Louise and I met at 3:10 and I was really glad she made it. I needed to do the taster activity today. We worked through a Taster and have reached a number of solutions as regards the key issues we identified earlier this morning. I was also able to complete the other event booked on my calendar.


Career Development

A previously face to face course has been re-developed to cater for off-campus, distance students, working independently and completing assessments (e.g., preparation of a Curriculum Vitae (CV)). One of concerns noted during development of the online content was that the students might scroll too quickly through one of the important resources, the virtual business tour, so they can get their CV done quickly. This means they might not engage fully in the real learning aspects of the programme, and end up with an incomplete or poor quality CV. The educational developer is worried about changing a programme which used to rely on a face to face approach with students being stepped through the programme by a Tutor in class. There will be tutors facilitating the online course, but they are new to online teaching. The developer is not sure how the students will engage with the tutors, each other and with the online materials. The tutors are worried that they won’t know when the students are struggling. The developer is not sure how to evaluate the changes to the design of the materials and how to find out the level of support required for the students.

Questions:

1.      What are the key issues?

2.      How can the problem be solved? What strategies can be used?

3.      How can the evaluation process assist in finding a solution? What type of evaluation is appropriate in this situation?

Key Issues:

1.      A concern is that students might scroll too quickly

2.      Redeveloped course has not been effectively designed to take in an e-learning context

3.      The course design may not have sufficiently engaging activities to enthuse the learners to navigate appropriately through the necessary steps for learning to take place

4.      New tutors may not be competently familiar with on-line teaching tools and skills and therefore are unable to assist the student meaningfully

5.      The tutors may not be able to facilitate an online community

6.       The most important issue is the lack of knowledge and skill in how to evaluate an on-line course, its design of materials and how to investigate the level of support required for the students

 

Solutions to the problems:

1.       The new design must include:           

(a)    clear instructions as to what to do and how to navigate and use the course tools and materials e.g. a site map and online support

(b)   meaningful  and engaging activities that will require interaction such and games

(c)    minimise the amount of text information that the student must work through to achieve their learning goals

2.       Engage highly skilled tutors in e-learning to be involved in the delivery and support of the redeveloped course

3.       Regular interactions and feedback by the highly skilled tutors during the delivery of the course

4.       The availability of more than one tutor so that the student can have access to help quickly

5.       The developer requires to do a course in evaluation of e-learning and ask specific questions such as:


How can the evaluation process assist in finding a solution? What type of evaluation is appropriate in this situation?

The developer needs to know more about:



I believe that important forms of evaluation should include both formative and summative. In the formative category one needs to explore how useable the site is to the students and to the tutor.  As Well it is important to find out the most relevant information for the students and what that should include.  This will cut down on verbosity and assist in both the useability and the relevance of the site.   The developer also needs to know how easy the site is for students and tutors to access for otherwise both groups will not use it.  

Summative evaluation will be used to establish effectiveness once the redevelopment has been concluded.  The effectiveness of the site will establish that the intention of the developers, that is the learning outcomes have been met.    Summative evaluation will also address how readily the site is maintained and is a measure of the efficiency and the effectiveness of the course in total.   That is

If students can access it and navigate it successfully, find it user friendly and meeting their learning goals the developer knows that the site is well positioned. 

It is important also for the students and the tutors to develop skills and a toolkit for using e-learning sites.  The impact of the site, the learning incurred, the tools and skills developed will all be useful to transfer to new elearning situations.