The course's main focus is to help the future teachers form a picture of what an effective facilitator should or should not do while providing support for learning and assessment in an online learning environment. It involves a blended approach, with both online and contact sessions, attempting to model effective learning and assessment practice in an integrated, technology-assisted teaching-learning environment. The open source learning management system Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL 3.0) was employed, running on the Chisimba framework.

The platform makes use of features such as online discussions, synchronous chat sessions, blogs, online worksheets, and the submission of tasks through an anti-plagiarism software package called Turnitin.

The talk at eLA details my experiences - both positive and negative - working with KEWL, as well as those of the participating students. Whilst many institutions are moving away from proprietary software to Open Source solutions, my paper strives to manifest the possibilities of presenting an online course within such an environment. The elements of an online environment are discussed, as well as the possibilities and advantages that an online environment may offer over traditional face-to-face contact sessions.

The ADDIE model is investigated as a useful framework when developing online instructional material. In addition to this, the necessity of keeping Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction in mind is also highlighted, as it is through application of these concepts that the most effective courseware possible can be designed.

Building on Gagne's nine events of instruction, Osguthorpe and Graham, 2003, identify six goals that course presenters or designers should bear in mind when designing blended-learning environments. These goals are explored in relation to this specific online course, in whose designing I followed the principles mentioned in Welch and Reed's 2005 document, which effectively incorporates all of the above. By checking against their quality criteria for designing and delivering online distance education, I tried to ensure that this course met the requirements.

The first was clearly laid out aims and learning outcomes. The core of the whole process is ensuring that the content and teaching approach support learners in achieving the learning outcomes.

By providing learner-friendly introductions in conjunction with linking and summarizing passages, I hoped to motivate the students and provide coherence to the materials.
The content of the course was accurate, up-to-date, relevant to the aims and outcomes, free of discrimination, and reflected an awareness of the multilingual and multicultural reality of South African society.

The language level of the materials was appropriate for the target students, and the materials assisted students with the particular difficulties that learning through reading and learning at a distance require.

Care was taken to understand the contexts in which the students live and work, as well as their prior knowledge and experience. Active learning and teaching approaches were used to engage students intellectually and practically, as well as to cater for individual needs. This was achieved by presenting the content in the form of an unfolding argument, rather than discrete bits of information that have no obvious connection.

The course comprised thirteen modules, each of which the students had a week to complete. Eight of these sessions were face-to-face contact sessions, and the other five were online. The students were expected to participate in an online activity during the week, which took the form of either an online discussion or a synchronous chat session and included the weekly posting of a comment to their blogs.

The students opened the relevant chapter for the week and read through the introduction, which provided a background to the weekly topic to be covered. Points to consider or bear in mind while reading were also highlighted, and the students needed to reflect on these while completing the tasks. The topics and chapters followed on each other and progressed from a more basic overview of what eLearning entailed to issues and topics relevant in eLearning instruction.

The various elements of the course materials and a variety of media were integrated, and the integration was clearly sign-posted. The course materials were designed in an accessible way and included applications for an events calendar and for making announcements.

Pages and text were designed for consistency, readability, and attractiveness. In addition, the site was easily navigable and had a sitemap with clearly marked links. The site was kept up to date, had a minimum of technical faults, and was continuously under development. Links to useful websites, related video clips, podcasts, as well as the required readings were provided so that the student did not have to waste time searching for the relevant readings and links.

The site also clearly displayed its institutional links, and the sources of material used were acknowledged and correctly referenced.

Support in the use of various functions on the site was provided both in the site itself and from external technical assistance.

Interactions with other learners as well as with the lecturer were encouraged, not necessarily through the site itself, but by the course presenter. This was done through the use of:

• discussion forums
• a built-in chat facility
• blogging

The materials-development plan included provision for evaluation, as the materials were periodically reviewed in light of ongoing feedback from students. I made use of the following built-in assessment features:

• online worksheets
• rubrics.

Feedback, peer assessment, and formative assessment were also taken into consideration when designing and delivering the course.

The students were asked to comment on their experience with the course and its online capabilities. They were asked in particular to comment on the site's navigability and accessibility and whether this teaching approach supported them in achieving the course's learning outcomes.


There were specific questions in the questionnaire that required responses detailing the benefit of specific course add-ons, such as Turnitin anti- plagiarism software, online worksheets, blogging, and discussion forums, as well as synchronous chat sessions. These will be discussed, and actual relevant student comments will be discussed in detail.