EDU-40206: Online and Blended Learning Design

Week 2: Micro-lecture - Online Learning Overview

Welcome to week two, micro-lecture, online learning overview. In this micro-lecture we're
going to review the online learning key features and principles that make good online
learning. You've already explored some literature about online learning and designing
specifically for the online modality and in this video, we're just going to summarize what
makes good effective learning. Whilst you're listening to this video, I want you to think
about why some of these features are important for online learning, how these features
support good experiences for students, what aspects you already do within your own
practice and how you can embed some of the other principles in your practice moving
forward.

Before we go any further it's really important to make the distinction between synchronous
and asynchronous. This is important for online and blended learning because there are
these two types. Synchronous for example will be done live, that could be done online using
platform video software such as Teams or Zoom or the VLE if it already has that feature
included into it and this happens live in the moment. You'd make use of lecture material,
digital tools, etc and you would all work through the content at the same time at the same
pace. Whereas asynchronous content is self-directed study, it is done flexibly in the person's
own time at a time that suits their needs. Obviously, there are benefits and drawbacks of
each and whenever designing online learning you need to think carefully, does this need to
happen in the moment or can it be done flexibly in the student's own time? Just because it
is done flexibly in the student's own time it doesn't mean that there isn't that collaboration
with other students which will explore throughout themes of key principles of online
learning.

As you can see, we have put together five key themes that encompass the principles of
online learning. These have been chunked based on their kind of generic themes which all
tie into each other to support learners in having a good online experience. These can apply
to both synchronous and asynchronous content so it's important to consider these
regardless of the type of online material you are presenting. So, starting with theme one
clear learning outcomes. Students need to be able to understand what is expected of them.
They might not have that guidance from the lecturer in the moment particularly if it's
asynchronous content so these need to be written in student-friendly language. They can
use these as a checklist so by the end of the week they can assess, self-assess their learning
to see if they've met the required skill level that is expected of them. Therefore, learning
outcomes need to have a clear action verb which sets out how the student should approach
it. So for example identify, describe, explain, that shows the skill that the student needs to
display and then the knowledge that comes after it so the students know exactly what that
applies to. This helps the learner to be able to consider the content and the skills that they
have gained and it's important that they get this because they might not have that
instructor guidance the way that they would in the classroom. Second theme is about the
structure so you need to logically sequence your content in an online learning environment

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because students are going to be going through the journey so it needs to be sequenced in a
way that the knowledge builds upon each other so the students can go through the journey
as you would expect them to if it was a live session for example where you journey them
through the content. If they're doing it asynchronously, they still need that journey through
the content so you need to structure it in a way that enables that. It could be chunked for
example into different sections so we could have a theory section, a practice section, a
discussion section for example and each of these are chunked according to for example the
skill that's required or for example the learning outcome that it relates to. This enables the
students to not feel overloaded and overwhelmed in terms of cognitive overload and
enables them to access the content in an accessible and inclusive way. You also need to
allow flexibility. This means that the student should be able to do potentially it in their own
time based on their own schedules or it can be flexible in terms of the format and how the
students are expected to engage so for example they could produce a video, they could
produce a podcast, they could produce a written piece of work all for the same task but it
allows them to pick the format that they feel most comfortable in achieving or the one that
they feel they need to do to push their skills set the most but it gives the student that
flexibility to pick. That is theme two. Theme three is all around engagement and interaction
so it's really important as we would in the classroom to get students engaging with each
other and interacting with each other as well as the educator and in online learning it's
really important to do that, we can do that through discussions activities, polls as well as
interactive activities they're all kind of active teaching and learning strategies that we still
need to make use of despite being online. That is where things like the VLE and digital tools
become really vital enabling you to take those strategies and use them within your course.
It's really important in online environments to build student belonging they need to feel
part of an online community and that is through engaging with others so it isn't a solitary
experience. That's where again we need to make use of digital tools and the VLE to be able
to enable the students to communicate with each other to build that belonging when
students have that sense of belonging, they are more likely to engage with the content in
the way that we need them to and they are more likely to succeed in our programme. Ways
that we can build that belonging is through effective communication and that is from both
lecturers and students. They need to hear from both, it is this online community as I've just
explained so staff need to be engaging with students in the form of announcements
potentially or engaging in discussion forums or providing timely feedback. That could be on
formative work ,that could be on discussions, that could be on pieces of active learning that
they've done as a group but feedback needs to be done in a timely manner so students can
understand areas for improvement and adapt to those in a timely manner because online
courses are not usually over long periods of time which means students need to be able to
take on feedback and act on it almost immediately so feedback needs to come in a timely
manner. That enables the students to continue their learning despite the fact that the
educator might not be in the room with them for example. Theme four is all about
accessibility and inclusivity. It's really important that we consider when doing online
materials, can all of my students access it. If for example a student has a screen reader are
they still going to be able to do the activity so do I need to add things like alt text to my
images do I need to provide transcripts for my videos, do I need to consider time zones for
example if my students are working in different localities. It's really important to put
accessibility and inclusivity at the heart of online learning to make sure that we are not

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excluding anyone from our diverse learning community. We are going to do a whole week
on accessibility and inclusivity later in this module but bear in mind it is a key feature of
online learning. Finally theme is evaluation. It's important as educators you evaluate what
you're doing evaluate how the students have coped with what you've given them evaluate
was the material the right material and get that feedback from students to be able to make
adaptations and make changes that can impact future students but also if we can evaluate
as we go, we can make changes to support the needs of our current students as well. It's
important that this cycle of reflection and evaluation is part of the process when designing
online learning. So they are the five key themes it's really important in terms of online
learning to think deliberately about what it is that you want to do. You can use frameworks
such as SPaM to help you consider which is the best modality whether it is online and then
consider these five themes to make sure that we are building accessible, inclusive, engaging
and well-structured online learning experiences.