A 360 degree learning environment for university online teaching

The paper is a sequence of methods to inform competent online video conferencing (webinar) teaching resources for universities rushing to meet learning effective provision in the current Covid crisis. The authors consider Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance (1970), with the focus of the theory on developing autonomy in the learner, may still be relevant as a theoretical guide to a rapid growth in demand for online learning, despite originally being applied to traditional paper based distance learning. Ensuring autonomy of learning in the theory's application, might need a WHAT, HOW, WHY, analysis to encourage the self-managed focus of webinar Presenters, Facilitators, Participants and stakeholders to be informed and aware from small PowerPoint projects to largescale conferences. The home-distance learning environment of the autonomous learner is now quite different to that envisaged in Moore's theory. Participants now have a broadcast studio in their home. The authors suggest a base level of hard skills of technical nature and soft skills of performance and engagement are required. Managing complex online events are also not a feature of Moore's concept of the autonomous learner. Therefore a ‘Fishbone’ analysis is proposed to show the process of identifying key issues and quickly resolving solutions that may arise. Looking to the future, the authors see the potential for a virtual online 360* Classroom. The Webinar could quickly evolve to use 3D Virtual Reality technology. One application might be to realise the traditional Socratic Method of higher level thinking accessible to many in a virtual online 3D environment. The conflation of technology and educational objectives are complex, but may now be managed with the methods suggested in the paper. * Corresponding author: Anthony ‘Skip’ Basiel. Email: [email protected] † Corresponding author: Mike Howarth. Email: [email protected] 137 Work Based Learning e-Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2.b, (2020) Finally, a Transactional Distance Toolkit, is explored as a quick and easy method of planning the structure and organisation of a webinar and a with its inbuilt visualisations are away to assess the effectiveness learner autonomy.