On the problem with unknown terms in syllabus Learning Outcomes

A course syllabus is often not very enlightening as to what the learning experience will be like in the course.   Often the “word of mouth” or gossip about a course is much more insightful to help a student find out the truth.

For example, in the syllabus of the 6311 eLearning course, the Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) refer to an “eLearning environment”, but what does this mean?   Not until the students take the course do they find out this could be an LMS like Moodle, a web conference such as Adobe Connect, or an immersive virtual environment such as Second Life!

One way to relieve some of the confusion is also supply Unit-level Aims and ILOs, so at least the context is reduced to just one unit, instead of the entire course!

But even in a unit, you will see an ILO such as:

• list typical VLE functions and relate them to PBL

What is a VLE?   What is PBL?    At least the Key Terms Glossary will help, and the meaning of these terms becomes clear during the unit Teaching & Learning Activities (TLAs)!    (I hope)