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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Oct 05, 2006 by Faculty Development |
| Overview: |
This is a step-by-step guide and tutorial for developing curriculum for
computer-based delivery. The tutorial teaches the rudimentary aspects of
creating an online course.
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| Learning Goals: |
To learn to convert a simple paper course/seminar into an online course/seminar.
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| Target Student Population: |
Instructors who wish to modify an existing course for the web or by creating an
online course from scratch.
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| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
1. Basic HTML programming or use of an HTML editor such as Macromedia
Dreamweaver 2.
2. Image editing and optimizing skills (if using graphics), e.g., use of
Fireworks 2.
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| Type of Material: |
A step-by-step tutorial.
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| Recommended Uses: |
To guide faculty in the development of new online courses and the conversion of
existing courses to an online environment.
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| Technical Requirements: |
1. FTP software to transfer files after development to the hosting server.
2. Server space on a remote hosting server.
Presumes that the user has access to a course-management system if interactivity
is to occur.
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| Strengths: |
The tutorial is accessible and easy to follow. The seven-point outline covers
the essential stages of web-based course development in a manner that also
explains the relevance of these activites (i.e., chunking). This should be
especially useful to experienced teachers who are preparing to teach in the
online environment for the first time.
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| Concerns: |
The guide is sketchy; the lessons are very basic, and done in little more than
outline form. The lessons contain several points that could use further
elaboration, e.g., cgi scripting is merely defined, but its use and development
are not
explained.
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
Rating:   |
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| Strengths: |
Although this tutorial does not contain sufficient in-depth explanation in each
of the lessons, it does provide a good checklist of what one needs to know to
teach in the online classroom. The tutorial could be somewhat effective in
teaching instructors about the stages of online course development. As such,
it could be useful as a resource for large faculty groups that wish to develop
online courses or rethink existing courses.
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| Concerns: |
Since the tutorial is is designed to help instructors develop online courses,
its uses as a teaching tool are limited. There are few applications (if any)
that would be useful within a course. Moreover, the lessons make brief
mentions of concepts (i.e., SME, cgi scripting) that potentially are unfamiliar
to teachers inexperienced in web-based teaching. The lessons don't discuss some
of the issues or challenges related to online teaching. For example, there is
no discussion of how to use the computer for creating student-to-student and
instructor-to-student interactivity, or of examples of learning activities that
promote online collaboration. Another example,
in Lesson Two on the discussion
of test questions, it would be useful to explain some of the logistical and
ethical issues related to online testing, including strategies that might be
used to assure test integrity and student honesty. This could be a problem
because they are the primary audience for this tutorial.
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
| Rating: |
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| Strengths: |
The lessons of the tutorial are easy to understand and simple to navigate. And
the links to other resources provided by the author are, for the most part,
internal, i.e., created by the author and on the author's host server. Hence
they appear to be actively maintained and up-to-date.
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| Concerns: |
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
The limitations of the content noted here may be attributed to the fact that
this is a commercial site. Most likely, its purpose is to entice potential
clients to purchase services, rather than serve as a free resource for academic
instruction.
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