The Orpacific Learning Process

Orpacific's pedagogical approach aims to deliver the following for students enrolled in our programme.

  1. Deep understanding concepts in the area of study
  2. Internalisation of knowledge acquired
  3. Ability to translate knowledge to practice that is relevant to the profession

Deep Understanding Concepts In The Area Of Study

A knowledgeable person in a particular subject area today need not necessary be a “walking encyclopaedia” of facts in the subject matter. With the explosion of information, it is no longer possible to commit all factual matters to memory. Rather at the touch of the fingertips (via a computer connected to the Internet), all kind of factual matters can be brought forth to the screen immediately. However while today's search engine technology is great in the delivery of just-in-time knowledge, one has to realise that information are not necessary good accurate information. The ability to discern good information from the bad is the key to successful utilization of the information. It is therefore even more important that students have a very good understanding of the underlying concept in order not to be misled, to know what can reasonably be trusted and what should be discarded.

The above shows the events along the timeline of a lesson attended by a student.

  1. The student logs in and play a lesson. This is effectively the same as what he sees and hears in a physical classroom, that is the video of the teacher, his voice plus the full-resolution screen of the teacher's computer.
  2. At the end of each short section, the multimedia lesson would stop, and a short formative assessment will appear on the screen to help the student digest the section of the lesson he just reviewed.
  3. Once he submitted the answers, the lesson continues. Some feedback on the test may then be given. This cycle may repeat many times throughout the lesson.
  4. Other times, instead of a formative assessment test, the multimedia lesson would stop and a web page (as programmed by the instructor) would appear, and the students could do some self exploration. When he is done, he can close the page, and the lesson would continue again.
  5. The instructor can also present questions and requires the student to answer the questions using the Chat interface. The answers, or other questions that may be asked by the student will automatically be uploaded to the course forum, which the entire class can discuss. This adds a new dimension to a lecture, a first step to internalization of the knowledge.
  6. Finally sections of the lesson that the student had gone through will all be logged so that the teacher will know if his students had diligently gone through the lessons.

The Orpacific lesson goes way beyond what is delivered in a classroom. Firstly the student will never miss a lesson or even a sentence of the instructor. The student can go back to any part of the lesson anytime.

Secondly, formative feedback can be performed as frequently as necessary, and not limited by the physical classroom to be at the end of the lesson as homework. Sstudents can do self exploration, or verification of the lecture material, as and when they occur.

Thirdly, the lesson can extend beyond the classroom with offline forum discussion, with the points for discussion raised as they arise, instead of waiting for the lesson to end, by which time the impact may no longer be there.

The Orpacific lesson is a technological response to the inefficacies of the phyiscal classroom.

Internalisation of Knowledge Acquired

Before one can develop the ability to translate knowledge to practice, it is necessary to first internalise the acquired knowledge. The only way is to do this is to allow students to discuss and to debate issues around the subject matter.


In all of Orpacific programmes, conference room discussions are organised for appropriate topics. The discussions are normally seeded by an existing lesson. In this case, the module tutor schedules a session when all students log in. The tutor would bring the students through a part of the lesson to set the stage for discussion. She would then pause the lesson and initiate discussion on the issues in the lesson. The minutes of the discussion, arbitrated by the tutor would form an embodiment of variations of the acquired knowledge that become permanently internalised in the students.

Ability To Translating Knowledge To Practice Relevant To The Profession

 The summative assessment components in all of Orpacific's modules are either project based or problem based. Students will have to perform the project or solve the problems and to record the process using Orpacific demonstration archiving tool. These recordings are then accessed by assessors against published competency standards of Orpacific. Only when all performance criteria are fulfilled, only will the student be declared competent in the module.

All of Orpacific degree programmes come with a compulsory graduating project that serves to integrate all the knowledge learned in the programme. The project serves to showcase the student's competence in fulfilling all performance criteria of a professional in the particular industry. The entire process will be recorded, assessed and be part of the student's Graduation Portfolio.