2. Introduction
There
are many considerations from a
designer standpoint that one must keep in
mind. In this presentation, we will provide
some instructions to designer to prepare
him/her for the design process in addition
to making some recommendations on
instructional strategies that will help the
course remain relevant and current.
3. Instructions to Designer
As discussed by Haythornthwaite (2011), “A second major
transformation has been the development of interconnectivity
between systems, which has made electronic data interchange
from remote transaction to centralized analysis a reality.” Although
interconnectivity permits today’s online learning, the designer must
be aware of bandwidth constraints across learners and use
interactivity sparingly to accommodate for that.
Stavredes (2011) suggests :“Consider how much information you
are presenting to learners, especially at the beginning of the
course, and limit the number of supplementary resources.” Pre-work
is highly recommended to setup a learner for success.
Stavredes (2011) also writes, “Copyright is a critical legal issue in the
online environment that must be carefully considered when using
resources in an online course.” Google makes graphics and data
highly accessible but precaution must be taken based on the
requirements set by the client. It is best practice to insert stock
images
4. Instructional Strategies
Haythornwaite & Andrews (2011) highlight the importance of
learner to learner and learner to instructor interaction by stating,
“For education and learning, participation in an information culture
is having profound effects on who creates, controls and retrieves
knowledge.”
Haythornwaite & Andrews (2011) also emphasize the importance of
integrating a self-assessment into online learning. They state, “The
first and probably most useful kind of assessment of individual
learning is self-assessment.” We recommend that the designer have
a self-assessment in the online course so students can look back
and ask themselves what they have learned.
To remain relevant, an online course should incorportate both
application-based content relevant to the job as well as
transferable skills that can be applied on the job, in another course,
on a different job, etc. “Critical thinking skills are a solid foundation
for learners to engage in a community of inquiry to construct
knowledge by providing them a skill set to help reason through
concepts and ideas” (Stavredes, 2011).
5. Conclusion
In
conclusion, we commend the designer
for their ability to gather relevant data to
each audience group and remain current
with today’s online learning compliance
laws. Copyright is a major consideration
that should be taken seriously at all
stages, especially during development.
6. References
Haythornthwaite, C., & Andrews, R.
(2011). E-learning theory & practice .
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing.
Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online
teaching: Foundations and strategies for
student success. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
