I would disagree, some may assume that the ongroupd course can just be moved over to an online class and its quick and easy. Try teaching that online and you will see the difficult nature of that outcome. I would like to see more time dedicated to online course development out of my instructors.
Joel,
A script is necessary when you are creating your lectures. Great post.
Shelly Crider
Tony,
Be sure to spend a little extra time on quality control.
Shelly Crider
Tony,
Oh good point....which makes the time spent a little tougher to be sure to touch every student.
Shelly Crider
Andrew,
Good point....one little missed detail could be missing of a whole concept.
Shelly Crider
I disagree..I have developed for both types of learning environments. One must first master the LMS in order to properly develop the course. For me, every time the school decides to upgrade or make a change to the system, it is quite time consuming to figure out how to alter the delivery of the content information.
Diane
The time invested into both classes whether online or onground should be significant to give the student a great learning experience so, I would not aggree with the above statement.
I have never set up a classroom online or traditional. However I would think that both of them take a great deal of time and effort.
Rick,
Oh so true...doesn't really matter the platform, the student should be in the developer's mind.
Shelly Crider
Nicholas,
Indeed they are. To get a quality course, time has to be spent on developing plans.
Shelly Crider
Shelly,
The time invested is greater for an online course due to the many factors that must be taken into consideration. Yes both courses have to think of the learner skills, entry levels, ARCS motivation, ability, learning "preferences" and the characteristics of the group for the targeted learners. The difficult part is when doing a performance context analysis you see different needs depending on the course delivery method. It does get harder to maintain attention of the online student because you cannot see when the student strays from the instruction. In a classroom you guide them in a way that you can observe the change in performance and attention at that moment. Online you do not always know where they are getting lost or were the delivery method is not keep a part of the ARCS in develop.
Amanda
amanda,
There are many factors to be considered when developing a class. Good point!
Shelly Crider
As this is all new for me, I honestly can't answer at this time. I am glad that we are goig to have help developing our classes!
False. With the online course, you have to create course content which could be restricted by the computer program used to build the course. You have more freedom and therefore it is easier to conduct a live course.
I totally disagree with that statement. It requires twice as time because you have to cater for the unexpected learner to ask a question that you did not think of during course development. Also you have to fill in the information gaps that you would normally fill in using extemporaneous knowledge.
As the demand for “quality†online education continues to increase the demand to develop and produce a quality online course will also increase. This will mean that it will require more (and not less) time to develop the same course for an online environment than for a traditional classroom. Many factors for the traditional classroom are already entrenched, while online courses continue to evolve and adjust to new technology and learning methodologies. Many instructors continue to seek out “best practices†to ensure a quality end product.
Additionally, if institutions will continue to rely on online as a source of revenue they must ensure that the course is of quality and substance. As a result, this will require a collaborative effort and input from SME to ensure that the course(s) develop has the flexibility to meet any current and future changes/adjustments. Consequently, the time required to develop a quality online course is much more than the time required to develop the same course for a traditional classroom.
Bruce,
Collaboration is a must for online to grow. We cannot be an expert in everything, so have people around us who are!
Shelly Crider
I am going to be teaching an online course or courses in a few months and your post reflects my concerns. Being dynamic and engaging students in lively conversation appears to be one of the many challenges of the online course facilitating. Utilizing the synchronous discussion format may help to alleviate this concern. However, also to your point of being dynamic, not being able to change or modify a lesson plan due to the preconfigured course structure does not benefit the student. Being able to modify a course, at least minimally, should be an option.
Judi,
Being there for the student is so very important. The student wants to know that someone is there just for them! I am glad you are planning to be very active.
Shelly Crider
I completely disagree. In a traditional classroom, all you have to do is prepare the syllabus and the lecture. After that, you can incorporate all sorts of things in the classroom as the session progresses and you go to teach everyday.
However, for an online course, everything needs to be in place before the course start. It is because in an online course, one does not have a face-to-face interaction everyday to inform the students easily and effectively changes in content, learning outcome, objectives, quiz and exam dates.
The students of an online course are mostly adults who have a full-time career and family besides taking online classes. They need to plan much ahead about a course - is the course interesting, will it fulfill their goals, will they have time to do all the studies and take all the assessments. Thus, all these information need to be in place for an online course, and which is not required, in most part, for an on-ground course.
Not all online students will be technologically savvy. Thus, the course needs to be planned in such a way that everyone can easily access and navigate the course, learn and meet all the learning objectives. This planning requires much time with all the proper information, and training-videos, if required, in place.
We have to keep in mind that in an online course, there will be no one physically present by the side of a student to hold his/her hand, lead, teach and make them learn. There will be no physical office present where student can just come and knock, any time, to ask questions and talk about the class. Thus, the online course needs to be planned and structured in such a way that students can have, virtually, such help and assistance. All these required lots of time.
I am not sure if I am clear with my answers as I have so much ideas that I can practically write a 10 page paper on it :-). I am trying to be concise.
Thank You,
Srabasti Dutta
