I agree. I personally obtained my master's degree and PhD online and the look and feel aspect is very important. Online classes must be organized and structured very well. The last thing an online learner needs to worry about is how to navigate their online course. It should be simple and user friendly.
Cathy,
I agree - its best not to provide an "excuse" not to be involved.
Jon
Great points - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Great examples of tools that can make things feel more approachable! - Jon
It can be a real advantage in a class! - Jon
Charles,
Great points - I agree!
Jon
Interesting - thanks for sharing! - Jon
Donna,
Great argument - I agree!
Jon
Great summary - thanks! - Jon
Rob,
Agreed - important, but not the 1st priority.
Thanks,
Jon
Penny,
Good points - ease of use and visual appeal are important (and becoming more so).
Jon
Colin,
Agreed - it shouldn't be the primary concern, but it can help.
Jon
Good response, Donna. Your comment about today's fast paced world reminded me of how we are often dealing with traditional students just out of high school and non-traditional students with a family and a full-time job. They're both fast paced but one group implies "Don't bore me and overload me with lots of details" while the other group implies "Don't waste my time, just give me the details." Balancing these two groups can be difficult, but an online course that offers different navigational paths for different learning styles might help.
Rob
I definitely wouldn't say the look and feel is more important than the course content, and I'm having difficulty saying it is as important, but I think each of us can recall being in a course where the professor was brilliant, but failed to deliver his/her knowledge in a logical and structured way that engaged the students and increased their retention. Both the content and the delivery are extremely important to keep students engaged and learning.
Yes. The design and aesthetics of the online course is very important to the overall student experience. Everything from color scheme to font choice to line length can impact the students experience so these factors need to be considered carefully. Far to many online schools look suspect due to poor design principles. Professional organizations do not allow their products or services to be poorly designed (aesthetics) so that they engage their customers. The same should be done for online schools. Clear, clean, well organized design needs to be applied for the best experience possible.
In today's fast paced world, first impressions matter. When a student begins an online course, the look and feel of that online course matters. Will it excite, intrigue, confuse or worse, bore the student? It is imperative that the online course is visually pleasing, easy to navigate and intuitive. When this is achieved, professionalism is modeled. If it is not, then how do we model excellence in education when teaching an online class? What would happen if we did not priortize the look and feel of an online course(or the classroom environment)?
Donna
I absolutely agree. If a student engages with a visually difficult format I think their learning will be discouraged. Many of the students who take on-line courses may not be familiar with computer usage, in fact it may be a beginning computer class that they are taking in order to get a leg up in the working world. If the on line environment is confusing they may be discouraged and not complete the course. On line instructors must give attention to the physical appearance of the course so students are not confused or intimidated by the learning environment.
I completely agree. It may be actually more important than the information provided. If students are not comfortable with the structure and feel that it is too confusing, they won't spend time looking for information. They will most likely e-mail the professor continually asking where something is. If they do decide to look for the information needed on their own, by the time they find it they will most likely be so frustrated by the time wasted they will not be focused to study and retain the information they are reading. If information is easy to find and right at their fingertips with a few simple clicks and titled in a way to easily identify the file they will be much more likely to retain the information they are reading and be able to apply it to an assignment or discussion with greater ease then if they were frustrated with their hunt by the time they review the information.
I believe that the look and feel of an online course is highly important. If a student enters a system that is not user friendly,has poor font selections, and or built on a slow network the student may become discouraged from using the site. Regardless of the information found within the site, the student may become disinterested as the tools provided for effective learning are not up to par. In addition, if the forum/discussion boards are allowed to become hostile or the presence of the instructor is not apparent, this may cause the student to also become invisible as an online student.
It must be attractive to students coming online, but look and feel also have to do with ease of navigation.
