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Online Course Design:13 Strategies for Teachingin a Web-based DistanceLearning Environment

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Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in aWeb-based Distance Learning Environment

After years of teaching face to face, many instructors are able to begin teaching a tradi-tional, classroom-based course without having the entire course laid out ahead of time.This approach doesn’t work very well in the online classroom where careful planning andcourse design is crucial to student success.

Good online course design begins with a clear understanding of specific learningoutcomes and ways to engage students, while creating activities that allow students totake some control of their learning. It also requires a little extra effort upfront to minimizetwo of the most common frustrations of online learning: 1. confusing course organization(how course elements are structured within the course) and 2. unclear navigation (whatlinks or buttons are used to access these elements).

When learners can’t find what they need or are confused about where to go and what todo, it is harder for them to learn. Being an online learner is challenging enough withoutthese additional barriers. Plus, frustrated learners tend to either drop out or drive the in-structor crazy – neither of which are the outcomes we want.

This Online Classroom special report is a collection of articles that address many of thekey issues in online course design. Featured articles include:

• Usability Issues that Impact Online Learning• Subdivided Courses Help Students Learn in Small Increments• 10 Tips to Extend the Shelf Life of Your Online Course• Adaptive Hypermedia for Individualized Learning• Empowering Students to Become Self-Directed, Engaged Learners• Web-based Video Lecture Courses Meet High Demand, Allow More Learner Control• A Guide to Creating Modular Courses

Whether you’re an experienced online educator or designer looking for fresh ideas, orsomeone who’s just getting started with online classes, this special report gives youproven strategies that you can use right away.

Rob KellyEditor

Online Classroom

3Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment • www.FacultyFocus.com

Table of Contents

10 Tips to Extend the Shelf Life of Your Online Course ................................................................................................4

Subdivided Courses Help Students Learn in Small Increments ................................................................................5

Adaptive Hypermedia for Individualized Learning....................................................................................................7

To Plan Good Instruction, Teach to the Test ..............................................................................................................8

Posting Handouts Online Introduced Instructor to Online Learning Possibilities....................................................10

Empowering Students to Become Self-Directed, Engaged Learners ........................................................................11

Web-based Video Lecture Courses Meet High Demand, Allow More Learner Control ............................................12

Seminar—A Good First Venture into the Online Classroom ....................................................................................13

A Guide to Creating Modular Courses ....................................................................................................................14

How to Eliminate Sources of Frustration for the Online Learner ............................................................................16

Using Pre-admission Assessments to Help Online Students Succeed ......................................................................17

Usability Issues That Impact Online Learning ........................................................................................................19

The Importance of Intuitive Navigation in Online Course Design............................................................................20


Building your online course tooka tremendous amount of timeand effort. You created a

syllabus, selected a textbook, wrotelearning objectives, recorded lectures,developed learning objects, designedcourse activities, and carefullyplanned out your assignments. Onceyour course was complete, youcouldn’t help but feel a sense ofpride. This magnum opus of binarycode was built to stand the test oftime and be offered ad infinitum/adnauseam … right? More than likelythe answer is no. Without properplanning and design, a large portionof your course may have to be rede-veloped for the next offering. Ifplanned and designed properly,however, an online course can beoffered relatively intact from semesterto semester. As with traditionalcourses, online courses will need achange here and a tweak there, butmajor reconstruction can be largelyavoided. This article will present 10common online course design pitfalls(each experienced by yours truly)and discuss solutions to assist in-structional designers and instructorsin building a lower-maintenancecourse.

Problem 1: The publisher short-cycled your textbook.There was once a time when you

could count on a textbook edition toremain current for at least severalyears. Now, it is not unusual for“new” editions to come out every 24months. To avoid having to con-

stantly implement a new edition, acustom textbook may be created.Several companies are offering thisservice, in which the instructor deter-mines the content by integratingsections of existing textbooks,articles, and even original material.This custom textbook is then given aunique ISBN and may be used aslong as desired. Other advantagesinclude lower cost and the availabil-ity of an electronic version forstudents.

Problem 2: A course is builtusing a publisher’s contentand you change textbooks.Many textbooks come complete

with online course content. With afew clicks of a mouse, an empty shellin Blackboard can be transformedinto a dynamic interactive learningenvironment to accompany yourbook. Students can access videos,online lectures, practice quizzes, andmore. The only drawback is thatwhen you change books, you mustalso stop using the content. A way tobypass this is to avoid taking the easypath; create your own course content.There are several low-cost and freeprograms out there to help you ac-complish this. While it will be con-siderably more work up front creatingyour own lectures, acquiringcopyright permission for multimediamaterials, and building your ownself-quizzes, the extra effort will paydividends in the long run.

Problem 3: A learning objectbecomes obsolete.Learning objects can take a lot of

time to create. Before developing anoriginal learning object, you shouldbe relatively certain that it isreusable. For instance, an interactiveexercise demonstrating thePythagorean Theorem is likely to beusable for years to come as theconcept does not change, while aninteractive world map with detailedinformation on all countries maybecome dated shortly after comple-tion. Also, there are a growingnumber of repositories that offer low-cost or free learning objects foreducators.

Problem 4: Your coursematerial is no longercorrect/relevant.By judiciously selecting the

medium for getting the informationto your students, considerable troublecan be avoided. Instead of creating amultimedia lecture that touches onevery detail of a topic, try sticking tothe higher-level concepts. This way ifsomething minor changes, the entirelecture does not have to be redone.The details that may be more proneto changing can be addressed in amore dynamic forum, such as on adiscussion board, via a Web confer-ence, or in a chat session.

Problem 5: The publisherupdates the textbook,changing the order ofchapters. The course, whichwas based on the order of thetextbook, is now out ofsequence.During the design of the course,

determine the order in which youwant the material to be presented.There is no law against presentingChapter 9 before Chapter 1. Insteadof organizing a course by thechapters of a textbook, consider

10 Tips to Extend the Shelf Lifeof Your Online Course

By Darren Crone

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Many online learners do nothave large, uninterruptedblocks of time to dedicate to

their coursework, which is whyRobin Smith, senior WebCT certifiedtrainer and Web-based learning coor-dinator in the Office of Educational

Development at the University ofArkansas for Medical Sciences, rec-ommends that instructors subdividetheir courses into manageablesegments so that students cancomplete small learning activities intheir spare moments.

“When teaching online, we are nolonger dealing with students who aresurrounded by other students whoare thinking about the same thing atthe same time in a protected, one-

breaking it into modules based ontopics. This way if the publisher pullsthe old switcheroo, all you need to dois change the reading assignments inyour syllabus (as opposed to reorgan-izing your entire course). It should benoted that if you are using a customtextbook, this is a nonissue.

Problem 6: Your textbook wasupdated, and page numbers/figures referenced in coursematerials do not match up withthe textbook.It is recommended that specific

page numbers and figures not be ref-erenced in course materials that areexpected to be reused. Try creatingyour own examples, or if a specificpage/figure must be referenced,consider doing this on the discussionboard.

Problem 7: Your contactinformation or course softwarerequirements are out of date.There are some things that will

always change. Consider using yoursyllabus to communicate your officehours and contact information for in-

structors and teaching assistants inthe course. Isolating information thatis likely to change makes it mucheasier to keep track of. For informa-tion that will be included in multiplecourses, such as software require-ments, consider creating a Web pageand adding a link to it in eachcourse’s syllabus.

