Abstract:

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland has been delivering face-to-face training for family carers looking after a loved one with dementia for over 15 years. With the advent of digital technology and IT literacy there has been a strong demand for this course to be delivered in a purely online format. But how do you transfer a successful face-to-face course to a purely online one, especially one that requires a strong element of social learning? Drawing on a reflective approach, this paper will set out how the author led this project and will map out the stages involved as well as the complex decisions that needed to be made during this two year process. It will concentrate on how the author used features of Moodle to ensure participants shared their caring experience in a way that empowered them. It will demonstrate the importance of an iterative approach which used participant feedback to improve usability and accessibility. The paper should be of interest to online course designers and anyone who is thinking of moving a face-to-face course to a purely online space.

Keywords:

Social learning, course design, learning management systems.