I think that content created for a face-to-face course can be appropriate for an online course. The key is to focus on an applicable delivery.
An example is a lecturing style that depends on questions from students to arrive at the learning objectives. A veteran instructor of a particular topic will know through experience which points will solicit questions from students and what those questions will be.
That same content could easily be converted to online material by either writing text as a Q & A or presenting an interview in which an expert is asked the same questions usually posed by the students in a lecture.
Great points! Flexibility will be a challenge in an online enviroment
I believe it must be more in depth for online. There are times that students really need a helping hand and someone to understand their life situation as they attempt to work their way through school. Whereas we, as instructors, love to learn and have a desire to continue to learn, many of our students want to learn and have that degree but life challenges get in the way. We have a large contingent of single working mothers - sometimes in two or three jobs, taking care of the children by herself and trying to squeeze in school work. While we do expect our students to meet deadlines, there are many times that events happen that prevent a student from doing this. An important issue for me is being available and accessible to my students. I have touched on this subject in earlier discussions. Because of my experiences (both good and bad) as an online student, I have committed to be available and flexible as an online instructor.Online instructors must earn the trust and respect of their students. They must be involved in the courses continually and respond to email and questions as soon as possible.This varies from on ground to online.
True and they are already indoctrinated in that way of communication because of social networking. Thoughts?
I agree that students don't benefit as easily form the exchange of ideas. However, I think it still happens. The exchange is just delayed. I think as students get more use to the online environment, the better they get at adapting to the delay in the exchange of ideas.
Face to face course content depends on non verbal cues also. Non verbal cues are not present in an online course, so the course content will be a little different. In face to face courses, the instructor is able to immediately know if the students don't understand something. This allows the instructor to immediately resolve that matter. Online course content must be very clear in an effort to reduce confusion/questions.
correct it is in the delivery and the discourse.
The simple re-purposing of content does typically work for a course conversion. Mostly due to the missing dialog that is in every live class. Students that are in a virtual environment do not benefit as easily from the exchange of ideas and the instructor/student participation.
You are correct, modifications must be made.
Course content in an online course relies on additional asynchronous components that a F2F course does not have. This is why a F2F course can not be directly translated online; some work must be done to modify delivery of the content.
I speak to technical courses, and other than lab equipment availability, the content better be the same. The topics in Server 2008, Network+, Security+, A+, Wireless Networking, Voice Over IP, and other courses have to reflect the real world configurations and better be the same for both F2F and online or not be offered online. That is how I am interpreting content.
Content should be the same, just delivery different in form. But the quick feedback in F2F is not the same as in synchronous session, chat, etc.
What about specific content or delivery. It is more than feedback.
F2F instant feedback is not available in the online setting. In online technical courses the lack of F2F laboratory equipment access for online courses is a problem.
You will also need to think about synchronous and asynchronous delivery also
