ABSTRACT
Designers of online learning, the review reveals, should pay considerable attention to learner control, dialogue, learner support and opportunities for direct learner involvement. The chapter explores the implications of these different modes for the design, structure and management of online learning and proposes a framework to help practitioners locate their own practice and construct appropriate programmes and systems based on lessons from the review. It is based on a systematic review of such reports. Web-based online learning is too recent a medium to have been the subject of a systematic and comprehensive research programme to test its overall educational effectiveness. Each of the dialogue, involvement, support, control features had different characteristics in each of the paradigms, with implications for the structuring and design of good practice. The learner-managed element of the north-east sector is structured and controlled by the teacher with freedom for the learner to explore.
