Nanette,
I, too, am a fan of smarter not harder!
Shelly Crider
You've described my thoughts exactly. The look and feel is so important because it is the first look that the students have of the instructor. If the course is well-designed and visually appealing, the instructor will come across as knowledgeable and professional. This is just a first impression though. The instructor will have to work hard to make sure that the students continue to feel this way.
Yes it is, the more character the better, it need to reflect your expertise enthusiasm, the course objective and what you want to students to gain from it. Empower your students with interesting assignments that can teach and have them grow in the subject matter.
Yes, its absolutely important. ONe of the reasons why I try to interject my personality into my online course is because a lot of my online students are in my f2f classes as well and many times I do teach the same f2f class in an online formate. I don't want my students to think that my online class is any less then the f2f class.
Many if not 98 percent of the assignments are tailor to my online classes as far as the research and assignments. The only thing that wold be different are my lectures, f2f obviously is done f2f and my online lectures are recorded an uploaded.
The look and feel of an online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart. It facilitates interest and relitivity to the information wishing to be attained. Decreasing frustration and promoting informational flow.
I absolutely agree with this analysis. An online course of study has information to impart that is just as critical as face-to-face instruction, but lacks the immediate feedback of a classroom. On the web, an instructor doesn't have the flexibility to immediately present the same information in several different contexts based upon various feedback from the students.
Therefore, an online course needs to take different learning styles into account. It needs to appeal to the note-takers and the activity-doers and the question-askers equally. A lot of forethought and preparation needs to be put into anticipating the individual needs of different students, because the class environment can't pivot on an instant the way face-to-face instruction can. This need for wide-ranging appeal is one of the foundations of good design in any creative field. A well-designed online course will successfully create a higher level of engagement and information retention than a course that ignores, or forgets to consider, aesthetics.
At first glance one might say that the actual information contained in the course is the primary concern when designing an online course. After all, it is the quality of the information which seemingly determines the extent to which the students learn and retain the information. However, the look and feel of an online course not only adds to it but is really an integral part of the learning process. To a certain extent it is similar to how one would approach writing a textbook. One would think that the only thing that truly matters is the actual information contained in it. However, we all know this is not the case. A good text book will teach with written words with visual material, examples, quizzes, practical examples and more. By utilizing additional modalities and making the material more captivating, the extent and quality of the learning increases. The same holds true, in my opinion, for an online course. The look and feel of an online course is very much a part of the quality of the learning and retention that takes place and they definitely need to be utilized properly in an online course.
I fully agree with this statement. If the look and feel of an online deters students from even being able to get started, learning will not occur. The last thing a student should be worrying about is how to navigate the course or the structure of the class. This should be obvious to students from the get-go so they can dive into their work and learning materials on day 1. In other words, there should not be a huge learning curve when it comes to the look and feel of an online course.
I agree I have just started working as an on-line instructor and I'm getting used to structure and trying to make sure my students feel the same sense of attention they were used to before the world on online happened. I’m not a fan of online education. But I’m a fan of working smarter not harder. I hope this falls into that category. We will see.
Abby,
Good point. A good online class needs to make up for the hands on experience.
Shelly Crider
Laurie,
Many students are not "techy" even now. They like the ease of technology, not the deep details.
Shelly Crider
Laurie,
I love this example!! This is perfect! We do not like to eat food that looks sloppy!
Shelly Crider
I agree 100% that the look and feel of on a online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart because it is 'on-line'. You loose the hands on experience and need to make sure that any barrier that may be there with learning or commitment stays the course as it is harder to stay connected to the material since it is on the other side of a computer screen.
Abby
I agree with you about navigational simplicity as a starting point. I went back to college several years ago to complete something for myself. I chose an on-line university. I am not a 'techy' and therefore I am easily overwhelmed and deterred by confusing, complex navigational systems. Fortunately, the college I chose did a really good job of making learning on-line easy. If they hadn't I am sure I would have withdrawn and gone elsewhere.
I totally agree. This concept can be compared to sitting down to eat a meal. If the food on the plate is sloppy and unattractive, most likely, unless you are really hungry, you are not going to eat it. Now, if the food is bright, diverse and composed well on the plate, you are most likely, ready to dig in. Same thing with on-line learning. The graphics, layout, design and composition are crucial to enticing the learner to engage and learn.
Hannah,
You are right! When a student is concentrating on some technical issue, they are missing the knowledge.
Shelly Crider
Thomas ,
Oh I have see those classes as well. It is not a pretty situation when you are too frustrated to learn.
Shelly Crider
Joshua,
Seeing is believing!!! I am a very visual learner as well.
Shelly Crider
Shelly,
Thank you for your discussion topic! Yes, I agree that the look and feel of an online course can be just as important as those skills and concepts that the course is designed to teach. If the student is unable to interact or engage with the course, he or she will never even get to that deeper level of the knowledge and skills. It is important to develop a course structure that is both inviting and navigable so that students can just concentrate on the real meat of the class, rather than having to worry about technical issues in the course setup.
-Hannah
I do wholeheartedly agree that the "look and feel" of a classroom environment can most certainly be just as important to a student as the curriculum content as well. I have seen online college classrooms that are not intuitive at all for a student to navigate through and this can cause them to become quite frustrated to the point of not continuing on with their education at that school.
