SyberWorks Learning and Performance Glossary
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RAM (Random-Access Memory): a computer's temporary "running" storage, which functions as the "workspace" for program instructions and data.
Randomized Questioning: a technique that ensures all students have a chance to answer questions, using note cards with the students' names on them. AFTER asking a question, the teacher chooses a student at random to answer it from their cards.
Range of Motion: the ability of a person to move their joints and limbs.
Raster Graphic: a computer image made up of a collection of dots. Can become ragged or otherwise distorted when the image is enlarged or shrunk.
Read Aloud: an action where the teacher reads to the class to improve its comprehension, to demonstrate correct pronunciation, or to create positive feelings about a book or about reading.
Reading for Information: a form of reading in which students actively attempt to gather information, or to improve their knowledge about the topic.
Reading Roadmap: a map designed to guide students in their reading, by showing them when to skim, when to read carefully, and which questions to consider answering.
Reality-Based Model: a model developed by Glasser as a counseling technique, which helps students manage their behavior by analyzing what they need in a situation and finding socially acceptable ways to obtain it.
Real-Time Communication: information is exchanged with little or no delay; also called "synchronous interaction."
Rebuttal: a statement made to refute a position taken by an opposing party or group.
Recall, Summarize, Question, Comment, and Connect (RSQC2): a summarization technique in which students Recall (list) key points, Summarize in a single sentence, ask unanswered Questions, Connect the material to course goals, and write an evaluative Comment.
Recalling: the act of a student summoning knowledge previously learned.
Receive site: a location that receives transmissions from another (sending) site for distance learning.
Reciprocal Teaching: a learning method where students take turns being the teacher, in a pair or small group. Other roles taken may include clarifying concepts, asking questions, asking for predictions, and so on.
Recitation: a question-and-answer session, run by the teacher, in which there is only one correct answer.
Reductionism: a method of understanding complex ideas by considering them as the interaction of their fundamental parts or concepts. The theory of reductionism states that a complex system is simply the sum of its parts. Therefore, understanding these individual parts, explanations, or meanings, will lead to an understanding of the overall idea.
Redundancy: the idea that concepts need to be revisited many times, and in a variety of contexts, to be remembered and learned. Younger children may need to work with a concept twenty times (or more) to fully understand it. But older students and adults usually need to see and use a concept three or more times, before they can remember and properly use it.
Reflection: a metacognitive activity in which the student pauses to think about and organize information gathered from reading, discussions, or other activities.
RELATE Table: a graphic display that helps students connect what they learn in the classroom with real-world events.
Relay Summary: a team-review activity, where one member writes a sentence recapping their reading, and then passes the page to a teammate. This process continues until everyone in the team has added at least one sentence to the page.
Reliability: the degree to which items yield consistent results.
Remediation: a way to direct students to review and understand training content, based on concrete criteria.
Report: a written document presenting individual or group findings.
Repurpose: to reuse content by restructuring it for a different function than was originally intended.
Research: in an instructional setting, an investigation that seeks to describe knowledge that should be common to many students at various times.
Research Paper: a written document that compiles investigation results, geared to increasing knowledge of events or theories studied. Research papers include notations (footnotes), which detail and authenticate information sources used, including direct citations that may be used or quoted in the paper.
Resolution: the detail and clarity of an image on a video-display screen or in a print.
Restating: the act of expressing meanings in other, hopefully simpler, words; paraphrasing.
Reusable: e-Learning content that can be transferred without change to different infrastructures or delivery mechanisms.
Review: restudying material that one has already learned, to improve understanding.
Revising: a training method where students learn by correcting their peers' errors or by editing their own completed work.
Revision: the process of producing an amended, improved, or up-to-date version of a set of materials.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification): a wireless information-transmission technology that may take the place of bar codes, using a physical tag placed on (or in) an object, and which is read by a separate transceiver.
RFP (Request for Proposal): a document written by an organization about desired goods or services, and distributed to potential suppliers, who must then respond with specific proposals centered on the RFP's parameters.
Rich Content: high-quality course or webpage material, often created using sophisticated design techniques that emphasize the intended message.
RIO (Reusable Information Object): a set of content and assessment items assembled around a single learning objective. They are built from templates based on whether the goal is to communicate a concept, fact, process, principle or procedure. (Pronounced "REE-O.")
RLO (Reusable Learning Object): a collection of RIOs, overviews, summaries, and assessments that support a specific learning objective. (Pronounced "R-L-O.")
ROI (Return on Investment): a ratio of the benefit or profit received from an investment to the cost of the investment itself. In e-Learning, ROI is most often calculated by comparing quantifiable results from training to the costs of providing the training.
Role Play: a training technique in which students imitate characters, to try out behaviors, practice interactions, and/or solve problems. Such activities reinforce learning and help people apply new information, skills and techniques.
Roots: activities designed around the "origin" of words, to help build vocabulary in the specific subject matter.
Round-Table Discussion: 4 or 5 participants informally discuss a topic among themselves, and with an audience, while seated at a table.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication): RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Rubrics: a code or set of codes governing an action, activity or project.
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