The introduction of on-line learning to inservice training in climatology

Abstract

The discussion in this paper is based on the online delivery of selected sections of a Climatology Inservice Course conducted at the NIE, Singapore. The various considerations taken while designing the online course are discussed. In particular, the allowance for selfpaced access, reduction in travelling time, visualisation facilitated learning, constantly updated course materials, quizzes tailored based on learners’ progress and the resource-rich nature of the World Wide Web (WWW) are among some of the considerations. Some problems that were experienced during and resulting from the implementation and delivery of the online course are discussed and recommendations have been made to rectify these problems for future runs of the course. For example, the prerequisite that course participants have basic WWW navigation skills is insufficient as many learners do not even know how to archive the information on the web-pages. As a result, more specific guidelines as to what constitute prerequisite skills will be outlined in addition to a mandatory orientation lesson. Examples from this experience may be used as a reference for other online inservice courses.