Problem 8: You have brokenhyperlinks.There is a tremendous amount of

useful information on the Web, butyou are taking a risk when linking toany site outside your course. Thepossibility exists that the informationwill be moved or deleted. Wheneverpossible, keep your course materials(videos, case studies, self-assess-ments, etc.) inside your course man-agement system. When you must linkto an external page, considerproviding the link on the discussionboard.

Problem 9: Your academicinstitution has upgraded/changed its learningmanagement system (LMS).When switching to a new LMS,

courses must be moved. Many times

this is a painful and laboriousprocess. To avoid having to recon-struct your course file by file,consider developing your course as apackage file. To do this you shouldcreate an HTML page linking allcourse materials inside a folder. Thefolder can then be zipped, uploaded,and unzipped into any LMS.

Problem 10: Academic integrityissues prompt the creation ofnew tests.Instead of creating a single test for

all students to take, consider using alarge test bank. Test settings can beadjusted so each student receives adifferent test with all questions andanswers randomized.This article reviewed some

common issues that are encounteredin online course development.Developing an online course is a lotof work. A little preplanning will helpto ensure that you don’t have to startfrom scratch each time the course isoffered. @

Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment • www.FacultyFocus.com

Subdivided Courses Help Students Learnin Small Increments

By Rob Kelly

FROM PAGE 4

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hour environment dedicated to asubject. Now students are sur-rounded by all these interruptionsthat don’t have anything to do with[the course]. We all have lots ofthings competing for our attention. Ifwe provide students with shortsegments that can be reinforcedquickly, then the students know theycan go online, grasp something froma 10- or 15-minute segment and moveon so that they can fit learning intotheir everyday lives,” Smith says.Smith recommends a model that

features a passive-learning segment(perhaps a brief narrated PowerPointpresentation) followed by a relatedactive-learning exercise that rein-forces the concept, such as a self test,review questions, or short quiz. Byoffering a small standalone chunk oflearning in this manner, studentsbecome accustomed to the pattern ofalternating passive and activelearning and are likely to log in morefrequently because they don’t need tocommit a substantial amount of timein a single session. Students canprocess this concept while they aregoing about other activities of theirday and later come back for anotherlearning concept. And, Smith says,when students log in more fre-quently, they are also more like toparticipate in threaded discussions,which helps build the learningcommunity.Part of establishing the design

pattern is informing students howlong it will take them to completeeach chunk of the course, which canbe important for students with busyschedules. Noting the time of thenarration to the side of each presen-tation is easy to do and very helpfulfor the students. Smith says, “Youunderstand the importance of this ifyou’ve ever been “held hostage” by avideo presentation or a tutorial youexpected to be able to complete in 30minutes and 40-45 minutes later you

were still not finished!”Also, when designing a course,

remember that it may take studentsmore time to complete a chunk thanthe actual time of the presentationbecause they may pause a presenta-tion to take notes or replay a certainsection. In one of her colleague’scourses, it takes student three timeslonger to complete a chunk than islisted on the presentation, so it wouldhelp students to let them know thatthe time each of them will need tocomplete the chunk may be signifi-cantly more than the presentationtime would indicate.By recording the audio individually

for each slide, students are able toreview the presentations as often asneeded and even skip slides thataddress concepts they are familiarwith as their studying progresses.“Sometimes when we record

narration we suddenly become moreformal and less natural about the ebband flow of a normal lecture, thischunking helps return those naturalbreaks to the presentations. I thinkthe easiest thing to do is have thepresentation and then come back andcreate those transitions becausesometimes it’s difficult for people toenvision the chunks,” Smith says.In helping instructors identify these

chunks as natural places to break,Smith asks them to consider the tran-sitions they automatically insert intotheir face-to-face lectures, such aswhen one asks students questions orexplains a point and announces thatthe class will now move on to thenext point.The way in which an instructor

subdivides his or her lecture dependson the content. If it’s a historylecture, it can be subdivided chrono-logically or by event. A lecture in anEnglish course might be dividedaccording to parts of speech.In addition, when a presentation

needs to be updated, an instructorwill be more likely to make changes

to a brief presentation than having toredo a longer one, Smith says.When dividing courses into chunks

it’s important that students arereminded about how each chunkrelates to the overall course goals.Smith accomplishes this by includingtransition slides at the beginning andend of each chunk that explain wherethe previous chunk left off and whatthe current chunk will cover.Not all students learn best in short

sessions. For those who prefer to takein longer presentations, Smith recom-mends that instructors either providetheir presentations in two formats,one consisting of small chunks andone that includes the entire presenta-tion in one file. If creating twoformats is too much work, you canremind students that they can viewseveral presentations sequentially inone session. @


Suggestions for chunking:• Find the natural break pointsin presentations and createtransition slides.

• Create an active-learningactivity based on the conceptintroduced in the each chunk.

• Indicate the amount of time itwill take for students to gothrough each chunk.

• Record narration per individ-ual slide to enable students toskip or review individualslides.

Benefits of chunking include:• Students log in morefrequently.

• It helps establish a pattern tothe course.

• Allows students to find thetime to fit the learning intotheir busy schedules.

• The course is easier to update.

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The online learning environ-ment offers great potential forindividualized learning. One

way to achieve this is throughadaptive hypermedia—using learneruse patterns to adapt course presen-tation, navigation, and content to suitindividual students’ needs and prefer-ences.Researchers at Rensselaer

Polytechnic Institute have begunlooking into ways to use adaptive hy-permedia to individualize courses.They developed a course model,known as OctoPlus, which consists ofthe following eight instructionalevents, each representing a differentinstructional method and each linkedto a separate Web page:• Connect—engages students’prior knowledge of the contentand helps the instructor gaugehow much students know aboutthe content. This can include avideo or simulation.

• Reflect—has students externalizetheir thoughts on their experi-ences through a discussionboard, e-mail, or response to aquizlike question.

• Share—enables students to sharetheir experiences with the wholeclass, perhaps through amultiple-choice or short-answerquestion.

• Learn—presents the content.• Practice—provides learners withexercises that reinforce the activi-ties in the “learn” section.

• Personalize—asks students toreflect on what they havelearned.

• Experiment—has students takethe information they havelearned and manipulate it tobetter understand how theconcept works.

• Apply—has students apply thelearning to new situations.

Using this model to design coursesgives students different ways to lookat the content. “I think a lot of timeswhen instructors are faced with

putting their courses online, therearen’t a lot of guides for them otherthan just transferring their lecturesinto a text-based format,” says LindaPolhemus, project manager. “[Thismodel] really sets up a structure foran instructor to go through increating an experience that will get[students] engaged in the learningobjective that is to be reachedthrough the entire cycle.”In a series of experiments, the re-

searchers created modules that usedthe OctoPlus design and allowed thenavigation, presentation, and contentto be adapted.In one experiment, a control group

went through the entire cycle sequen-tially and an adaptive group did not.“We were constantly looking at whatthese students were doing and howwell they were doing and basicallytrying to give them more of whatmay help them do better and less ofwhat will get in the way of learning,”says Michael Danchak, professor ofcomputer science at RPI. “We foundthe exact same performance in bothgroups, but the adaptive group did itin a much shorter period of time.Cautiously we’re inferring that [indi-vidualization] is more efficient in thatmaybe we’re giving them what theyneed to be successful in a shorterperiod of time rather than looking atperhaps a lot of irrelevant or extrane-ous things.”The researchers tracked student use

patterns themselves, which was avery time-consuming process.However, like many interactivewebsites (e.g., Amazon.com), there isthe possibility of creating authoringtools that enable courses to respondto an individual’s preferences andperformance. Making these tools in-teroperable among different systemsis another issue. (Can these tools beshared among instructors to cutdown on work while maintaining theindividual instructors’ imprints oncourse design?)This would be more effective than

basing individualization on learningstyle preferences, because learnersare not always accurate in identifyingtheir learning style preferences andbecause learning style preferencescan changes over time, Danchak says.Alessandro Assis, a graduate

student who worked on this study,points out that adapting modules tothe students improved efficiency, andthat the next step will be to demon-strate whether it can improvelearning effectiveness. @


Adaptive Hypermedia forIndividualized Learning

By Rob Kelly

“We found the exact same

performance in both groups,

but the adaptive group did it in

a much shorter period of time.”

