This resource summarises the discussion and chat sessions took place between 11 and 15 August 2003 which were moderated by Ted Rosenblatt and Rhonda Appo.

Ted's Introduction:

There has been a drive to find best practice in flexible delivery and to develop checklists for good practice eg the Australian Flexible Learning Framework project “Best Practice in Flexible Delivery”  .

However, discussions about flexible delivery have highlighted the need to meet the individual needs of learners.  What works well for one person may not work well for another.
In this discussion activity we want to take a less global view of flexible learning and we want to encourage you to share what works well (W*W*W) for you and your students in online learning.  We’re taking a very broad view of learning and want to include informal as well as formal learning, and include incidental learning as well.

From my own perspective I’ve been particularly interested in the teaching/learning of manual skills online. It’s a challenge that has been posed to me often by teachers involved in that area. Through my own learning I’ve found that I require four aspects to be present for the online learning of manual skills to work well for me, when I have no access to face-to-face assistance.

Firstly, I need descriptions of the activity and its context – this satisfies my desire for lots of information.

Secondly, I need photographs of objects and actions associated with the activity – this is very important for me because photos not only show me how something is done or what it looks like, but they act as a reality check i.e. they give me an insight into that particular area of activity (or community of practice). Photos provide context for me. They help me answer questions like: “What does that stage of the process look like?”, “How is a particular tool held?”, “How do you stand?”, for example. However, while photos are very important for me but they are not sufficient on their own.

Thirdly, I need line drawings – these provide me with the detail that is hard to convey in words and is often not clear in photos. But line drawings often don’t tell me enough without description and photos.

Fourthly, I need somewhere where I can ask questions or at least have access to what other questions people have asked, and what problems other people have had in doing this activity.

I find the online environment to be excellent in providing this combination of aspects of learning that work well for me. I can find much more to read than I could if I was restricted to buying books or articles. The variety of photos available is often extensive and sometimes I can request additional photos. Line drawings are much the same as in hardcopy, but online I can manipulate the drawings and print them out for patterns very easily. And the discussion forums that are available are indispensable for clarifying points, and provide a wonderful source of motivation to complete the task. What the web can do that normal training manuals can’t do is provide me with these four aspects of learning in combinations of my choice and available, as I need them.

The down side is that not all activities are well served by the available resources. But this is improving rapidly.

One online site that meets most of the requirements for what works well for me combines my interest in wood with my interest in double basses. http://homepages.enterprise.net/gwyllum/bass/doublebassmaking.html
This can be supported by an excellent discussion site http://www.violins.on.ca/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000007.html.

Now wood and double basses might not be your thing, but those sites are examples of what works well for me when it comes to learning complex manual skills online without access to a face-to-face instructor.

What works well for you in your particular area of interest? Share this with us and share your sites that illustrate W*W*W.

What works well for you? Participant discussion summary:

• Online tutorial movies. Participants log on to our website and access a sequence of 30 second online tutorial video clips. In a classroom with an average of 30 students and only 1 or 2 computers, time on the computer for students is limited. The short video snippets allow students to get online and access a few instructions on a particular skill then apply it offline.
• A weekly discussion related to the study learners are currently undertaking. A weekly chat (either structured or just general chat about assessments etc), fun quizzes and constantly providing relevant links to websites keeps them online & active.
• A 2 hour orientation session in the computing lab during week 1 of the semester.
• WebCT training starting (either in the lab or via the shell) with a Hello Mail including reply instructions, a discussion board explanation including asking each student to post up something about themselves in a topic section titled "About Me". This trains them in Mail & Discussion tools. We also add instructions as we use each tool.
• Previously we have said Internet connection & email experience were prerequisites for studying the online course - but we are thinking about adding “opening, saving & attaching word documents.”
• Having access to a bulletin board 24/7 where they can ask questions or provide support/comments to others considerably helps reduce teacher work load.
• Paltalk http://www.paltalk.com/paltalksite/ allows communication via live video, high quality voice and text chatting. Both the visual and audio aspects help me form a working relationship with another person. Paltalk is being used to teach many language skills across the net.
• Regular human interaction and a sense that someone is 'out there' is important for maintaining motivation.
• Being aware of your learners’ initial computer skills.
• Being aware that what may work well for beginner online students may not work well for more experienced students.
• Research into what works well has shown:
  -  dialogue
  -  involement
  -  support, and
  -  student control over learning
  to be important. These are features of good learning on or off line!
• A self assessment quiz to see how good learners’ skills are, as well as their attitude
• Give learners realistic info about what flexible learning really means. Eg:
  -  time planning
  -  study skills
  -  motivation, and
  -  some way for students to decide "can I do this?!"
• The induction to the platform/LMS should provide:
  -  good quality, clear screen shots
  -  a help phone number
• Offer an online basic computer skills module in conjunction with your online course.
• For teaching/learning of manual skills online I require four aspects to be present:
  -  Descriptions of the activity and its context – this satisfies my desire for lots of information.
  -  Photographs of objects and actions associated with the activity – this is very important for me because photos not only show me how something is done or what it looks like, but they act as a reality check and context.
  -  Line drawings – these provide me with the detail that is hard to convey in words and is often not clear in photos.
   Somewhere where I can ask questions or at least have access to what other questions people have asked, and what problems other people have had in doing this activity.

Contributors:
Dorothy Waterhouse, Pearl Win, Kerry Trabinger, Kirsty Sharp, Ted Rosenblatt, Claude Pogliani, Ron Pearce, Kim Nguyen, Ann Lomas, Michele Lamont-Smith, Andrew Kidd, Ian Hutton, Alison Gotts, Toni Cameron, Lee-Ann Barton