EDG 6931: Designing & Delivering Online Content
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Description:Online courses, and the colleges, universities, and businesses that offer them, are continuing to rise steadily. This is due, in part, to the opportunity online education presents for global competition, an important topic in times of shrinking budgets. This can also be attributed to a new type of student and consumer who wants learning on his or her own time and schedule. Finally, this increase coincides with the growth of research supporting the notion that technology can help teachers teach and students learn.
Unfortunately, this increased interest in teaching and learning online does not necessarily mean teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to teach online. Many teachers have not taught online; most have never even taken a course online. Simply digitizing material does not work, as online education requires teachers to change from being content providers to content facilitators. For this to happen, teachers need scaffolding in creating, teaching and managing online courses.
This course introduces participants to the notion of creating online content. In order to create online content, content developers must think critically about their audience and how to structure content to best fit the needs of that audience. Learning theories are introduced to help participants understand how to help each individual learner. Then, students learn about online tools as they use them. Participants will leave this course with a course development plan as well as a few implementation components to begin their online development.
