Students appreciate the extra resources.
I disagree. While it takes a lot of thought and planning to develop any course, it usually takes more time and thought to develop an online course.
One reason it takes more time to develop an online course is the simple fact that you have to prepare more resources for the students. Whenever you would normally deliver something to the students, that information now has to be converted into something that can be delivered online. Even if you already have slides or presentation materials you already use, they usually cannot just be placed online without modification.
Good point on the version of Office you use. This can be a frustration point for students who cannot open a document.
I disagree. I often find that you need to take the time to type out everything, which takes longer than if you would need to just say it in a traditional classroom. You also need to make sure that the format you are using is compatible and it works for students. I have often had to save my Office documents in a previous version, so all students could download a document.
I love that word....universal! Some schools do have students all over the world so universal is critical.
The time required to develop a quality online course would be more than the time required to develop an on-ground course because during the development stage, the designer must anticipate student questions and concerns and find effective ways to continue motivating students. In an on-ground course, many of these things can be left to the instructor - in fact a ground instructor is able to adapt content and delivery to the students in the class in real time as needed. When designing an online course, the designer must create an approach that is universal.
I disagree. The time required to formulate the curriculum and outlines would be the same, however actually implementing the material into an online format would take much more time. You would obviously want to test out your elearning class material before making it public.
I love that....refining the delivery.....that is exactly what should happen.
I disagree with the statement because developing the two types of courses would probably be about the same. The content would be the similar but the method of delivery and communication would be different.
Once you create courses in either format, you spend less time with the foundational content and more time refining the delivery. As an online course instructor, I find it takes a longer time developing the course the first time. But it takes much less time to revise for improvement.
Stephen W. Volz, DBA
and then you need to think about how you will respond to when a student needs a little extra with what you have provided!
Much more thought needs to go into developing an online course. If the class is traditional, you have the "live" chance to reintroduce a topic. In an online setting you do not usual have that option. You need to think and rethink every element of your online class.
Depending on the technical knowledge required it could be a time consuming task. Verifying that text, pictures and the correct technical information are all correlated is tedious.
Another good point. The instructor does have a lot to deal with this issue. Is the instructor seasoned and has plenty of lesson plans to pull from?
I think this depends on the instructor and if this is the first set up or not for the course. I think in some ways it may be easier though.
It is a learning curve for sure, but once you can modify your lesson plans, it is an awesome way to teach!!
I do not agree or disagree with this statement. The reason being, I think it is very subjective to whom the instructor is, and if it is his first online course or twentieth. It is also dependent on the instructor’s computer skills and instructional technology.
In addition, when creating material for the learners, you have to anticipate their questions and reactions. In face-to-face courses, you can modify your presentation based on the immediate feedback, questions, and reactions of your learners.
I personally was only a face-to-face trainer and it took me several months to learn how to modify my training style and communication style to the online asynchronous learner. It used to take me a full month or two to create an interactive learning module. Now it takes me one week and they are so much more interactive and engaging.
Editing is an important aspect. Content tends to change often in certain areas.
I highly disagree. Online course development takes much longer to design, develop, implement, evaluate, and there is always constant editing taking place.
do you have input as to what works in your online class?
In my case, I would agree with this statement. This is because our online classes are already created for us.
However, I believe that teaching an online course requires more time than an on-ground course. Often time you can muti-task while within the on-ground classroom. While students are completing an assignment you can grade papers. This is not the case with online courses. You have to participate in discussion post, grade assignments, send/respond to emails to ensure that communication with the student is always taking place.
Therefore, online teaching is more time consuming than on-ground. While this may not be the case when creating a course.
