Model of Inquiry Learning Environments for ICT Courses: Integrating Learning Resource Management with Learning Activity Guidance

Inquiry learning has been introduced into ICT courses because of its potentials to foster learners' higher order skills like self-determination, problem solving, and innovation. The purpose of this article is to discuss how to integrate learning resources management with learning activities guidance in ICT inquiry learning. Learning resources management is of critical importance to ICT inquiry learning, but it needs specific learning processes its a basis in order to play its role. Only providing support for learning resources management, or only giving guidance for learning activities, is not enough for ICT inquiry learning. Integrating learning resources management with learning activities guidance is one of the ways to improve ICT inquiry learning. Based on this perspective, we propose one model of online environments for ICT inquiry learning, which emphasizes both resources management and activities guidance. The activities guidance environment helps learners to keep up with the processes of inquiry learning and the procedures of problem solving, while the resources management environment, coupled with ongoing inquiry learning activities, is provided to help learners to explore multiple learning materials, and to organize and refine learning resources.