Development of online environment

Once you have thought through the outcomes and activities for your course, you will need to consider how you are going to build it. You may have come to a conclusion about whether your course will be web enhanced, blended or completely online. However, going through the development process may influence the final development. You may discover limitations of the tools available, your or your students' ability to use them, or their appropriateness.

One way to approach development is to map the outcomes to digital tools based on your teaching strategy. For example, if your intention is to present content for recall, useful tools could be digital video/video player, podcast, pdf, online text, and etc. These are essentially content delivery modes unless they are integrated into activities.

Key questions for the development are:

  • How will you use eLearning tools such as management system (ie Moodle) to help you enhance or deliver parts of or your entire course?
  • What existing resources can you use for your web-enhanced/blended /online course (e.g. existing handouts, digital learning objects)?
  • What new learning activities and/or content do you need to develop for your course?
  • Have you contacted the appropriate administrators about scheduling and other administrative issues and procedures involves?
  • Students sometimes have difficulty with educational technologies. What proactive steps can you take to assist students to become familiar with these forms of technology? If students need help with technology in your course, how will you provide support?
  • Students might not have appropriate learning skills and time management skills to be successful in an eLearning environment.  Do you have a plan to provide support or refer them to the corresponding programs?

Resources