The OU's learning about elearning?

Having been a participant in 2003 in what felt like a very pioneering OU MA module H802: Application of Information Technology, followed closely by H804 in 2004, I can see changes that the OU has introduced to H808 (2009) and H807 (2011) which I am sure are not an accident. When it comes to elearning design, there are undoubtedly lessons for me here. I'll think of more as H807 progresses, but here are a few to get started.

One very important difference between my latest 2 modules and my first 2 is that the integration of VLE activity is now much more important. In H802 and H804, points were awarded for levels of participation, but the percentage that was awarded was relatively insignificant - from memory on H804 the amound was around 7% (in other words, not enough to change behaviour!). In both H808 and H807, at least one TMA asks you to document an online project/activity, and both programmes require you to give account of your personal contribution to the project, or other discussions. This seems to me a very significant shift in design, to encourage active participation in at least some of the online activity.

Another noticeable, although understandable, difference is that there is less 'hand-holding' around the online organisation and interactions. I'm sure this is due to the level of sophistication around electronic communications that now exists now in comparison with 8 years ago.

Thirdly, I noticed when our H807 module was launched that we had a much larger group - 21 - than was true on either H802 or H804. These earlier courses had 12-15 students at the start. However, I notice that by the end of week three, there are 10 active participants, other than myself. I know one (Claire) dropped out very early on, but the others, so far, have not been particularly active. Learner engagement has been a difficult issue in the experiments that I have undertaken around using elearning. Maybe the OU has just concluded there will always be a level of fallout, so they take account of that from the start?!

Finally, the use of references from other participants on the module was always valued, but on H807 there are explicit demands to use comments from other students in TMAs.

All very interesting - as the module develops, I am hoping to spot other elearning design lessons. We are, after all, being trained by one of the world's most experienced Distance Learning Organisations;-)