We provide one-on-one orientations for students enrolled in our online courses. The navagational simplicity of LMS is extremely important to the students. They are easily overwhelmed by all of the information presented to them so helping them to see the logic of the course structure and how to fit the different components together is important to their success. It is also helpful to provide them with more than one way to access the information. For instance, there may be a calendar, a list of upcoming events and a news forum in the classroom. All three of these components provide information on assignment deadlines and upcoming events. Students are able to refer to the component that makes the most sense to them. Providing a comfortable, easy to navigate virtual classroom is the first step to a student's successful participation in the class.
What are some ways to take the inimidation factor out of that first introduction to the online classroom? How do we make it look frieldly and inviting?
Presentation is everything....on ground or online!
A lot of things can be said in a simple statement!
I agree. The more simple you can make the "look" the better the online student likes the course. Make it easy to navigate. Make your assignmets concise and clear.
I agree! I think that presentation is everything. If I gave you a plate of cookies in a stained dirty dish, all just thrown in the plate. would you eat them? My guess is NO! What if I put those same cookies in a beautiful, clean platter and organized them in rows so they slighlty overlap each other. Would you be more apt to eat them? My guess is YES! Looks are just as important as the contents and sometimes even more so.
I agree because the look and feel will take on the attributes of the instructor.
less headaches is a good thing!
I totally agree with your look and feel comment. As a classroom instructor, looking to possibly add online teaching to my resume, I cannot tell you how difficult it is to just get my students to remember logins and passwords. Then we upgraded the computer labs recently to Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 so if your online screens are changing it throws off your students. Assuming most online courses are divided into similar units, it makes more sense to maintain a similar look and fell as opposed to trying to spice things up by changing where usual functions display on the screen. Makes for less headaches, in my opinion. John Kern
Frustration does lead to shut down.
Yes, if the course is not designed with a feel that helps the student navigate in learning they are likely to become frustrated and have a less chance of gaining the knowledge needed or even withdraw.
I agree, online courses can be a challenge, but with a great layout can be easier for the learner to follow.
And not all students have the same learning style, so it is important to do quality control along the way!
I agree. The look and feel of a course is just as important as the knowledge and skills it is presenting to the learner. By having both, the learner stays interested and engaged in the material to continue learning, and recall the information. It is the full package.
I agree that the look and feel of an online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart because it is paramount to get the learners attention and then engage them.
I love how you say "delicate balance"!
Agreed. The look and feel of the course is very important and it's a delicate balance. It has to be user friendly and engaging / welcoming while at the same time not too casual because it is an academic environment. For example if a graduate course is overloaded with graphics and bright colors, learners may feel it's a bit too much like primary school and they may not get much out of it. On the other hand, if the course is simply out of the LMS box, it may not be engaging enough to keep their attention. In either case, they could drop because it isn't meeting their expectations in one way or another. To learners the look and feel of the course is often times the equivalent to the first lecture in the traditional classroom, it could very well be the deciding factor if the course is right for them (or not).
There are more and more online classes available, so the class needs to be inviting for students. Excellent!
I wholeheartedly agree the look and feel of an online course is just as important as the knowledge and skills it imparts. The look of an online course should be engaging and the feel should be inviting or warm. The student will be less likely to engage in course content if its presented in a boring, mundane way. Students who might tenatively engage intially will become disenchanted and not consider the content much. Whereas an interesting, cleverly presented material will be quickly consumed and remembered for long time to come.
How do you feel about instructors changing the look of the course? Is it better to have a shell that all instructors work within so that students are better prepared for how to navigate their courses? For instance, most colleges use a platform like Desire2Learn or E-College, but some of those platforms have more options than others. Angel is one that allows instructors to do many different things to change the look and feel of the course. This is great for the professor, but I wonder if it is good for the students who are always walking into a different world of sorts in each class. Should they have to spend the first week figuring out how this instructor has designed this course?
Tara
