Creating Quality Online Courses

(see hyperlink for source)The technology of andragogy was to be a seven step process. He called for adult educators to:set a cooperative learning climate,create mechanisms for mutual planning,arrange for a diagnosis of learner needs and interests,enable the formulation of learning objectives based on the diagnosed needs and interests,design sequential activities for achieving the objectives,execute the design by selecting methods, materials, and resources, andevaluate the quality of the learning experience while rediagnosing needs for further learning.

Andragogy makes the following assumptions about the design of learning: (1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something (2) Adults need to learn experientially, (3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.(see hyperlinkfor source)

Principles:1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities.3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life.4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.(see hyperlink for source)

For those who study andragogy, the following five items are identified as “crucial assumptions” thatspecifically set adult learners apart from child learners:1. SELF-CONCEPT: adults primarily rely on self-directed learning rather than being constantly dependenton others2. EXPERIENCE: adult learners are increasingly able to draw from their own experiences for continuedlearning3. READINESS TO LEARN: adults seek education that is directly related to their real-world roles4. ORIENTATION TO LEARNING: adults look at learning as something that can be concretely appliedimmediately to address and solve problems as compared to children who look at learning as an abstractcollection of subjects whose application is postponed5. MOTIVATION TO LEARN: adults are motivated to learn from an internal desire to be more awarerather than from external sources such as family, teachers or coaches(see hyperlink for source)

How much people remember when exposed tovarious learning methods based on the five senses(see, hear, feel, touch and smell)* 10 percent of what they read (see and often touch)* 20 percent of what they hear* 30 percent of what they see* 50 percent of what they see and hear* 70 percent of what they say or discuss with others (primarily “hear” plus critical listening skills)* 80 percent of what they experience personally (can be any or all of the five senses engaged in anactivity)* 90 percent of what they say and do (“hear” plus usually one or more of the other five senses engaged inan activity)* 95 percent of what they teach to someone else (at least one of the five senses engaged in an activityplus critical listening or observation skills)According to Glaser’s classic research, retention rate is proportional to the degree in which one ormore of the five senses is used or engaged during the learning process. To achieve retention rates at 70percent or above (recall that 70 is borderline “average” on a traditional straight grading scale), interactionwith the environment or others is a required curriculum element. So, in corporate learning scenarios,either in-house or at professional conferences and seminars, hands-on and “teach backs” are essentiallearning elements for those editors who expect an 80 percent or better retention rate from their staff as aresult of the company’s time and monetary investment in training efforts. (

Re: Lectures are becoming a thing of the pastMary Craig-Oatley - Jan 18, 2010 1:53 PM Using the technology in the classroom by us is necessary now, as you have indicated, to keep the students' attention. I also have found that making the students do presentations and encouraging them to use the technology makes for some great learning activities. The students actually have a chance to move upwards on the Bloom's taxonomy when they can synthesize it themselves.

Re: Multi-tasking/21st Century Workforce Kevin Jordan Dec 18, 2008 8:50 AM Bless your heart, Linda, for saying what needs to be said here. We're losing a lot. Our stock in trade was small classes. Now we're doing everything we can to max them out and leave the very classroom behind. Everything the educational experts told us in the 1960's and '70's was about the importance of making a personal connection with our students: that learning is a shared personal experience and that some of our most important communication is non-verbal. Their research was a reaction to the new telecourses: transparent attempts to cut costs while packing in students to remote theaters outfitted with cheap non-interactive TV sets. WCEU broadcast segments of Oceanus that students could watch at home in their underwear, as long as they showed up at the college twice a semester to take a test. It wasn't interactive and it didn't work. Nobody learned anything and the colleges lost credibility. They responded by constructing interactive remote studios funded largely by grants from the telecommunications industry. Now we are told by the computer industry that Internet courses are the way to go, and they sell us the idea by giving us discounted hardware and then fleecing us on the software, especially on the increasingly necessary (and expensive) software support because the software wasn't fully developed when they sold it to us. The big pitch is that today's students won't get it if it's not on the net. Progress. Bull. Students learn by personal contact, the same way they always have, with someone who cares enough to look them in the eye. The rest is fashion: irrelevant, fleeting, and meaningless. It's motivated by profiteering vendors selling twenty-first century snake oil. We're supposed to teach critical thinking. Maybe we should start doing it.

Course Delivery Methods Joseph Fuller Aug 15, 2009 7:34 PM Perhaps no other her issue is more important to facillate learning, than being able to really connect with students. Let me suggest a short 'formula' I learned from Dr. Larry Holt at UCF back in 2002. It's called R. E. M., and means, relevant, emotional, and meaningful. The idea is that the content and style in which we instructors present, whether delivered online, face to face, or hybrid, must be engaging in order for learning to occur. If students can't relate, or the material doesn't generate passion, or is seen as having no value in today's context, our efforts to educate fail. Fortunately, social media is providing new tools that help enhance connectivity, but the responsibility for learning must begin first and foremost with with instructor methodology for course delivery.Dr. J. Pat Fuller

The American Federation of Teachers report on guidelines for good practice in distance education acknowledges that it takes “anywhere from 66 to 500 percent longer” to prepare an online course than a face-to-face one,….From "Going For Distance"

The student can appraise, assess or critique the concept on a basis of specific criteria.

appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate, score, select, support, value, evaluate.

The student originates and combines ideas into a product, plan, or proposal that is new to him or her.

arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

The student distinguishes, classifies, and relates the evidence, assumptions, or structure of the statement or question.

analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test

Objectives written on the creating level require the student to generate new ideas, products and ways of viewing things.

Objectives written on the evaluating level require the student to make a judgment about materials or methods .

Objectives written on the analysing level require the learner to break the information into component parts and describe the relationship.

Objectives written on the applying level require the learner to implement (use) the information.

Objectives written on the understanding level, although a higher level of mental ability than remembering, requires the lowest level of understanding from the student.

Objectives written on the remembering level (the lowest cogitive level) requires the student to recall or recognize specific information.