Melissa,
I agree that organization is key. As you provide timely, consistent and complete feedback, how you provide it to students (organized) is essential.
Thank you for your organized and detailed feedback to this forum. Nice job.
Felicia,
Your three important points all work together to develop an effective learning environment for an online course. The realistic course framework must include a dynamic syllabus and learning outcomes that are explained clearly to the students.
Providing consistency throughout the course helps students achieve the learning outcomes as well. Nice job.
The three things that I believe to be the most important are: organization, stating things clearly, and responding to your students in a timely manner.
You absolutely need to be organized in order for your students to be successful. You have to remember, you know the material and they don't. It would be confusing for them if topics and subjects were skipped around.
You have to make sure that you explain things clearly so your audience can follow along and understand what you are trying to teach. Remember that it's not like sitting in class where you can repeat things or they can ask questions and get an immediate respond from you to claify.
Make sure to respond to your students in a timely manner. I know from personal experience that there is nothing worse than waiting on a professor to answer a question before you can move on.
Melissa Williams
I believe the three most important things to consider when authoring an online course are
1. To write a realistic course framework for the time allotted.
2. To consider the audience you are teaching to.
3. To provide module consistancy throughout the course.
I agree with your statement that instructors should be able to add content. Each group or division in a school should have a liason that ideas could be bantered back and forth with that would assist with adding or substracting content as needed. This keeps in line with having a dynamic syllabus.
Anyone teaching the same subject should be able to benefit from another's area of expertise is the reason behind my statement that ideas should be discussed and content changed accordingly. What is best for the student should always be the fore most important thing.
Luis,
It's good to hear about your experience. Many times that is how we learn best, by doing. Aligning with course outcomes allows students to understand "Why are we doing this?" Connecting the content to the real works and being consistent in your delivery along with the consistency in navigation witin the course are all important.
Thank you for your input.
Thank you for your kind remarks. I quit my last job because my boss wouldn't let me teach the new employees about the work we did. I have come to understand it was due to her insecurities, but I stayed for more years than I should because I had a passion for the job. Teaching is where I belong, because I love helping others understand new things. I believe that done correctly, online or "blended" like our school is starting, can really be a huge help to many people that might not be able to come to a particular building to learn but still have that deep seated desire to learn and enhance their lives.
I have developed a couple of courses for online presentation and the three most important aspects are:
a) alignment of course content with course objectives - is the course content in agreement with the course objectives and intended learning outcomes?
b)in-depth of course materials - is the course data up-to-date and at the appropiate level?
c)consistency - are the modules build in consistent format easy to follow and understand by the learner?
I work for a proprietary education organization and one of our business units is well know for their consistent delivery of online courses. Their instructors are lock into an already establish course layout that offers both room for creativity and static components to protect certain sections of the course.
Instructors should be allow to insert their own components (creativity)into a course without grossly changing the course content.
Jean,
Thank you for your detailed input. As you provide information to students like this on dicsussion boards, you are serving as a role model to them. This is great.
Trial and error does provide for learning, if you do learn from your mistakes. ;-) I like the connection you made between authoring the course and educational handouts. There is overlap: organization, pertinent information, learning objectives, etc.
I also like the "awareness" you mention. Students are all different. We cannot assume. Nice job.
I agree whole-heartedly. Feedback from instructor-to-student and student-to-instructor is of tantamount importance. I can give feedback all day long, but if I don't get feedback from the students, I cannot possibly know if I am being effective in my teaching. I like feedback, whether it is positive or negative. Negative feedback can really help you refine your teaching skills and make a mediocre course into a stupendous one. Positive feedback helps you know you are hitting your mark.
I have never authored an online course before, but I have learned to make up educational
handouts for clients. By trial and error I have found that an excellent way to check the person's understanding is to have someone else try to do what you are trying to get across. So definitely:
1.)Creating a Course Module and testing/revising is an important item to do.
Keeping the content fresh keeps people interested and motivated.
2.)Keeping each component simple and to-the-point.
I think some people get trapped in the:
"If it's bigger/more colorful/brighter/flowery it must be better!"
Make it easy to navigate through the pages. I've taken classes that were easy to go forward, but extremely difficult to go back and refresh my knowledge.
3.)Making its appeal widespread.
You need to be culturally aware, gender aware, age aware, and demographic aware. You need to know about the physchology of colors and how it affects the person vs. the content of what is being taught. Is the background colors going to be in conflict of your material?
When authoring your own online courses I think that the most important things to consider are your speed, tone, and not narrating too much as to tae away from the presentation. Maybe adding a personal story to add humor or make that lesson more memorable?
I believe the three most important considerations are
1) Course Objective- giving them the information I want them to learn
2) Course comprehenshion- Can all students understand what is being explained, especially if they are english as a secongd language students
3) Course Navigation- if there are two many places to navigate for the the needed info then it becomes confusing and overwhelming.
Mary,
Nice job. I like how you summarized that every area matters. You are so right. The chunking of information is something others have not brought to light in this forum. Thanks for bringing that up.
Thanks!
1. Ensure that the course follows the format of other courses so that students do not waste time trying to figure out the "system" time and time again.
2. That the material is contained in chunks otherwise the student will move onto other objects and potentially miss vital information.
3. It needs to be interesting and flow by making sense in respect to content, flow and the delivery method while meeting the objectives of the course.
Every area from format to delivery method matters for an online student's success.
Donte,
I agree that these are key components. Can you add to how the course framework and how information should be presented/received are different aspects of the course?
Thanks!
I think its important to establish the courses learning objectives, the course framework and the how information should be presented and received.
Eleni,
Nice job and thanks for your input. Actually all of your considerations are connected. It's essential that the course material must be presented in an excellent format which engages students in a user-friendly environment.
Excellent. Thanks!
I believe the three most important things to consider when authoring an online course are:
1. Easy to follow instructional design. Is the course easy to follow, does the user know where to navigate next, when to take a quiz, when assignments are due.
2.Engaging the student with discussion boards or lesson feedback sections.
3.Course content: Is the quality of the material presented online as good as the material I offer to my classroom.
Terry,
You are correct in that feedback is crucial. How do you provide feedback?
Thanks!
