I have designed websites and thought the site was "logically" organized based on my interpretation, but feedback from users was quite different. How much effort should be placed on soliciting feedback from users and then incorporating suggestions into the layout of the course? After all isn't it more important that the "look and feel" of the course work for the student rather than the designer?

I like to use the Absorb, Do, Connect method when teaching online course. I find it to be well organized, user friendly and very interactive. The absorb stage is designed for the student to learn the new concept by reading, watching or listening to something. In the do stage, they have an exercise or experiment to put the new skill in action. Then the connect stage helps them to link the skill to prior knowledge or to future uses in life or the workplace. Does anyone else use this method? What are your thoughts?

This generation is growing in the transformation age which means that technology is prevalent in many facets. The traditional way of learning will be the thing of the past as technology keeps improving.

Since standardized tests have not been proven to provide the real life learning outcome, why is it that some educational institutions are still using these test to meet their criteria?

I must agree with Mezirow. He stated the more students become "producers" of knowledge, the more they realize the value of what they are learing and see the application to their own lives.

I believe so. This process of learner will not only enhance their horizon in learning but also integrate the concerns one instructor may face with the nomadic learner.

Care must be taken when using student input. Some students are very uninformed on the topic but try to persuade you to their point of view. If they add information to a topic the instructor must check the facts very carefully or other students will be gravely misinformed.

The diagram at the beginning of the "Dynamic Forms of Communication" section is exceedingly poorly designed. As best as I can tell, it's supposed to be a digraph where the nodes are the students, the instructor, and the content; and the edges are communication channels. The problem is, instead of having edges going from student to content and teacher to content, they added another node labelled "both" and put edges pointing from that node to content. In a graph with only three nodes and no multiple edges, there's no excuse for introducing a "both" node. The diagram would have been much simpler if it had been laid out as a triangle, with edges connecting the student node and the teacher node to the content node and no "both" node whatsoever. The only reason I can fathom for laying out the diagram like this is because this way, all the nodes are colinear and none of the edges are curved, making the diagram look like a line segment. This would then reinforce the idea that the model of learning is "linear". There are many things I could say about this, but really, if you're so bad at abstraction that you need a diagram to be a straight line to call it linear, you probably shouldn't be teaching in the first place.

Will all users find the interface design and navigation easy to use? Shall the interface include instructions?

it takes a special type of individual to complete on line classes

ONline classes, takes a lot of time but if you have excellent time management you will become successful

If you give a person enough rope usually they will hang themselves with it. I think that connectivity to the internet can be a useful tool in a small group environment, however in a large group, in my experience, students tend to wander away from the task a hand either from boredom or from confusion. If you are going to give internet connection time to sudents as a tool I think the instructor should be equipped to view what each student, in class only, is looking at. This should deter the students from gravitating from the sites they "should" be at.

I'm afraid that no matter how hard you may try and how many and how diverse the tools you use are trying to keep today's average student interested when instructing a theory course is close to impossible. Personally though, I think that the average student has more knowledge about what we are trying to teach them than we are able to give them credit for. Yes, there are some subjects that the general student populace is going to be clueless about when they come in or may have a slight idea as to operation but that is the exception to the rule.

An assesment is an effective way to determine if a individual retained information that was presented to him during a lecture. I find it to be very helpful to determine what students may need additional help or tutoring to get them up to par. This was very helpful information.

To implement a project in a topic being taught may be helpful, sometimes to learn a subject at hand involves kinesthetic learning and I feel it to be very effective.

I have found that when I interact my students with the topic that the daily lecture is going to be on they take the most from it. Kinesthetic learning is very effective with most of my students and they seem to retain info. better that way as well.

I believe dynamic learning is an essential part to the learning and teaching experience for that matter, it allows diffrent points of views to be brought up and disccussed during a lecture, learned alot from it.

assesments are a good tool to gauge a students comprehension and retention of information.

integrating learning is a positive thing to do to try and insure all students are learning when individuals are at diffrent levels.

Adults will commit to learning when the goals and objectives are considered realistic and important to them. Application in the 'real world' is important and relevant to the adult learner's personal and professional needs. Adults need to receive feedback on how they are doing and the results of their efforts. Opportunities must be built into professional development activities that allow the learner to practice the learning and receive structured, helpful feedback. Adults need to participate in small-group activities during the learning to move them beyond understanding to application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Small-group activities provide an opportunity to share, reflect, and generalize their learning experiences.