About the course

Instructor Jess Stratton has designed and presented ‘Avoiding Phishing Scams’ to provide examples of phishing emails and explain how to assess the legitimacy. The learning outcome is to recognise the signs of a potential phishing email.

The delivery of the course is online and self-paced. This aligns with LinkedIn Learning’s strategic approach of ‘anytime, anywhere convenience’ (2016).

There are no learner activities nor assessments to measure and evaluate the learner’s understanding.

Digital Learning Affordances

Online learning provides the flexibility of time and space. Keppell and Riddle (2012) states online learning contains affordances that are not available in physical learning environments and will lead to richer learner interactions. Leif (2022) notes that online learning opens the demographic of students as they can learn in a time and space and is best suited for their work, family, lifestyle commitments.

Brame (2016) defines active learning as activities that enable the learner to reflect on their learnings, apply higher critical thinking skills to construct their own knowledge and further their understanding of a topic. As defined in Victoria University’s framework for active learning (n.d.), the generic Q&A discussion board is a simple active learning activity.

The course is multimodal and conveys information through different modes of communication. Nouri (2018) states learners can actively construct and enhance their knowledge when different modes and media is applied. Instead of conveying through the traditional text, the instructor presents the information through an audio recording over a visual presentation.

Suggestions

There is an opportunity to provide more complex active learning components that requires higher critical thinking skills. Examples of complex active learning components suitable for this topic include a simulation of a phishing email or a quiz.

The instructor attempts to apply the intermediate level of active learning through case studies. This may be unsuccessful as the author presents the case study while the learner absorbs the information; this is a passive learning component and is not student centred.

Despite this, passive learning can be advantageous. The instructor should consider applying Brame’s (2016) Pause Procedure where students are allocated time during passive learning to discuss and reflect.

As mentioned above, this course has no learner activities no assessments. This is a clear opportunity to measure the learner’s understanding through formal and informal assessment tasks.

This course currently is a standalone video for 8:07 minutes. There is a great opportunity to further design and develop this into a complete learning experience that implements scaffolding techniques and ends with practical application and assessment.

Design of an Online Course

Want to see how I would design an e-learning course about staying safe from scams?

Check out my Design of an Online Course.