BEST BYTES: I AM TEACHING AN ONLINE COURSE: HOW DO I STRUCTURE IT?
Posted on November 7, 2011 by Marie Carter | No Comments
Contributed by Kathy Spicer, currently a graduate student in library science at the University of Arizona, and formerly an instructor and instructional designer.
Writer and educator Parker Palmer writes that “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique. Good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”
As you design your online instruction, remember that its quality is not dependent upon your mastery of technologies but instead flows from who you are and all that you have learned about teaching your patrons.
If you find that you are still a bit nervous—most of us are—you may find it helpful to structure your content by following a sequence of steps developed by educational psychologist Robert Gagne. While technological bells and whistles are fun to learn along the way, it is not necessary to use them in order to design effective online instruction. Using ordinary text is ok. Gagne shows us how to structure our text or multimedia in a way that facilitates learning by capitalizing on what researchers have learned about how our brains process information.
Gagne suggests that instructors start a lesson by sharing a surprising fact or asking a thought-provoking question. This helps learners focus on the content of the lesson rather than other things that are going on in their lives. Next, share one or more learning objectives with participants. Describe what will they be able to do at the end of the course. Relate the content that they are about to learn with the background or skills that they already have (an example of how to do this is contained in the first two sentences of this article).
Now it is time to present the content. Include any guidance or hints that you think learners might need. Content can be delivered in many ways, such as through text or a PowerPoint presentation. You may also refer your learners to other websites; if you do, give them specific instructions about what they should look for when they visit the sites. Consider including a link to a YouTube video that conveys the content in an engaging way. If you are ready to try additional tools, you might explore Adobe Captivate, which lets you design presentations that are slide-based (like PowerPoint). If you use Captivate, you can add hints that appear when learners hover a mouse over certain areas of the slide.
After you present the content, ask learners to demonstrate what they have learned. Provide feedback if possible. If you experiment with Adobe Captivate, you may want to try the quiz feature. Adobe Captivate provides for “branching,” which means that you can set up the presentation so that learners view certain slides based on their responses to quiz questions. Branching can be done with PowerPoint as well. If learners missed a quiz question, you might want them to view a slide that allows them to review the material. If learners got most of the answers right, you might display a slide that congratulates them.
The last step is to ask your learners how they will transfer what they have learned to their workplace or other contexts. In an ongoing course, you might ask participants to keep a blog that describes how they apply what they have learned. Some experts say that instructors of online courses should act as a guide or facilitator, helping learners construct ideas. Encourage your learners to share with each other and to integrate their life experiences into their comments. Email and wikis are two tools that can be used for sharing.
When you create your online instruction, relax and have fun. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid to let your learners know that you are just starting out and would like their feedback. As they review your content to give you feedback, they will be considering the material again, thus learning it even better. It will be a ‘win-win’ for both you and your learners.
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