Michael Danchak

8

Building effective instructioninvolves multiple tasks, butplanning is one of the most

critical. For online courses, planningis especially important because evenunder the best of circumstances,online learners often struggle with un-derstanding what’s expected of them;at a distance, they can get unbeliev-ably frustrated (or worse) and stoptrying. That’s one of the best reasonsfor using a systematic approach toplanning your instruction. One of thebest planning strategies for good in-struction is teaching to the test. Youlikely have heard the words “teachingto the test” uttered contemptuously.But it can be a very good thingindeed. I’m going to take a bit of acircuitous route in explaining why soyou can understand my logic.I’m a big believer in writing good

learning objectives and good assess-ments. Objectives are the cornerstonefor planning effective instruction, andgood assessments determine if the ob-jectives have been met. You mightconsider these the “bookends” ofplanning effective instruction.

ADDIE who?Instructional designers (people who

typically have specialized training inusing cognitive and other principles todesign effective instruction) call thepractice of systematically planning in-struction “instructional design.” Thereare numerous philosophies of instruc-tional design but all have certainthings in common, includingfollowing a list of tasks that ensurebetter end results.

Here is a list of typical instructionalplanning tasks, in order:1.Identify learning objectives2.Design assessments3.Design content and activities4.Select media and delivery options5.Develop the course materials6.Implement the course7.Evaluate and revise

If you have worked with instruc-tional designers or read articles orbooks on instructional design, youmay be familiar with the ADDIEmodel, one of the most commonmodels for the systematic design ofinstruction. ADDIE is an acronym forAnalysis, Design, Development,Implementation, and Evaluation.Following a systematic process suchas ADDIE can help prevent some ofthe typical problems that happenwhen instruction isn’t well planned,including instruction that doesn’tseem to have a clear goal; quirky (notin a good way) or deficient coursecontent, activities, and assessments;and poor evaluations for the courseand instructor.Notice that identifying learning ob-

jectives is first on the list of tasks.And designing assessments is next,for good reason.

Design assessments afteridentifying learning objectivesDesigning assessments should

optimally occur right after identifyinglearning objectives. That’s because as-sessments should measure if the ob-jectives were met. If the learningobjectives are well written, appropri-

ate methods of assessment aregenerally quite clear.See TABLE 1 on the next page to

how the appropriate assessmentmatches the learning objective? If youdesign assessments as an afterthoughtat the end of designing the instruction(a common but unfortunate mistake),you are likely to design the wrongcontent and the course activities andthe assessments are likely to be farless meaningful or appropriate. Inother words, designing the assess-ment (test) right after identifying thelearning objectives 1) makes theneeded assessment very obvious and2) provides clear cues about whatcontent and activities are needed.

Design content and activitiesafter designing assessmentsI’ve finally made my way to telling

you to design to the test. First identifythe learning objectives and matchingassessment (test). The learning objec-tives should clearly state what thelearner should be able to do, and theassessment (test) should measure ifthey can, in fact, do that. The contentand activities should then be designedspecifically so that the learner canpass the test, because that means theyhave met the learning objectives. Andthat’s the goal of effective instruction.Let’s look at TABLE 2 on the next

page, once again at the three objec-tives and matching assessments to seewhat content and activities makesense.As you can see, a well-written

objective and matching assessmentprovide pretty clear cues about whatcontent and activities are needed. Itmakes the instruction not only moreeffective, but also easier to design.Better instruction and less work.Terrific!

A few more words aboutactivitiesSome people ask me whether

content plus assessments is enough

Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning

To Plan Good Instruction,Teach to the Test

By Patti Shank, PhD, CPT

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for a good online course—forexample, PowerPoint slides and tests.Aside from the fact that this would beunengaging for learners, thisapproach is not instruction. Activitiesand feedback are needed for instruc-tion. In fact, I’d go so far as to saythat the purpose of instructionalcontent is to support instructional ac-tivities. Activities allow learners toreflect on and apply the content andmake it personally meaningful. Whenwe don’t do this, we’re likelyteaching at only a surface level,preparing learners to do nothing withthe content other than forget about itonce the test is over. Strong enoughwords?

Your turnIf activities are the opportunities

for learners reflect on and apply thecontent so that it becomes meaning-ful to them, now would be a goodtime for you to do that with thecontent in this article! See if you canwrite two good learning objectivesand then match assessments andcontent and activities. Try swappingyour work with someone else(another faculty member or maybeeven an instructional designer) to getfeedback.Some people think it’s hard or even

impossible to create meaningfulonline activities, but that’s not so. Infact, an asynchronous online learningenvironment provides opportunitiesfor activities that would be hard to doin person.

ReferencesShank, P. (2006.) Developing

Learning Assessments for Classroom,Online, and Blended Learning.Workshop Materials. Centennial, CO:Learning Peaks.Smith, P.L., & Ragan, T.J. (2005).

Instructional Design, 3e. SanFrancisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. @


FROM PAGE 8


Like many instructors who ventureinto the online classroom, BrendaRambo, assistant professor of

psychology at Middle Tennessee StateUniversity, began gradually byenhancing her courses with Webcontent. Her initial motivation was toprovide her students with onlinehandouts, which would eliminate thehassle and expense of making photo-copies. From this simple beginning,she has progressed to offering user-friendly fully online and hybrid coursesthat have changed the way she teachesand the way her students learn.“I decided to build basic websites for

all my courses to stop the handoutsand to provide the syllabus andreading schedules. The more I did that,the more I was intrigued by how muchit benefited the students and howmuch more of the learning processthey could be in control of,” Rambosays.The department had few online

courses available to undergraduates, soRambo decided to create an onlineversion of developmental psychology, arequired course for psychology majors.The course proved to be very popular.What’s the reason for the popularity

of the course? “Most students work 25to 35 hours a week. Many work full-time jobs and take full loads. A lot ofstudents also have families, so comingto class is a big inconvenience. Theymay be very motivated learners, butthey need to do it when they can do it.I have found that most of my studentswho take my online courses say that

they love being in charge of theirlearning, doing it when they have timeto do it,” Rambo says.In addition to flexibility, the design

of Rambo’s courses provides studentswith an active learning experience.Rambo uses WebCT, but her designgoes beyond the basic layout, whichmakes the courses more user friendlythan they would be otherwise. Shedivides each course into the followingsections:• Course content and relatedmaterials—This section includesthe syllabus, calendar pop ups,reading schedule, meetingschedule (for hybrid courses), chatgroup assignments, and casestudies.

• Communication tools—Thissection includes links to e-mail,discussion boards, and chat rooms.

