Evaluating the Design, Development, and Implementation Experiences of the Digital Fluency Course

Abstract

The Digital Fluency course is a suite of 5 openly licenced modules designed to enhance capacity for educators in identified topics to support their work in the higher education sector in the 21st Century. OER Africa and Open University of Tanzania collaboratively conceptualised, designed, developed, implemented, and published the modules encompassing Digital Fundamentals, Working with OER, Course Design and Development for Online Provision, Academic Integrity in a Digital Age, and Storage and Access of Digital Resources. Subsequently, a further existing course on Facilitating Online Learning (an OER remix) was implemented as a sixth module to complete the suite. // Evaluation data was collected via three related online surveys eliciting experiences from the module developers (who also facilitated their own modules), pilot participants undertaking facilitated online modules, and workshop participants who engaged more briefly and less formally with the DF modules. The developers’ survey comprised questions around team composition, teaching and learning, project support, and an open reflection on the experience. The participant survey included questions on prior experience of online courses, evaluating the teaching and learning experience, support and motivation provided, and a final open reflection of the participant experience. The workshop survey was very similar to the participants’ survey, but as the implementation context and format differed, the data was treated separately. // This paper explores, analyses, and presents the findings relating to the development experience and process adopted, the pilot participant experience, and the workshop participant impressions of potential usefulness in their own institutions. Implications of the implementation format on completion rates is be considered. Lessons learned by the project leaders and developers are identified, and potential improvements for the modules are suggested with reference to the survey findings, implementation format, and updating of the content. //Paper ID 224