Online Learning Update Ray Schroeder, editor, COLRS - Online@Illinois Springfield

Online Learning Update - a blog published daily since 2001 by Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Springfield

Thursday, August 22, 2002

http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_3_2002/creese.html

Contrasts in learning: a collaborative evaluation by practitioners and students
Liz Creese, RMIT University
Jane Kemelfield, Learning Technology Services

ABSTRACT: This paper documents some of the learning emanating from a learner-centred evaluation of a change from face-to-face to online lectures in an Organisational Behaviour course at RMIT University. An academic and learning technology mentor conducted the evaluation, working as co-researchers with ‘Managing Change’ students. Primarily, the evaluation aimed to illuminate the experience of using the online lectures, as perceived by Engineering students. As preliminary research to a wider study, the evaluation was also formative. The findings suggest that the Engineering students appreciated the flexibility of online lectures. However, they devalued the online experience because it lacked the interaction of face-to-face lectures and consequently adopted a surface approach to learning. The strong message emerging from the student evaluation data was the importance of social interaction for understanding organisational behaviour concepts. The practitioners could not initially ‘see’ this message, such were the demands of managing the logistics of the change to online delivery and the lack of adequate organisational support. The surface level of learning for the Engineering students is starkly contrasted with the deep level of learning for the researchers, leading to transformation for the Managing Change students and eventually the practitioners....

 



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