Calibrating online teaching in an undergraduate unit in early childhood

Information technology has become central in flexible learning in view of the paradigm shifts occurring in delivery of teaching and learning materials, as well as the vast numbers of distance education students, both in Australia and overseas to whom such experiences need to be made accessible in the most pedagogically sound ways. This report presents the development of the delivery of an undergraduate unit from a traditional to online and student-managed format. Findings of the surve are support the efficacy of web-supported learning, which has evolved into a student-managed learning system over the reported successive applications in teaching of a core undergraduate unit at IEC. Based on this experience and supported with the presented results, it is argued that IT offers not only supportable, but potentially very positive teaching and learning outcomes, provided that the process is seen as a flexible one by the teaching teams. Careful attention to student feedback, giving conceptually sound pedagogy priority over the use of IT for its own sake, and reviewing, reflecting and revising such experiences appear to be at the heart of the matter: online learning and teaching may have been the tempting flavour of the decade; it can be the heart of quality in teaching in the new millennium.

Information Tchnology ,

Web-supported learning ,

Australia Macquarie University ,

Student-managed learning ,