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Online Course Development
101
Requirements | Procedure
| Techniques |
XML | XHTML | Browsers
| Javascript | Resources
| Related Notes
A How-to Guide for Newbies (written by yours truly, a newbie too).
Requirements:
- You need a course and some knowledge to disseminate.
- You need an audience, and it must be motivated to learn your
material.
- You need a course which does not require lots of hands-on or on-site
lab experience. Technology may make "hands on" possible in
the future, but right now (in 2001) we're not quite there. Be careful
about excluding courses too hastily though. Some courses which at
first appear unteachable over the web might just work with some
creative innovation and modification.
- You need some technical knowledge.
- You must be able to use applications relevant to your field of
teaching. E.g., word processing, web page authoring, etc.
- You need to be able to navigate and search the web. You need to
be able to communicate via the web., e.g., email, chat, discussion
forums.
- It's also useful to have some basic graphics skills. E.g., You
should be able to scan and resize images. You should be able to
create or obtain some basic images.
Procedure:
- Write your curriculum. Think first about what it is you want your
students do be able to do. Don't think about technology at this point.
- You need a carefully drafted pedagogical plan. You could draw a
hierarchal map which connects requirements, leading from basic to
composite and more advanced.
- Now think about how you can create a course on the web which you or
someone else is going to be able to facilitate. This is where you
begin to think about the logistics of accomplishing your objectives.
You probably will need to be very creative. You might want to surf the
net a bit and look at some successful lesson pages. Analyze these
sites and determine whether some of the same techniques might work for
your course.
Techniques:
- Consider creating a website to support or even
deliver your course. Your web site should be created outside of your
course management tool (e.g. BlackBoard). There are a few reasons for
suggesting this approach:
- Back ups. An external web site provides a
back up of all your materials.
- Organization. A web site provides an
efficient way to organize your materials.
- Portability. An external web site is
easily ported to another platform. This is important during a time
when many changes and standards might be encountered.
- Maintenance. Web sites are easier to
maintain. If you ever decide to update or change your course (e.g.
rearrange your files).
- Better navigation. Hyperlinking
between and within pages is currently difficult or impossible
within a course management environment.
- More to come...
Some Suggested Resources
- Mathematics Ideas for incorporating
math into Bb.
- Interactive Pages Easy ways to create more
engaging web pages.
- OCDI (Online Course Development Synopsis).
- Blackboard
Repository This is a collection of info which could be inserted into
your MATC Bb course. Much of this info was received from George Cooper. Some
of this info is required by the WTCS Virtual Campus (E-Tec).
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PowerPoint Demo Testing
slideshow
with audio narration.
- Is online
learning for me? A self-assessment for determining readiness for
online learning. Uses JavaScript to give feedback based upon student
input.
- Applet Demo.
Technically, these are more like scriptlets since they use JavaScript and
DHTML (Dynamic HTML) to create interactivity.
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Testing ASF--Advanced Streaming Format...
- BlackBoard Login.
Online Course Facilitation | Bb User Support |
Techno Tips...
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