Home Improvement: A Distance Course Assessment scenario

The following PBL-interactive (now SBL Interactive) teaching and learning scenario, produced from an AKO funding grant, is now available as a teaching resource to all New Zealand tertiary institutions. This "click-through" scenario is designed to be embedded into a staff training course on developing courses to be taken at a distance. As every training course is different it will require some external scaffolding, but could be used in a number of ways.

The scenario sees the trainee as new lecturer who has been given the unenviable task of quickly revising a badly performing distance course.  They must examine the existing materials to ascertain deficiencies, and then suggest realistic improvement within the short framework given.  They are also given the opportunity to get the views of contributing staff and students who have been through the course. Tips and advice are given to the trainee in a series of reflective exercises as they work through the scenario.

Figure 1.  Getting unflattering student feedback on a less-than-ideal distance course!

This scenario can be run directly in a browser from http://sblinteractive.massey.ac.nz, after logging in with the username “teachguest” and password “teach1@”. Alternatively, the source file can be downloaded here (Note: some browsers may rename this file as a zip file.  Please rename it as a .scenario file), and can be customised then used with either the client-based SBLi Player or your own Server Edition of SBLi.

Also see the Unforeseen Circumstances. An "Unethical" Adventure scenario.

What is PBL-interactive (now SBL Interactive)

PBL Interactive, the software used to develop the scenario and host it on the web, was made available to all public tertiary institutions in late 2006 as part of the outputs of a TEC sponsored E-learning Collaborative Development Grant (eCDF). Copies are in the main libraries of each institution. Note that since this project was completed, the software has been re-named SBL Interactive (SBLi).  More on the eCDF project and where to get SBLi updates can be found at http://pbl.massey.ac.nz.

Home Improvement: A Distance Course Assessment by Terry Stewart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand License . As the scenario refers to the Massey University distance materials preparation websites, it is expected other users will adapt the source file, so it pertains to their own guidelines. This is permitted providing the original credits are included, and a new section is included in the credits giving details of the modification and the modification author under the heading "Adapted by...". The scenario, or adaptations of the scenario must be used for non-commercial purposes only.