Start Building Better Online Courses

How to awaken the active learner and other stuff.

Oneita Burgess

Start with what you know best• YOU!• Teaching style• Course content, objectives• Technology comfort zone• Target audience

Where to start?In the world of online courses…

In the world of online courses…

• In the words, images• Course design• Interactivities• Communications • Courseware tools• Technology choices

Where is the teacher?

• Learner-centered approach• “Through the student’s eyes”• Proactive, creative• Interactive• Build redundancy, Rule of Three• Put it in 3 different places• Say it in 3 different ways• ???

Where is the student?In the world of online courses…

Finished Product • Course Design

– Goals and Objectives– Student Engagement– Content, Organization, and Clarity

• Interaction & Collaboration– Based on Learning and Course Goals– Variety of Communication Tools Used

• Assessment– Alignment with Objectives– Formative (feedback!) & Summative

• Learner Support– Orientation and Training– Technical and Pedagogical

Objectives

• Establish Good Teaching Principles• Introduce Instructional Design Steps• Develop Goals and Objectives• Clearly organization• Build in interactivity• Plan for effective assessment

Seven Principles of Good Teaching in Undergraduate Education

Chickering & Gamson, 1987

• Promotes teacher-to-student interaction• Promotes student-to-student interaction• Encourages high expectations• Provides rich, rapid feedback• Promotes active learning• Facilitates time on task• Addresses different learning styles

SACS – Principles of Good Practice for Electronically-Based Courses

• Developed by Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET).

• THECB commends and encourages use to ensure quality distance education is high.

• Guide provided at http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/AAR/DistanceEd/PPGCourseGuide.pdf

Instructional Design Basics

Analysis

Design

Development

Implement

Evaluate

• Identify audience• Defining the problem through a needs or job/task analysis• Maintain offline teaching style online• Establish goals and objectives

Analysis – Needs Assessment

A vision of Students TodayYouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BArOImjtG2M

Millennial Behaviors and Higher Education Focus Groups Results

How are Millennials different from previous generations at the same age?

Handout: http://library1.njit.edu/staff-folders/sweeney/Millennials/Millennial-Summary-Handout.doc

Design• Identify course by goals and objectives• Gather current course materials• Develop course outline, storyboard• Organize materials into modules/units/lessons• Matching tool to the task• Determine online presentation style• Familiarity with technology

Syllabus“The Contract”

• Syllabus can be first lesson – first thing student does

• Allow preview if possible• Thorough – anticipate problems• Check list:– Contact information– Communication plan– Assignment details– Technical requirements, software

Course Goals & Objectives

Definition of Goals A.K.A. “The Big Picture”– Broad statement– What learner will gain from instruction

Example: Students will gain appreciation of the role of the family of medicine physician in health care.

Definition of Objective– Statement specific and measurable.– Describes • what learner will know or do as result of engaging in

learning activity.• performance learner is to perform to exhibit to you.• intended result of instruction rather than process.

Example: Students will list three characteristics that make family medicine physician distinctive from other specialists in the health care system.

Beginning with the End

Reasons for Stating Objectives

• Basis for analyzing level of thinking expected for learner.

• Aid in selecting teaching methods.• Enable measuring learning outcomes.• Makes teaching more focused and organized.• Assist students in organizing efforts.• Easier to tie objectives to assessments.

Objective Pitfalls• False performance

– Understand the principles of aerodynamics• False givens

– Given a full day of instruction…• Teaching points

– Be able to pick out a topic to discuss• Gibberish

– Demonstrate an increased awareness of and a considerable grasp of…• Instructor performance

– The instructor will explain to the class…• False criteria

– … to the satisfaction of the instructor.

Mager’s Tips on Instructional Objectiveshttp://www2.gsu.edu/~mstmbs/CrsTools/Magerobj.html#Objectives

What’s in your course?

Reflection moment…• What assignments, classroom activities, test,

etc. are used to ensure students master course objectives?

• List activities and/or assignments, and specify particular course objectives that address each activity.

