University of Tasmania, Australia

'OTL is not about replacing or reducing the human dimension to teaching and learning, but rather providing a range of avenues for dialogue to occur between staff and students. It allows for a new mix between face-to-face communication, independent work on the part of students, and communication via the web'

Professor Sue Johnston, PVC Teaching & Learning

As Professor Johnston states, online teaching and learning is not something opposed to the more traditional classroom experience, but rather is another avenue to enrich and complement the methods of teaching and learning we are familiar with. It can provide experiences unique to the web; that is, experiences not easliy replicated in the face-to-face classroom. The web provides new ways to combine teaching strategies in mutually supportive ways — the web can enrich and extend learning in the classroom; the classroom can in turn support learning through the web. It is this power to combine technology-mediated with classroom based learning that holds the greatest promise for improvements in the quality of learning. And it is those combinations that exploit the particular strengths (and recognise the limitations/weaknesses) of each form of teaching and learningthat will be important in achieving this goal.

Not about replicating face-to-face teaching and learning

It follows that online teaching and learning is not really about replicating what happens in the face-to-face classroom. While thinking about how teaching and learning occurs in the traditional classroom (or even by distance education) can be valuable as a useful model in planning for online activities (as in the 'virtual classroom'), it can be limiting. There may be situations where you need to replicate a face-to-face situation because this face-to-face strategy is not available to you. However, the power of online teaching and learning is in providing for qualitatively different learning experiences..

In summary, online teaching and learning is about using the resources and capabilities of the online environment to facilitate student learning. The web can provide a quality learning experience through its capacity to provide information, hook up people as part of a learning community, and facilitate various interactions (between learners and teaching staff, amongst learners, and between learners and content).

The strengths of online teaching and learning

Reasons to use the online environment

• improve contact between staff and students
• decrease time spent in answering questions individually
• allow for contact among students
• use collaborative learning techniques to develop team skills
• draw on the diverse experiences of the student group
• share resources and assignment work
• provide access to experts relevant to the discipline
• provide access to worldwide information sources
• demonstrate processes dynamically using animation
• develop research skills
• develop skills in technology use
• provide fast feedback on automatically marked quizzes.

In summary, online teaching is good for:

• communication
• interaction
• provision of media-rich information sources
• access to a wide range of resources through hypertext and hypermedia links.

For more specific reasons for going online at UTAS, visit About using MyLO for teaching and learning online.

Also see Ten reasons for going online (PDF 86KB)

Reasons for not using the Web

• because it's there
• solely to deliver extensive subject content.

Useful readings

• Alexander, Shirley: 'Teaching and learning on the World Wide Web', Ausweb 95 Conference.
  A seminal paper; argues that 'instead of focusing on the features of the technology, the most important question is 'What do I want my students to learn?"