Developing an Effective Online Course

 

By Valerie Landau

Table of Contents

Course Description:

Developing an Online Course is designed for professionals who want to create courses for the WWW. The class begins with a survey of online courses, reviews learning models and evaluation criteria, then students begin to define and develop their own course outlines and as a culmination, students develop and test a unit of instruction.

The course is based on current practices of instructional design and is broken up intro three parts: the concept phase, the design and definition phase, and the production phase. In the concept phase we will conduct a review of other courses and teaching models, define course goals and learning objective, write the course outline as well as the pedagogical approach, in the production stage we develop one module of instruction and then test the module.

Instructor
Valerie Landau is director of Round World Media, a company specializing in the design and production of e-ducational solutions and convergence projects. Her clients include Britannica.com, CBS's 60 Minutes, WGBH Interactive, PBS television stations KQED, and KTEH and singer Paul McCartney. She holds an M.A. in Education from San Francisco State University and degree in Human Development and Psychology with an emphasis in Technology in Education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Course Objectives

The students will:

  • Survey current methods for developing distance learning courses.
  • Survey various presentation techniques on the web.
  • Implement the steps involved in the process of planning a distance learning course.
  • Define course goals and objectives.
  • Write a course outline.
  • Define the target audience.
  • Define prerequisite skills.
  • Complete one unit of instruction.
  • Conduct formative research on the module.

Target Audience

This course is designed for people who are teachers or experts in their field and want to develop online courses.

Prerequisite Skills

The student will need the following prerequisite skills:

  • Expert in the topic they will be teaching
  • Fluent in computer and Internet skills.
  • Basic knowledge of how to upload a Web page is a plus.

Approach and Scope

This course combines student-centered and teacher-centered approaches and provides a series of step-by-step exercises including: surveying other online courses, examining online course tools, planning the course, implementing one unit of instruction, conducting formative evaluation (user testing).

By the end of the course you will have completed a course outline, and one module of instruction.

Table of Contents

Round World Media can help you design and develop your course.


Developing An Effective Online Course

Developing An Effective Online Course

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