• Study tools—This section includesstudy sheets that help studentsprepare for exams and other toolsthat Rambo has designed to helpstudents study.

• Assignments—This section lists allthe assignments with links to as-signment requirements, instruc-tions, rubrics, and any formsneeded to do the assignment.

• Handouts and forms—This sectionincludes all handouts and formsrelated to the course.

• Class notes—In this section,Rambo provides course content inseveral formats, including lecturenotes, PowerPoint presentations,and outlines.

• Grades• Textbook website— “It’s importantto have a great textbook, but it’salso important that the textbookhas a great website,” Rambo says.

• Quizzes and exams

Unexpected benefitAs Rambo taught her online course,

she began offering the same onlineresources to her face-to-face students.“I didn’t require them to take testsonline, but they had everything I had—PowerPoint, the textbook website,practice tests—and they could doeverything an online student could do,but they had to come to class,” Rambosays.When they have access to the online

materials, students tend to come toclass more prepared. “They would holdup their hands and say, ‘DoctorRambo, we don’t want to hear thisbecause we’ve already done all this.Let’s talk about life. Let’s talk aboutlife applications of the concepts in thebook.’ It changed everything I did thatsemester because they came to class soprepared and wanted new informa-tion,” Rambo says.Based on the success in her Web-

enhanced undergraduate course,Rambo has incorporated onlinelearning into a graduate-levelprepracticum course. That class meetsevery other week, and during theweeks the class does not meet,students participate in threaded discus-sions.By moving discussions online,

Rambo has been able to concentrate ondeveloping students’ counseling skills.“Because we have had such intensepersonal discussions about all thecourse contents online, when we go toclass I can demonstrate everythingfrom the book. Before, all I had time todo was lecture on the content of thebook. I didn’t have time to demon-strate. Now I have time to do face-to-face counseling for three- tofive-minute segments with everystudent and debrief what happened.”@

Posting Handouts OnlineIntroduced Instructor to OnlineLearning Possibilities

By Rob Kelly

11

Course design is crucial tostudent success. It shouldreflect the intended learning

outcomes and provide enoughguidance for students to easilynavigate the course without beingoverly rigid so as to stifle the ex-ploratory aspects of learning, saysMary Hricko, library director andassociate professor of library andmedia services at Kent StateUniversity Geauga Campus andTwinsburg Center.Good course design begins with a

clear understanding of specificlearning outcomes and ways toengage students. “Simply puttingcontent on the Web is not instruc-tion,” Hricko says. “I’ve seen instruc-tors put their post their lecture andtext on the course site for student toread, but what they really need to dois think about interactivity.”For example, rather than posting a

linear lecture, an instructor mightconsider including embedded links togive students the opportunities toexplore certain topics more deeply ifthey choose to. “There should besome areas of the site that thestudents can [manipulate] forimproving their retention of the in-struction,” Hricko says. “Sometimesstudents have to manipulate informa-tion so they can learn it better. Thereshould be some facets of the site thatallow them to do that.”Depending on the intended

learning outcomes, this interactivity

can extend beyond embedded links.Hricko recommends creating activi-ties that allow students to take somecontrol of their learning. This couldinclude having students:• add content to the coursewebsite,

• take turns creating courselectures,

• submit Web links related to thecourse material and explain theirrelevance,

• add questions to a test bank,• take pre- and post-module assess-ments to determine whether theyhave mastered the learning inthat module,

• moderate online discussions,• fill in the blank slides to an in-complete PowerPoint presenta-tion or lecture outline inpreparation for a lecture,

• monitor several blogs and usematerial from those blogs togenerate discussion, and

• create their own blogs on a topicrelated to the course.

“If our goal is to generate thinkersand individuals who assimilateknowledge, then we have to involvethem in activities that give them thefreedom to do that. Simply feedingthem the information does not reallyfacilitate their abilities to learn thoseskills. That’s not teaching. That’s notempowering our students. Whenstudents are given the opportunity toparticipate in the instruction, they

gain confidence with themselves andthe pedagogy,” Hricko says.

In addition, students can adddifferent perspectives to the course.“A lot of times the students see thecontent from a perspective that an in-structor would not, and may offernew insights into the content that theinstructor did not consider. I ferventlybelieve that we can learn a great dealfrom many of our students. It’simportant that we show value in theirperspectives and by allowing themthe opportunity to contribute to thatbody of knowledge, I believe that itdemonstrates to students that we aregenuinely interested in what they arethinking about,” Hricko says.Despite the fact that many

students, particularly millennial, areused to interacting via technology,they are generally not very wellprepared for online education thatputs the learner in control of much oftheir learning. “I think it’s a bad as-sumption that because students aremillennial learners that they have anunderstanding of how to manipulatetechnology to learn. Social technolo-gies are different than educationaltechnologies. Sure, they canmultitask, but when it comes to un-derstanding some of the ways inwhich the expectations of learningand contributing we still have toaddress those basic skills—researchethics, how to present information,and how to use technology appropri-ately. We need to make certain thatstudents understand the differenttools in the online environment andwhat is expected [of] them in onlinediscussions and completing assign-ments,” Hricko says.Course design can help students

embrace this new way of learning.Most institutions have onlineresources, such as a technology helpdesk and an online library, to helpstudents. However, it is up to the


Empowering Students toBecome Self-Directed,Engaged Learners

By Rob Kelly

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In an effort to accommodate in-creasing student enrollmentwithout having to expand its

physical campus, the University ofOntario at Scarborough has begunoffering some of its high-enrollment,lecture-based courses via Web-delivered video lectures.This approach, known as

WebOption, began in 2003, to accom-modate the increased enrollments thatresulted from the elimination of thefifth year of high school in theprovince of Ontario.That summer, the psychology de-

partment offered its usual threesections of face-to-face introduction topsychology and an additional onlinesection that used Web-delivered videorecordings of the face-to-face lectures.From the beginning, students had theoption to attend class in person orview the same recorded lecturesonline. “These students showed animmediate appetite for online lecturesand vacated seats in huge propor-tions,” says John Bassili, professor ofpsychology and dean’s designate for

the WebOption program. “In fact, bythe middle of the course, two-thirds ofthe students were not coming toclass.”

WebOption course designThe University of Toronto at

Scarborough currently offers 13 high-enrollment WebOption courses. All ofthem use lectures that are videotapedand made available online asstreaming video within hours of theactual lectures. These videos areavailable for one week to all studentsenrolled in the course, regardless ofsection.“The streaming video you get online

is very much like what happens in abig lecture hall,” Bassili says.Student assistants videotape the

face-to-face lectures. Other thanensuring that the microphones in theclassroom pick up any interactionbetween the instructor and thestudents, teaching a WebOption courseis no different than teaching a typicalcourse in a large lecture hall. Bassiliasks that students look into the

camera and introduce themselves. “Isee that as a way of symbolicallyhaving the [face-to-face] studentsstand in for the other students. Theysay things. They have personalities.And the class appreciates it. That’s thekind of interactivity I encouragebecause it works online as well as in a500-person theater,” Bassili says.Bassili uses PowerPoint and video

clips in his face-to-face lectures.Students who view his lectures onlineget the same experience, but thisrequires some post production. Mostof Bassili’s lectures have two or threeshort video clips that he uploads to hisPowerPoint presentation. To give theWebOption students the same experi-ence as the live lecture, Bassili insertsthese video clips in his online lectures.He incorporates compressed video intohis PowerPoint presentations for thelive lectures, but he inserts uncom-pressed video clips into his Weblectures so that the clips are not com-pressed twice (which would reducethe quality of the video).

Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning

Web-based Video Lecture Courses Meet HighDemand, Allow More Learner Control

By Rob Kelly

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course designer to help make theseresources easy to access. “All [course]sites should have access to the virtuallibrary,” Hricko says. “Likewise, ifstudents are required to turn inpapers online, [the course site]should have a link to the onlinewriting lab. When you’re [designing]your course, you should have theseresources linked to the course to take

away some of the questions that youas the instructor might not want toalways deal with. When students seewhat’s available to them, they willmake use of it.”In addition to designing courses

with links to these resources, Hrickosays that institutions should do abetter job of preparing students forthe online classroom before theyenroll in an online course by incorpo-rating online learning workshops into

freshmen orientation.Hricko also recommends that in-

structors provide students with orien-tation packets for their courses—toexplain the parameters of theircourses and how to use the technol-ogy—and should give those packetsto academic advisors and librariansas well so that they can better servethe students. @

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Bassili’s lectures are videotapedusing mini DV videotapes that areuploaded into Adobe Premier forbasic editing (to insert titles at thebeginning and at the end, and toinsert video clips from othersources).Since students have the option of

attending live lectures or viewingthem online, the lines between thevarious sections are blurred. Theseare not distance students. They allcome to on-campus office hours andtake exams on campus. Thesecourses also include an online forumwith all sections, and unless astudent mentions it, nobody knowswhether he or she attends the livelectures or views them online.

Student opinions/outcomes

Bassili has conducted severalstudies on the WebOption program.The following are some of hisfindings:• Of students, 80 percent are“extremely happy” to have theoption of accessing the lecturesonline.

• Neuroticism—fear of missingsomething—is the main reasonwhy students attend live lecturesas opposed to viewing themonline.

• Those who view the lecturesonline are more secure and don’tmind learning independently.

• Students who view the lecturesonline tend to be more open tonovelty.

• Students who like to userehearsal as a learning strategytend to prefer to view the lecturesonline, where they can pause,

rewind, and watch the lecturemultiple times.

• Harder courses are more popularonline because of the advantageof being able to view the lecturesmultiple times.

• There is no significant differencein learning outcomes betweenthe face-to-face and Web-basedformats.

The WebOption approach isgenerally limited to multiple-section,high-demand, lecture-based courses.“Any time there are frustratedstudents who are unable to get theclasses they want because they’refull, in my opinion, there should be aWebOption to accommodatestudents,” Bassili says.

For more information, visitwww.utsc.utoronto.ca/~joordens/

Like many instructors, LindaRomero, assistant professor ofeducation at MassBay

Community College, had some reser-vations about teaching online. Wouldher students be able to use the onlinelearning tools? Would studentsbecome engaged in each other’sprogress? Would a lack of face-to-faceinteraction hinder learning?Realizing the benefits that an online

course offers students, particularly theability to fit the course into their busyschedules, Romero decided to makethe leap, but only with a course thatoffered some individual face-to-facecontact with students—a practicum

and seminar for early childhoodeducation. In this course, studentsteach 12 hours per week and receivethree supervisory visits during thesemester.In the face-to-face version of the

seminar, students meet for a couple ofhours each week for mini-lectures anddiscussions; Romero designed theonline course to be conductedsimilarly. By the time they take theseminar, “students have taken most oftheir content courses already, so Idon’t have to provide a huge amountof content. It’s just helping thembring it all together,” Romero says.

AppearanceRomero was deliberate in making

her online course “real” without beingtoo complicated. She created a look tothe course that matched the physicalappearance of the education environ-ments her students work in. The firstthing they see when they enter thecourse site is a red schoolhouse witha flag waving and a bell ringing.In addition to creating a familiar

look, Romero designed her course sothat each week’s materials have aconsistent font and color. “Thisprovides a visual link that brings


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FROM PAGE 12

Seminar—A Good First Venture intothe Online Classroom

By Rob Kelly


things…together. It takes a little extratime, but students notice it and they[know] where they are when they’reentering different parts of thecourse,” Romero says.

DiscussionContrary to the students’ fears, they

had more discussion in the onlinecourse than students in the face-to-face classroom did. Romero creditsthis largely to the introductions in thethreaded discussion, whichemphasize the students’ commonexperiences.In the threaded-discussion intro-

ductions, Romero asks students totalk about their teaching goals, theirpracticum classrooms, and personalinformation (if they are willing).“I think having shared experiences

is really the key to successful onlineteaching. Anything you do, any as-signment that gets people out doingsomething…establishes that commonconnection,” Romero says.In her course, finding these

common experiences is easy. Doing itin other types of courses is possiblewith a little creativity. For example, acolleague of Romero’s was teaching acourse to a group of diverse, geo-graphically dispersed students.Romero suggested having them eachtake a field trip to a similar place—inthis case a library. Each would go toa different library but all would beable to bring that similar experienceback to the class and discuss the dif-ferences and commonalities.“I think you can create something

artificial to achieve that common ex-perience, even if it’s not a commonpracticum experience,” Romero says.

ToneOne of the limitations of interacting

in threaded discussions is thepotential of misinterpreting inten-tions. If you say something sarcasticin a face-to-face class, students willlikely understand your intention.Romero is careful to guard against

posting things that might be misinter-preted. The downside to this is a lack

of spontaneity. On the other hand,Romero finds that she is more disci-plined and less inclined to go off ontangents when she is online thanwhen in the face-to-face classroom.In the excitement of that engage-

ment in the classroom, you can getcarried away. I’m more responsibleabout that when I’m online, Romerosays.Romero uses the design of the

course to set the tone as well. Forexample, initially, students often getlost in the online space, and she triesto make sure that doesn’t happen byleaving messages for them in theplaces they might look, remindingthem where to go.In some instances, Romero includes

an animated cheerleader in the site toindicate that students have foundwhat they were looking for. “Youestablish tone through those kinds ofmessages that are actually part of thedesign of the physical environment,”Romero says. @

Andrea Henne, dean of onlineand distributed learning in theSan Diego Community College

District, recommends creating onlinecourses composed of modules—discrete, self-contained learning expe-riences—and uses a coursedevelopment method that specifieswhat to include in each module.Creating online courses based on

modules can benefit the instructorand students. Modular design offersthe following benefits:

• Expedited course creation—Often, the task of creating anonline course is daunting for thefaculty member. Focusing on thecomponents that go into a singlemodule at a time simplifies theprocess, enabling instructors tomore thoughtfully design eachlearning component. After an in-structor has created that firstmodule, he or she has estab-lished a framework for creatingsubsequent modules. “Onceyou’re happy with the structure

and you’ve decided how studentsare going to interact with thematerial and what they’re goingto turn in and how you’re goingto do pre-assessment and post-as-sessment, the course designprocess is well on its way. Allyou’re doing now is the creativework of finding the resources,content, and activities that fit thelearning objectives,” Henne says.In addition, by working on one

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A Guide to Creating Modular Courses

By Rob Kelly

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module at a time, instructors canmore easily see how each activityrelates to the course syllabus anddesired learning outcomes.

• Simplified course updates—Modular design enables instruc-tors to target specific parts of thecourse for improvement withouthaving to overhaul the entirecourse. Because each module is astandalone learning experiencebased on specific learning objec-tives, when a publisher updatesor discontinues a textbook, itdoesn’t necessarily mean that theentire course needs to bechanged. With a modular course,textbook changes might meansimply changing the pagenumbers of assigned readings orreordering the modules to matchthe new sequence of the textbookchapters. In addition, modulesare portable. They can be easilyremoved for use in other coursesor course management systems,Henne says.