Personality• “Look and feel”, fonts, colors• Backgrounds• Language, images

Communication • What form, match your style

Learning objectives• Self-tests, interactive glossary

Assessment

Development of Course Components

Audio / visuals choices External linksStandards

• Use of text, page length• Margins, font size• Typeface, white space• Content style sheets

Accessibility• Plain text and image alt tags

Development of Course Components

Details, details, details

• Narrative style• Get straight to the focus• Precise language, keywords • Enhanced visually, word pictures• Clean style, balanced layout• Bulleted points, short pages • One idea paragraphs, visually short• Current, immediate topic

The Way You Do What You Do

• Team effort? • Who does what?• Establish deadlines• Scope of responsibility

• Compatible technology selections• Be open to new ideas from any direction

Development Considerations

The design should be simple and direct.

Stay away from distracting animations that are constantly moving.

An animated demo that loops only once can be very effective, but if it is constantly moving on the screen it detracts from the content.

Web Developers / Designers:

Do remember the things that make a textbook informative and easy to study such as a table of content or a glossary.

A table of contents with each lesson offers a preview of that lesson and acts as a summary.

Keep What Works

Incorporate images that reflect the subject. You wouldn’t use the West Texas Jackalope for a subject dealing with the medical field, unless of course it is wearing a lab jacket and stethoscope.

Your goal is to be innovative whenever possible.

Designing Interactivity

Interaction between • Learner and the instructor.• Learner and content.• Learner-learner.How to achieve?

Organizing Current Material

• Gather Current Course Materials• Organize Material into Modules• Assess Current Materials– Presentations– Communications– Quizzes– Images

Clear Organization• Organizing Components of Storyboard– Overview of whole course– One module for practice

• Methods of Storyboard creation– Overview of each page’s content– Flow of subject matter– Sequence events

Matching Tool to Task

• Becoming familiar with available technology

• Match tools to various teaching objectives

• Use Seven Principles of Good Practice as guideline

Course Design • Menu Options

– Classroom management items (syllabus, etc.)– Course materials (content, glossary, wiki, etc)– Communication options (email, office hrs, etc.)

• Easy/Consistent Navigation of Content– Lessons appear when appropriate (prevents confusion/working ahead when

not ready and promotes community)– All folders and lessons contain titles and dates (reminds students of topic,

keeps them on track and working on the right lesson)– Consistent layout of all lessons

• Consider this… – piques student interest in the lesson• Objectives – lets students know lesson expectations • Readings/Activities – support objectives and offer content• Additional Readings – offers additional content support• Assignments – assess achievement of objectives for the lesson

– All content for each lesson is provided in one place

Course Design

• Multiple Modes of Delivery– To address a variety of learning styles and hold attention – Content included textbook readings, online articles,

websites, podcasts, video clips, audio, documents, etc.– Rubrics, detailed text descriptions, and audio recordings (via

Tegrity) were used to convey expectations for major projects• Additional Resources

– To support the learner with technologies, general questions, and content understanding

– On the menu: Glossary, web resources, FAQs, Tegrity– Within lessons: Additional (Optional) Resources

Multiple Modes of Delivery

Content was obtained from textbooks, websites, and videos for most lessons. Other media modes included polls, podcasts, Tegrity recordings, and Elluminate recordings.

Interaction and Collaboration

• Facilitated by various technologies (synch and asynch)– Class Wiki (Wetpaint)

• Group activities collaboration (creating group definitions and key theory areas)

• Sharing of knowledge and resources (ID model info, evaluation and project management links)

– Case Study Solutions (Elluminate)• Read cases in advance• Discussions of cases and solutions led by students• Individual reflections required

• Peer Reviews of major projects (Group Area in Bb)• Class presentation of major project (Tegrity)• Guidelines and rubrics were provided for each activity

Class WikiCourse assignments, both group and individual, were carried out through the class wiki and accessible to all as resources.

Consistent graphics and titles were used to help students feel as though they had not “left” the Bb class.

Software Issues

Web Browser issues

Web Browsers behave differently

Software Issues

Media Player issues

Specific Media requires a unique player/plug-in

Document Distribution Issues

Summary

Benefits of pre-planning:• Build a better course, faster• Less frustration and redesigning• More time to learn about technology in

“comfort zone”.

Full Circle

• Principles of Good Practice• Instructional Design• Action items– What will you do next?– What timelines do you have?– Take aways.– Evaluation of Online Course

http://www.fgcu.edu/onlinedesign

Focus On Good TeachingExemplary Teaching Online ExampleLink access Username: guestPassword: guest