Energy studies and the art of going online

Offering interactive, multimedia courses via the Internet or CDROM is seen as one of the most promising ways of achieving the goals of cost effective, flexible, global education in a more competitive local and international student market. One of the major questions that still has to be answered, however, is whether interactive, online instructional methods can only be used to supplement traditional teaching practises, or whether they can effectively replace or even improve on them. This paper describes our experience in the design and development, so far, of the core units of a Postgraduate Diploma in Energy Studies to be offered by Murdoch University in the on-line delivery mode. This includes a discussion of some of the pedagogical and teaching/learning issues that needed to be addressed in developing such things as a common Web Browser interface and the way material is presented in an online, interactive mode. Some ideas of "What Works and Why", are given based on an evaluation of student attitudes to one of these units that has already been offered in dual mode.