• Consistency for users—By incor-porating the same types of com-ponents in each course module,students quickly pick up on thecourse’s rhythms and patternsand have a better idea of what toexpect than if the course weredesigned using a varyingstructure. “Often online studentsget a little bit lost, and they don’tunderstand what they’reexpected to do. But if the coursefollows a format that’s recogniza-ble and comfortable, then thesecond week and subsequentweeks are consistent,” Hennesays.Henne uses a template or

“modular matrix” that outlinesthe components for each learningmodule. The template is not acookie-cutter approach to onlinecourse design but rather a set ofrecommendations that instructorsmight find useful. “You don’t

want to box people in to a one-size-fits-all formula because youwant them to be creative and in-novative,” Henne says.

The following are the componentsHenne recommends for each module:• Pre-assessment: Each moduleshould include an activity thatdetermines students’ initialknowledge of a topic beforetaking part in the learning activi-ties within the module. Theresults of this activity can becompared to assessment resultsat the end of the module tomeasure achievement of learningoutcomes.

• Learning objectives: These arespecific statements, including theactions, performance criteria, andconditions of what students willbe able to do upon completingthe module.

• Assigned reading: Specifychapters, pages, documents,slides, lecture notes and provideguided reading suggestions orpoints for students to look out forin the reading.

• Assigned writing: Writing as-signments can range from poststo the discussion board to formalpapers. Each assignment shouldhave a clear explanation of ex-pectations and evaluationcriteria.

• Exercises/activities: Eachmodule should have an interac-tive activity for the entire class orfor groups, which encouragescritical thinking and practical ap-plication of the material coveredin the learning module.

• For further study: Takeadvantage of the rich resourceson the Internet and provided bypublisher websites to enhancelearning and stimulate students’curiosity to dig deeper into thesubject matter.

• Post-assessment: The end-of-module assessment should be inthe same format (e.g., essay or

quiz questions) as the pre-assess-ment to measure studentprogress.

Henne encourages instructors toinclude assessments in each moduleto be able to monitor studentprogress throughout the course andto provide students with regularfeedback.Many course management systems

have a selective-release feature,which enables the instructor tocontrol access to parts of a courseuntil a student has reached a certainlevel of competency. Achievement ona module can be determined bycomparing the pre- and post-assess-ments or by the students submittinga checklist of tasks completed.After years of teaching face to face,

many instructors are able to beginteaching an on ground coursewithout having the entire course laidout ahead of time. This approachdoesn’t work well in the onlineclassroom. Henne recommends thatinstructors have their online coursescompletely created several monthsbefore students enroll in them, andthe template she recommends canhelp them meet that target, allowingthem the time to focus on otheraspects of facilitating online classes.“Faculty have been really grateful

to see an overview of how to start,how they’re going to proceed, andhow they’re going to end the course.Although the template is notdesigned as a lock-step process, itdoes provide a framework thatsupports the faculty member duringonline course design and develop-ment. All this goes hand in handwith faculty training on strategies forteaching online. This template is thefoundation for effective onlinelearning by guiding how you’re goingto present your materials and howstudents are going to interact andachieve the desired learningoutcomes,” Henne says. @


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Learning online can be frustrat-ing. Online tools and technolo-gies have a learning curve. It’s

easy to feel lost and disconnected.Answers to questions are typicallydelayed. Because the online learningexperience is, by its nature,somewhat frustrating, we need totake as much unnecessary frustrationout of the experience as we can.Why? Because this kind of frustrationoften leads to reduced satisfactionand learning, and increased attrition.These less-than-optimal outcomesaren’t in anyone’s best interest.In this article, I will discuss

common but unnecessary frustrationsfor online learners—and how theycan be reduced or eliminated.

Typical sources ofunnecessary frustrationSteve Krug, in his excellent Web

usability primer, Don’t Make MeThink, describes typical website frus-trations and explains that it’s not“rocket surgery” to make them lessfrustrating. Folks who sell online(such as Amazon.com andSmartBargains.com, my two favoriteonline shopping sites) clearlyrecognize the importance of usabilitybecause usability directly impactssales. Frustrated folks simply don’tstick around long enough to buy. Toohard to use? One or two clicks andthey can land on another site that iseasier to use.But what about online learners?

They typically don’t have the luxuryof immediately going elsewhere, andunnecessary frustration is very hardto deal with while also trying to learnand fulfill course requirements.Along with usability problems, ex-

traneous cognitive load and unneces-sary mental effort needed to dealwith the learning environment cancause unnecessary frustrations foronline learners. When the mentaleffort needed for dealing with unnec-essary frustration rises, the amountleft for learning tasks is reduced.For example, imagine reading

online course content about stratifiedrandom sampling (a statisticalsampling method). The contentcontains links to other pages withgraphical representations of thetopics being covered. Needing to flipback and forth between graphic andtext explanations requires much moremental effort than if the graphics andcorresponding explanation are placedtogether.Here’s the bottom line: If learners

can’t easily find what they need,what they need isn’t available (eventhough you know where it is). Iflearners are frustrated and cannoteasily use and learn from the coursematerials, the materials are ineffec-tive or worse.

Follow the cluesHow do we know if learners are

unnecessarily frustrated? There aretwo typical clues: Complaints about

difficulty accessing or using thecourse materials and lack of engage-ment or effort (for example, limitedlog-ins, few discussion postings, lateor inadequately completed assign-ments). Complaints often helpuncover unnecessary frustrations.Lack of engagement or effort can becaused by myriad ‘outside’ issues(such as family or work problems)but they can also indicate learnerswho have shut down fromfrustration.The first semester I was an online

instructor, one learner waited threeweeks into the semester to ask mehow to find the course discussions Ikept referring to. Huh? I could havewritten this off as a bizarre occur-rence but thankfully I didn’t becauseI received a similar email the weekbefore. With the learner on thephone, I followed what she waslooking at and realized that the linkto course discussions might not beobvious to new online learnersbecause I referred to them as coursediscussions throughout the coursecontent but the course managementsystem referred to them as discussionforums. That was enough to trip upsome new online learners. I changedthe content so the term used was thesame.The first step to reducing unneces-

sary frustrations is to be open to thefact that they are likely to be there.The table below describes somegeneral ways to address and preventthem.

Clue: Complaints about difficultyaccessing or using the coursematerialsThings to do:• Clearly explain how learnersshould get started and make thisinformation easy to use (achecklist is good) and easilynoticed.

• Make commonly used items (like


How to Eliminate Sources ofFrustration for the OnlineLearner


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the syllabus and assignment di-rections and rubrics) very easy tolocate.

• Obtain a student account to seewhat learners see (I always setone of these up for this purpose).

• Develop and use a consistentcourse structure so once learnerslearn how to use one onlinecourse, they know how to useothers, even though the contentmay be different.

• If learners are reportingproblems, ask them for specificdetails (so you can troubleshoot).

• Connect learners to campustechnical support, as needed.(Following-up with the learner isa good idea.)

• Make changes to the materials toaddress common concerns anduse announcements or broadcastemails to make learners aware ofthese changes.

• Keep an ongoing list of changesthat need to be made in thefuture so these problems don’treoccur.

