To address these scenarios, identify the major characteristics or issues that would impact or influence the design of the described online class. Be sure to indicate which of the characteristics you identify would be your prime concern. Also be sure to indicate how each of the major issues you identify would influence your design of the online class.
You have been asked to lead the team that is developing a series of courses for an online University. Explain some design decisions or issues that you would have to deal with for each class given the characteristics of the content, instructors and students as presented. Note: Pick the most salient characteristics and issues and explain why the ones you have chosen are key. Don’t try to cover every possible issue in each scenario!
Course A
Content: This course will cover beginning college algebra.
Instructor(s): This course is taught by various adjunct and full time professors who are very familiar with the content who have differing degrees of tech skills and online teaching experience. The same class has to serve for all instructors.
Students: All students in this course are college freshman and sophomores with good technology skills and each has successfully taken an online orientation to online learning course.
In this course, the major characteristics include varying degrees of tech skills among the instructors. Another major characteristic is that all of the students have successfully taken an online orientation to online learning course. The major issue here is that the course is being taught by multiple instructors and their technology skills vary. The course would have to be designed using a more customary approach with more procedural processes rather than holistic. The technology being used would also have to be limited in order for all instructors to be comfortable.
Course B
Content: The course is a philosophy of leadership class.
Instructor(s): The instructor is an experienced face-to-face instructor with good tech skills and prior online teaching experience. This instructor prefers lecture and discussion classes.
Students: Graduate students who are well motivated and with a broad range of technology skills, from average to very advanced.
The major characteristics include the topic of the course, the experience and preference of the instructor, and the skills of the students. This course would be better suited to a holistic approach. The interaction should be more group-based rather than one-on-one because the instructor is more comfortable with bigger groups rather than individual interaction. In addition, the technology used in this course should be intermediate (not too basic and not too advanced) because of the range of students' skill levels.
Course C
Content: This course is an introduction to college success. It teaches study skills, communication skills, and tries to help students learn how to fit into the college community.
Instructor(s): This course will be taught by various instructors all with good tech skills and prior online teaching experience but who have never taught this content before.
Students: Students are incoming freshman who have been identified by advisors as high risk for drop out.
The major issues being faced in the design of this course are the fact that the instructors have no prior experience teaching this content and the type of students enrolled in the course. Since the instructors have little experience with the content, then the course should incorporate low risk to make sure they are comfortable. That is, there should be pre-developed material available and ready for use. Since the students likely have low motivation, then the course should require basic technology to keep from diminishing what interest they have left. I also think a more holistic approach would help with that.
2. Now, think about an online learning experience that you might someday create. Describe in detail the content, instructor and student characteristics. What are the design issues or features that these suggest? Explain your answers.
If I created an online learning experience, it would have to be a math course. I would say an Algebra course for freshman and sophomore students. I would most likely design it for myself, as I am a math teacher. Typically, the students in this course are repeating which means they have low motivation and/or are at risk students. They also usually have little experience with online courses and technology. Based on this information, the course would have to include basic technology to keep the comfort levels high for the students. I also believe a holistic approach should be taken in the design of the course to raise or at the very least keep the attention of the students. Since it is a math course, procedural processes are necessary but I believe a strictly procedural approach will result in loss of interest and failure of the course. I believe the grading should be spread throughout the course among a number of assignments rather than the bulk of the grade on one or two exams. This way, students have a chance to improve and won't just give up after one bad score.
3. List the 11 instructional design steps presented in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).
I purchased but have not received the copy of the book yet. However, I researched the steps and came up with these:
- Indentify underlying goal
- Analyze the learner's needs and abilities
- Identify content to teach
- Set learning objectives
- Identify prerequisites
- Choose the approach to mmet each objective
- Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives
- Create objects to accomplish objectives
- Create tests
- Select learning activities
- Choose media
Hi Aldo,
ReplyDeleteGreat post, very well written and organized. When you say that "a holistic approach should be taken in the design of the course" how would keep the attention of the students. Thanks - Bill
Good job. Don't forget to include other sources of information where appropriate!
ReplyDelete