I've taught online for about 3 years. I think that at least some live chats should be mandatory. The best interactions I get with students is in a live chat environment.

I recently finished my first book, Cost Accounting for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, March 2013). By offering a free, online course, I think I can enhance the material that students read in the book. I'd be interested in feedback. Thanks! Ken Boyd www.stltest.net

Instructional design is heavily important when trying to communicate data that is appropriate to the reader. The design of a curriculum must be thoughtfully plan to provide a blended learning to an online environment.

A learner centered quiz should be designed to cover weekly course material in an effort to gage a student learning ability in communicating the subject.

Online learning should be consistent with chat rooms. Chat rooms allow students to actively engage with their classmates as well as the instructor. I believe online chat should be mandatory for students to attend. This would allow students to understand weekly and upcoming assignments and post questions regarding the assignment.

I am challenged with keeping students engaged in weekly discussion forums. The focus is to stay on topic without adding new subject content. Students often feel that when a new subject of topic is added to the current subject that this is information overload. I would like to combat this dilemma by providing an effective way to communicate the intended message.

Some say that final exams are mere regurgitation of information and have no real value when it comes to preparing students for the workplace today. Your thoughts?

In reflecting upon the four phases of ISD, it seems to me the most difficult of the phases is development. In performing the analysis phase it should be relatively easy to establish what can be transferred as is into the online course, what needs to be modified and what needs to be created. Also quite easy is the course design specification were a blueprint for what needs to be accomplished in terms of instructional content, media, and presentations strategies. Also the evaluation phase or the fourth phase of ISD seems intuitively easy as well. However I suspect that development is the most of all the phases to accomplish. Finding the right blend, right media, the right instruction and presentation strategies and creating the module calls a seamless e-learning environment I think is the most difficult of all of the phases. Factors such as the nature of the content, the complexity of the concepts, and the interactions or relationships between theories are variables can make development very difficult. Topics that are highly visual can benefit from and pictures. Topics that are very complicated because there are a series of moving parts that make up the whole of the concept, may be best illustrated through animation or videos. Abstract concepts may require carefully crafted texts with multimedia presentations as follow-up. Combining the parameters of the course design specification and producing a seamless platform that optimizes media strategies is perhaps the most difficult of all the phrases of ISD. Here I would've like to see a specific example developed online to be able to understand better how to create this seamless environment. Perhaps the illustration of a good example and a poor example will help provide a better understanding on how to manage this phase. Essentially it's easy for me to understand what is intended and the development phase of ISD, but at the same time I suspect that I would need more practice and more examples to see exactly how this is done. Maybe in some of the upcoming iterations of this course it would be possible to see more specifics related to this phase.

As part of my online lectures I always like to take the opportunity to provide a brief overview of the assignments each week. The intention of this presentation is not necessarily to provide responses to the questions so the students can use them in the assignments. The objective of this discussion is to present the expectations and discuss the relevance of the assignments to the material being presented. It's also an opportunity for the students to ask questions about the assignment and an opportunity to share with them some supplemental resources that may be used any assignments. The assignments themselves already have the narratives regarding purpose, expect patience, relevance, and the basic elements that are expected, but the online synchronous review allows them to present questions that may not only be of importance to those attending the synchronous mode but also those attending asynchronously. The week after, once assignments are completed, I also take the opportunity to discuss the model answers so they can compare expectations with what is considered acceptable and at the same time understand what specific areas can be improved in upcoming assignments. Although the specifics for each student is posted in the grade book, I find it best to gather general observations from all assignments within one section and present them as an overall platform to improve the quality of the upcoming assignments. This may be a little longer than what is presented in this module, but I found that it has been very effective for the students in the online environment.

With all the possible techniques available for online instruction such as lectures, discussions, readings, videos, audio, guest speakers, as well as all the possible assessment tools, the observation here is related to the ability to finding an optimal mix by module, lesson, and topic. The majority of online courses I've seen tend to repeat a certain pattern. More specifically there seems to be a considerable amount of lectures using text or videos, followed by discussion board assignments and reflective papers as individual projects. Occasionally there is a group project a guest speaker. Yet with all other sorts of techniques available, I suspect it just takes a little creativity and effort to determine the best technique given the course content. Of course following a pattern is a lot easier, it certainly facilitates navigation simplicity and structural integrity, but as adults we like variety and a variety of techniques if properly tailored to the material and introduced into the classroom can keep students much more interested in the learning process. I suspect the best way to achieve this is through a refinement process once the basics of a face-to-face course have been effectively transformed for the online environment. It may be too much to ask to optimize techniques the first time around when there may be an urgency to move forward with an online course. From this module I gather that a follow-up with the content expert once a class has been delivered can provide the best framework for assessing the possibility of using other techniques that may end up communicating content more effectively.

