The relationship between the perceived value of supplementary online components, and student roles and responsibilities
Online delivery is becoming more widely used to enhance face-to-face provision within the tertiary sector. What is the value of such supplementation in the learning process? This notion of value is explored through examination of the responses and online output of over 50 students involved in two 3 year units, each of which used online supplementation. These responses and output are then analysed within teacher-centred and student-centred models of teaching. The findings suggest that the level and amount of self-directed learning undertaken by the students in the supplementary online component is related to the approach to teaching and learning adopted by the lecturer.
Managing change: The use of mixed delivery modes to increase learning opportunities
Science teaching in the new millennium will need to suit the students' needs and understanding, and employers' expectations. Choosing to learn will help form the learning opportunities presented. This paper looks at the way the delivery of teaching and learning materials for large first year biology units of study has changed over a period of time during which there have been reductions in staff resources and increases in student numbers. The strategies currently used to manage student learning and improve the learning experience will be detailed. These include a mix of on campus and online opportunities such as the management of laboratory classes in a peer mode model and the recent re-purposing of existing online resources to provide a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The VLE offers a safe, student centred learning environment with access to synchronous and asynchronous communications, and access to learning and assessment materials. Reasons for the development of the VLE are discussed, with ideas on the management of campus based teaching in the experimental sciences.
Educating the Educators: Rethinking Subject Matter and Methods
gate? In addition to general requirements in their professional education such as psychological and social foundations and student teaching, what specifically do social studies teachers need to know and be able to do? What, in particular, do they need to study in the subject matters of the social sciences (defined here, for purposes of brevity, to include history and geography), and what should they learn about its effective direction to desired results, that is, method? Usually answers to the first question require reference to the liberal arts component of teacher education and the second to methods in the professional education component. As we shall see, this separation of subject matter and method in the education of social studies teachers, although conventional, poses problems.