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ABSTRACT
With a view to attracting more students and offering flexible learning opportunities, online teaching and learning is becoming increasingly wide-spread across the higher education sector. This research reports on the experiences of eight initial teacher education students who studied an outdoor education unit in the online space. Using a descriptive qualitative case study approach, the students were interviewed with a view to exploring their experiences of studying outdoor education in the online space. Students spoke about the ways in which the online teaching space, the role of the field experience and the assessment tasks contributed to, or detracted from, their learning experiences. Our study revealed that with careful design and delivery, the online space was an effective way to deliver a foundational outdoor education unit. This article concludes with a discussion of how these findings sit alongside recent papers that advance our understandings of teaching and learning in outdoor education.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Initial Teacher Educator (ITE) are higher education students enrolled in a teacher education course at a university.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Janet Dyment
Janet Dyment, PhD, is a senior lecturer and deputy head of school in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. She completed her PhD research in Educational Studies at Lakehead University, Canada. Her current research interests are in outdoor education pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, and in particular the power and potential of reflective journals.
Jillian Downing
Jillian Downing is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. In this role she has developed range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses that focus on the scholarship and practice of applied learning. Jill is currently undertaking her PhD under the supervision of Professor Jan Herrington (Murdoch University), evaluating the effectiveness of a set of design principles that aim to ensure an applied, authentic environment for non-traditional students within a fully online learning environment in higher education.
Allen Hill
Allen Hill is a Principal Lecturer in Sustainability and Outdoor Education at ARA Institute of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr Hill joined the team at ARA in July, 2016 from the University of Tasmania, Australia, where he holds an adjunct Senior Lecturer position in the Faculty of Education.
Heidi Smith
Heidi Smith is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania, Australia. In this role she has developed range of undergraduate courses that focus on outdoor and sustainability education. Heidi completed her PhD exploring ‘extraordinary’ outdoor leadership and has published in a range of areas, including outdoor leadership, reflective journals, e-portfolios, curriculum development and outdoor education praxis.