Of all the attributes of effective online courses, the one that struck me the most was the attribute of intellectual interaction. As a designer of online courses for business management, leadership, and spiritual development, this for me is perhaps the most difficult to achieve. Anyone can create online content and have students access that content just by clicking, but transforming that material into a structural integrity format that is also learner centered and elicits intellectual interaction is a very difficult combination. Achieving some level of intellectual interaction with the material is not all that hard, especially if own the content for the course you are converting into the online environment. What I seen as a challenge is the ability find the optimal way to elicit intellectual interaction throughout each of the modules, lessons, and topics. If this is difficult to do when you all in the content that is to be transformed, I see it much more difficult to work with a faculty member that has never developed an online course and believes they are fundamentally the same. The nuances of learner centered learning and intellectual interaction are much more difficult to communicate to a faculty member that is just learning the online environment. In helping a major institution convert their classroom courses to an online environment, my biggest challenge is to reeducate faculty into understanding this transformation process. Most of these faculty members have never taught online yet have been offering these classes for a long time. Their assumption is that the selected platform for these courses will take care of those levels of details. As I continue with the other modules in this course, I become more aware of ways to convince them of the need to address the differences between face-to-face classroom sessions and the online environment.

Hi There has to be a boundary between what is acceptable as far as using outside media and what would consider too much. I know of instructors that during an hour chat turn on some presentation that they have downloaded and sit back and add nothing to the experience. This is lazy and unprofessional in my opinion and does not afford the students a change to grow. It is so easy to get caught in that trap. What would be a good mix? Bill Becker

Hi Using another instructor’s syllabus is an easy way to get out of doing your own. It relieves the burden of trying to figure out if our syllabus will be accepted or rejected by the Department Chair who usually has the responsibility of reviewing our syllabuses before they are distributed. After all they approved the original didn’t they? The problem is that there is no guarantee that the coursework covered is adequate or complete. My suggestion is that when using someone else’s syllabus is to just use it as a template as to how to format it. Most schools publish learning objectives for each class which are usually to access. Use those guidelines as your base and build from there. Also this gives you the opportunity to be creative and make up your own guidelines for assessment and not someone else’s. Which by the way, after it is distributed you have to live with. Any other suggestions? Bill Becker

Hi I have been teaching online now for 11 years. In that time I have had many a night when I was the only person in the chat room since attendance at my school is not mandatory. I always wait about ten minutes and then I start the session regardless of anyone being there or not. To be honest, I don’t always act enthusiastic or my voice may get a little monotone just going through my script. My question is, does anyone have a way to lively up the session so that when students go to the archives they aren’t bored and turn it off? Bill Becker

Hello As many of you have already witnessed teaching certain courses online can be somewhat of a challenge. Especially in classes that have a school structured learning curriculum that does not allow for much “wiggle room” as far as the instructor goes. At my school we use a chat room environment to facilitate learning which in itself can be quite a challenge; especially if you have only one hour a week to do so. I have found that using short media clips can really help as long as the instructor stops and interacts with their students during the presentation. Bill Becker

I have taught online and in the classroom but I have never developed an online class. I have an opportunity to develope a course for a class that I have taught for years and the desire is to provide it online as well as in the classroom. I think working collaberatively with a team of Instructional Designers, Instructors and Project Managers results in the best results. Each brings a different background and perspective to the table. We currently have a course that is available online and it is being over-hauled because there is not interaction with the learners. It is basically a voice over Power Point presentation and our college has received poor feedback on it.

I'm sure this it taken for granted but I took a class recently and I really wasn't sure what was due when. There were conflicts in the syllabus becuase the syllabus was shared between and online and on-ground courses. All on-ground information was not applicable to me so I just needed to ignore it. Throughout the class the instructor had to keep making announcements about what was due when because none of us could follow the syllabus. I think syllabus should be easy to follow and show exactly what is due when. I agree that the syllabus should be the road-map for the course.

It is very helpful to take classes myself because it gives me an opportunity to see learning from a student perspective. I had a class recently and there was a text book change since the last time it was taught. Through the course they kept referring to the old text book. The course was not updated for the new text book. The other thing that was irritating is that this was a class that was taught online and in the classroom. My particular class was all online and the instructor kept referring to "when we meet in the classroom". The instructor also would indicate that the assignment was due on Thursday but then give the date of Wednesday. I thought the instructor was very poor at reviewing what she posted for this class. I also keep canned information for courses that I teach but I always make sure that I read it before posting in case I need to add to it, change something, etc. It sounds so basic but it can be really frustrating for students, which I experienced.

I've taught courses and taken courses and I've been most impressed when classes have a combination of PPT that I read, PPT with audio, some youtube clips and interestingly enough I enjoyed one class in which there were games. One game in the middle of the material was a hang man game in which key words from the class were the answers. It helped break up the material for a little "fun". I think the variety is good and taking classes and seeing what I enjoyed or found boring has helped me as an instructor. Jodi

Educators face increasing pressure to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Among the pros: Tablets can hold hundreds of textbooks on one device, plus homework, quizzes, and other files. E-textbooks on tablets cost on average 50-60% less than print textbooks. Tablets help to improve student achievement on standardized tests. E-textbooks can be updated instantly to get new editions or information. Among the cons: Handheld technological devices including tablets are associated with a range of health problems. People who read print text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than those who read digital text. Print textbooks cannot crash, freeze, or get hacked. Tablets are more susceptible to theft than print textbooks.