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 a range of online teaching strategies that can be used to better facilitate teaching online. You might need to select, design and/or modify existing approaches to facilitate the most appropriate strategies for your learning context and/or target audience.

Strategies include:

• Online Discussion, both asynchronous forums and synchronous chat rooms can be used to facilitate different types of discussions and it is interesting how the role of a facilitator changes during a discussion activity.
  
• Simulations, Role Plays and Games can be used in an online environment and are great fun for an alternative approach.
  
  For example:
  http://flexiblelearning.net.au/egames/resources/index.html
  
  Here you can learn about:
  
• Training Packages,
  
• Competency-based Training and Assessment,
  
• Traineeships/Apprenticeships
  
• Vocational Education and Training (VET)
  
  This project developed an interactive eGames-based approach to help understand some of the critical knowledge and concepts for inductees requiring an introduction to the Vocational Education and Training industry as required under the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). You can explore and interact with the e-Games and Self assessments that have been produced as a result of this project.
  
  You might like to try a Collaborative Problem Solving Email Game yourself, in your field of teaching and learning. What would be the steps?
  
  Here they are:

Round 1 - send out email explaining the game and inviting team to submit problems. Set a deadline of no more than 1 week.

Round 2 - send out email publishing the list of problems. Invite team to submit solutions. Set a deadline of no more than 1 week.

In between rounds 2 and 3 - keep a tally of the solutions sent by each person (use a spreadsheet...its easier).

Round 3 - send out one email to the group with a list of all the problems and all the solutions, asking them to rank the solutions offered. Send out a separate email to each person that submitted a problem, asking them to rank the solutions offered.

In between round 3 and the end - compile all the problems and solutions and begin tallying the rankings as they arrive.

Final round - send out final email with the results and publish all the problems, solutions and their rankings.

• Reading and Research Strategies are used to search for and find specific content and apply that content in a way that encourages interactive learning
  
• Projects and Practical Exercises can encourage individual, partnership, and team projects even online.
  
• Quizzes and Questions utilises assessment-based learning strategies. We can create an environment for probing, expanding, refocusing, guiding, initiating, brainstorming etc
  
  Promoting high and low order thinking and questioning skills on a topic is really important in extending student learning:

Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels - Critical Thinking

Bloom identified six levels from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order which is classified as evaluation. When creating learning activities you can start from the bottom and work your way up hoping the students will follow!!!

Below are the six question categories as defined by Bloom.

Knowledge

• remembering
  
• memorizing
  
• recognizing
  
• recalling identification and
  
• recall of information

Comprehension

• interpreting
  
• translating from one medium to another
  
• describing in one's own words
  
• organization and selection of facts and ideas

Application 

• problem solving
  
• applying information to produce some result
  
• use of facts, rules and principles 

Analysis

• subdividing something to show how it is put together
  
• finding the underlying structure of a communication
  
• identifying motives
  
• separation of a whole into component parts 

Synthesis

• creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a physical object
  
• combination of ideas to form a new whole 

Evaluation

• making value decisions about issues
  
• resolving controversies or differences of opinion
  
• development of opinions, judgements or decisions

There is heaps of info on the Internet. For example this site gives you examples of the types of questions you could ask:

http://www.officeport.com/edu/bloomq.htm

Web Quests
 
1. They can create a more student-centered, active-learning perspective.  While surfing the World Wide Web students take charge of their learning. WebQuests can help facilitate this shift of focus and provide students with the skills they need to critically navigate, rather than surf randomly.

'Shouldn't we empower students to reach their destinations, not flounder in the surf of each shifting wave?

A fantastic resource for understanding and developing web quests comes from the pioneer/guru of web quests, Bernie Dodge:

The Web Quest Page   (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/)

2. Webquests for Learning: (http://www.ozline.com/webquests/intro.html )

3. A Webquest was developed to navigate the Australian Flexible Learning Community by our wonderful SA Learnscope Manager, Marlene Manto, to introduce participants to our 2004 Learnscope Project.

/uploads/news/{212F1362-6C2D-420D-AECB-34997B3C7553}-The%20AFLC%20WebQuest.doc

5. There is a lot of info that can be found on the Web – for example this one gives you lots of ideas in creating your own Webquest:

 http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/WebQuests.html

6. From Kate Fannon, an experienced Webquest developer:

Web Quests can be exciting discoveries...it depends on the learning strategies embedded in the design. We can design web quests where the learner works on his or her own and just answers some questions via linked resources in the World Wide Web. Or we could divide up tasks and allocate to different learners who would have to collaborate/share to find out the missing jigsaw pieces of information before compiling a final report or whatever. Even more exciting is to get the learners to construct something new, rather than just suck up information and report on it. This requires creative design!

We can also use web quests for blended learning. Some learning can be done individually or pairs/small groups online, and other can be done face-to-face when you want them to argue/negotiate orally. I have done this for ESL learners and it was made more interesting as they had to research in groups from a particular role perspective (knowing the other role perspectives), then argue their case (with the aim of coming to some consensus between the various role groups) and finally write up their recommendations and reasons.

This web quest can be viewed at:

Alternatives to Detention  (http://www.users.on.net/~katef/detention/default.htm

Further reading:

What's a webquest?