Essentials of Setting up the Online Learning Experience

Essentials of Setting up the Online Learning Experience

One way of describing a course is that it is a set of learning experiences designed to guide learners as they acquire and are assessed on a specific set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.  There are a few questions that you should consider as a instructor, in order to facilitate an effective and engaging online course (Boettcher, 2010).

What is the significance of knowing the technology available to you? 
 

Technology is the medium from which you will facilitate your course.  It provides you the ability to offer and customize your course to fit the outcomes you have determined.  Additionally, technology allows additional interaction to be conducted or inserted into the course as well.  However, you need to keep in mind what technology your students will have access too, as not to create an undue burden, or create interactions that can't be accessed by everyone, due to technology limitations.
 

Why is it essential to communicate clear expectations to learners? 

Clear expectations is an expectation that the learners actually have for the instructors.  In an environment where most of the learning can be self directed, it is 


Many teachers come into the profession with expectations that are so high that no student would be able to meet them. When this occurs, everyone gets frustrated. It causes both the students and the instructors a great deal of difficulty, because they find that they can not get what they need from their students, and their students can not get what they need from their instructor

 
The first rule about expectations is that students must understand what they are, what they mean, and how it looks to meet them; you should read them out loud and not assume students know how these translate into actions.

When expectations are put into practice, they promote responsibility and togetherness. Things have a tendency to work better.

What additional considerations should the instructor take into account when setting up an online learning experience?

I feel you have just as many consideration you have to take into account as when teaching a f2f course, some the major ones are:

- Communication; how and with what regularity.

- Grading; create rubrics, clear direction.

- Student interactions; how much independent of group collaboration do you want.

- Resources; from where are the additional course resources accessed. 

- Textbook and software requirements; what is needed, will students be able access digital copies,

Online learning has revolutionized the classroom, it comes with its own unique set of challenges, but with some forethought you can facilitate a very successful online course.

Resources:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Video: Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Launching the online learning experience [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Image.  (n.d.) Retrieved from:  http://interactiveservices.com/2013/12/e-learning-development-choosing-the-right-technology/