Sandy & Ken,
Love the term "critical linkages." It helps me visualize what I'm doing - connecting things. Thank you.
Samia and William,
Knowing where your students are "coming from" is essential. It's a part of the audience (your students) analysis.
samia,
It's great that you noted the student focus. Thanks for keeping that in the front of our mind. Excellent.
Bill, It is true that many students do not necessarily particpate in social interaction but some do. I have had students ask for the opporunity to interact with their classmates and have developed a "Let's get acquainted" discussion board forum. For team building classes a discussion forum focusing on team building activities can help promote early communications among team members.
If I can get at least 25-40% of the class participating in a social interactive activity I feel that at least I have meet a need for those students. Sometimes it just takes awhile for it to catch on.
Tena, sure no problem. I have seen the results of either engineering or education products and meetings which led to a product lacking depth and complete understanding. I have learned after 27 years of IT and 12 years of online experience that without our unique contributions we do not get the "fused" product of a superior nature. We should definitely avoid "Group Think".
Ken, I agree that course objectives are key. When building a course module I have used a "critical linkages" approach. The content, activities and assessments are checked against the learning objectives. Knowing your audience, and using a variety of tools (audio, video, text, discussion boards, synchronous and asyncronous activities are needed to engage students with different learning styles. Thanks for addressing this key component.
Shafi,
Thanks for your input. Good list. Please expand on the topics.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Andrew & Mitchell,
Thanks for "tag teaming" off of each other and keeping the converstaion going.
Andrew,
Yes, you must think about the students and connect the content to real-world situations that make sense to them. The more you can take the content and help the students see the connection to real life, they'll understand it at a higher level. This also helps explain why the learning outcomes are important as well. Thanks for your input.
LaMonica,
Right on. Knowing your audience is important in any situation.
Mitchell,
Excellent. Thanks for thinking through this. You bring up some very good points. The "bells and whistles" or basic technology may be new to some students. Thanks!
William you are correct in the need to know the level of the learner who is entering the course. The material for a specific level need not be compromised; however, it must indeed be manageable and student friendly. Being a subject matter expert should be a given.
Very good post, thank you.
Samia
Since the driving force is student focus, the three most imprtant things for me to cnsider as I author an online course are:
1. the purity, clarity and integrity of the content
2. tie-in between theory and the real world happenings as they relate to the subject matter and program
3. a link between its prerequisite course - building on that - and the courses to follow. Retional stepping stone.
Mitchell, I think designers and authors make that common mistake of designing the concepts and learning to their level of abstraction and not the students. I have designed many courses and I first do ask both the level of the course, 400 level, Masters course, etc and then just through experience most of my students have never had experiences with Forensics tools so I must incrementally design and material so they lead up to the more complex later after having been introduced to the overall high level concepts first.
Tena, in authoring the course I would assume that we must author a course which first makes sense to the student so they may successfully absorb, retain and apply the material. In my computer forensics courses, (which I also designed previously), I used real world scenarios, tied in the learning objectives and outcomes, and then ensured the students had actionable requirements to write about or to meet in the assignments and discussions. Although I already saw this response I must agree that we must know our audience in the design of the course. Therefore we must manage the complexity at an acceptable level to achieve the outcomes, while ensuring the outcome was indeed reflective of real-world application of the content. Finally, I believe creating that learning objects database is important as well so students can use real research as learning objects to understand computer forensics or whatever technical area is being authored. There may be existing databases so we do need to exercise those for the student and enable their success as use of this existing informaiton as well (AIU Library).
I agree with all three your choices and must say that these are the ones I would choose also. It is vital that all three occurs. If you don't know your audience, the subject at hand or how to communicate the message it is like talking to the walls. You are not able to effectively and efficiently deliver the message. Another thing is to remember not to over do it. Your audience usually looses focus if the message is too long or they are not actively involved.
Course Contents.
Course Objectives.
Online Assessment Tools.
Discussions Forum
David,
The flow, navigation and structure are all essential. Thank you.
The first thing to consider is the level of student who will be taking the course. Are they traditional students who are comfortable with technology, or might they be non-traditional students who may not be as comfortable with a lot of the bells and whistles of online instruction?
Secondly, the obvious consideration is the content to be delivered. Regardless of the target audience, there are going to be certain skills, facts, and pieces of information that you'll want to get across in the course.
Thirdly, which online components will you need to deliver the content for the course? Synchronous, asyncronous, Discussion Boards, Live Chats, video, audio, powerpoint, etc. are all elements that may lend themselves to being used in the course you're developing.
David,
Yes, these are all great. And, I am especially glad you included course integrity. Thanks.
