The Look and Feel of an Online Course
The look and feel of an online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.
I agree. Living in a visual world, the look and feel of the online enivornment and the ease at which it is accessable will set the mode and the retention of the student within the on-line class.
MARk
Mark:
Yes; the ease with which learners can locate and retrieve information is an important factor to consider from a usability standpoint.
Please share with us your interpretation of "look and feel". What elements constitute the"look and feel"?
Satrohan
My interpretation of "look and feel" deal with the visional presentation of how the platform looks, and feel is the user friendlyness of the course. I think that you will agree with me that not all studnets are technology savy.
MARk
In this day and age when so many are learning challenged - students become bored quickly with just reading or listening to one person talk. I feel students would get more involved if they could actually see things being done and then try doing (feel) it themselves. More of a hands on approach so to speak. I think this would get the student more involved in a project or discussion, rather than just an instuctor talking and the student listening all day long.
I agree. The look and feel is incredibly important as it creates a true environment of learning. If the look is very complex like having too much content or multimedia distractions it overwhelms the students. If it is too simple and basic then the credibility of the course is questioned. It needs to have the right balance with the right technology tools such as video or audio to create the right interaction.
The look and feel of an online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.
I disagree.
While the look and feel of an outline course is important, it is never as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart. A baby bottle may be attractive because of its color and shape, but it is worthless without the milk to feed the baby. A bottle that is too large or uncomfortable for the baby to hold may discourage a baby from drinking, just as a course outline in small font may discourage some students from reading the material, yet it is always the knowledge and skills that we are attempting to impart that makes the whole enterprise worthwhile.
It is important to provide an outline course in an attractive and easily accessible manner to encourage the student to proceed and persist in absorbing the material, but it is critical to have something to chew on. In the first module, the material was attractively presented, but there was little substance and I kept asking “where’s the beef?. Fortunately the presenter had anticipated this response in his introduction and I was content knowing that the material would be more meaty as I progressed.
Robert(Bob) Cohn
Yes Mark, I agree. And we share the same definitions of "look and feel".
Satrohan
Carol:
Please help me to provide appropriate feedback to your posting by advising whether your contribution applies to a classroom setting or an online setting. Thanks.
Satrohan
Sunny:
Striving for balance is an excellent goal at which to aim. The "looks" gives the learning environment a certain degree of "appeal"; the features we include to foster ease of use, supports usability.
Satrohan
Robert:
Your analogy is an excellent one. "Look and feel" is important; however, it is not equally important as the knowledge and skills the course was designed to share. Equality is implied in the wording of the Discussion question.
Satrohan
Many students get bored or distracted , on-line or in a in-person classroom. I think it helps to keep students interested and participate more readily in classroom discussion or projects, if things are more interesting. Many students have different learning styles and this just helps them to further their knowledge. The look and feel of any classroom is only as good or interesting as the instructor teaching it.
Carol:
I believe it is an unrealistic expectation to fully engage all students. A students may show all the signs of paying attention in a traditional classroom; however, that student's mind might be elsewhere.
The key is to make the learning experience engaging; be it for a traditional classroom environment or an online environment.
Satrohan
I agree. The look and feel is incredibly important as it creates a true environment of learning. If the look is very complex like having too much content or multimedia distractions it overwhelms the students. If it is too simple and basic then the credibility of the course is questioned. It needs to have the right balance with the right technology tools such as video or audio to create the right interaction.
Sunny:
Please share your perception of "look and feel" so that i can be in a better psoition to provide more indepth feedback to your response. These are some pointers to note.
A well-designed course should not have content overload; neither should it have distracting multimedia. If it does, i agree with you that the the credibility of the course can be questioned. So can be the credibility of the course development team and even the credibility of the offering institution.
Share with me what you would consider to be the right balance in use of technology tools.
Satrohan
The look and feel of an Online Course is extremly important. There are many courses that claim to be Online, and are really Face to Face curriculum that has been tranposed to an Online format. A professional online course will allow the passion and emotion of the learner to be expressed to the facilitator and other students involved in the interaction. Online courses are not easier for a facilitator but require more effort creatitivy, especialy in the area of assessment. The facilitator in the Face to Space course has a greater role than an instructor, and is recognized immediately.
Richard:
It is quite true that many courses classified as online courses are really folders containing reading materials, assignments etc. The technology is used primarily as a means to access materials. Such courses may not necessarily even meet the requirements of some glamorous print-based distance education courses. There are usually PowerPoints in the ones I would qualify as sub-standard. These PowerPoints seem to be the ones that were used to guide the delivery of the on-the-ground version fo the course. The words the Instructor said to support the topics in the PowerPoints are missing. In other words, the lecture component is missing.
Please share with us the nature of the courses you have classified as "Face-to-Face Curriculum" designated online courses. Thanks Richard.
Satrohan
I agree. I am currently pursuing my PhD online and find the aesthetics are an important part of the online experience. It is maybe not equal to the content but it can influence how you perceive the content and what level of reliability you attribute to it.
For instance, if the site is full of “eye candy” or if the class is provided through outlook express I am not as apt to attribute a serious tone to the content. But, it also depends on who the audience is and what the course content is.
Surfiene
Surfiene:
The appeal of the individual screen displays play an important role in learning; just as appeal is important in other aspects of our lives.
Satrohan
I was always able to tell a well developed online class, as soon as I experienced the assesment. There are few experts that can produce assessment that truly is authentic and designed for a face to space class. The true facilitator inspires learning without a word and motivates with subtle inspiration. The student who is facilitator driven also emotes their passion and their epiphanes which can be felt.
