Robert,
You bring great experience to this forum. We all need a "roadmap" to help us create online content. Thanks for your input.
I agree with your comments Christine. I teach healthcare to grad and undergrad students and it is important to know their level of knowledge and experience as a course is developed. Some of my students are docs, nurses, other healthcare staff while others have no direct experience with the healthcare delivery system other than having been patients. When possible, research with the institution about their goals for the new course students and anticipation of students level of experience is quite helpful.
Ejike,
It's good to see you in this session. I agree completely with your points of discussion. AIU, this is my 10th year, does a superb job of preparing instructors and guiding our work through performance reviews.
I would add to your good remarks the importance of being familiar with the role of tutoring and labs that can support the final course content.
I’ve developed graduate and undergraduate healthcare courses for seven universities and look forward to learning more in this program.
The three most important factors to good development are know your audience, attention to course detail and content, and using an assessment plan and methodology.
Knowing the audience is important to understand their level of knowledge about the general topic, i.e. prior graduate and undergraduate courses completed; having a good sense for the potential students’ professional experience; and understanding the students’ purpose for the course and aspirations for the future.
Course content should be done along a ‘roadmap’ as this course points out. Modules must be evenly distributed across the subject and delivered at a reasonable pace. It should convey the necessary information in a way that acknowledges the students background and interest. LMS offers a good menu of tools and options for teaching in a varied, attention getting learning experience.
Assessment methodology is important because the developer may thoroughly know the course material but others reading and listening may completely miss the message. Having a colleague or others in a course development team allows the Subject Matter Expert determine the clarity of the course content.
Hannah,
My pleasure. You brought some great topics to light and it's important that we think about the students, objectives and how we are delivering content. Nice job.
Dr. Crews,
Thank you for your discussion topic.
When authoring an online course, there are a number of important things to take into consideration. However, the three things that I believe are among the most important are:
1) Ensuring that what the instructor considers to be the most important course content is conveyed to be as such to the students;
2) Ensuring that the students are aware of the course expectations going into the course; and
3) Making sure that the course information is accessible and comprehensible for the students.
Hannah
Christine,
Excellent. The students, your audience, is very important. They serve as a basis for how you provide the course materials and help them move toward the learning objectives. Thanks for your input.
Penelope,
Excellent. Objectives, appropriate activities and assessment are key components. All should be designed to help students learn new content and improve throughout the course. Thanks.
Harprit,
Right on! The type of language we use must be at the appropriate level and be professional. We want to make sure the students understand the expectations and objectives. Thanks.
Good afternoon, Dr. Crews. I think the three most important things to consider when authoring an online course are:
1. Audience
I teach mathematics and in classes where students just graduated from high school, they still remember their prerequisite topics. There are some classes though where many of the students are adult learners and they have taken the prerequisite topics, maybe more than 10 years ago. In this regard, it is a good idea to provide some review materials for the prerequisite topics.
2. Learning Materials
Some students are visual learners so they prefer to learn via videos or even live chats. Some prefer to learn just by reading some materials. Therefore, we must have learning materials that cater to every learner.
3. Basis for Grading
I think this is very important because there are many ways of gauging whether a student understands a topic or not. Some students understand the topics but they are not very good test takers. Similarly, some students may do well on test without having a deep understanding of the topics.
Thanks,
Christine
Firstly, the assignments and learning activities must be centered around the learning objectives.
Secondly, the assignments must be designed in such a way to allow discovery learning.
Thirdly, the assessments or rubrics must match up to the assignments and learning objectives.
When authoring an online course, one must use easily comprehensible language, that the information pertains to subject matter, and that the information is objective, especially, when it has to deal with the sciences.
Ejike,
We always have to think about the audience - our students - first so that we know how to "reach" them through the activities and content. The delivery methods will help students move forward toward the learning objectives. Thanks again for your input.
Ejike and Perry,
Thanks for the agreement on the key elements of authoring an online course. Without these three, how could the students work toward the learning objectives. Thanks again.
Ejike and Daniel,
Thanks for continuing the conversation. Thanks for mentioning the formative and summative assessments so we can begin thinking about both and how they "play out" in the process. Thanks!
Ejike,
Wow! I be it was a challenge authoring your first online course. However, with your experience now and what you have learned, obviously your courses have developed more completely. Thanks for your thorough posting.
Kimberly,
The course material and how it is presented to students is a key components. We also want to know if students have achieved the learning objectives as well. Thanks for your input.
The three most important things to consider are (1) my audience (my student in this case), (2) the learning needs of audience, and (3) delivery methods. Knowing my audience and know what my audience needs to learn is imperative when developing a course that will meet the needs of learners. Once, the learning needs of that the analysis of my audience is completed, the next thing to do is identify of the learning needs of the students. After the learning needs are identified, the next thing to do is to determine the delivery method or method of the course. If the audience and learning needs are known and the appropriate delivery method is used, the course will meet the learning needs of students.
Perry,
I concur with the three most important things that you discussed. The audience (or the students), curriculum objectives, and learning events/activities are indeed important.
Daniel,
I agree with all the three things that you discussed. Without any information about what a student already knows and what the student needs to know, it will be difficult to create a course that will help a student build on what he/she already knows. Demonstration of understanding is important because if the student fails to demonstrate that he/she understands the concepts or skills being learned, it means that no knowledge was imparted.
Both formative and summative assessments will be required to determine whether the student has demonstrated an understanding of the course. Formative assessment is within and throughout the course and are not designed to assign grades. Summative assessment that usually takes place at the end of the course should be used to prove learning has taken place.
