A five-level approach to the large-scale development and delivery of online programs

RMIT has embarked on a flexible delivery program that requires all of its courses to have an appropriate online presence by the end of 2002. A program of this scale can only be carried out with considerable involvement of academic staff, beyond their role as content providers. This paper describes a 5-level approach used in the Faculty of Applied Science. The first level provides basic course and administrative information and requires minimal resources. Higher levels address fully online, pedagogically sound delivery, but require considerable more expertise and resources for development and delivery. This model allows staff to be involved early, and for courses to be developed to higher levels of learning support as staff members gain experience and develop their capabilities. Overall, the approach leads to earlier benefit to students, through earlier access to useful online information, and better use of resources in the long-term as academic staff evolve a better understanding of what is possible and what is desirable in a more sophisticated online learning environment.