Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

22 – Computer-Based Resources for Learning
and cannot have their questions immediately answered.
Think outside the box to guarantee learning. Consider
simulation, discovery-learning techniques, and active
experimentation. Page-turning activities will not suffice
for learning many practical skills. Use the technology for
its strengths rather than simply transferring content
from one format to another.
Tip
The key is to determine what needs to be done to
ensure effective learning will occur.
Think about the limitations of teaching each skill
online. You will have to realistically determine what
level of skill you can achieve. For example, in an online
biology lab, how would you teach a student to learn how
to use a microscope? This is a limitation of using online
technology. However, a lot can be done with visual
media. You could show the coarse adjustment being
used to focus an image, then show what would be seen
inside the ocular lens, then show fine adjustments being
made, and then what the learner would see inside the
ocular lens. A practical activity could have the learner
clicking on arrows to move the coarse and fine
adjustments (clockwise and counter-clockwise) and see
the corresponding image of what would be seen. The
goal would be to find the clearest image. Video clips and
activities can similarly be used for demonstrating other
microscope components, such as the condenser lens.
This would not be as good as what is done in a real lab,
but would definitely give a sense of how a real
microscope works.
Other activities could potentially lead to better results
than a real lab. As a comparison, in a real lab, students
see specimens and are then asked to draw what they see
so that they can later study from their drawings. In an
online lab, students will see full-colour video clips and
photographs that they can later study for their lab test.
One key in creating a successful online lab is getting as close
as possible to reality (given constraints of time and money).
A part of the instructional strategy is to organize the
information into small enough chunks for the students
to successfully learn. A typical need for this is when a
procedural skill has numerous steps. If so, consider
teaching the entire process in logical groups of three to
six steps. Many instructional resources provide too
much information or too many steps for students to
learn at one time.
Instructional strategies should include some content
on the potential avenue for making mistakes. Ask the
content expert about typical mistakes made after the
content is taught in the traditional way. If one only
teaches what is correct, the learner may never learn what
can go wrong. Teaching what can go wrong is helpful in
teaching students about safety in chemistry labs.
Tip
Address potential mistakes that learners make in
live labs.
Teaching practical skills via computer usually requires
a variety of specific media to enhance learning as well as
to test skills. It is often difficult to test practical skills
with only text. Plan in advance to record photographs
and video clips of skills done incorrectly. These become
excellent resources for testing. One challenge will be in
creating the media needed since live labs typically
depend on some copyrighted material. It is not safe to
assume that you can get copyright clearance from the
originators, especially if you plan to sell the product.
Determine whether assessment is realistic as a true
measure of performance. This is particularly important
for practical skills. When testing, consider all difficulty
levels. Many existing technology-based resources are
weak in that they only address low-level thinking skills
rather than the actual skills needed.
Make the program highly interactive throughout.
Interactivity requires the learner to actively think while
learning. Creating interactions in the virtual environment
is easily done. You can have students drag and drop
items, increase and decrease settings to observe results,
make decisions and see consequences, and answer
questions based on video clips and photographs
showing correct and incorrect procedures or results.
Remember to always provide detailed feedback, even
when the answer is right. This is in case the student
guessed the correct answer or answered correctly for the
wrong reason(s).
Tip
Ensure that you keep the learner engaged and
thinking throughout.
CONTROLLING REAL EQUIPMENT
Virtually controlling real equipment can be challenging.
One problem is enabling control across computer
platforms. Although it is not trivial, it can be solved with
web-based tools that are designed for interoperability
and machine-to-machine interaction over a network.
However, this is a major problem if the equipment is not
designed for remote access. Virtual control may require
a lab technician for some tasks such as preparing and
344 Education for a Digital World