Zeitschrift für Hochschuldidaktik Nr. 1999/4
Medicine Study 2000
Alternatives for Learning and Assessment, Teaching and Evaluation
Rolf SCHULMEISTER (Hamburg, Germany)
Virtual Learning from a Didactic Point of View
Summary
The movement just started, but the scenery already is rather colourful. Many different types of virtual education providers appear on the international education market. But even protagonists of virtual learning in the meantime criticise the didactical quality of virtual learning. The rapid progress achieved in developing the Internet, virtual seminars or even virtual universities does obviously not correspond to the progress of didactical concepts for online learning. It seems as if the didactical quality is sacrificed to the speed of the technical development. A closer look reveals that didactical methods 50's and 60's are dominating virtual educational - e.g. "programmed instruction", "Drill & Practice" or instructionalist approaches - while complex learning environments favouring other paradigms of learning like constructivism occur relatively seldom. Some didactic criteria important for learning with multimedia are discussed, among them cognitive reinterpretation of scientific knowledge and meaningful interaction with symbolic content. These criteria are not yet realised in virtual learning today.
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