Course Design
Course design includes elements such as the structure of the course, learning objectives and instructional strategies you use to teach? (Blackboard Exemplary Course Program, 2007). When designing a course to be completely delivered over the Internet we need to carefully consider that the instruction given support learning processes. Instruction, either face to face or mediated by computers, will facilitate learning when it supports the internal events of information processing (Gagné, Wager, Golas & Keller, 2005). According to Gaga et al. (2005) different kinds of activities are related to the learning process:
- Simulation to gain attention to ensure the reception of stimuli
- Informing learners of the learning goals to establish appropriate expectations
- Reminding learners of previously learned content for retrieval from long-term memory
- Clear and distinctive presentation of material to ensure selective perception
- Guidance of learning by suitable semantic encoding
- Eliciting performance, involving response generation
- Providing feedback about performance
- Assessing the performances involving additional response feedback occasions
- Arranging variety of practice to aid future retrieval and transfer
To facilitate the transition from a traditional course to an online course, Western Kentucky University adopted Blackboard as the electronic course management system. In terms of course design, WKU Distance Learning suggests the use of two main tools: The ADDIE model to guide the design of the course and the Quality Matters Rubric© to assure and improve course quality.
To learn more about tools to assist you in the design of your online course visit the following links:
