My experience suggests that the development of an online course takes several orders of magnitude more time and effort than most traditional face-to-face courses. The reasoning is as follows; most typical online course development for an online school should be independent of a specific textbook, which means all the assignments are developed independently of any text resource. This one factor, increases the level of effort enormously since all content, including, material presented, assignments, discussions, projects, and testing must be created by the developer.
Hi Shelly,
I believe the time to develop an online course should be comparable to developing a traditional classroom delivery. If the traditional course already exists, the online course can use the same course outline and competencies the traditional course uses, only modified for the online environment.
For example if a “ group project†exists, ensure the course is written so that students know, they will need access to some type of conference call product, in order for the members of the group to meet if students are not geographically located in the same area.
Robin
Ron,
This is true. Most online course are textbook specific. If an instructor chooses to add content from another textbook, this is just added resource (make sure you cite your work!!)
Shelly Crider
Robin,
It is good to have consistency between your online course and the very same course on campus. Students will talk with one another to see which it the "easiest" way to go.
Shelly Crider
I disagree. I feel that at minimum it would be the same. The only real difference is how you are packaging the material to be received by the students. In my online course, I use the share screen option to demo drawing techniques in Photoshop during our Live Chat sessions. Where in and on ground environment I would be doing the same either with dry erase board or overhead projector. Most anything that you can do on ground can be done online, and often requires relatively the same amount of time to prepare as long as your familar with the technology needed.
Anthony,
The more you teach the same class online, the easier it becomes as you know what works and what does not work.
Shelly Crider
I have only been involved in one re-development of a course. Before the re-development started, I assumed that it would be very quick and easy. I was wrong. It takes much longer than I thought to redevelop. I cannot even imagine how long it must take to develop one from scratch.
So, with my limited experience, I must disagree with the statement.
At least initially, the time invested for an onlnie course is more in my experience. I spend a lot of time putting together content thoughtfully that we might review more informally in a classroom setting.
Also, because human contact is important, instructors often spend a great deal of time on email, chat, Skype, etc. to help students individually, which would happen more easily in a traditional classroom setting.
Grading though is definitely a time saver with an online class!
Cheryl,
The more you re-development, the more you know what you want to do and what you do not want to have in your classroom!!
Shelly Crider
Andrea,
Good point on the human contact. Nobody wants to think that they are working in a course that is being monitored by a machine only.
Shelly Crider
The development of an online course could take as long or longer to develop than a traditional classroom course, however I think the real question here should be, "does the development of an online course ever stop?" One of advantages to online courses is that they allow instructors to easily change and update course content. Instructors can very easily upload new content, add new video and audio files, include up-to-date links, etc, simply with a few clicks of the mouse. Conversely, in a traditional course, changing course content might require buying new books, printing new materials, acquiring new equipment - all very costly.
I would disagree. I think it takes even more time to develop an online course. The time it takes to put in all the graphics, videos,artwork,audio etc.,this can add up to be an extensive amount of time
Dwight Colston
At my school we have an online and a resident portion of the same class. I feel like I spend much more time worried about the online portion of my classes. During the resident portion, I am there to answer questions right away that may come up. However, for the online portion I feel like most students don't bother to want to ask the questions (mostly because they wait till the last minute and know they won't get an answer before the assignment is due). I work hard to ensure my instructions are clear, my links are updated, and that there are plenty of resources available to support the lesson.
I disagree that it would take less time to develop a "quality" online course. Initially, it will take an extensive amount of time to get comfortable with the interface, limitations, formatting, as well as trial and error "previewing". And just like an on-the-ground course, the online course will need to be constantly tweaked and re-tweaked to accommodate different learning styles and student competencies.
Matthew,
Good question Matthew!!! We do need to keep developing the course, day in and day out!!!
Shelly Crider
dwight,
I am glad that you take the time to add graphics and videos! I have been in classes before that were just down right boring.
Shelly Crider
Jeremy,
This is an interesting post. Thank you for checking your links as they can change so quickly!!
Shelly Crider
I would disagree in the time required to develop an online course as the student should be learning and gaining the same information. One would not participate in online or take seriously the programs if the same time and care wasn't put into the structure.
Though the generic answer would be "it depends on the relative level of development experience of on-ground vs. online courses," the realistic answer is that on-line courses take more time.
On one hand there are more functionalities involved in the interface, as opposed to face-to-face.
In addition,the absence of body language requires more objective assessments of the whole learning process.
Finally, the inherent self-pace of readings and activities needs to be structured in a way that students are not tempted to fall behind in their progress.
I disagree! The reason is because just like a traditional course, online courses have to be constantly revised. Yes, certain parts of the set up may be quick to establish from previous sessions, but there will be always be changes, updates, platform upgrades etc...
