From Novice to Expert: Harnessing the Stages of Expertise Development in the Online World

Submitted By: DougKranch
Lead Presenter: Douglas A. Kranch
Scheduled For: Tuesday @ 2:00 PM in Water Oaks I
Session Type: Session - Presentation (includes keynote & business mtg)
Preferred Paper Track: Peer-Reviewed Paper Track
Target Audience: Instructors who teach online and face-to-face courses that develop expertise over the long term

Abstract:

Expertise develops in three stages. In the first stage, novices focus on the superficial and knowledge is poorly organized. During the end of the second stage, students mimic the instructor’s mastery of the domain. In the final stage, true experts make the domain their own by reworking their knowledge to meet the personal demands that the domain makes of them. Thus, as expertise develops, learning shifts from acquiring surface knowledge to constructing deep knowledge. Types of online learning and experiences will be discussed that are appropriate as expertise grows and learners gradually shift from experiencing and making sense of the simple surface features of the domain to acquiring experience through increasingly complex problems that deepen learning. The teaching of computer programming will exemplify this technique and other domains will be solicited form the audience. Participants can use these techniques in online courses teaching complex knowledge.