tools, such as blogs or wikis, may be used in some activities. Communication is mostly or totally asynchronous, using discussion forums. Contents are organized in units. Each unit contains a brief description of the activity, detailed instructions for its development and all resources needed.