Grace,
What happens indeed?? Students will look elsewhere to find a school that has classes that work for them!
Shelly Crider
Grace,
I like that comment. If you really believe in Bloom's taxonomy, you must be able to assess in a way to prove comprehension.
Shelly Crider
Grace,
Oh so true! Who does not like to see what is being discussed!
Shelly Crider
Being new to the instruction side of online, I would have to say that the look and feel of an online classroom and the lessons being taught are very important. Students need to feel comfortable not only with the process of accessing the material, but they need to be engaged in order to remain interested and complete the course. As an online student, I have seen many disorganized and boring courses that took everything I had within myself to stay engaged to the end of the class.
Now that I am the designer of an online classroom, I know the importance of student stimulation, and will do everything I can to make my presentations not only professional and appealing to the learner visually, but to engage them in the interaction through the use of chat pods, whiteboards, and other learning events.
Keeping a student engaged and interested in the material being taught, is the name of the game in an online environment.
I agree and have found this to be too often the case in the online environment. It is one of my biggest complaints that the look and feel of the course is incongruent with the content and assignments. So if I am experiencing a "disconnect" what is happening for the students?
One of my more frustrating experiences with online learning and the online environment is not having too much say over the way the assignments are developed. Often times it seems like more of a "pin the tail on the donkey" exercise rather than a true integrated assessment of learning. As mentioned in the presentation for this module, not only is it critical to foster a multi sensory learning environment, but also to be able to integrate the quality of media with level of interaction to create true comprehension.
I think the other issue here is the generation of students that we are teaching. Today's generation is almost exclusively visual and face paced. So keeping up with technology and also making all of our interactions as visually appealing and multi sensory I think is key to being an effective online instructor.
John I couldn't agree more!!!!! I have always been of the belief that a good instructor is one who maintains the focus and attention of the audience and also one who makes learning experiential. I have found this a bit tricky in the online environment. In my live chats I try to use exciting video or powerpoints that contains interesting or funny graphics (often cartoons) so that the students are engaged in the learning process. There is nothing worse than a boring lecture and equally ineffective is a boring powerpoint.
Rina,
There are enough distractions....I agree!!
Shelly Crider
I prefer eLearning sites that are very clean, professional in appearance and uncomplicated. I think that it's possible to incorporate various forms of multimedia in ways that accommodate different learning styles without the site looking to busy. I don't like too many bells and whistles- I find them distracting.
Ronald,
A lot of people do not realize how color and font size can make a difference. Good job!
Shelly Crider
Yes I do agree with the statement. I believe the first thing a student see is the site, how careful everything is place. The color of the site is important. The toogles and how to connect to the other resources.
The student needs to be able to move around the course. If there is too many distractions on the site, a higher lever of anxiety starts to bulids up. If the course is laid out in a way that it is friendly , more of the studnts will compute the work. This is were you are losing the knowledge of the students.
You don't need to to use sound in the course. The only sound that is used is a vocal.
Caryn,
Oh so true....motivate the students with being in the class and you will see a great response from your students.
Shelly Crider
Motivation is the key to success. I truly believe that the more engaging the course is, the more successful the students will be able to achieve the objectives.
shane,
Disconnect...miscommunication...is a really big problem in many areas but especially in technology where you cannot see a nonverbal response.
Shelly Crider
Rose-Mary,
There are times students will not even go through the motions!
Shelly Crider
I agree. If the look and feel of an online course does not match the content then there is a chance of a disconnect in the beginning thus affecting the students performance.
I agree that the look and feel is important to an online course. If things are not east to find or not stimulating than I feel that the student will just go through the motions to complete assignments however that student will not be fully engaged. We all know that the more engagement we have the more we retain. I have taken several online courses myself and the courses that I remember even today were the ones that stimulated me. This is what I hope to achieve when putting together a course for my students.
Dianna,
Yes, and when the student is comfortable with navigation, then they will login more often!
Shelly Crider
I would state the look and feel is important because it helps the learner know where to find information. For example when designing courses for a particular organization we always but the buttons in the same location. The learner is then familiar regardless of the course they are taking with where they can find things. Also the look of a course should be in line with the organization and their logos or color schemes. Again this makes the learner comfortable as they have already been exposed to these things and the course will feel more at home to them and easy to navigate.
