Should we care about what the students do? Challenging how we design for online learning

Abstract

Rapidly responding in the times of a pandemic, tertiary courses in New Zealand have implemented emergency remote learning and teaching by increasing learning online. Many staff require support though to purposeful redesign and facilitate online as part of blended or hybrid learning and teaching. This article reports about a study of redesign for such a purpose. The course demands were identified to then consider how to use online features to support the assessment for Ma?ori and non-Ma?ori students. Research instruments with students included questionnaires and focus groups; conversations and reflections were used with staff. The paper includes key findings, firstly how online features can contribute to active learning and secondly, considerations and tools to enhance a course design with increased online learning, for example an explicit plan of how and when certain affordances support students learning.