Considering pedagogy in the design and development of online learning environment features : the case of participation glossary

Abstract

This dissertation reports an eight-month case study of design, development and evaluation of a collaborative glossary plugin in an online learning environment (OLE) for a university postgraduate course. The research aims to identify the jobs of different roles during this pedagogical-integrated development by a qualitative analysis on the development documents and communications, and then find methods to evaluate the finished features effectively.

The dissertation concludes that a design coordinator is necessary between the course instructor and the programmer in the development and test to summarize the pedagogical requirements, redesign features in a software perspective, etc. It also tested pedagogical efficacy of the plugin by reporting the result of four methods of test and evaluation. The research suggest more case studies of OLE features development in higher education to be conducted to better define different roles and borders of roles and their responsibilities.