Jon, I disagree. I have created an online course for a Graduate program and a course for a traditional learning environment and I have to say that I spent a lot more time developing the online course. I feel that with an online course, you have to be more explicit in your expectations and create a program that someone can feel comfortable taking (and succeeding in) in their living room.
The course also needs to motivate the online student to be disciplined to keep up with the readings because they will not have a traditional classroom as a physical place to be one or two times a week to discuss the weeks readings and be afraid of looking unprepared in front (physically) of their peers.
--Joe Gilkerson
Disagree. I think more time is needed because you have to design a website to accompany the text and instruction. With on the ground all you really need for a well designed course is the course, the teacher and a classroom. Online needs all the graphics, text visuals, sound etc. How you put it together makes all the difference in the success of the learning experience. If you are considering only the course objectives then both would require the same amount of time.
I disagree with this. It is far more time consuming to develop an online course in terms of presenting, organizing and developing appropriate content and interactive activities.
Good point - it depends on what type of support you have! - Jon
I Disagree. A classroom environment allows for more immediate assessment of what works and what doesn't, allowing me to develop the course more rapidly. It is far more difficult to assess the efficacy of your lesson plan without direct interaction. It would seem your only measure is quizzes, which involves more short term memory skills than actual retention of information. Additionally, every class has different personalities that require adapted teaching methods not available in an online course structure
Jill,
Good point - I believe it really depends on what you are developing, your experience, and how strong a team you have.
Thanks,
Jon
Disagree. Why?
Well we have to add in additional factors. Flow is one. Also, what aspects of multimedia to use.
In general there are many supplementary design ativities that need to take place. Also, multimedia requires one to take into consideration factors that do not exist in a ground class.
I think it takes longer to develop an online course. Often, you need to prepare more materials and have extra information in case student participation is low (for example). Naturally, you have to do that in a classroom setting as well, but typically in a classroom things take longer (students raise their hands, you ask them what they mean by something they said, etc.). I've found that one needs to be SUPER prepared for an online class.
Alan,
Great point about multimedia, that can significantly add to the time involved!
Best,
Jon
I definitely think there is more time invested in teaching online courses, especially in the beginning. After teaching several sections of the same course, it may help to speed up the process, as far as the "preparations" are concerned. But, "keeping up" on a daily basis may be more time-consuming than a regular class. Although, I don't have to travel to and from class, so that might make up for it! :)
I have over 20 years experience in onground and 6 in online. Both take equal amounts of time. Onground is more labor intensive because of the time to get to the office, navigate the rooms, set-up, etc. But the same, except for getting to the office, goes to learning the ins and outs of the online platform that your university utilizes.
Salient point Carol, the management of the class "hubris" is important for learning in the onground setting. The class tone online is vastly different.
Not at all (do I agree)! From my experience so far, the time invested in both the act of teaching and in the 'developmental' work involved in online courses is greater than that for traditional or on-campus classes. Because of that investment, however, there is a certain 'efficiency' that can be realized on the online environment that isn't possible for the face-to-face course. Thus, there is a certain payoff . . . though that wasn't the question!
That 'saving travel time,' not to mention being able to sip hop tea at home during class, is part of the 'payoff' for the extra time invested in the online course.
I disagree. It takes more time to develop an online course because you have to add to the course the type of e-learning tools and media learners will employ in the e-learning environment. In a strictly traditional course, the facilitator of the course may only use electronic slides in the classroom to interact with learners. This may take additional time to develop; but it will not be as much time as it takes to develop an online courseroom.
Belinda
I couldn't disagree more. Having recently developed an online writing course, the time involved was tremendous and by far much more than I would have invested had it been for a traditional classroom setting. Among other things, developing course materials and getting them on the course website was very time consuming.
I would disagree. The time to develop a quality online course woud be the same or longer than the time required to develop a quality course for traditional delivery. In both educational medium you would need to develop the same criteria/parameters for the course such as course goals and objectives, instructional content and methods for assessing whether learning objectives have been met.
I disagree, based on experience with both types of classroom design. Just one example where there is a lot more time investment is the creation of an assignment. When designing for an online class, it is so important to be very clear with language, it must be airtight (no room for misinterpretation) to avoid chaos and confusion when the course is up and running. Whereas in a traditional classroom, I can set up the structure and bones of an assignment, deliver it to the class, and immediately see and deal with a sea of confused faces and spend a lot of time discussing the project until the class gets what they need to do. I can also make modifications on the fly, when something is not working. You don't have quite the same opportunities to do that online, though I still do make such amendments, but only because there is a grave error in the assignment.
Your response raises the question whether there isn't an inherent 'impersonality' to the online environment, and how we can overcome that appearance of structural rigidity and formality so as to better 'connect' with the students (and to enliven the material itself).