Clue: Lack of engagement or effortThings to do:• Design a low stress, fun initialactivity to help learners learn thetools and feel connected. (I likecourse scavenger hunts for thispurpose.)

• Quickly contact individuallearners who don’t appear to beengaged by phone (best) oremail.

• Check in with individual learnersperiodically to solicit feedbackabout what is going well/lesswell and why. (Learners regularlytell me how valuable this is.)

Your turnFind someone who hasn’t seen

your online course and ask them todo typical course tasks on yourcourse website (for example, print

the syllabus, determine what assign-ments are due in the first week, posta bio in the discussion forum) whileyou watch but without your help.Ask them to think out loud so youknow what they are thinking andwhy they are doing what they aredoing. See where they are confusedand how many steps it takes to get itright. If you can keep yourself fromhelping them, you’ll learn a lot aboutwhat may be unnecessarilyfrustrating.When learners can’t find what they

need or are confused about where togo and what to do, we are inadver-tently making it harder for them tolearn. That’s a situation that needs tobe remedied if we want learners to besuccessful.

ResourcesKrug, S. (2006). Don't make me

think: A common sense approach toweb usability, 2nd Edition. Berkeley,CA: New Riders Press @


FROM PAGE 16

Most things in life have built-in frustrations. For example,shopping at a grocery store

during its busiest time and waiting inline to check out feels like a waste oftime. Grocery stores have imple-mented self-service checkouts andspecial cashier-checkout lines forpeople with few items (who alwaysseem to have far more than theallotted number of items) in order toreduce customer frustrations, butsome frustrations can only beminimized, not eliminated.

There are common but inevitablefrustrations for online learners. Thetools have a learning curve, andupdated versions and new toolsrequire additional efforts. Waiting forcommunication (responses to aquestion, work from another learneron a collaborative project, feedbackon an assignment, etc.) is often frus-trating. Because the online learningexperience is by its nature frustrating,we should try to take as much unnec-essary frustration as possible out ofthe experience, because too much

frustration leads to reduced satisfac-tion and learning; angry and frus-trated learners; and attrition.In this article, I’ll discuss practices

that help online learners, especiallythose who are new to onlinelearning, to determine if they aregood candidates for online courses ingeneral and your online courses inparticular.

Using Pre-admission Assessments toHelp Online Students Succeed


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Does the student haveadequate computer andcomputer skills?You’ve probably had learners in

your online courses who have askedyou basic computer questions like,“How do I open an attachment?” orcomplained that they couldn’t accessmultimedia files. And if you’reanything like me, you wondered whysomeone without an updatedcomputer system and basic computerskills would attempt to take an onlinecourse.Institutions that enroll new online

learners who have outdatedcomputers, dial-up Internet connec-tions, and subpar computer andInternet skills should consider theconsequences ahead of time or theywill be dealing with the conse-quences, including frustrated andangry learners and greater-than-expected attrition, down the road.Some institutions provide

minimum computer hardware,software, and connection require-ments as well as assessments to helpprospective online learners measurethe adequacy of their computer andInternet skills. For example,Pennsylvania College of Technologyhas a detailed listing of requisitecomputer and Internet skills(http://penncollege.edu/advise/CSC110/csc/selfassessment.htm).Some offer complex assessments toanalyze whether prospective learnershave adequate skills. For example,ETS offers an Information andCommunication Technology Literacytest that uses realistic computer andInternet tasks to measure criticalthinking and technical skills.

Is online learning a good fit?We also need to help prospective

online learners determine if onlinelearning is a good fit for them so theycan self-select into or out of an onlinecourse or program. Self-assessment

tools such as The Illinois OnlineNetwork’s Self-Evaluation forProspective Online Students(www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/selfEval.asp) andWashington Community andTechnical College’s Is OnlineLearning for Me? quiz(www.waol.org/getstarted/IsOnline4Me.asp) can help prospec-tive online learners consider whetherthey will be happy and successfulonline learners.

Some higher education institutionsoffer a “get me ready to be a success-ful online learner” course that istaken before other online courses (ifneeded…no need to frustrate thosewith adequate skills). This type ofcourse typically has plenty ofpersonal hand-holding and practicedoing things that successful onlinelearners need to be able to do, suchas uploading and downloading files,using discussion forums, and evaluat-ing the credibility of online resources.Another option for helping new

online learners is an online orienta-tion. Regis University has ahumorous and helpful online orienta-tion, which is one of the best I’veseen. It includes lessons that helpnew online learners discover how toget into their online courses; find anduse the course syllabus and othercourse resources; use the coursemanagement system; complete andsubmit course assignments; and com-municate with the instructor andother learners. My colleague MaureenHencmann, an instructional designerwith Regis, helped design this orien-

tation, and it’s a great example ofcreative design that serves animportant need.

Clear expectations?Online courses are just as different

from each other as classroom-basedcourses, but some online learnersmake assumptions that can lead tounnecessary frustration. Whenlearners know in advance how thecourse works, they can makeinformed decisions about enrolling.For example, one of my onlinecourses involved numerous small de-liverables each week and lots ofgroup work. It wasn’t a good fit forlearners who needed to travel for aliving or be out of touch for a fewweeks during the semester, becausethe course process was fairly inflexi-ble. Contrast that with another onlinecourse in the program that wasflexible and primarily self-paced.Some instructors don’t provide

adequate detail about course expecta-tions to prospective learners becausethey need a certain number oflearners to enroll. This is a case of“pay me now or pay me later,”because learners who aren’t able tobe successful quickly becomeproblems (or worse). Consideradding a list of course realities andexpectations to course descriptions soprospective learners can determinebefore enrolling if they are likely tobe able to meet them.Frustrations for learners commonly

turn into frustrations for instructorsand higher education institutions.Considering how to reduce unneces-sary frustrations and help new onlinelearners succeed, therefore, makesboth sense and cents. Consider howyou, your department, and your insti-tution can use computer hardware,software, and access requirements;preadmission assessments; “how tobe a successful online learner”lessons; and detailed course expecta-tions to help online learners succeed.@


FROM PAGE 17

When learners know in

advance how the course

works, they can make

informed decisions about

enrolling.

19

Despite the benefits of onlineeducation, there are inevitablefrustrations as well. The tools

online learners need to use, such asdiscussion forums or integratedcourse management systems, have alearning curve. They don’t alwaysbehave in intuitive ways. Waiting forcommunication (responses to aquestion, work from another learneron a collaborative project, feedbackon an assignment, etc.) can beterribly frustrating.This may seem counterintuitive,

but some frustrations during learningare good. Learners are expected tostruggle with new or difficult content.That struggle is part and parcel of thelearning process. But there’s a fineline between OK struggling and not-OK struggling. My son is a junior incollege and struggles with some ofthe high-level math courses in hisdegree plan. You’d expect thesecourses to be hard and strugglingwith the content to be the norm. Sowhen are learning frustrationsharmful? When they negativelyimpact the ability to learn. One of myson’s math professors sent broadcastemails to every student each weekwarning them that it would be hardto pass the course and that theyshould consider dropping out if theyweren’t up to the work. This turnedinto a self-fulfilling prophecy, and theanxiety made it impossible for moststudents to learn.Because the online learning experi-

ence is, by its nature, frustrating,anyone who can take unnecessaryfrustration out should do so, because

frustration leads to anxiety and frus-tration, reduced ability to learn, andattrition.

