EVALUATION

In the long run, the effectiveness of this online learning design will be assessed based on the ‍‍‍‍‍‍students’ ability to articulate ‍‍‍‍‍‍a position on their understanding of creation, out of the available multiple perspectives. ‍‍‍‍‍‍To assess the efficacy of the design, a summative assessment will be made in form of a coursework.‍‍‍‍‍‍ A coursework will be given to students and the success of the OLA will be realised if the students are in position to articulate the topic of creation by clearly showing the relationship between the different perspectives of creation, namely:- religion, science, ancient near east texts and African myths of creation. In the end, the students must clearly take a position. But, for the purpose of this prototype OLA, a formative assessment was done. On the side of the learners, two groups of students were orally interviewed and on the side of the educators, 2 colleagues in the department were requested to respond to a brief questionnaire in Google forms after introducing them to the site __ [|http://bit.ly/oOLz0k and] __ their response are available at []. .Both the students and the educators were happy and to a large extend positive about the OLA.
 * Evaluation **

The first group of students who are soon graduating felt cheated that such a kind of initiative had not been started during the year when they were still active students. However, they realized that all was not lost because they could use the knowledge attained from me to simplify their process of content production hand in hand with their students. They noted that at a time when the government is advocating for the use of ICTs in education, for narrative subjects like ours, the wiki-spaces could come in handy. As a matter of fact out of the five who participated in that group, three opened up wiki-spaces for secondary education. For the current student group, the fact that they could access content on a wiki-space and also be able to interact with fellow students was seen as an opportunity to learn better so it was received very well. The students also expressed joy at the fact that they would be able to interact with content, fellow peers and the educators regardless of time and space. In their view this kind of education would avail them a without limit (unrestricted) opportunity to ask questions about things they do not understand in class and responses will be from both fellow peers and educators who are the subject experts. So the more knowledgeable peers have an opportunity to contribute to the learning process and building a knowledge resource by making posts to the blog. In my view, the students’ responses show that the OLA is a worthwhile venture because it meets the necessities for a web based learning. As Kecmanovic and Webb’s (2000:310) suggest, a web based technology should provide unrestricted participation in a group activity. In this case, the students have expressed the ability of the blog and wiki-spaces to avail them the opportunity of unlimited participation and interaction between educators and learners. In addition to that, the students are happy with the fact that they can learn from each other’s ideas made available through the blog posts. This also meets one of the needs of the OLA which is to create a platform for learners to share the responsibility of searching for answers with their lecturers (Marquardt 2005). Besides it also takes care of a student trait of preferring to consult peers rather than consulting subject experts Ng’ambi (2004:85). The current students who studied the OLA suggested that more topics of the course be made available also. They also suggested that such material should always be posted before handling a topic in a face to face setting but discussion topics on the blog should after a face to face session. This will help them ask relevant questions of only issues they do not perceive. The students also anticipated that since the classes are very big having very many blog posts may overwhelm the lecturer and suggested that ways of how to handle such situations must be thought of. I find my students challenges and issues raised worth and I plan to revise the OLA and come up with ways of ensuring that I am not over loaded with students’ questions. One way I have thought of is to discuss the matter with my colleagues so that we can share the burden. And another way is to get a teaching assistant who time and again checks on the blog and takes notes of questions arising and some of them that need long answers will be answered in a face to face class setting and other will be answered through other blog posts.
 * Students **

Like the students, the educators who evaluated this OLA showed interest and saw it as a possible solution to the challenges of numbers and distance which most of the time hinder interaction between learners and educators. The educators however raised concerns that students seemed not to have considered may be due to excitement. From the educators responses, there were questions concerning access to internet connected computers, uninterrupted power supply and time []. The same educators however also made suggestions on how to approach such challenges and I also agree with them. This wiki would be a successful venture in mitigating the problem of interaction between learners and lectures.Before I fell sick I took time to show the lecturers and the students how the the wiki works in conjusction with the blogs. As a result, two of my colleagues have opened their content wiki spaces where they provide space for their students to be a part of the dicussion and equally they have blog spots where students direct short comments and questions. The enthusiasm displayed by the educators and students is a clear sign that blogs and wikis can be used at Makerere. Both groups find the it easy to use and operate the sites after grasping the basics. With such an attitude and quick buy in, I can say that my initiative would be a successful venture towards solving the problem on educator -learner interaction.
 * Educators **
 * My personal Views**

Kecmanovic, C. and Webb, C 2000: “Critical inquiry into webb-mediated collaborative learning.” In Aggarwal, A. (ed.) //Web based learning and teaching technologies: opportunities and challenges//. Idea Group, Hershey, Pa., 3007-326. Marquardt, M. 2005: //Leading with questions//. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ng’ambi, D and Hardman, J 2004: “Towards a Knowledge-Sharing Scaffolding environment based on learners’ questions.” //British Journal of Educational Technology//, 35, 2, 187-196.
 * References **