Monday 26 March 2012

Investigate and describe an example of Flexible Learning in your organisation

Within the midwifery curriculum we commonly use the discussion forums in moodle to support academic activities. This requires students to post their perspective on a given topic based on their research and to reflect on other participants postings. Here are a couple of points I have been reflecting on as I consider this medium as part of my course development.
 “The online debating environment provides a very efficient setting to gather information on a topic through a process of student inquiry. The activity can be structured in a variety of forms to achieve particular learning outcomes (Lookwood&Gooley, p. 157, 2001)”.
Online learning has the potential to be isolating and solitary experience. On line debating can facilitate communication with the involvement of others students acting as stimuli and support for learning (Lookwood&Gooley, 2001).
Reference:
Lockwood, F., &Gooley, A.(Eds.). (2001). Innovation in open & distance learning. London: Kogan Page

2 comments:

  1. discussion forums can be a really good way to gauge how students are going with their understanding of topics. What is your sense of ideal numbers for meaningful discussion?

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  2. Hi I think that 6 at a minimum so that engagement is reasonably active and that once things get to around 15 it is probably getting quite busy to keep up? I would be interested to hear what more experienced facilitators find manageable in this regard? Perhaps large courses break up into smaller sub groups for discussion?

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