ACCORDING to Dr Dorit Maor, online learning is not a matter of converting a horizontal textbook to a vertical computer screen.

“Online learning is very different from classroom learning led by a teacher, and is changing our perception of teaching,” she said.

Working in the School of Education,

Dr Maor will explore the extent to which online learning changes individual learners and how our perceptions of learning, particularly our understanding of assessment, have changed as a result of using new technologies.

Dr Maor said the major goal in online learning was to engage students in reflective and collaborative learning by creating learning communities to overcome the intellectual isolation of external students.

One result of being part of such a community is ‘peer-learning’, where students learn from each other and the tutor. This encourages students to share their experiences and knowledge, and support each other in their learning and difficulties.

Dr Maor believes the way to create an effective online learning environment is for courses to be specifically tailored to the medium.

“The way we teach should affect Web design, rather than the technology constraining teaching methods,” she said.

Beginning her career as a science teacher in Israel, Dr Maor completed her masters degree in the United States and her PhD degree at Curtin University.

Her doctoral studies combined her interest in science education and her interest in learning with computers.

As part of a small ARC grant in 2000, she, with a colleague at Curtin University, developed an instrument to assess students’ and teachers’ perceptions in the online learning environment.