In 2004 the Australian Flexible Learning Community began a public online group, "Getting Started in Flexible Learning" which was moderated by Judy Fawcett and targeted especially for practitioners who were new to flexible learning and wished to engage in a process of guided discovery. This article is drawn from the discussions that took place in the group between February and November. Many thanks to all who participated.

There is much to consider at the beginning stages of developing an online course. From the outset:

Learning Management System – Will I use one? What type of online navigation will it have and what online tools are available?

Content – Is the learning content appropriate for an online environment?

Students - Who are the learners? Would they benefit from a linear based, selective release pathway where the lecturer controls the learning or the release of all modules at the same time which is more learner controlled?

Skill Level – Do your students already have I T skills; do they have access to the appropriate computer hardware and software required? If not how are you going to address those issues?

Communication Tools – How will you communicate with the students? Is there any f2f or is delivery totally online?

Activities – What is appropriate, will there be quizzes? How will students be assessed? What feedback mechanisms will be in place?

W3C Compliance
There has been much discussion of late around the flexible delivery table in SA regarding W3C for online content - making websites more accessible for all by taking into account the vast differences in culture, languages, education, ability, material resources, access devices, and physical limitations of users world wide.

If you are involved in developing online content have you thought about these particular barriers to learning?
 
Do you teach any of the following type of students:

• learners with literacy needs
• indigenous learners
• learners with disability
• women e-learners
• rural and remote e-learners
• isolated metropolitan e-learners?

If you already have online content you are delivering do you have the following:

• pictures attached to alternative text
• good colour contrast
• written transcripts as an alternative to audio/video
• large icons or text as hyperlinks
• small amounts of larger text grouped together with large 'white spaces
• images not too large for download

Tools
What other tools (open source or at cost) might you use to enhance your online course?

For example, CaptureCAM™-PRO is an easy to use full motion, PC Screen and Sound Recording program, that is perfect for online development and learning. At their website (http://www.capturecampro.com/) you can find: user guides (under product features), examples/demos) and online tutorials.

Also CamStudio records screen activity from your Windows Desktop into standard AVI movie files. It is an ideal tool for developing videos to demonstrate features of a new software or any other task that requires the capture of desktop activity. You can add screen captions to your desktop while recording. You can also personalize your movie by including a webcam movie of yourself into the AVI. (http://www.brothersoft.com/Multimedia_Graphics_Screen_Capture_CamStudio_3944.html ) This site has lots of freeware, shareware.

Have you heard of AEShareNet? AEShareNet is a collaborative system to streamline the licensing of intellectual property so that Australian learning materials are developed, shared and adapted efficiently.

http://www.aesharenet.com.au/

This is a resource exchange that utilises online technology to further the sharing and trading of learning materials and learning tools (paper and web based) across the world. It is a membership organisation established by the Ministers of Education and Training that allows anyone to search its database of learning resources and tools and transact a licence for better management of intellectual property to aid in the development, sharing and adaptation of training materials.

An Introduction to Online Learning – It is good to have something small to introduce students new to online learning and I have often used this site LILI as an introduction – it is readily available.

http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lili/

What does it contain?:

LILI - the LEARN Information Literacy Initiative, which will improve your assignment preparation.

LILI provides tutorials which will assist you in your search for information using TAFE library catalogues, the World Wide Web, and electronic databases. You can work through each module in turn or you can work through those modules that you feel will provide you with immediate help.

Topics include: Analyse your Assignment, Identify Needed Resources, Identify Key Words, Searching Library Catalogues, Finding on Library Shelves, Searching the Web and Evaluating and Citing Your Sources.

A word from a Developer:

“There is an incredible amount of paper planning at the beginning. I feel that a linear form of construction is ideally suited to students who need clear direction in their learning and/or where the content has a specific sequence or prerequisite learning. I must say I have a bent towards collaboration and incorporate it into my online learning courses as a matter of habit. I don’t want the students just talking to me; I want them to talk to each other. Online discussions don’t need to come from talking about student weaknesses or problems; it can revolve around carefully designed discussion topics and activities. Icebreaker activities at the beginning of an online course are great and you might be surprised how some people are freer in their thoughts and ideas when they are online with a degree of anonymity rather than face to face meetings.” (Judy Fawcett)

Examples of Nursing Courses in Flexible Mode: (Judy Fawcett – tafeSA – Gilles Plains Campus)

The first is ‘Nursing Calculations’, a CDROM based course developed to assist in the learning and assessment of Nurses. This course has been designed to allow students to develop, consolidate and assess their underpinning mathematical knowledge and drug calculation skills and build up a useful resource of information in a non-threatening and interesting approach, utilising self directed / self paced learning principles.

The program is divided into 9 Learning Outcomes, a Practical Drug Calculation section and two randomly generated Assessments. These tests enable the student to assess the skill level gained at the completion of the course.

The Learning Outcomes are:

• The Metric System
• Utilising Nursing Tools
• Fractions
• Ratios
• Percentages
• Decimals
• Computers/Calculators

For example:

 

Practical Problems – Medical Calculations

Students have the opportunity to read and print out any of the notes supplied for each section and when confident of their understanding, can complete a series of questions with three degrees of difficulty – easy, intermediate, harder. They can complete as many questions as they like until they feel confident.

A score card automatically updates their progress and this can also be printed out for their records.

The second course ‘Medical Terminology’ is an Online Learning Course we offer to nursing students to develop their computing skills and deliver a competency in flexible delivery mode. Medical terminology is a specialised vocabulary used in the Health Sector. Knowledge of this vocabulary creates a world-wide communication system between health care professionals. Throughout this module medical terminology is introduced based on body systems and this allows students to become familiar with common terms related to specific systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the foundations of medical / nursing terminology knowledge and commonly used terms, in order to support the role of the Enrolled Nurse within the Health Sector.

The 2 Main Learning Outcomes are:

• Define the meaning of, and use appropriately, anatomical and physiological terminology used in nursing
• Define the meaning and abbreviations for common terms used in the nursing environment

Students work through the learning material for each body system. Each section contains a brief overview of the system

and provides a list of common stem words related to that system.

The associated learning activities allow the student to practise building words and break medical terms down into sections.

 

At the end of each topic the student attempts a self-assessment. There is a Trial Final Test and then the Final Exam is completed online as well.

The feedback for both of these courses from students has been very positive - they have appreciated the movement away from traditional classroom teaching of these ‘dry’ topics. It allows for self-directed learning where students take more control and they can vary the pace of their learning eg. when they get to a difficult point they can slow down!

If you need more information please contact:

Judy Fawcett
Coordinator Flexible Delivery
Community Services and Health
TafeSA - Gilles Plains Campus
Ph: (08) 82071142