Discussions allow students to express their point of views and critically engage with the views of others. These discussions make learning visible and challenge and extend student thinking. For discussions to be a valuable learning experience, scaffolding is required. This can be done by helping students to understand:
 

Adding a ‘call to action’ enables students to participate actively in their learning. By using a variety of activity types, students can apply their learning in a range of different ways. These activities help students consolidate and integrate new ideas, concepts and skills. There is also significant evidence pointing to the importance of learning in ‘bite-sized chunks’ to reduce cognitive overload and applying what is being learned incrementally as the student progresses through their course. A ‘call to action’ invites students to produce and share their work as an ongoing dialogue, allowing visibility of learning to students and teachers, and formative feedback opportunities that can be used to develop skills in evaluative judgement and improve their own learning.

There is value to learning independent research skills, but these need to be introduced in a guided manner, along with incremental development of digital literacies critical to succeeding in online learning. Often students will engage with a reading or a task more effectively if they have context, which is gained by being primed with a sense of what it is they are looking for and how it fits with the overall goals of the unit and/or their whole course.

Research shows that motivation is a key part of the learning process, not just a precursor. The structure of the learning experience plays a key role in helping students to develop this motivation. While self-motivation is key to student success, the spark for lighting this passion is often provided by educators who draw on their expertise and experience to tell the story of the content, to set tasks and explain the ’why’ behind them. The emphasis on narrative in CloudFirst Learning Design provides the avenue for educators to do this.

Online learning needs to be carefully designed in advance. Each step needs to feature explicit guidance by the teacher because the online learner doesn’t have the subtle informal cues (verbal and non-verbal) that are often exchanged between teacher and student spontaneously in an onsite classroom. An effective online learning package will incorporate multiple elements that work seamlessly to provide the student with a learning experience that they can navigate anytime without further direction or assistance from the teacher.
 
For example, instead of providing a decontextualised academic reading or the teacher launching straight into explaining a key topic, a sequenced online package may include:
 

CloudFirst does not mean ‘Cloud Only’. At Deakin, all students’ learning experiences begin online, so by improving the online learning resources and experiences, we add significant value for all our students., CloudFirst creates online learning experiences that are flexible and self-paced, enabling students to acquire knowledge while also interacting with peers and teaching staff, that are complemented by active and collaborative seminars, either online or on-campus, in which teachers guide students to apply their knowledge and skills.

CloudFirst Learning Design draws on Diana Laurillard’s model of ‘conversational learning’ which privileges online learning relationships between students and their teachers, students and their learning resources, and students and their peers. It also synthesises current thinking and research in online, and active and collaborative learning to ensure we deliver premium online and onsite learning experiences.