Design principles for online tutorials

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is an online tutorial?
3. Why create online tutorials?
4. Demonstration - Two approaches
5. Principles for creating effective tutorials
   1. Create a simulated conversation between learner and teacher
   2. Involve learners actively
   3. Work with what learners already know
   4. Manage the flow of the learning conversation
   5. Go from the particular to the general (at least sometimes)
6. Applying the principles - some examples
7. The process of creating tutorials
8. Practical Hints and Tips
9. Summary
10. References

Create a simulated conversation between learner and teacher

A number of models of online learning propose that online materials should aim to reproduce the conversation or dialogue between teacher and learner, that typically takes place in face-to-face learning (Laurillard 2002, Mayes 1998).

It is only through dialogue that the learner can test their understanding and reformulate it in the light of feedback from the teacher and other learners.

Clearly online tutorials are limited in the ways that they can achieve this, but it is towards this that we should be aiming.