eLearning

History teachers/tutors
in the eLearning environment
Comments by the Sempringham e-resources team.
Our team are learning with our learning enablers.
Version 1.2  Jan 2008

 Teachers and eLearning
eLearning and VLEs, especially for the 16-18 age group,
will lead to amended roles for teachers/tutors.

The predictable, and in that sense comfortable, pattern of one or two teachers
taking an exam group through a year’s work, with class-room based study,
will be a form from the past. The new roles of the History tutor/teacher will include:

  • the creation of a substantially self-contained course, a not inconsiderable
    activity (but history-ontheweb and our publication ehistory can help).

  • adaption of the base course for students of markedly above
    and below average capacity.

  • guiding, encouraging, monitoring and registering students
    as they progress through the course.

  • arrangement of discussions, debates and seminars that relate to
    the course. Discussion is central to History study:
    eLearning make timetabled meetings necessary.

  • setting and marking assignments and communication of feedback
    to students to foster improved performance.

In short, there is a sea change from the schoolroom and row upon row of students taking notes
from the teacher’s lecture to the eLearning pattern in which each student follows their chosen
course by use of the computer-based guide with resources from the Internet and elsewhere.

In the eLearning world the teacher is a ‘study companion’ and mentor, who encourages,
guides and offers feedback for student engagement with their course.

One can present this as an exchange of front-of-house teacher performance
and formality with the informality of backroom teacher/tutor work and
one-to-one support in a personalised learning environment.
 

The general view of the Sempringham e-resources team
is that The Conservatives, 1846-80 unit e-guide by Ellen Parcell
and Tom Wells (a Sempringham team member) in our Study Centre,
embodies a fair number of helpful characteristics.

Sempringham e-resources - history-ontheweb.co.uk, modernhistory.org.uk, ehistory.org.uk - pending
www.history-ontheweb.co.uk - Index page I  The Study Centre  I   About e-new perspective  I  Students' study guide  
 Exam and study advice for AS/A Modern History  I  Topic guides  I  Core concepts  I  The world of sources
 Guide to History degree course selection   I  History and theory  I  New texts from publishers  I  GCSE Resource bank