Towards TruVision is a Learnscope project that has brought together three organisations:

• Association for the Blind of WA
  
• Royal Voctorian Institute for the Blind
  
• Elearn.WA

So far, the Towards TruVision LearnScope team has developed its own online community by debating topical online issues, exploring web sites, undertaking part of an online course, and enjoyed workshops in Melbourne and Perth. It is a fantastic multi-state project that has bound the organisations together in a truly collaborative way. Our discussion board has well over 200 contributions.

The team will embark upon some professional development in understanding the back-end of Web CT, and then will pilot the TruVision Online Equity Proof of Concept with vision impaired learners.

I know this is a little long, but it is a telling excerpt from one of the team members, Brenda Moulton. Brenda, an online novice two months ago, tells of her learning journey:

My name is Brenda Moulton and I am employed by the Association for the Blind here at Victoria Park, although I am currently working off-site at Elearn.WA for three days a week.

When we first commenced the Learnscope Professional Development course, I had no previous knowledge or experience of online learning. LearnScope has been a very steep learning curve for me, and I have found it to be very interesting and exciting.

The purpose of this article is to indicate what I have learnt so far:

Computer Mediated Conferencingô otherwise known as CMC. There are many forms of conferencing available - some of these are Bulletin Boards, Email and Chat Rooms.

Using Bulletin Boards and Email the interaction is asynchronous. Participants access them when they wish. Messages posted on Bulletin Boards can be viewed by everyone, whereas the Email messages can only be viewed by the recipient(s).

Using Chat Rooms the interaction is synchronous with everyone who is logged on participating at the same time. The sessions can be recorded and posted on the bulletin board, so everyone is informed about the discussions.

Design and Facilitation of Online Learning

The success or failure of an online learning course does depend on its design and how it is facilitated. Any design should be flexible to cater for different learner's needs. The sites that have been suggested for us to visit during this project outlined the different approaches that can make learning more interesting and certainly more 'fun'.

When designing an online course the following should be considered:

Navigation should be obvious and easy to carry out.
Instructions should be given in clear and precise language.
There should be plenty student interaction as this helps to maintain interest and involvement.
If it is necessary to provide large quantities of reading material, it should be kept to a minimum and presented in an interesting manner.

The facilitator's role is very important as they must always promote a positive environment, and continually encourage the students to become involved. Louise has been a tower of strength to us all with her positive feedback, funny stories and light-hearted comments. If I can facilitate a course half as well as she does, I will be more than happy.

Listservers

I was not sure what a Listserver was until Pierre of Elearn explained it to me this week. I now understand that a Listserver is something between a newsgroup and a mailing list. You must be a subscriber to read messages on the list, but the list server automatically redistributes messages to the discussion group, so the interaction is more like a newsgroup. I have subscribed to a Listserver (without realising) and about twice a week I receive an email from them.

Online instructional platforms

In my younger days, a platform was where I waited for a train. No so today! Technology has used this term to indicate a starting point to launch different facilities. For example, WebCT is an online instructional platform, as is FirstClass, Click2learn and Learning Circuits.

Elearn.WA are developing the Certificate I in Information Technology course and they will use WebCT as their instructional platform. From there students will participate in CMC as well as accessing the course material and assignments.

New Learning Technologies

Technologies such as email, Internet, HTML, online instructional platforms, bulletin boards, digital video, multimedia and toolboxes, are just a few developments that can be applied to teaching and learning today. Technology has revolutionised learning! Applied correctly, new learning technologies can only help to improve everyone's knowledge and understanding.

Flexible Learning Skills

The Macquarie University defines Flexible Learning as "Meeting individual needs by providing choices that allow students to meet their own educational requirements in ways suiting their individual circumstances."

This is a very apt definition and indicates that:

Students should be given the opportunity to study where they find it most convenient.

The learning content, outcomes and resources should be designed to meet their needs.

The entry requirements should be flexible and consideration given to RPL.

Course completion should be based on achieving competencies rather than completing a specific course, within a specific time-frame.

This will lead to a different teacher/student relationship as there will be less face-to-face teaching. Teachers will become facilitators, directing students to access specific resources and tasks, in order to achieve certain outcomes. High quality learning resources, communication facilities and the use of IT are paramount to the implementation of flexible learning.

Yes I have learnt so much. My poor brain hurts!

Conclusion

It has been a pleasure working with such an enthusiastic team that has spanned Australia and applied themselves so professionally. Blind and vision impaired people are sure to benefit in the long term.