Monday 7 May 2012

Planning to Go Online

"For a distance course, everything needs to be planned in advance very much more exactly... If you wish to run a course that evolves in unpredictable ways, then you must make this clear to distant students from the start."
"there is a great potential for abject confusion and worry from the students concerned over what they actually have to do and by when."
"technology must not lead pedagogy"
"If there is conscious planning then it is more likely that some developments will occur because the technology has something to offer in terms of efficiency or a broadening in the diversity of learning or contact routes and not so much simply because the technology is available."
"why develop and offer the course at all?  .... capture a new market .... delivery of the course more flexible and in that way capture new markets."
"resist the temptation to provide on-line options to students on-campus purely as something additional. Instead try to introduce the use of technology with the intention of changing something, no matter how small."
"the risk of swamping them with too much information should not be forgotten."
"Will the students be able to access the course adequately?"
"examine the learning outcomes of the course, linking these with the assessment criteria."
"require a minimum hardware specification for any off-campus computer of internet connection."
"think long and hard about the likely hardware and to a degree software resources that will be available to your students."
"There will always be a handful of students that will not like working on-line or will be nervous of such work or feel intimidated by the use of a computer"
"Often, but not always, initial considerations tend to focus on the presentation of information or knowledge"

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