Wow! This Takes Tremendous Organizing: Developing and Teaching a Distance Education Course

Abstract

In this session we share what it is like to be an online teaching novice developing a primarily asynchronous DE course that met face-to-face the first and last week of classes. In particular, we will share our experience re-designing a traditional class for online delivery using Blackboard and issues related to: 1) developing online components, such as, course/module objectives aligned with learning activities and learning assessments, interactivity, community of learning, and course design best practices, 2) harnessing the expertise of DoITââ¬â¢s instructional design support, and 3) the results of several comparative evaluations two of us performed. The course was built on current knowledge of adult learning, i.e., LEARN model, Learn, Enact, Assess, Reflect, Network. The course content was developmental pathways, birth through adolescence in which we examined human development of diverse learners including those from different language, cultural and economic backgrounds, and those with disabilities. The course was taught and evaluated with three different unique populations: undergraduate students, mastersââ¬â¢ students, and Teach for America mastersââ¬â¢ students. Evaluation focused on studentsââ¬â¢ motivation for taking the course, course expectations, mid course and end of course surveys on effectiveness of course components, and end of course revised expectations of distance education courses.