Design (content)
Is it enough to take existing classroom content and "stick" it up on the web, or should you step back, take a look at what you have and then re-vamp the whole thing? Is content appropriate for the classroom appropriate for the web?
"Information is not instruction..."
David Merrill, 1997
Create a content outline -
Based on:
- instructional problems
- audience analysis
- instructional goals and objectives
Review existing materials -
Do you want to reinvent the wheel?
Instructional materials should not be used solely because they are readily available or have been effective in a traditional classroom setting. This applies to your syllabus as well.
Organize and develop content -
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the distance educator is creating student-relevant examples.
Content, for the most part, is taught using examples that relate the content to a context understood by the students. The best examples are "transparent", allowing the learners to focus on the content being presented. If examples are irrelevant, learning is impeded.
Decide on the Technology most suited to your specific educational objective(s).
Examples:
Jeremy Butler's TCF 112 Motion Picture History and Criticism
- film clips that classroom time restraints would make inaccessible
Andrew Drozd's Czech Exercises
- immediate feedback on vocabulary that would require too much of the instructor's time
Catherine Davies' Dialectology
- audio clips to illustrate the differences in dialect among American speakers of English that allow the user to play again and again until the material is absorbed