“How do I create a course online that I would want to take?”
John O’Malley wanted to bring the same level of student engagement and passion from his face-to-face course to the online version. As an instructor he felt the need to stay current with the latest technology and pedagogies to enhance his course. One of Mr. O’Malley’s main concerns was how to ensure the students feel a sense of connection online.
Recommendations
The Digital Studio team made several recommendations for Mr. O’Malley. One of those recommendations was to create content that is optimized for student learning. For example, content that is shorter and clearly defined is more digestible, engaging, and reusable. Another recommendation was to bring successful elements from the face-to-face classroom, such as visual and aural engagement techniques, to the online interactions.
Outcomes
Students provided feedback that they felt well connected to Mr. O’Malley because they were able to see him, get to know him more, and felt like they were in a classroom-like setting. Mr. O’Malley can reuse his content for several years with minimal need for updates. When it does come time to update elements of his course, he has gained the experience and knowledge on how to do so. Mr. O’Malley has the ability to go into individual modules and update just a portion of his content, which he feels is much more manageable and great pay-off from this time investment. This was an exciting effort!