UsabilityWhat I’m talking about is technical

and learning usability, the ease (orlack of ease) with which learnersinteract with online instructionalmaterials (pages, forms, media, etc.)and people (the instructor, peers,help sources). Good usability foronline learning materials means thesite, content, and media are easy tofind, use, and navigate. And goodusability for people means the inter-action tools (such as email and dis-cussion forums) are easy to use andfacilitate getting input or help asneeded.

Technical usabilityGood technical usability involves

minimizing system-related frustra-tions (for example, access, coursesystems, materials, and media) solearners can use them for theirintended purpose without unneces-sary hassles, delays, or extra steps.Here are some common recommen-dations for improving technicalusability in online courses:• Use a simple and consistent navi-gation scheme (for example, tabslabeled with the week number ortopic containing all the materialsfor that week or topic).

• Optimize images and media forquicker downloading.

• Provide a list of requiredhardware, software, plug-ins, andbandwidth to prospective

students so they know what’sneeded, technically, to succeed.

• Offer printable versions of pagesthat are likely to be printed,either by providing separate printversions or PDFs or by makingsure that existing pages printwell.

• Design online courses so theyfunction similarly to each other.Once learners understand how touse one course, they will be ableto use others more easily.

• Make materials or pages that arecommonly used or referred toreadily available without havingto navigate through numerousmenus and hyperlinks.

Learning usabilityLearning usability is about mini-mizing unnecessary learning-related frustrations so learnerscan learn and deal with the frus-trations that cannot be elimi-nated. Here are some commonrecommendations for improvinglearning usability in onlinecourses:

• Manage expectations: Telllearners when to expect a replyto emails or questions so theyaren’t frustrated when youhaven’t answered in threeminutes. (I encourage you toseem omnipresent in thebeginning of courses with a largepercentage of new onlinelearners.)

• Make help available: Look atyour course content and activitiesrealistically. Any places wherestudents are likely to get stuck?Provide extra help options atthese times.

• Provide reality checks: Letprospective students know whatto expect so they can determine ifthey have the access, motivation,and time for the coursework.

Whose job is this?Maybe you’re thinking this is too

Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment •

Usability Issues That ImpactOnline Learning


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much to worry about. It’s hardenough designing content, activities,and assessments; facilitating courseactivities; answering questions; andgrading papers and tests. But sincethe negative outcomes from poorusability end up in the instructors’and students’ laps, it’s our problem,whether we like it or not.If you have access to instructional

designers, they should be able to help

you make your courses easier to use.If your institution has technical com-munications or human factors engi-neering degree programs, there’s agood chance that faculty needprojects for their students. Free help!If learners can’t easily find what

they need and do what they want orneed to do, what they need isn’tavailable. If learners cannot easilyuse and learn from course materials,the instructor, and other students,they can’t learn. So, no matter how

good the content, activities, assess-ments, and people interactions are, ifthe learner can’t easily find and usethem, they might as well not bethere.

ResourcesDon't Make Me Think, 2nd Edition

(New Riders Press, 2005)Alertbox—www.useit.com/alertboxUsability.gov—www.usability.gov

@


The first time I taught online,many moons ago, I ran intosome snags. One learner

emailed me three weeks into thesemester, asking where the course dis-cussion forum was. A week later,another learner asked where to findthe syllabus. Weird? No—unfortunate,but not uncommon.When learners can’t find what they

need or are confused about where togo and what to do, we are making itharder for them to learn. Being anonline learner is hard enough withoutadditional barriers. Plus, frustratedlearners tend to either drop out ordrive the instructor crazy. Bad idea.In this article, I’ll take a look at

frustrations caused by two commonand interrelated Web designproblems: confusing course organiza-tion (how course elements are struc-tured within the course) and unclearnavigation (what links or buttons areused to access these elements).

Finding your way is NOT halfthe funA while back, I went into a Target

store to buy an iron. I headed over tothe small appliances section. I sawCrock-Pots, coffee makers, toasters,electric skillets…but no irons. I beganwalking around the store—past theshoes, car parts, bath rugs, doggieigloos—and I found irons near theplumbing supplies. The store providedclear “navigation” (overhead signs)but they weren’t at all helpful becausethe store’s organizational scheme(irons go with shower heads) didn’tmatch mine (irons go with toastersand Crock-Pots).Online content is often tricky to

navigate as well. Effective navigationelements (such as links and buttons)should clearly tell the user severalthings:• Where am I?• Where are the things I’m trying tofind?

• How do I get there?

Organizational schemesThe best way to help users find

what they need online is by doing agood job of organizing the contentinto logical categories and using navi-gational elements to point users in theright direction.Let’s say you’re browsing your insti-

tution’s human resources site to find afamily leave form. Which buttonshould you click on to find this form?Benefits? Policies and Procedures?Family Support? The essential organi-zational dilemma for all onlinecontent is how to organize and label itso users can easily find what theyneed.Exact organizational schemes are

the easiest to navigate because the in-formation is divided into clearly delin-eated categories. Some examples ofonline content that uses an exact or-ganizational scheme includetelephone numbers for everyone in adepartment (organized alphabeti-

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The Importance of Intuitive Navigationin Online Course Design


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cally), past orders (organized chrono-logically), and local distributors(organized geographically).Most instructional content, however,

is not organized as exactly because allthe content doesn’t neatly fall intoprecise alphabetical, chronological, orgeographical delineations. And this iswhere the going gets frustrating forlearners trying to find what they need.There are numerous ways to

organize an online course. Becausemost courses tend to progress in achronological fashion, organizingthem this way makes sense tolearners. Below is an example of howan online instructor might organize acourse chronologically, with elementsthat are accessed frequently through-out the course (Syllabus, Calendar) atthe top level so they are easy to locate.(You might have guessed that my firstonline course was not organized thisway….)HomeSyllabusCalendarCourse ContentWeek 1ReadingMediaActivitiesResourcesAssessments

Week 2ReadingMediaActivitiesResourcesAssessments

Discussion ForumsCourse cafeCourse questionsWeek 1 discussion questionsWeek 2 discussion questions

Navigational elementsThe purpose of website navigation is

to help users understand how the siteis organized, so they can click on theright link or button to find what theyare looking for.


Here are some of the navigational elements most commonly used on Webpages.

There are pluses and minuses to all navigational elements. For instance,buttons are clearly meant to be clicked on in order to go somewhere, but buttontitles need to be both short (to fit on the button) and clear enough to tell theuser where they are going.Pull-down and pop-up menus take up less space than some other types of

navigation but are harder to use, especially for folks with some disabilities; plus,they don’t show the range of options until they are clicked on.Text links are clear but they can be overused, especially when users think they

are expected to follow each one. are clear and concise but overused in online in-structional content. They indicate content to be viewed in a lockstep fashion.Doing a good job of organizing the materials in each course and providing

navigational elements so learners can get to those materials easily is partscience, part art, and part common sense. How can you tell if your site is wellorganized, with clear navigational elements? Grab a few people who don’t knowhow your course works and ask them to find the syllabus, the slides for Week 5,the date for the midterm test, or other elements of your course as you watchsilently, providing no help. Too many clicks or too much backtracking? Thatindicates a need for reorganizing or making navigation clearer.On a final note, consider organizing all your online courses similarly, so

learners who have taken one of your courses will instantly know how tonavigate others, with little additional frustration.

ResourcesUsability—the Basics—http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/Design/Basics/Why people can’t use eLearning

www.infocentre.frontend.com/uploaded_files/eLearning_white_paper.pdf @

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