Introduction

Key Elements of the Online Class

• Plan curriculum development
• Identify and support critical instructional tasks
• Help learners maintain focus
• Provide active and participatory learning experiences

• Perform pre-instructional analysis - identify learner characteristics, available resources, and constraints.
• Identify goals and outcomes - what should the students be able to do as a result of this course?
• Determine methods of assessment - for student achievement of learning outcomes, instructional process, and program.
• Select and apply instructional/learning strategies - what learning activities and tasks will guide the students to reach the learning outcomes?

• Build community
  • Encourage communication within and between groups (Presby, 2001, p. 17)
  • Provide a common goal to motivate interdependence
• Structure tasks to meet outcomes
  
  • Answer the question, “What can a student do to demonstrate that one or more learning outcomes have been met?” Clearly relate learning activities to the learning outcomes of the course. (Stiles, 2000)
    
  • Use a constructivist approach. Develop activities to “promote and support open-ended, self-directed learning.” (Stahl, 1999)
    
• Assess attainment of learning outcomes (examples)
  • Self-assessment (e.g., non-graded quiz)
    
  • Individual assignment (e.g., essay, analysis)
    
  • Collaborative project (e.g., proposal, design)
    
• Assess participation
  
  • Require participation (Dahlmeier, 2001, Naiman, 2001)
    
  • Define “high quality” participation as a standard for assessment (Hessler, 2001)
    
• Assess presentation of material
  
  • Use Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo & Cross, 1994) for feedback (example)
  • Employ reflective writing assignments (e.g., self-evaluation)

• Break the material into manageable chunks of related information. For example, in a 16-week semester, have eight “units” of activities and assignments.
  
• Maintain contact. Build community.
  
  • Instructor to students - Send a broadcast email weekly, be active in online discussion, respond promptly to questions, and provide prompt feedback on assignments.
    
  • Student to student - Encourage discussion (Davis, 1993) and peer feedback, require some collaborative small group assignments, provide email addresses, share a list of student research topics, provide an area for informal (off-topic) discussion. An experienced online student, M. Meyer, writes, “The discussions online were a real motivator for me. I was always checking in to see what new comments were posted, how others handled assignments, etc. Others seemed so experienced, that I felt a certain amount of challenge to match their efforts.”
    
• Refer to up-to-date information. Take advantage of the dynamic nature of the Internet to provide resources.
  
• “Help students find personal meaning and value in the material.” (Davis, 1999)
  
  • Allow students to pick their own topics for assignments or projects.
    
  • Give options, where practical, on the form or format to meet the learning outcomes.

• Encourage interaction. (See Maintain contact, above)
  
• Engage the students where they are at now.
  
  • “Engagement need not necessarily be fun or agreeable for learning to occur.” (Stahl, 2000)
    
  • For example, students struggle with collaboration during the class, but in the process of dealing with peers on a project, they develop valuable skills for the workplace.
    
• Clearly post an assignment schedule with due dates.
  
• Provide access to “various information resources required for an enriched learning experience.” (Presby, 2001, p. 17)
  
• Present "authentic" (meaningful) learning opportunities. (Stiles, 2000)
  
  • Students do a project for a “real-life” client, for example.
    
  • Students use professional tools and actual data for research.
    

Opportunities, Challenges, Strengths and Weaknesses of the Online Class

• Opportunities -
  
  • Produce more interaction than in a face-to-face class.
    
  • Provide ability to attain a higher level of learning based on Bloom's Taxonomy. (George, 2001)
    
  • Allow students to participate at any time, from any place using Asynchronous interaction.
    
• Challenges -
  
  • Encouraging access: "Jeffrey's (2000) statistics: more than 50% of U.S. households don't even have dial-up access." (Cited in Internet Connection Speed and Distance Education, 2001)
    
  • Ensuring accessibility for students with disabilities
    
  • Accommodating diversity, including academic, cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender
    
  • Preventing academic dishonesty
    
  • Enhancing student technological skill
    
  • Developing engaging tasks to guide learners in accomplishing learning outcomes
    
  • Minimizing effects on learning outcomes when “life happens,” the complexity of dealing with class in combination with personal, family, and work responsibilities for both student and instructor.
    
• Strengths -
  
  • Participation can be at any time, from any place. “I could do [it] on my laptop computer in the hospital and at the hospice.” (Meyer, 2001)
    
  • Increase availability of subjects; course may not be offered locally to student.
    
• Weaknesses -
  
  • Student learning styles may not match presentation style.
    
    • Students may expect to be entertained
      
    • Presentation may be primarily text-based
      
  • Instructor is unable to see students' faces to know if they “get” it.
    
    • Behaviorist vs. Constructivist instructional theory
      
    • Sage on the stage vs. guide on the side
      
  • Students miss informal social interaction, lack ability to network.
    

Summary

References