I agree. The look and feel of online courses are important to keep student engage during the time student access the course. The look must be consistent and familiar to student to so it is easy to navigate and the interactivity should be right to keep student participating.
The look and feel are important. They add to student comprehension and to a "can do" spirit. If the look is too cumbersome, students will shy away. Also an important component is the content. This is essential to learning and learning the right information.
Samantha Eaddy
Sean,
Who does not love multimedia these days??!!
Shelly Crider
Taghreed,
I like how you said the interactivity should be right, as each class I have there are several students who have no clue how to work with technology and need the extra help, but some students need the extra interactivity.
Shelly Crider
Samantha,
Spirit can make or break a school experience!
Shelly Crider
Hello Nikki,
There are so many things that go into a course and are observed by our students. Although we spend a great deal of time organizing and preparing our classes, it all boils down to what the students observe, or how they "feel" about the class.
Additionally our interactions in the classroom include our discussion board posts and are grading feedback comments. The tone that we set these comments also has a great impact on how a student "feels" class. To put it another way "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". We must make every effort to organize and adapt our classes to the various learning styles of her students. Whether it's the tone of our interactions or a confusing layout, the effect is the same for students and often includes a less than optimal learning experience.
Hopefully, this course will help us better and more quickly recognize these short-comings in order to correct them. =)
cheers, mj
I agree with having the look and feel, especially for me. I'm a visual learner, so the animation and artwork/photos is important for me.
I do wholeheartedly agree that the "look and feel" of a classroom environment can most certainly be just as important to a student as the curriculum content as well. I have seen online college classrooms that are not intuitive at all for a student to navigate through and this can cause them to become quite frustrated to the point of not continuing on with their education at that school.
Shelly,
Thank you for your discussion topic! Yes, I agree that the look and feel of an online course can be just as important as those skills and concepts that the course is designed to teach. If the student is unable to interact or engage with the course, he or she will never even get to that deeper level of the knowledge and skills. It is important to develop a course structure that is both inviting and navigable so that students can just concentrate on the real meat of the class, rather than having to worry about technical issues in the course setup.
-Hannah
Joshua,
Seeing is believing!!! I am a very visual learner as well.
Shelly Crider
Thomas ,
Oh I have see those classes as well. It is not a pretty situation when you are too frustrated to learn.
Shelly Crider
Hannah,
You are right! When a student is concentrating on some technical issue, they are missing the knowledge.
Shelly Crider
I totally agree. This concept can be compared to sitting down to eat a meal. If the food on the plate is sloppy and unattractive, most likely, unless you are really hungry, you are not going to eat it. Now, if the food is bright, diverse and composed well on the plate, you are most likely, ready to dig in. Same thing with on-line learning. The graphics, layout, design and composition are crucial to enticing the learner to engage and learn.
I agree with you about navigational simplicity as a starting point. I went back to college several years ago to complete something for myself. I chose an on-line university. I am not a 'techy' and therefore I am easily overwhelmed and deterred by confusing, complex navigational systems. Fortunately, the college I chose did a really good job of making learning on-line easy. If they hadn't I am sure I would have withdrawn and gone elsewhere.
I agree 100% that the look and feel of on a online course is as important as the knowledge and skills it is designed to impart because it is 'on-line'. You loose the hands on experience and need to make sure that any barrier that may be there with learning or commitment stays the course as it is harder to stay connected to the material since it is on the other side of a computer screen.
Abby
Laurie,
I love this example!! This is perfect! We do not like to eat food that looks sloppy!
Shelly Crider
Laurie,
Many students are not "techy" even now. They like the ease of technology, not the deep details.
Shelly Crider
Abby,
Good point. A good online class needs to make up for the hands on experience.
Shelly Crider
I agree I have just started working as an on-line instructor and I'm getting used to structure and trying to make sure my students feel the same sense of attention they were used to before the world on online happened. I’m not a fan of online education. But I’m a fan of working smarter not harder. I hope this falls into that category. We will see.
I fully agree with this statement. If the look and feel of an online deters students from even being able to get started, learning will not occur. The last thing a student should be worrying about is how to navigate the course or the structure of the class. This should be obvious to students from the get-go so they can dive into their work and learning materials on day 1. In other words, there should not be a huge learning curve when it comes to the look and feel of an online course.
