Online Course Authoring: Script a Learning Experience; Don’t Write a Book
Ever wonder why so many online courses are dull, uninspiring page-turners that put learners asleep? Much of the tedium comes from the way that some course authors create online courses. They approach writing an online course as if they were writing a book, academic journal article, or technical manual. The results are predictable: a very…
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Ways to Make Your Online Course More Accessible
When talking about user accessibility to online learning, the conversation is usually around things such as W3C web accessibility standards or the Section 508 law and standards in the United States. These are important initiatives to make online material accessible for individuals with disabilities. However, there is also a broader perspective that can be taken…
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Quizzes: Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them in Online Courses
Confession #1: I’m not a big fan of quizzes as a method of assessing student learning. Quizzes tend to measure lower level learning objectives focused on knowledge recall. Higher level learning objectives focused on applying knowledge, synthesis of knowledge, and evaluation of ideas are better measured via things like project work, essays, case studies, etc.…
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Weighing the Pros and Cons of Group Work Assignments in Online Courses
While working with a Psychology instructor recently, we engaged in a very common debate on whether or not to include a group project assignment as part of the learner assessment breakdown in a newly revised online course. She acknowledged that she had some very bad experiences in the past with group work assignments in other…
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Think Seriously About Graphic Design when Developing eLearning Courses
Many of my previous articles have focused on the importance of following solid instructional design principles when developing online courses. In this article, I would like to focus on a different, but equally important facet of design, namely graphic design. There is one shortcoming that I see over and over when reviewing online courses in…
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Take an Integrated Approach to Combat Cheating in Online Courses
When considering online learning, many faculty and administrators will ask me about the potential for online learners to cheat – either by having others do the work, or by plagiarizing the work of others and representing it as their own (i.e. cutting and pasting). My response is that an integrated strategy of education, penalties, technological…
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