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 What is OILEs?

 1.Conditions

 2.Inquiry Module

 3.Support Systems

 4. Community of
 Inquiry

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1. Assess Conditions

1A Identify the needs for building an OILE for one's own course.
Since building OILEs requires a lot of effort and resources including money, time, and personnel, it is important to first assess the needs for building an OILE. If the teacher educator is trying to teach low level thinking skills or factual, procedural knowledge, there are many ways to do that. Building an OILE for that purpose might be a waste of time and money. If the teacher educator wants to use inquiry-based learning in order to teach higher-order thinking skills, it is appropriate that he/she consider using OILEs. Then, he/she should assess certain pre-conditions.

1B Assess the preconditions for building OILEs. If the pre-conditions are not met, consider using alternatives.
In order to use OILEs for his/her course, the teacher educator needs to seriously consider whether preconditions exist to enable him/her to utilize inquiry-based learning on the web. These preconditions include external conditions (such as sufficient infrastructure and supportive administrations) and internal conditions (such as skills and knowledge on the part of the instructor, appropriate contents, and learner preparations).

1.1 External conditions:

1.1A Review the mission statement of the institution: If the OILEs fit in with the institution's mission, building OILEs might get greater support and resources.

1.1B Evaluate the infrastructure and funding. If the following conditions are met, consider developing OILEs.

• An adequate support system exists for new teaching initiatives.
• A web infrastructure is provided by the instituti. which allows instructors to use various Internet services, provides enough server space, and so on.
• Pertinent technology tools are available (e.g., course management tools, email, listservs, database, search engine, interactive technologies, bulletin boards, chat, etc.)
• Funding is available for the development of OILEs. When there are no available OILEs, the instructor may need design and develop an OILE by him/ or herself. Funding should be available to develop an OILE. The fund should cover the expense of hiring professional designers or technical staff (if technical sophistication is needed), purchasing tools and resources, converting off-line materials into online formats, etc. At least, the instructor may need help or consultation from designers or technical staff because designing OILEs requires basic design skills as well as technical skills regardless of their complexity.
• Consider method of assessment: Avoid using OILEs when the administrators or students put a big emphasis on objective assessments. OILEs might not be useful within a high stakes standardized testing environment.

1.2 Designer(s):

There are several possibilities as to who designs the OILEs.

1) When the instructor designs and develops OILEs by him/herself, the instructor should have enough knowledge and skills in terms of technology and pedagogy. Necessary technical skills to develop an OILE include: design and development of web pages, installation of synchronous/asynchronous systems, development of interactive web forms, search engine set-up, access control, server maintenance, and so on. This would likely be extremely difficult for some instructors. However, these technical difficulties can be greatly decreased with the use of an course management tools.
2) If the instructor can get help from technical staff or purchase an off-the-shelf course management tool, he/she is able to focus on design decisions and content development.
3) If a designer(s) helps the instructor to design OILEs, the instructor might build the OILEs with collaboration from the designer and technical staff. He/she may focus on content development and negotiate design decision with the designer.

In any cases, once an OILE is developed, the instructor thenplays the role of the facilitator. It is important to check his/her pedagogical values and skills beforehand.

1.3 Facilitator(s):

1.3A When the facilitator is the instructor him/herself, check one's own pedagogical knowledge and skills about inquiry based learning, and technical skills. If he/she has little experience and knowledge on inquiry based learning, it might be difficult to play a facilitator's role in OILEs. So, additional help from other experienced faculty or technical staff might be needed.

1.3B When the facilitator is not the instructor or designer, check his/her pedagogical knowledge and skills of using inquiry-based learning, and his/her technical skills and knowledge. To identify the facilitator's level of knowledge and skills, let him or her take the inquiry module and work in the OILEs. Observe the person's performance and ask what he/she are required to play a facilitator's role in the OILEs. If he/she has limited skills and knowledge, seek available help and provide necessary training.

1.4 Contents:

1.4A Assess the nature of content. If the content is simply asking factual or procedural memorization, the OILEs might not be as effective as other learning systems. If the content requires higher-order thinking skills, consider using OILEs. The content should require a lot of thinking and inquiry and provides different ways to solution (e.g., determining political decision, scientific experiments, etc.). OILEs can be applicable to a specific subject-matter as well as to generic topics such as technology integration into curriculum.

1.4B Assess the available resources. If the resources are not sufficient, search web resources or libraries to find sufficient resources to get the learners' inquiry started. If the resources are still lacking, using OILEs might not be effective. Searching and developing resources take considerable time. In the design phase, the designer or instructor may have an opportunity to develop resources. In the design phase, if the existing resources are not a usable web format, they can be converted into a usable web format with the permission of the author(s).

1.5 Learners:

In online situations, the instructor has little opportunity to know the learners before he/she develops OILEs or teaches a course. It is difficult to anticipate the characteristics of learners, their previous experiences, their level of knowledge, their motivation, and their expectation. Therefore, it is important to clearly communicate what the OILEs require of learners to be successful. This work might be done in the design phase.

In cases where the instructor knows the learners beforehand, the instructor needs to:

• Assess the pre-requisites for learners to use the OILEs. These pre-requisites include technology equipment and technology knowledge and skills. It is important to make sure that the learners have the necessary hardware and software. If they do not have enough knowledge and skills, provide additional training so as to provide it. The basic skills include: designing and developing web pages, transferring files to the server, using a searching engine, using conferencing systems or chat, and so on. The required level of skills might vary depending on the specific inquiry module.
• Assess the learners' status as to whether they are pre-service, part-time, or in-service teachers. Depending on their status, different approaches and examples might be needed to design OILEs.
• Assess their motivation and expectations on using the OILEs. If their motivation is not sufficient and their expectations are incorrect, a learning experience in OILEs might be cumbersome and meaningless.

Go to the Ask phase and review it.