ON CAMPUS
campusreview.com.au
BUILDING AN ONLINE CLASSROOM
Virtual revolution
The increasing popularity of
online learning is changing
the way students engage
with universities.
By Serpil Senelmis
O
ver the last few years, the focus on online classrooms
and the use of technology in further education has
grown, with a rapid rise in the numbers of students
wanting to study online. According to an annual report into
online education trends, in the US alone an estimated 5.8
million students have taken up online learning. Projections show
the online learning market worldwide is forecast to surpass $330
billion by 2022.
OPPORTUNITIES TO SHIFT HOW LEARNING HAPPENS
Professor Gregor Kennedy, pro-vice-chancellor (teaching
and learning) at the University of Melbourne, says the trick for
education providers is to “create stimulating, deep, rich interactions
between students and teachers”, and then determine how to
harness exciting technologies and tools to support this.
“What’s important in education is a curated interaction between
students and teachers, students and students, and students and
content, and to use technology-based tools to facilitate these
interactions.”
FOSTERING WORLDWIDE CONTACTS
For Catherine Earles, an in-house lawyer with an Australian energy
network business, studying the Master of Law (Global Competition
and Consumer Law) is her first foray into online study. This will be
the second postgraduate qualification for the lawyer, who works
remotely from Dubai.
The high-achieving mother of two would ultimately “love to
practise as a competition lawyer” and explains that one of the
rewarding aspects of online learning is making global contacts.
“The course attracts students with a wide range of skills and
expertise. By sharing our knowledge in the weekly discussion
boards, we not only learn from each other but develop personal
and professional networks with people from around the world.”
“Focusing on effective curriculum design before technology is
arguably the most important consideration when creating an
online learning platform,” says University of Melbourne learning
designer David Seignior. “We always work from what the student
will be doing and then consider how that can be done in an
engaging manner online.”
Seignior’s colleague, senior learning designer Betina Przybylak,
adds that “review and improvement based upon student feedback
is built into the process”.
“The time and energy put into each subject ensures that
each student is catered to and is able to learn in a way that best
suits them.”
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
According to Seignior, online learning forces designers and
academics to think outside the box and innovate.
“From constraints come ideas and opportunities to do things
differently,” he says.
A recent example from the University of Melbourne is the
use of a software called Shiny R which has been adopted by
the Faculty of Business and Economics to enable students to
manipulate, visualise and interpret data.
By stepping inside a virtual classroom, students can also be
taken to places that they otherwise couldn’t physically go.
Przybylak describes one of the latest developments in teaching
healthcare, which she says allows students to “walk through an
operating theatre both before and during a surgery”.
This mode of engagement has created a huge potential in the
online learning space, Przybylak says.
“It allows interaction and play for students and their learning
in ways that haven’t been possible before.”
Seignior adds that there is also now a ‘choose your own
adventure’ type of learning method that is all about adaptive
learning pathways.
“Students can not only choose their streams of learning,
they can also explore simulated clinical scenarios and make
real decisions.
“Students can decide what type of imaging scan to use –
between an x-ray, MRI, CT scan or ultrasound for a diagnosis
– so they can experience and learn from the consequences of
their decisions.”
THE FUTURE OF ONLINE LEARNING
While the uptake in online learning has been increasing at a
phenomenal rate around the world, will it remain a niche concern
for universities or are we likely to see a major transformation in
contemporary education?
For Kennedy, online learning is increasingly just another part of
our educational landscape.
“We’re entirely committed to campus-based education and we
see what we do in online learning as a significant complement
to this.
“As the university looks to the future, it will increasingly see its
courses represented by a variety of modes of delivery, and online
learning is clearly going to be one of them.” ■
Serpil Senelmis is a copywriter and website strategist at the
Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education.
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