Design options
Selecting the e-learning to suit your purpose
E-learning offers a wider range of options for learning solutions to meet different needs and situations. The main planning decisions when designing courses using e-learning are:
- working out which delivery methods are available, and which to use for what (ie the best mix)
- deciding what learning approaches to use
- choosing the learning strategies to use, including locating existing e-learning materials.
Like most design challenges, the main factors in your decisons will be cost (or resources) and time balanced against the outcomes (benefits to you and your learners).
Selecting the delivery methods
Using the best available combination for your learning requirements
The main options available for e-learning are:
- using a learning management system (LMS), to provide access to online materials and communication tools
- using other information and communication technologies (ICT), such as email and teleconferencing
- blending on-site or face-to face methods, either on campus or at a workplace
- using self-directed courseware, distributed on CD-ROM, the web or intranets
- using mobile technologies, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
For ways to combine approaches for range of different learning situations, see the Sample designs in this section.
Choosing the learning approach
Matching the learning type to the learners, outcomes and resources
The 'learning approach' you use usually includes assumptions about how people learn best, with some teaching and learning practices to match. Since e-learning design often requires a deliberate choice of materials and technologies, you may need to be clearer about which approach you are using, and why.
Some of the main learning approaches being used in VET are:
- Collaborative learning - interacting with others to build and share knowledge
- Problem-based learning - solving real-world or authentic problem
- Procedural learning - mastering concepts, processes and procedures, usually when these are clear and stable
- Game-based learning - learning by doing in a rule-based environment with feedback, often in the form of a quest
- Simulations - learning-by-doing in a fully-simulated, interactive online environment (eg virtual labs, flight simulators)
- Project learning - creating a product or solution for a real situation, usually in work teams
- Discovery-based learning - learner-directed strategies for exploring, analysing, organising and generating knowledge
- Simulated workplace - a metaphorical online environment or 'world' with workplace-like tasks, resources and roles
- Self-directed learning - self-paced, self-correcting computer-based tutorials (eg IT, compliance and product training).
Most programs use a mixture of these, chosen to suit the learner group and course outcomes.
For examples of how different approaches have been used for different purposes, see the Sample designs in this section.
Selecting and organising the learning strategies
Building an e-learning pathway for learners
In this site we have organised learning design around four main tasks - organising content, preparing activities, providing support and arranging assessment. E-learning provides a wide range of strategies to use for these purposes.
To see how these strategies are organised in successful e-learning courses, look at the Sample designs in this section.
For examples of the full range of e-learning strategies, and a detailed guide to using them, go to the Gallery of strategies.
