Get Your Students Hired
Rita,
I agree - help is important, especially if you are starting "from-scratch." Many institutions have templates to follow, and this makes it quite a bit easier.
Thanks,
Jon
Charles,
I agree - the tools out there today are leaps above where they were 4 years ago. That being said, may developers would benefit from an IT/Instructional Tech to shorten the learning curve ....
Thanks,
Jon
This is a hard one to agree or disagree with. On the one hand, any college teacher can develop a plan of study and method of presentation which support s the learning outcomes. On the other hand, to be able to effectively put together an effective online course requires some rudimentary technological experience to ensure the material is readily available to the online learner. The online course developer as a minimum needs to have the technological expertise to make sure all parts of the online course room function properly. The online course developer also needs to be able to effectively trouble shoot the course form the user’s perspective in order to help those new online learners who do not have much confidence in online course work.
I agree that online course developers needn't be tech wizards, but they do need to have the ability to learn new technologies. Since technologies that we can use as online instructors are constantly being improved upon, I think it is more important that the instructors of online courses are able to learn and to adapt, rather than to be masters of online technology. I will never be a wiz when it comes to technology, but if I understand my course material and the needs of my students, I can find plenty of options (technologically speaking) for how to meet their needs.
For development of pure content -- perhaps not. For development of delivery systems -- probably so. A strong knowledge of developmental software can be an invaluable aid; one no longer need know html and shtml in order to design a valid and multidimentional and multipurpose learnding site. However, in order to have a classroom that can accommodate different types of media and that can accommodate differing types of learning styles, one should have a wizard lurking nearby.
I agree. There are a number of tools with user friendly interaces that make designing an effective class accessible to a reasonably, computer literate person.
However, it may take more technical saavy for certain types of courses, like engineering or math versus English or philosophy.
I am new to the online world of courses. It seems to me that having some basis of technological expertise or having someone available to you who does would be important, particularly if you want to create and deliver courses that have graphics, interaction opportunities, etc. as part of the delivery. Making the course "attractive" and visually engaging is important since the elements of face-to-face interaction are not available.
I think it is helpful, but not necessary. If the developer is not online savy, this may be an excellent opportunity to for the developer to learn...however, it will take significantly longer than it would for a technological wizard. I think it would depend on the time frame slated for development. I also think having several teams work on the project would be ideal, because people with various levels of exptertise can help and teach each other new development techniques.
That all depends on what you consider to be a technological wizard. For me I would say there is so much software created for online learning you really don't have to be a techno-wizard. For the most part the software guides you through the building phase. As long as you have evaluated your course and developed all the materials that the student needs to be successful then you do not need to be a techno wizard, you need to be an educational wizard.
I would think you should at least be adequate enough to address student questions who are trying to navigate the course, and stay abreast of new technologies that would allow you to introduce new beneficial media techniques to your course. IT can help you actually get them going, but if you don't know they exist you'll never benefit from them.
Well, developers can avail themselves of an increasing number of templates and easy-to-use WYSIWYG editors that can build websites with ease (iWeb by Apple, for example) so I would say technological wizardry is not required.
However, in my opinion, online course developers should make some effort to incorporate the latest technologies (like streaming video, face-to-face video conferencing, etc.), particularly when those technologies have so much to offer that enhance the learning experience.
If an online course references 1995 era technology as "cutting edge" and has no video conferencing or synchronous interactivity, I would think a risk exists of that developer being perceived as out-of-touch with today's technologies, and their course as out-of-date...
I agree that developers of online courses do not have to be technological wizards. I'm sure that they would possess computer skills and have the appropriate knowledge, but the program used should be user friendly enough to create it on your own. A good team should exist for every course. It is important to have the content expert, web expert, and help desk to work out all the tweaks and create a conducive online learning environment.
Robert,
Yes, it doesn't take as much as it used to, but a base level of comfort really helps.
Thanks,
Jon
Kathara,
Interesting point - "experts" may make assumptions that other may not!
Thanks,
Jon