Using online activities, you can progress students' learning, prepare them for formal assessment tasks and undertake assessment. Conducting learning activities online gives students flexibility as to when and where they will undertake learning and be assessed. This supports the development of their independent learning skills.
Planning
When planning online activities, consider:
- How will the learning activities support the expected learning outcomes?
- What will motivate students to engage with the online activities?
- How can you support students, and encourage them to support each other in online learning?
- Can what the student does be incorporated into course assessment, so that the learning activities conform to the principles of student-centred learning?
Creating an activity online doesn't guarantee that students will participate. Encourage student engagement by ensuring that the activity is integrated with the rest the course learning. Each online learning activity should support an assessed activity, or be an assessment itself.
Types of learning activities
Online activities should relate to face-to-face activities, and complement them. For example, you might:
- replace an in-class activity with an online activity (e.g. replace a lecture with self-paced material and quizzes, or replace a tutorial with a discussion activity),
- or support an activity with online material, and manage it with online tools, while still including a face-to-face component (e.g. a group project).
In either case it is important to consider how to support the students in completing the activity, and to give regular feedback.
LMS tools and examples of learning activities
See Building graduate capabilities, and Using technologies for assessment for some examples of how tools in learning management systems can support different activities.
Online Portfolio Tools
Tam Nguyen from the Faculty of the Built Environment talks about using the portfolio tools available in the Blackboard LMS.
Online portfolio tools - Tam Nguyen
Resources
- Read more about Teaching approaches and strategies.
- The UNSW Guidelines on Learning explain why active learning is so important.