Teachers - Online Course Writing

Theory

Course writing requires a special set of skills. This area is broken into three topics: Theory, Practice, and Design and Other Considerations.

Before digital materials, interactive activities, and multimedia were readily available on the web, distance and online courses consisted of email and static Web pages of text. That mode of delivery of that content does not provide the optimum online learning environment.

Vendors began creating online courses with user-friendly interfaces, interactive simulations and multimedia. The cost of utilizing commercial products has been high over the years. Many schools and districts have developed their own content and delivery process, however that requires a skilled development team, and that is still expensive.

Textbook companies and other digital vendors are offering online materials complete with maintained links, multimedia, and activities for a very reasonable price. Today's online course writers may create lessons that access vendor-created digital materials, but they get to run discussions, and have students complete assignments and activities much as they would in a regular classroom. Some online programs are creating their own materials, and this THEORY area provides the theoretical basis for online learning and online course writing.

This series Course Writing information pages is for those who want to create their own course, unit of study or online lesson. Generally accepted practice is for online authors to take online courses to experience that environment.

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Course Writer Process, Standards, and Qualities

If your course-writing task includes writing all the background reading material, activities, communication assignments, tests, and other assessments be prepared to devote hundreds of hours to writing a semester-long course. Refer to a rubric or quality measures guide such as WBTIC Quality Measures or course standards from Oregon Online before you begin. Evaluate an existing course using a rubric.

Course writers should have the qualities of both good writers and good teachers, but with a twist. Face-to-face teachers write lesson plans for themselves and often use commercial materials. Online course writers write lessons for others and create their own materials. Qualities of a successful online course writer include:

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Basic Learning and Course Writing Theory

The design of online lessons requires far more rigor, structure, and attention to detail than a classroom-based lesson. Course writers must establish conditions for understanding and retention based upon their written text, activities, and instructions. Educational theory and research serve as a basis for the design of online courses.

Here's a quick overview of what's in this theory section.

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Text-Based Learning

Since online courses are highly dependent upon text as the primary vehicle to convey information, it's important to understand the issues and implications of text-based learning. (see link for background on text-based learning) Consider these questions;

Consider these questions;

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Instruction

There are several instructional design guides appropriate for online course writing. Gagne's Events of Instruction theory (see link) emphasizes both the provision of information to the learner about performance expectations and feedback opportunities. Among the events described are:

  1. Gaining attention
  2. Informing the learner of the objective
  3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
  4. Presenting the stimulus material
  5. Providing learning guidance
  6. Eliciting performance
  7. Providing feedback
  8. Assessing performance
  9. Enhancing retention and transfer

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Multimedia

Multimedia plays a large role in online learning.

Here are some conclusions from research (see link):

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Social Interaction

Creating an online environment where social interactions are an integral part of a course is challenging. Students need support, encouragement, a sense of relevance, timeliness, and interaction. Creating and maintaining community is the job of the online instructor.

Cognition

Cognitive/learning styles refer to the individual's consistent and characteristic predisposition for perceiving, remembering, organizing, processing, thinking, and problem solving. Learning styles lie somewhere between aptitude and personality. (See link for key elements of learning styles.)

A Possible Syllabus for Course Development

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5

Session 6

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Course Writing

Course writing involves decisions about instructional materials, learning environments, teaching methods and styles, formal instruction and informal activities, evaluation techniques, and communication. The Course Writing (Theory) page gave the theoretical basis for instructional design. This page offers practical guidelines to help in the course writing process. (see link for some approaches to Course Writing.)

Assessment Standards

Online classes need to be standards-based, just like traditional classes. Access state standards through individual departments of education. National Standards can be found through Education World National Content and Performance Standards. Standards can be listed as part of each lesson or unit of study.

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Differentiation

Differentiation means meeting students at their level of need while maintaining rigor in coursework. Design strategies and academic considerations must be considered. High school special education students may benefit from 3rd grade levels of appropriate readings, assignments, and expectations. Students who have failed a course may function best at 5th grade levels. Others perform best at grade level, while there are those students who respond best to college-level work. The beauty of online education is that the teacher has the ability to tailor learning experiences for every student. If students experience academic success perhaps they wouldn't find themselves in the position of falling behind. Students most often cite the reason for dropping out of high school was that they fell too far behind and felt a sense of hopelessness.

[See link for additional Resources and Readings on Instructional Design]

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Readability

Readability refers to reading level. (See link for more on Readability and Reading Strategies.)

Accessibility

Accessibility is a very broad topic. The purpose of this section is to raise awareness of the scope of accessibility. You can however take the ITTATC Web Accessibility course. This free course is written for web developers to teach techniques for creating accessible web sites, in particular, web sites that comply with the Section 508 standards for accessible web content. By integrating accessibility into your web design and development process you can efficiently create web sites and web applications that work effectively for more people in more situations. For some, web accessibility is clearly a requirement (such as under Section 508); for others, it just makes sense. Examples of students that can benefit from consideration of accessibility include those with reading or comprehension difficulties, hard of hearing, vision impaired, physically disabled, or even color blind individuals. Universal design principles benefit everyone, even those without significant disabilities.

Copyright

Course writers may use materials for educational purposes, but must adhere to copyright law. The TEACH act governs copyright and fair use for educators. The TEACH Toolkit is an online resource created by North Carolina State University for understanding copyright and distance education. The safest course is to ask permission from the author for reproducing materials. (See link to Guidelines from that site.)

Design and Other Considerations

This section considers web design issues. Course writers can learn to incorporate strategies used by design professionals to enhance their lessons.

Technology can be a barrier to course access. Course writers should consider infrastructure, software, and hardware issues when designing courses. (See link for more information and resources.)

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Infrastructure, Software, and Hardware

Course writers need to be aware of and in some cases address the lowest common denominator in terms of access, hardware and software. These limitations are somewhat under the control of the district or school such as in the case of allowing chat, audio, video, and web email to pass through firewalls or providing contemporary computers with appropriate software, helper applications, and plugins.

The problems often come when students access coursework from home. They may be on a dialup modem with slow transfer speeds making streaming video impractical. They may have computers that do not accommodate java-based applets or simulations. They may not have the appropriate or current versions of software, plugins, or helper applications to read files. While these conditions may exist in schools, districts have the responsibility to ensure student access.

Course writers may suggest that students complete certain lessons or activities on contemporary computers where access, software, and speed is not an issue. School or public libraries may provide a solution. Videos may be supplied on a CD or DVD.

Students, schools, and online providers should not assume that the computers and network are functional. A test page should be created or accessed to check for software, plugins, helper applications, email, and file transfer. (See link for more test page information.)

Qualities and Standards

The NEA Guide to Online Courses maintains that the quality of online course offerings should be considered in terms of the following areas: curriculum, instructional design, instructor qualities, student roles, assessment, management and support systems, and technology infrastructure. The charts on the web site are meant to provide guidance for those who design online courses and for those who evaluate the quality of existing courses.

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