Public schools are making hard decisions right now, do they continue face to face (F2F) learning with added risk of spreading COVID or do they eliminate the risk and provide instruction online. Schools are erring on the side of caution, for the safety of students and faculty, and moving instruction online. However, these changes raise some significant questions. How can we design instruction online that meets or exceeds the quality of instruction delivered through F2F learning? How do we design online instruction? Is designing online instruction the same as designing instruction for F2F?
First, all students have the potential to learn at the same rate if not greater online compared to the classroom. It isn't the method in which we learn that provides results, it's the delivery of instruction and what happens in between that produces results. Online learning is a broad term used to describe multiple forms of learning without being tied to a geographical location. This form of learning can be in the form of college enrollment, MOOCs, certificate courses such EdX or Udemy, Zoom, discussion boards, webinars, etc... There are multiple ways to teach and learn with technology, which fall under the umbrella term, online learning. However, when we look at public education and online learning, we know that we have to provide some formal instruction without being in the same physical location. It is important for teachers and administrators to know and understand that simply moving F2F instruction online is NOT online learning. In examining the difference, we can first look at the time spent in developing courses for F2F and online. Instructional designers generally use ratios to determine how long it takes to develop a course online. For instance, if designing a very basic online class with zero interactivity, it would take roughly 49 development hours for each instructional hour. In this case, students are generally reading and writing with limited deeper level cognition. Whereas a class designed with full interactivity, including knowledge transfer, could take an upwards of 716 hours of development to one hour of instructional time, this obviously would include graphic creations and using authoring software, something far beyond a public educator’s skill level (“ELearning Development Calculator - Estimate the Time to Create a Course,” n.d.). The point here is that online learning takes time to develop courses that are interactive and engaging, motivating students to transfer knowledge. We cannot simply use the same content from a F2F class, online learning requires a revision of instructional strategies, assessments, and learning activities (Morrison, 2012). We have to make changes so that teaching is facilitating and learning is active. We as teachers need to design instruction that is student centered, which means no more direct instruction! Students cannot be passive receivers of information while online, mainly because of intrinsic motivation, or lack thereof. We all remember that great history teacher who was hilarious and could teach in front of the class for 42 minutes and it felt like 10. Well, that cannot happen anymore, neither can the teacher continually remind Johnny who is falling asleep to wake up, obviously, because a teacher isn’t there! All these F2F incidences where the teacher mediated will not happen online. Therefore, course design should be focused on supporting multiple students with varying motivation levels. This forces teachers to differentiate instruction using multiple instructional strategies incorporating collaboration and feedback! Here is a great video to help you.
It is important however, that we first examine the students we will be teaching, that’s the analysis phase of ADDIE for instructional designers. We know what makes a good online student for public education, they should be self-motivated, independent learner, with good time management and technological skills, and is intrinsically motivated (“Characteristics of a Successful Online Learner,” n.d.). Now how many students carry those qualities in public education? I’d be willing to bet, not many, therefore, it is important for us teachers to combat the students’ lack of skills by providing them with the following:
It is a very difficult for teachers as many of us are teaching F2F and online with little to no background in online course development. Administrators also need to recognize that in order to develop quality online courses, time and resources are needed. Again, we cannot simply move what we did in a F2F classroom to online, we will see students inevitably fail. References Bowman, L., Tighe, M. J., Jr., Bender, S., Escott, T. E., & Tighe Jr, J. M. (2010). Online Learning: A User-Friendly Approach for High School and College Students. R&L Education. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/waldenu/detail.action?docID=616377 Characteristics of a Successful Online Learner. (n.d.). North Carolina Virtual. Retrieved August 11, 2020, from https://ncvps.org/characteristics-of-a-successful-online-learner/ eLearning Development Calculator—Estimate the Time to Create a Course. (n.d.). ELearningArt. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://elearningart.com/development-calculator/ Morrison, D. (2012, August 6). How [not] to Design an Online Course. Online Learning Insights. https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/how-not-to-design-an-online-course/
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Dr. Jeremy O'TooleInstructional Technologist Archives
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