Designing Online Learning Environments

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Designing Online Learning Environments

• Rebecca Petersen-Leary
• Center for Academic Technology
• 03.04.04

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Workshop Agenda

• Reasons for bringing a course or course materials
  online
• Instructional strategies in an online environment
  
• Revising a syllabus
• Developing learning activities for online
  presentation, interaction and for different types
  of learners
• Tips for managing time
• Applying your knowledge Activity
• Next steps

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Reasons to bring a course partially or completely
online

• To give students greater access to course
  documents
• To incorporate web-based resources for learning
  activities
• To increase student collaboration and
  participation outside of the classroom
• To create better continuity between weekend
  course meeting times

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Continued

• To provide supplemental materials for students
  with a weak background
• To present ideas in different formats for
  different learning styles
• To communicate more efficiently with students

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Questions to help prioritize your course goals

• How much time do I have to develop online
  materials?
• To what extent do I want my course to be online?
  
• Will I need to learn new technology to achieve
  my goals?
• What support is available on campus or online?
• How much time do I have to devote to increased
  communication with students online?
• How much time will students need to spend online?

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Online Face-to-Face What remains the same?

• Learning goals should be clear, and clearly
  related to specific learning activities and
  methods of assessment
• There must be ample social interaction between
  instructor and learners, and among learners
• Activities should be designed to meet the needs
  of a variety of learners (technical,
  intellectual, social, pedagogical needs)
• Learners and instructors need reliable support
  and regular feedback

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Online Face-to-face Whats different
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Online equivalents of face-to-face reaching
methods
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Other things to keep in mind

• Online learning is more visual, more solitary,
  less constrained by time, and in some ways more
  student-centered than traditional learning
  environments
• When planning your course, consider the
  following
• Can you shift your presentations from oral to
  visual modes?
• Can you design web activities that illicit social
  interaction?
• How can you help structure students' engagement
  online?

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Syllabus revisions

• The syllabus should include the expectations you
  have for online participation and course work.
• Learning goals and specific skills are specified
  for the course, including any differences with
  online work
• Clear participation guidelines or expectations
  for online discussions are listed
• Clear due dates for discussions or other online
  tasks are listed
• A statement that access to a computer with an
  internet connection is required for completion of
  course work

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Preparing and identifying materials content

• How much existing material do you have? How much
  new content will you need to create?
• Can you convert or use existing material to
  online form by adding files as word docs, saving
  as pdfs or saving as an .html files?
• How much time can you devote to new material
  creation?
• Do good online resources for your course already
  exist on the Web? Search for materials that you
  can link your students to

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Creating online course content Tips about
writing for the web

• When writing for online delivery, adopt a more
  journalistic style than you might use for print
  documents.
• use short sentences, and chunk your material into
  short paragraphs (no more than 10 lines)
• put most important information first and use
  numbered or bulleted lists for easy scanning
• Avoid long narratives unless its a document or
  link to online assigned reading materials

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Tips continued

• Other important considerations include
• Provide clear navigation of your course site Can
  students locate your materials easily? Is there a
  logic to your organizational structure?
• If you are using Blackboard, remove navigation
  buttons or areas of the course that you are not
  using
• Keep your announcements area or main course page
  updated regularly with clear directions about
  course assignments or due dates
• When attaching files to a course website, provide
  a couple of different versions One in MS Word
  and one as an .rtf (rich-text file format) or pdf
  so students can open your content no matter what
  software they have on their computer

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Ways to save time!

• Time-Saving Tips (adapted from Northeastern
  University)
• 1. If you're using Blackboard, familiarize
  yourself with the resources available from
  University Technology.
• 2. Develop an online FAQ for your course. You can
  answer a question once, rather than repeating the
  same information in private communications with
  individual students.
• 3. Explain to your students what your feedback
  schedule will be. For example, "I will not be
  checking my email over the weekend. During the
  week you can expect a reply within 24 hours."

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Saving time continued

• 4. Establish a loose template for each week's
  online components. Once students see that each
  weeks materials will be presented in the same
  way, they'll know what to expect and stay on
  track.
• 5. Wean students from using e-mail as their
  primary communication tool. Instead, create
  online discussion forums where they can post
  questions and receive answers.
• 6. Design learning activities in which students
  work in small groups. Group members will help
  keep one another on track, and should learn to
  problem-solve together.

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Saving time continued

• 7. Locate relevant online resources for your
  course. This can cut down on the time you'll need
  to spend offering individual tutorials to
  students with weak backgrounds.
• 8. Set aside a fixed time period each day which
  you'll devote to online course management.

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Apply your new knowledge

• Visit one of the following online courses and
  review it according to some of the criteria we
  have discussed
• Women in Victorian America http//www.hist.umn.ed
  u/marisa/hist3347/
• Frontier Heritage http//www.d.umn.edu/cla/facult
  y/tbacig/ams1041/
• Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
  http//www.edb.utexas.edu/resta/cscl2002/syllabus/
  
• Language in Animals http//www.ex.ac.uk/bosthaus/
  Lecture/lecture.htm

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Next Steps

• Determine the course you would like to revise and
  review the existing materials
• Contact the Center for Academic Technology for
  assistance on instructional design and selecting
  the appropriate software tools (web page,
  Blackboard, etc.) email cat_at_mail.lesley.edu or
  call 617-349-8960
• Create a tentative timeline for production and
  identify the skills you might need to learn

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Resources

• Center for Academic Technology Website
  http//www.lesley.edu/academic_centers/cat
• Here you will find information and articles about
  online learning, tutorials, and trascripts
  resources from previous workshops and events
• Developing and Designing Courses in Blackboard
  a self-paced course for faculty. Call x8973 to be
  enrolled.
• Univeristy Technology Blackboard Start
  Pagehttp//www.lesley.edu/oit/blackboard/home.htm
  l