Course Dev

Bb User Support

Net "Use" Survey

Online Course Facilitation

Facilitating online somewhat disables the traditional classroom teacher. Facilitation of an online course is (currently) an extremely difficult task. It might seem at first that teaching online would be an easy and convenient way to teach. But facilitators will encounter some real obstacles. A teacher used to standing in front of a group of students is going to feel severely disabled online, at least initially. 

If the course is taught completely online, the teacher may feel blind. The visual cues we take for granted are not usually seen online (except during a conference where cameras and a higher bandwidth are involved). A picture is worth a thousand words and most of the time the facilitator won't have a picture which goes along with the voice.

A teacher may also feel deaf online because most or all of our communication online will be in writing. It's quite likely that voice-enabled courses will be common in the near future, but in the meantime most of our communication will be in writing. Think of this... this is a condition similar to what we had before the invention of the telephone! 

Teachers might also feel helpless in the challenge required to maintain an exciting, interesting, profitable learning experience from a distance. Almost everything is more difficult online. For example, think about how you are going to grade papers or provide feedback. Marking up a paper with corrections and sending it back and forth to each student is a time-intensive process.

In addition to the above disabilities, there are several challenges to teaching online.

Technical Requirements: As mentioned before, some technical knowledge is required to teach online.

1. You must be able to use applications relevant to your field of teaching. E.g., word processing, web page authoring, etc. 
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Some knowledge of HTML is useful though probably not essential.

Procedure: 

1. more to come...

Techniques: 

1. Aesthetics. White space, font size, column width... Reading text online is different from reading printed text.
2. Using graphics
3. Using audio and video
4. Using forms, drop-down menus, etc.

Challenges:

more coming...

Some Suggested Resources

Resources

• Puzzle Maker http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ 
• Quia Class Page for developing Java applets for games and quizzes. 

Related Notes

• 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).
• 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. 
• Testing ASF--Advanced Streaming Format... 
  • for Internet Explorer Works!
  • for Netscape Navigator (I can't get this to work for NS4.5).
• BlackBoard Login. 

Facilitation Tutorial

1. Choosing and structuring course activities

2. Assessment Strategies

3. Monitor threaded discussion forums

4. Use web in F2F courses

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