Multiplicity in Learning and Teaching

Abstract

We describe here the power of multiplicity in learning and teaching. Multiplicity decreases efficiency in the short run, but it encourages the development of powerful new learning and teaching environments in the longer term. If multiplicity is embedded in a systematic evaluation framework, then we can learn from comparisons of what worked and what did not. We will show how six types of multiplicity have been useful for developing and implementing an online master of education program. The comparisons of multiple ways of learning and teaching encourage the examination of the instructional goals and resources available and suggest new ways to choose the technology, activities, format, contexts, and evaluation and assessment tools that are most appropriate for these goals and resources. They allow us to determine both formatively and summatively the effects these educational innovations have on learning and teaching.