The Curated Internet Portal: A Morphogenetic Approach to Digital Multimedia for College Resources

摘要

This chapter deals with doctoral research into the development of a curated Internet portal providing Photography students at the Durban University of Technology with online access to digital multimedia resources relevant to their academic programme. Today's university educators are faced with an ever-expanding array of e-learning options, ranging from open courseware (OCW) and open educational resources (OERs) to massive open online courses (MOOCs) and online educational portals. It is thus difficult for academic staff to decide which option is best suited to online college tuition in their specific discipline. This research developed and tested out one such option which the literature had suggested was best suited to the specific context, purpose and learner target audience. From within a critical realist orientation, a morphogenetic approach was used comprising three different levels: that of social change towards use of online digital multimedia for learning, that of organisational innovation in the field of e-learning, and that of artefact design in term of actual portal development. Staff and students' educational needs were identified using the morphogenetic action research cycle, analysing data from the Photography Programme review process. A curated educational Internet portal was then set up and prototyped, with various features being tested out in lecture periods, and feedback being obtained from both expert e-learning practitioners and student participants. While the portal produced was extremely versatile in terms of its use by staff and students, the results suggested that a mixed mode approach was the best option for use in view of the Net Generation learners' preference for an experiential hands-on approach and face-to-face faculty interaction.