Developing knowledge and content in an online course

Developing knowledge and content
in an online course: a resource pack
for online teachers
Fatma Alhawsawi
Neale Richardson
Helen Strong
(Participants in The Consultants-E
E-Moderation course, March 2014)

Developing knowledge and content in an online course:
a resource pack for teachers
Contents
1. Goals and objectives
2. Course plan, schedule and student requirements
3. Activities, tasks and learning materials
i. Synchronous tasks in Moodle
ii. Asynchronous tasks in Moodle
a. Asynchronous GROUP tasks
b. Asynchronous INDIVIDUAL tasks
iii. Resources outside Moodle
4. The role of the tutor before an online course
5. The role of the tutor during an online course
6. Assessment
7. Course Evaluation

1. Goals and objectives
Course General Goal
This part should include the general take away from the course.
Course Specific Objectives
This part should include the specific takeaways from the course. It would
work better if it is broken down into:
a. Reaction Objectives
These should measure the learners’ intention to use the course materials
and how far they feel it is relevant to their real life.
b. Learning Objectives
These should measure the knowledge acquired by the learners from the
course materials.
c. Application Objectives
These should measure how the learners would apply the knowledge
learned in their real life.

2. Course plan, schedule and student requirements
This section would
• clarify the general course plan
• include a day and date outline of course activities
• include the minimum requirements needed from learners to be able to do
the course and its activities

3. Activities, tasks and learning materials
In this part, all the tasks and activities that would work as a vehicle to achieve
specific objectives should be included. They can be divided into:
• synchronous and asynchronous tasks
• group and individual work
• tasks and exercises within and without Moodle

3. Activities, tasks and learning materials: Synchronous tasks in
Moodle (1)
Text chat in an online chat room
This is a written chat and can be used at any stage during a course
(beginning, middle, end).
Pros:
 allows participants to collaborate and exchange information and ideas in
real time.
 can be recorded and reviewed later by the tutor and the participants
 tutor can use the text chat transcript to assess contributions
Cons:
X text chat can be chaotic if participants don’t adhere to protocols
X if there are lots of participants, it can be hard to keep up with the main
thread of the discussion.
X it can be tricky to arrange if participants live in different time zones

3. Activities, tasks and learning materials: Synchronous tasks in
Moodle (2)
Chat using Blackboard Collaborate
This is a spoken chat and can also be used at any stage during a course.
Pros:
 a more human feel compared to the written chat as participants and the
tutor can hear and/or see each other in real time
 there are features such as a shared whiteboard that everyone can write on
and icons to control turn-taking and show reactions
 can be recorded and therefore reviewed and/or assessed
Cons:
X can be difficult to organise if participants live in different time zones
X the technology requires a lot of bandwidth, otherwise the video and/or
sound may break up

3. Activities, tasks and learning materials: Asynchronous tasks in
Moodle (GROUP tasks 1)
Discussion forums
These can be used at any point on a course.
Pros:
 participants can post information and ideas at any time, so time zones are
not an issue
 discussion forums are great for individuals to post their contributions to
collaborative tasks
 students have more time to think and reflect before contributing
 there is a written record of group discussions that everyone can refer back
to later
Cons:
X although you have an hour to edit a post, after that you can’t change
anything.
X some participants may ‘lurk’ and not participate much (more difficult to do
in chats)
X summarising discussions can be difficult and time-consuming for tutors

Moodle (GROUP tasks 2)
Wikis
These are webpages within a VLE that allow collaborative editing of content
and structure by course participants.
Pros:
 unlike discussion forums, participants can amend each other’s posts at any
time, making wikis great shared working documents
 the tutor can see who has contributed and when, which means that
participants’ contributions can be assessed formatively and/or
summatively.
Cons:
X wikis rely on written communication, so contributions need to be explicit
in order to avoid misunderstandings
X some participants may ‘lurk’

Moodle (INDIVIDUAL tasks 1)
Reflective journals
These are particularly useful for the middle stage of an online course.
Individual participants record what they have learnt and their reactions to
the process/experience in their own online learning diary.
Pros:
 reflective journals promote reflection and self-evaluation and can be read,
commented on and assessed by the tutor
 participants can look back at their previous journal entries and see their
progress on the course
 participants can ask the tutor individual questions in this space
Cons:
X they can be quite time-consuming to write, read and assess
X some participants may not see the point of reflective journals unless their
purpose is clearly explained to them

Moodle (INDIVIDUAL tasks 2)
Online quizzes
These can be set up at any stage during an online course to check individual
participants’ learning, either formatively and/or summatively. Different
question types can be used: multiple choice, true/false, gapfill, matching.
Pros:
 quizzes are usually quick to complete, which can be motivating for some
course participants
 they are marked by the software, so this saves time for the tutor
 there is an element of competition in completing a quiz, which, again, can
be motivating for students
Cons:
X quizzes can sometimes be time-consuming to set up as questions have to
be carefully worded
X possible answers may be limited because of software constraints; a
student may give a correct answer but it could be marked wrong if the
answer hasn’t been programmed by the tutor

3. Activities, tasks and learning materials: Resources outside Moodle
Online tasks need to cater for a variety of learning preferences and for those
with disabilities. They should therefore include the following embedded
elements:
audio clips (e.g. podcasts)
video clips (e.g. YouTube)
images (e.g. clipart, animations or photos)
slides (e.g. Powerpoint or Prezi)
interactivity in the form of links to games/quizzes (e.g.
www.gamestolearnenglish.com, http://hotpot.uvic.ca)

4. The role of the tutor before an online course
The tutor should know which tasks, exercises and activities will best develop
learners' knowledge. Generally speaking, there is no need for the tutor to
reinvent the wheel as there is a wealth of quality material already available;
the job of the online tutor is to bring this material together in a way which
enhances learning. This can be done by:
locating suitable materials and didacticising them
designing specific materials to fill gaps where necessary
ensuring that all tasks, exercises and activities contribute towards the
general and specific goals of the course
ensuring that participants are adequately informed about the goals,
content, methods and outcomes of the course
setting realistic targets for achieving the general and specific course goals
ensuring that there is an appropriate balance between synchronous and
asynchronous and between group and individual activities

5. The role of the tutor during an online course
The tutor should take a more active role at the beginning of the course,
gradually reducing the amount of own input by stimulating peer feedback
and self-evaluation over the duration of the course. Some ways in which the
tutor can help to develop knowledge in an online course include:
encouraging deeper thinking by asking the right questions (in both
synchronous and asynchronous chats and forums)
giving feedback on tasks and reflective journals
summarising forum discussions
moderating synchronous chats
encouraging participation in online tasks and discussions
encouraging self-evaluation and peer feedback on tasks

6. Assessment
This part would show the tools through which we can measure learning. It
should be integrated into activities and tasks, since assessment should be
a continuous tool of measurement. Tasks can and should be designed to
assess learning.

7. Evaluation
This would evaluate the whole process from all aspects. Evaluation should
test whether the objectives set from the very beginning were achieved or
not for both the teacher and the learners.

Thank you for
a collaborative venture!
Fatma Alhawsawi
Neale Richardson
Helen Strong
(and the rest of the EModMar14 participants!)

Developing knowledge and content in an online course

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