Module 4: Designing and Delivering DE using Technology (Week 6)

Module 4: Designing and Delivering DE using Technology (Week 6)

Classroom discussions this week brought out an important point that while DE course design and development focuses around a concept of a team of experts (Moore & Kearsley, 2012), that such teams can be just as beneficial when designing and developing more traditional face-to-face (F2F) courses. Reid, Dooley, Maybee, and Nelson (2015) from Purdue University have acknowledged this fact and have developed an Interactive Course Re/Design (ICD) Model that allows faculty to become more aware of the complexities of course design and development.  Additionally, the model provides faculty with access to various support professionals to aide them when designing/redesigning courses.  While this model may not replace a full ISD team that is found in DE, it does go a long way toward providing similar resources for traditional F2F faculty members.

Another topic of discussion this week addressed the importance of maximizing student interaction and participation in both DE & F2F courses.  While DE course design and development is driven to meticulous planning efforts in this area, F2F teachers have more freedom to adapt their teaching methods “on the fly” to increase class participation.  This doesn’t mean that DE teachers cannot adjust their teaching methods during a course; however, due to the asynchronous nature of DE discussions, there are inherent delays in the conversation.  Additionally, the lack of feedback mechanisms can create miscommunication between sender and receiver.

References:

Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online learning.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Reid, P., Dooley, F. Maybee, C. and Nelson, D. (2015). Purdue university information technology: Interactive course re/design for higher education instructors [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.itap.purdue.edu/learning/cdm/