I agree. The look and feel of a course is just as important as the knowledge and skills it is presenting to the learner. By having both, the learner stays interested and engaged in the material to continue learning, and recall the information. It is the full package.
And not all students have the same learning style, so it is important to do quality control along the way!
I agree, online courses can be a challenge, but with a great layout can be easier for the learner to follow.
Yes, if the course is not designed with a feel that helps the student navigate in learning they are likely to become frustrated and have a less chance of gaining the knowledge needed or even withdraw.
Frustration does lead to shut down.
I totally agree with your look and feel comment. As a classroom instructor, looking to possibly add online teaching to my resume, I cannot tell you how difficult it is to just get my students to remember logins and passwords. Then we upgraded the computer labs recently to Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 so if your online screens are changing it throws off your students. Assuming most online courses are divided into similar units, it makes more sense to maintain a similar look and fell as opposed to trying to spice things up by changing where usual functions display on the screen. Makes for less headaches, in my opinion. John Kern
less headaches is a good thing!
I agree because the look and feel will take on the attributes of the instructor.
I agree! I think that presentation is everything. If I gave you a plate of cookies in a stained dirty dish, all just thrown in the plate. would you eat them? My guess is NO! What if I put those same cookies in a beautiful, clean platter and organized them in rows so they slighlty overlap each other. Would you be more apt to eat them? My guess is YES! Looks are just as important as the contents and sometimes even more so.
I agree. The more simple you can make the "look" the better the online student likes the course. Make it easy to navigate. Make your assignmets concise and clear.
A lot of things can be said in a simple statement!
Presentation is everything....on ground or online!
We provide one-on-one orientations for students enrolled in our online courses. The navagational simplicity of LMS is extremely important to the students. They are easily overwhelmed by all of the information presented to them so helping them to see the logic of the course structure and how to fit the different components together is important to their success. It is also helpful to provide them with more than one way to access the information. For instance, there may be a calendar, a list of upcoming events and a news forum in the classroom. All three of these components provide information on assignment deadlines and upcoming events. Students are able to refer to the component that makes the most sense to them. Providing a comfortable, easy to navigate virtual classroom is the first step to a student's successful participation in the class.
What are some ways to take the inimidation factor out of that first introduction to the online classroom? How do we make it look frieldly and inviting?
The entire learning environment has an effect on the learning outcome regardless of whether it is online or on the ground. In an online course the look-and-feel of the material are an important part of that environment.
Our brains naturally associate pieces of the environment with the storage of the knowledge. They become intertwined with each other. Have you ever read a book while listening to music to have them forever coupled together? It becomes impossible to think of the book without also thinking of the music and vice-versa. Have you ever hated the classroom you took a class in? That negativity is also stored along with the knowledge.
The look-and-feel of an online course will also become intertwined with knowledge gained from the course.
However, if you are creative, you can take advantage of this by putting something out of place or contrasting to the look and feel to make it stand out.
Students do like extra resources and feel they have had an awesome class when they find these.
I think that the look/feel of a course must be at least as good as the material the students are to learn. If you have a good system for interacting with the class, they will be willing and able to receive the materials you have prepared. However, no amount of bells and whistles can overcome an instructor's lack of preparation or lack of quality content to deliver.
or lack of participation in the discussion area.
I agree. My institution has in the past attempted to establish on-line courses; we have so far been unsuccessful, largely due to the unprofessional appearance of our product. The information was correct but it was presented in a very amateurish fashion.
and students sure know the difference.
