Introduction

We will briefly review the main ideas that have contributed to this guide and then consider the future, addressing questions such as:

Very broadly, the first question can be addressed by using the cyclical approach to evaluation we considered in Chapter 5. The answer to the second question relates to a statement we made at the beginning of the book: You do not need to be unnerved by the volatility of the educational technology landscape as the principles informing this framework are much less subject to change than the technologies themselves. Because the planning framework is built on pedagogical rather than technological foundations, it should help you to accommodate new technologies, and new ways of teaching, as they emerge, even though you do not know yet what these will be.

We will explore these ideas further in the sections that follow. At the end of this chapter we have put together the checklist that we have built up with you over the last five chapters so that you can copy it and use it in its complete form if you wish.

Introducing online learning and assessment – a brief review

We began with the assumption that you are new to teaching or assessing with technology but are interested in its potential to enhance your students’ learning. We also assumed that you might be taking this step largely on your own, using resources that are available to you, rather than being a member of a project team undertaking a major new initiative. With those assumptions in mind, we commented that where you need to start if you are thinking about introducing technology into your teaching or assessment is really in the same place that you would start if you were planning any new teaching activity. We will now briefly summarise the main steps that we suggested you follow to plan and implement your innovation so that you are in a position to refine it during subsequent iterations.

If you begin by considering your views about how students learn, in the context of the two major learning theories which have influenced the fields of higher education and educational technology (phenomenography and constructivism), your focus will be on the active involvement of your students in the learning process. Thinking about how they learn, along with the nature of good teaching in higher education, the characteristics of your students, your characteristics as a teacher, and your learning and teaching context, will set the scene for planning online learning and assessment. Then, if you begin with an issue, problem or opportunity related to the learning of your students which allows you to recognise some learning objectives that they might be able to meet online, you will be ready to start reconceptualising your teaching in the online environment.

Keeping your focus on the learning objectives you have identified will allow you to determine the affordances of the technologies you will require. We also suggested that you consider your institution’s policies and infrastructure relating to online learning and assessment because of the administrative and support benefits of using institutional systems. In Chapter 2 we described the features of the main technologies currently available for online teaching and assessment so that you could consider your requirements, and your context, against these characteristics. To finalise your technology selection you need to be aware of, and have strategies for dealing with, some of the common student support, management and administrative issues that you might face.

At this point you should be ready to begin your online learning design and development. These processes will be influenced by whether you are planning online learning or assessment which will take place in a classroom setting, in a blended environment, or fully online. The concepts of transactional distance and transactional control are two additional theoretical perspectives which might assist you, and there are a number of online learning models that can be used to guide design. We focused particularly on Oliver and Herrington’s (2001) constructivist model which provides a simple way of conceptualising how learning activities, resources and supports may be designed and related to assessment. We also noted the concept of constructively aligning learning objectives, activities and assessment (and the advantage of merging authentic learning activities and assessment), before considering some common types of learning activities that involve interaction between users (discussion activities and others), interaction with content, and creation of content. We briefly noted some issues that you may face in developing your design and suggested some additional general student support issues, as well as management and administrative issues that you might need to consider in implementing your design.

If you are planning to assess in the online environment, we suggested that you take into consideration current views about the nature and purpose of assessment in higher education which focus on its role in learning. This will give you ideas for thinking about formative and summative assessment in the online environment. It will also be helpful in considering options for determining who undertakes assessment (including self, peer and group assessment), and the assessment design principles that will guide your planning. It is likely that your planning will involve one or more of the four major uses of the online environment for assessment (online submission, automated assessment, online discussion and web publishing), and we have suggested some of the opportunities and challenges related to each. Moving through these uses tends to offer increasing opportunities for taking advantage of the online environment to reconceptualise assessment tasks, rather than simply transposing existing tasks. Again, there is a range of student support issues and management and administrative issues, that you may need to consider, particularly if you are planning time-limited summative assessment tasks that are not undertaken in computer laboratories.

