Pedagogical decisions
| With logistics issues in mind, there were basically three types of pedagogical
approaches to the use of online technologies - refresh, renovate, reform. Refresh The focus in using online technologies was not on making conceptual changes to the underpinning educational design, nor to change the learning tasks. Rather it was on replicating an existing learning resource in an online environment. Technological features refreshed or gave a new look to the program. The emerging pattern for the development of online courses was that of staged and incremental processes. 'Refreshing' was often identified as a way to initially experiment with the technology to see what it could do. The focus was more on understanding the potential of the technology and exploring its features. There was a tendency to adapt an existing and familiar methodology to the technology - this was often enough to cope with in the first round of experience, especially if the developers had multiple roles rather than being only part of a multidisciplinary team. Renovate While the basic conceptual design remained the same, select learning tasks were 'renovated' - rethought and reconstructed. Specific online capabilities were chosen as a means to more effectively achieve these learning tasks. Alternatively, learning tasks and activities utilising specific online capabilities were added as an extension to a learning program. Reform Basically, 'reform' involved bulldozing the existing conceptual design of an educational program and starting from scratch. Reforms often had substantial logistics support. Most often the prime driver for reform was not the technology, but a desire to improve the learning experience. Examples include the Metaphoric Training Environment from the Canberra Intitute of Technology. In this example, online technologies was the principal teaching medium. Another example was Murder Under the Microscope from OTEN in Sydney. This project made selective use of online technologies for specific learning activities. |