Developing online course content
What are the common problems in developing online course content for a industry where teaching is traditionally delivered on the ground?
The key to developing an online course in a grounded program is to get the buy in of the faculty and the students. Our program began an online Pharmacology course about 6 years ago and we started with most of the content and assignments on line along with the testing, there was little face to face contact. This resulted in a dissatisfied student body and instructors who did not support the online nature of the course. Since then we have back stepped and have a designated contact time scheduled and most of the other content such as readings, discussion groups on blackboard, assignments and testing all on line. We have found that by incorporating the short face to face sessions, this allows the students to be self motivated and still have the opportunity to clear up problems with harder content. We are working toward an oline course that will be totally supported by online learning but have found that small steps toward the final goal has encouraged the success of the course and satisfied students. The course evaluations have steadily improved and the student population has been more inclined to want more of the course online.
Hope this helps.
A large part of the training for my Institute is the experience of the class room, sharing of experiences of other students, clinical cases, past history, etc. Several board members are concerned that the lack of this personal experience will leave students missing part of the learning experience. My answer is that this will become a different learning experience and help to build a student base willing to travel for the degree.
There has to be a recognition that online classes are not just a transfer of skills from one format to another. This is a whole different way of learning. Only some of the skills are transferrable. We are entering an age in which the college teacher will have to be educated for two lines of approace and there will be a division of specialities incorporated in education minors and majors over time.
You're right. Buy in is critical. When first offered the opportunity to teach online, the inclination is just to reorganize what you are doing now. Online teaching require an almost square one approach.
Common problems that are found are: lack of buy in, lack of technological ability, ineffective transfer of curriculum to an online modality, and finally the inability of the marketing and admissions team to effectively build value of taking the course in a non-traditional manner. These are usually mitigated by in numerous ways however, here are a couple ideas. You can incorporate faculty and staff in the development process of the course in order to create buy in. Increasing technological ability can be done by researching or developing and implementing new forms of technology to adequately support the new delivery. Transferring curriculum can be accomplished by first taking the needs of the end result (what kind of student and capabilities you are trying to create) and then ascertaining what kind of technology and process would be best to accomplish and deliver these to students. Then training of course will mitigate the risk of the marketing and admissions teams not building value.
Yes, it does. It certainly isn't taking what you have now and plopping it into the LMS.
Our school requires a certain amount of time for students to be logged in and have face to face contact with their instructor. They are also given a certain amount of time in which they work on assignments on their own.
I'm totally agree with you. Right now, we are creating online courses for a program which we have been teaching on site, and this process has been more difficult that we thought. It's exactly as you say, onsite and online classes are very different, really, not all skills can transfer from a style to the other.
One of the most difficult issues is to create activities that motivate the student to follow the class and achieve the total understanding of the content.
I think it is feeling sure that the students understand and you are deliver all the content they need.
I am very new at this online training and developing a program would be beyond my knowledge. But I do see a positive need for this type of learning. I have taken on line classes in college where we could participate as in group activities and usually we met two or three times a semester. It was great being able to take my lessons at home.
I can deffinately see the value in a structured on line program. I do feel that with some subjects it would be nessacary to have some face to face and hands on sessions in a classroom setting.
There are also workload and course ownership issues - an online course requires an up-front investment that may not be compensated fairly by the traditional workload structure. After the development has been completed the institution owns the material and may not feel required to reward the instructor for past development effort.