Finally, we addressed the important role of evaluation in monitoring the quality of your online environment, emphasising the use of a simple, eclectic, pragmatic approach that highlights the role of reflection in a continuous cycle of iterative, learner-centred improvement through design, development and implementation. Preparing an evaluation plan based on the purpose/s of the evaluation will determine the questions you need to ask, the data sources and methods you will use to answer those questions, and the resources you will need to conduct the evaluation. There are also a number of issues that you may need to consider in relation to managing, reporting and acting on your evaluation.

The above stages provide a learner-centred framework that you can follow, whatever your starting point, whatever the resources available to you, and irrespective of whether you are using a classroom-enhanced, blended or fully online environment extending to off-campus or transnational teaching. As we have noted several times throughout the book, it is best to start small if you can, although we recognise that sometimes institutional imperatives to ‘get your subject online’ do not make this possible, and that these same pressures may also sometimes compromise the quality of what is offered on online. Nevertheless, it is advisable to be as well-prepared as you can.

Accommodating emerging technologies

There are three main reasons that this framework can continue to guide your planning into the future, helping you to accommodate technologies that may not have emerged yet, or that you are not yet familiar with. We have mentioned all of these previously but we will expand on them here.

We need to recognise, of course, that theories about what is valuable in learning do change over time (as we noted in relation to behaviourism in Chapter 1), but the main point here is that these changes occur much more slowly than changes in technologies. It is also important to acknowledge that affordance of emerging technologies may offer ways of teaching that you have not yet considered. These teaching strategies are still likely to be consistent with existing learning theories, but it is possible that they might challenge them.

As you become more comfortable with teaching online you may sometimes want to move ahead of institutional systems and by that stage you should be fully aware of the implications of doing that and be able to manage it successfully.

Illustrating the ideas in this chapter …

Finally, Suzy concludes her story and comments on her plans for the future.

Summary

We have now reached the end of this planning guide for introducing online learning and assessment. If you follow the ideas in this guide, the end of planning and development for you will be implementation and the potential of many new beginnings as you refine your ideas and move forward into an ongoing cycle of improvement based on experience and evaluation.

In this chapter we have reviewed the planning stages covered in Chapters 1 to 5, moving through the process you might follow if you have no experience of online teaching or assessment but are interested in their potential to improve your students’ learning. We have assumed that you are responsible for teaching a particular subject or course and that you are working primarily as an individual, using systems and resources easily available to you. Large and complex online learning projects usually cannot be achieved at this level because they may require a team of people with different skills (for example, an educational designer, a web developer, a multimedia developer, a graphic designer, audiovisual staff), and considerable funding, and project management expertise to bring them to fruition.

We have explained why this planning framework is applicable whatever new opportunities for teaching with technology may emerge because it is based on pedagogical principles that are unlikely to undergo rapid change, because the suggested evaluation approach has an intrinsic capacity for ongoing improvement, and because you can take advantage of the time lag between the availability of emerging technologies and their uptake by universities, to explore whether and how you might be able to use them to help students meet specific learning objectives.

Following is the complete version of the checklist which you began in Chapter 1. Check your totals for each column to assess your readiness to begin. If you answer ‘Yes’ to about three-quarters of the questions, you are probably ready to proceed with your planning without too much difficulty. The number of answers in the ‘Unsure’ and ‘No’ columns will give you some idea of the extent of further assistance you may need to seek. Also check any of the five areas where your ‘Yes’, ‘Unsure’ and ‘No’ responses are dominant, as this will indicate your strengths or requirements for support in particular areas.

This book has provided an overview of the steps involved in preparing for pedagogically-effective online learning and assessment. While its scope does not extend to detailed advice on development and implementation, it is intended as a guide that will help you in your initial planning. Your enthusiasm for good teaching is the most important factor in your success. Interest in your students and their learning, along with passion and curiosity about your subject, will lead you to seek effective ways of teaching which provide the best foundation for using new technologies in interesting ways. All the technology in the world won’t make you a good teacher but wise use of it may make teaching and learning easier, more engaging, more effective, and maybe more fun.