David Little (dlittle@rmimedia.com)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:11:13 -0500
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:11:13 -0500 From: David Little <dlittle@rmimedia.com> Subject: Re: Criteria or Standards for Online Courses Now Open
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Details of current discussion: http://ifets.gmd.de/discuss.html
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Additional Opening Comment by Criteria or Standards for Online Courses
Here is my original overview that is posted on IFETS. As you will read, my
concerns about the quality of online courses are expressed in the following
statement:
Over the past few decades there has been a continual drum of concern by
instructional designers, psychologists, researchers and
informed educators concerning the design, presentation and evaluation of
instructional resources in all their various formats. The
innovations brought about by Internet technologies has once again amplified
concerns regarding the viability of online course content,
presentation and evaluation. While architecture of delivery has been brought to
the "off the shelf" level by a number of software
companies, many questions remain about developing criteria and standards for the
content placed into such vehicles for Internet
delivery.
The rush of higher education institutions to place courses on the Internet for
distance education students raises some very interesting
questions concerning their quality and value. The initial output of courses in
the primitive stages of online delivery were anchored in
text based delivery and were, for the most part, lecture notes. The rapid
sophistication brought about by html programming, advanced
browsers and template authorware have permitted great strides in resource
integration. Yet, for all of this technological wonderment,
few educational leaders have suggested that some sort of criteria or standards
be recommended for the development, production and
evaluation of online course materials.
In this discussion forum, participants will be invited to comment on the
development of criteria or standards for online courses in
today's educational setting. The discussions are not limited to higher
education. Life long learning and information literacy dictate that
all levels of instruction be included.
Some possible topics for this discussion are proposed but not limited to the
following:
instructional design criteria
multimedia utilization
copyright issues
authorship
suggested standards for template authorware (Courseware)
criteria for meeting student needs
self-pacing
feedback
student control over learning outcomes
communications
peer tutoring
evaluation - revision - peer and students input
mastery of content
test construction and validation
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