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Considerations in Developing the Program Homepage
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HOME : Training Modules: Distance Education: Delivering Distance Ed
Curriculum
Module
"Delivering Distance Education"
Expected Audience:
-- Potential
participants in education who would like to deliver their educational
messages through Distance Education.
Goal:
-- To educate
interested learners on the delivery process of their educational programs
through distance education.
Learning objectives:
- To learn how to meet student needs
- To learn about ways to improve planning & organization
- To know some of the guidelines on teaching skills
- To know the essential components of the educational program home page
Intended learning
outcomes:
- Instructors who consider the learners needs
-Instructors who know how to plan distance education program
- Instructors who are familiar with teaching skills required for distance
education programs
Meeting Learners
Needs
To function effectively, instructors must become comfortable with the
idea of teaching and learning at a distance. The delivery system must
be modified and adapted to best motivate and meet the needs of the learners,
in terms of both content and preferred learning styles. Consider the following
strategies for meeting your learners’ needs:
- Create ways to help students become comfortable with the delivery technology and prepare them to resolve any technical problems that may arise.
- Make learners aware of and comfortable with new patterns of communication to be used in the course.
- Become familiar with learners’ backgrounds and experiences. Discussing your background and interests (as an instructor) is equally important.
- Be sensitive to different communication styles and varied cultural backgrounds. For example, humor is culturally specific and won't be perceived the same way by all. What you think is amusing may be insulting to the student.
- Make students aware that they must take an active role in the distance delivered program by independently taking responsibility for their learning.
Planning and Organization
In developing or adapting distance education, the core content remains
basically unchanged, although its presentation requires new strategies
and additional preparation time. Suggestions for planning and organizing
a distance delivered course include:
- Begin the course planning process by studying distance education research findings.
- Before developing something new, review existing materials for content and presentation ideas.
- Analyze and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the possible delivery systems available to you (e.g., audio, video, data, and print) not only in terms of how they are delivered (e.g., satellite, microwave, fiber optic cable, etc.), but in terms of learner needs and program requirements before selecting a mix of instructional technology.
- Hands-on training with the technology of delivery is critical for both instructor and learners. Consider a pre-program session in which the learners meet informally using the delivery technology. At this session they should also learn the roles and responsibilities of any technical support staff.
- At the start of the program initiate a frank discussion to set rules, guidelines, and standards. Once procedures have been established, consistently uphold them.
- Make sure each student has access to properly functioning equipment. Provide a toll-free "hotline" for reporting problems.
- If course materials are sent by mail, make sure they are received well before the program begins. To help learners keep materials organized, consider binding the syllabus, handouts, and other readings prior to distribution.
- Start off slowly with a manageable number of sites and learners. The difficulties of distant teaching increase with each additional site.
Effective Teaching
Skills
Effective distance learning requires modifying existing skills, rather
than developing new ones. Consider these points:
- Because presenting content at a distance is usually more time consuming than presenting the same material in a traditional learning setting, (e.g. classroom) determine the amount of material you can deliver effectively.
- Participants will have different learning styles. Some learn easily in group settings, while others excel when working independently.
- Vary course activities and avoid long lectures. For example, use presentations with discussions and learner-centered exercises.
- Humanize the course by focusing on the learners, not the delivery system.
- Consider using a print component to supplement non-print materials
- Use locally relevant case studies and examples to assist learners in understanding and applying the program content.
- Use short statements and ask direct questions, realizing that technical linkages might increase the time it takes for learners to respond.
- Develop strategies for learner reinforcement; one-on-one phone discussions and electronic mail communication can be especially effective.
Considerations
in Developing the Program Homepage
The following elements can be included in your program home page:
- Program & Instructor Information — Include such items as program topics to be covered, your office hours, textbook information, course objectives, and grading policies.
- Program Communication — Provide access to your e-mail, link to discussion groups that you have set up for learner-to-learner communication, and create forms that your learners can use to report problems or provide biographical information about themselves.
- Assignments and Tests — Distribute assignments and tests, provide for online completion or submission, and give solutions, hints, or samples of what you expect.
- Material covered— Make lecture notes and handouts available either as web pages or as downloadable files.
- Demonstrations, Animation, Video, Audio — Remember that these kinds of technology are more complex and will require your learners to have access to computers with sound and video cards.
- Reference Material — List materials in print and electronic form that supplement the textbook. To avoid copyright problems, electronic articles should either be written by you or be in the public domain (e.g., government documents or are already available on the WWW with author’s permission to distribute). In addition, provide links to other pages which cover information on the topic, similar programs that may also be available on WWW, your institution library, and other on-site resources that may help your student complete the program.
Summary
Delivering courses via distance education requires different methods and
abilities than in traditional classroom settings. But because course work
can be made available to a wider audience, including students who have
not before had access to the traditional classroom, instructors should
make every effort to become familiar with advancing technology and use
it in suitable courses. This will require different kinds of planning
and presentation methods, but you and your students will profit from the
experience.
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