ONLINE LEARNING: CREATING FLEXIBILITY AND INTERACTIVITY

摘要

How can students become involved and interact with their learning environment? At the same time, how can flexibility be integrated into the learning environment to cater for the changing needs of students? The web and the emerging field of online learning provide great potential for addressing these questions. However, the question arises as to whether or not this potential is being harnessed. Are we actually building flexibility and interactivity into our online learning environments? The Department of Spatial Sciences at Curtin University of Technology has been developing an online learning environment over several years. The aim is to use he online environment to enhance face-to-face teaching of on-campus students, to circumvent problems related to expensive equipment and large class sizes, and to replace traditional teaching modes for distance education students. The challenge is to get students, enrolled in a range of study modes, to become involved in their learning environment that has traditionally comprised classroom lectures, laboratories, tutorials and field trips?