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 truly believe that the look and feel of an online course plays a significant part in a student’s success in that online course. There’s a part of our senses that associates the appearance of things to our personal level of tolerance. If the appearance and vibe of an online course is not up to par, psychologically a student will not take that online course seriously. In addition, the student will not be willing to put 100% effort into grasping the course material and ultimately not complete the online course successfully.
Yasmine,
good point on the senses.....you are oh so correct on that issue
Shelly Crider
Hi Shelly!
Thanks so much for your positive feedback regarding this post! :)
Absolutely the look and feel are important. On one level, the learner must feel comfortable with the process of accessing the material to remain interested and complete the course. More important to me as a designer, if the presentation does not look professional and appeal to the learner visually, why should the learner feel he can trust the material to be accurate and valuable?
As on line courses become more popular it is important that the course is 1. easy to navagate,2. have a professional look and feel to it. 3. have the information that the student needs to understand, retain and recall the information that is in the course. With out these things the course will not be on line long. I personally have not taken online courses when the word of mouth information about the class is less than expected. When a person hears things like, confusing, weak, lame, it can make a perspective customer find another site.
Jeff,
Those are great adjectives to avoid!
Shelly Crider
totally agree! People learn and absorb information in different ways. Keeping your presentation from being monotone, increases the liklyhood of information retention and a positive learning experience.
I agree. The feel of online course is a tremendous tool for anyone who is willing to learn.
gilbert,
Many things are on online. We need to make sure to educate the student as to reputable sites.
Shelly Crider
I agree. I have been a student in online courses at the post graduate level, my wife teaches on line and I run online programs at work. I have seen way too many slide show only and poorly put together classes. On the other hand, I have experianced well designed, understandable instruction that is engaging. A simple well organized and moderated course can result in a high degree of learning. If a course is clunky and without interaction, it is difficult to hold my attention and my learning levels drop. These quickly become the click and move courses that you can't wait to finish. The Air Force has a Fire extinguisher course that is mandatory. Everyone has to take it annually and it is universaly hated. This is what comes to mind when I think of a class that looks and feels bad. The points discussed in this module definately lend themselves to making a class look and feel better. The other piece is a good engaged instructor. Instructor engagement really affects the feel of the course room. This intangable is harder to quantify than following a checklist to set up the material.
Absolutely. I believe that the more well designed and funcational the learning site is, the more inclined students will be to explore and absorb the information presented. Conversely, the more complicated the site, the more time and energy the student must expend in order to merely navigate the site and this is time taken away from information processing and learning. Additionally, a complicated or overly stimulating site will provide a bit of information overload for the student which could cause them to come away from the experience with less-than-ideal results.
I completely agree that the look and feel is equally as important as the content of a course. If the online course is too visually "annoying" or difficult to navigate, the knowledge and skills it purports to instill will never be realized. Students will dread the online experience, become frustrated and may likely drop the course altogether.
Allinda,
I have been on some websites that were just too busy...and I left!
Shelly Crider
I agree. I took online courses for both my Master's and Doctorate degree and at first the classroom setting was scary. By the end I was confident navigating my way around the classroom, libraby, admissions, etc. It is important that the instructor work to incorporate student involvement while the lecture is going on.
Marjorie,
glad you stayed in your online platform!
Shelly Crider
I also think it is possible to overdo the bells and whistles, and to think that "looks great" necessarily means "great content.
Dave Rakowski
Agree that it is important, but should not be the only thing that we look at in judging the quality of a course.
I'm reminded of some of my students who, when given an assignment to create a presentation based on a paper they have written, start immediately worrying about PowerPoint and what colors they should use, rather than focusing on writing the paper first.
Dave
David,
Good point.....too much stimulation takes away from actual content.
Shelly Crider
David,
haha I havee experienced that as well! My students were not worried about their content....we as instructors should be a good role model.
Shelly Crider
