These days, almost everything can be found online. The internet haspaved the way for instant information sharing, making it a vital player in the development of social communities and organizations online. Among the most notable offshoot of innovation is eLearning.
Elearning is where education and training for careers in several industries are offered through online platforms and software. It allowsindividuals to access courses using the Internet anytime and anywhere. It provides convenience and self-paced learning without the hassle of attending classroom-based education.
Not surprisingly, a survey revealed that around 6.1 million students took online courses in 2010 – a sudden increase of 590,000 students from 2009. This has prompted organizations to develop their own online training platforms.
However, not all online courses are effective and apply the best practices.
Presenting courses online is like writing a research paper. You have to follow a set of guidelines to ensure the courses’ clarity and effectiveness.
Below are guidelines in presenting an effective online training course.
1. Create a syllabus. Your syllabus should contain general and specific information about the course, the authors and the instructors that participated in developing the course program. It should also show students what to expect from the course, the grading policy used andresources and contact information for technical support.It will also serve as the course table of contents – allowing the student to easily navigate through the course sections or lessons.
2. Introduce the course in general terms. This is where you introduce the instructors and authorsand the general theme of the course. A 2-3 minute introductions will help the students know who the subject-matter experts are behind the course.
3. Start the course with a significant question.To spark interest and get student’s attention, ask a question. Avery good, well-thought question or series of questions willencourage students to continue further on the course.
4. Provide an overview for each topic discussion. This ensures that the student is able to cope with the course as it progresses.
5. Create a Q&A section for each lesson. Establishing communication between the student and the instructor could help in the efficiency of the course program. Especially effective for courses with live video streaming with instructors or through chat, the Q&A section may help further clarify other questions that students are not clear about. Different discussions may spark here, especially when the course is presented not only to one student at a time – but to a group of students taking the course.
6. Include student references and resources to help instigate further research.Your course contains adequate information that the students need – but it cannot contain everything. The role of including references and resources for students is for them to further their study and research more on the topic. And it may start with a list of credible references that is included in the course.
7. Anticipate technical problems. The flexibility of your course program is another key concern. Technical difficulties may occur anytime within the course as it progress, and having key features like auto-save and tracking guides will help the student to have an overview of his or her own progress on the course.
With eLearning courses garnering more favor from students and professionals from different industries, there is no doubt that the way education is catered has evolved – and so should we.
The post Effective Ways of Presenting Online Courses appeared first on 360training.com AsiaPAC.
