Ron Rojas

Mixing of techniques

With all the possible techniques available for online instruction such as lectures, discussions, readings, videos, audio, guest speakers, as well as all the possible assessment tools, the observation here is related to the ability to finding an optimal mix by module, lesson, and topic. The majority of online courses I've seen tend to repeat a certain pattern. More specifically there seems to be a considerable amount of lectures using text or videos, followed by discussion board assignments and reflective papers as individual projects. Occasionally there is a group project a guest speaker. Yet with all other sorts of techniques available, I suspect it just takes a little creativity and effort to determine the best technique given the course content. Of course following a pattern is a lot easier, it certainly facilitates navigation simplicity and structural integrity, but as adults we like variety and a variety of techniques if properly tailored to the material and introduced into the classroom can keep students much more interested in the learning process. I suspect the best way to achieve this is through a refinement process once the basics of a face-to-face course have been effectively transformed for the online environment. It may be too much to ask to optimize techniques the first time around when there may be an urgency to move forward with an online course. From this module I gather that a follow-up with the content expert once a class has been delivered can provide the best framework for assessing the possibility of using other techniques that may end up communicating content more effectively.