Instructional Design
A&DD is formally described in the unit descriptor as a blended (BL) unit. This requires a range of elearning/ICT methods to be applied in the delivery of the unit.
The overall teaching and learning (T&L ) approach is therefore to harness resources, activities, methods and peer learners, underpinned by ICT, to achieve learning. This is discussed further in T&L Approach. The T&L is closely linked to the assessment which is discussed in the Assessment section. The Practice Diagram provides a more simplified "declarative" view of the approach. It was produced in a 30-minute Database Commons exercise!
This overall apprach is also consistent with a School-wide initiative to promote a "prepare - do - reflect" model. In other words, to facilitate and encourage preparation for class sessions which focus on doing activities, followed by formative feedback and reflection.
In the first instance, considerable effort has gone into making it as clear and as accessible as possible what the learner is expected to do, and the provision of a core set of resources to do it with. The first port of call for the student in this respect is normally the main A&DD Home Page in myCourse.
The overall approach is also explained in the Teaching Scheme (Section 2) of the Unit Information Guide (UIG) that must be provided to each student. T&L Data Mining provides an example of how this works in practice for one of the key 5 themes. Formative feedback of particularly the assessed work also plays an important role. This is described in more detail in the Assessment section.
Has this approach worked effectively? Difficult to say! Certainly, feedback and results from the unit have generally been good (refer Evaluation section). One particular issue which remains is to get students to do sufficient preparation, particularly initial reading, prior to each theme and session. The intention is that each class session then focusses immediately on discussing design and implementation solutions to the activities. However, too often the session reverts to a more didatic presentation of key topics.
Has it been an efficient approach? Definitely yes! The approach of getting the resources and activities online since 2001 has been very efficient. Refer also to the Database Portal in the Content section.