Sedi Minachi Journal # 2: Using Quality Guidelines in eLearning
Objective: Quality
Guidelines
The
objective of this journal is to explore what goes into creating and conducting
a quality course following guidelines for online course development. Many
people know how convenient online or distance education is in terms of the
flexibility it provides learners to choose their hours of study and location. Online
courses have become increasingly popular since the first online courses
following the introduction of the internet in the 1990s, and many learners,
especially adults, prefer to take online courses instead of taking in physical
classrooms. The goal of educators is to develop knowledge and build skills, and
learners are increasingly choosing distance education when given this
opportunity. It’s for this reason that educators must provide relevant, quality,
effective distance learning courses enabling learners to meet their educational
goals.
Negative Reputations in
the Absence of Quality Guidelines
While
online course instructors may not set quality guidelines, any lack of attention
to course quality on their part can lead to chaos and confusion among learners
who become less impressed with distance education. In addition, learners have
the potential to become discouraged and may not continue enrolling in other
online courses, possibly creating negative reputations for online
programs. For example, I took an online
‘mediation and conflict resolution’ course a few years ago through a European
institution. I enrolled in it because the course description promised its
instructor was a well-known scholar in the field of conflict resolution. However,
when the course started, we, the learners were disappointed to learn that an
unknown instructor living in a country with poor internet connectivity was
assigned to teach it. The course was a
disaster for many reasons I describe below. Firstly, the instructor was absent
most of the time and rarely responded to our emails, and tried to justify his
unavailability/lack of support by saying to his class that he travelled
frequently to participate in various conferences. Secondly, the course
objective was vague and did not have clear instructions or guidelines, and the
learners did not know what the course expectations were. We found this both
disappointing and frustrating. While the students including myself were
confused about what to do, a few of us decided to inform the course administrator.
We
were further frustrated when we also found her unresponsive and seemingly
uncaring. Almost half of the class participants dropped out of the course and
those who finished it felt that we did not gain skills or knowledge in the
field of mediation and conflict resolution. My final disappointment came when the
course finished and I expected to receive a certificate as promised in the
course description. Several months passed and I did not receive the certificate
or any response from the course administrator. I felt that my time and money
was wasted and contacted a scholar who originally told me about this course. To
make a long story short, I finally - after one year of ongoing communication
with the director of the institution - received my certificate, and the only
other good news is that my prodding enabled other students to receive theirs as
well.
Quality Checklist for
Online Courses
For
an instructor to design and deliver an effective online course, it is essential
they follow certain criteria and guidelines.
According to Barker (2002), both instructors and learners are interested
in acquiring education and training that are effective and efficient. In
reading Barker’s “Canadian Recommended E-learning Guidelines”, I gained a
better understanding of the importance of the elearning course guidelines and
would adopt the following general checklist based on her paper:
Organized: The course should be
facilitated in an organized way to minimize confusion and frustration. For
example, the instructor should be easily accessible to the learners’ community
and have regular office hours. The course syllabus should clearly include
course description, learning objectives, completion requirements, course
material, additional learning resources, course activities and required
assignments.
Quality Content: The course must have
good quality content addressing learners’ needs and identifies course material
relevant to the course’s goals and objectives. In my opinion, good quality
content not only helps the instructor to ensure the course is learner-centered
and meaningful, it also provides learners with relevant skills and knowledge.
Presentation: The material must be
presented clearly, professionally and be user friendly.
Technology: The
technology needs to be reliable and easily accessible to the learning community
wherever they are. Furthermore, it should enable learners to actively engage
with each other in the construction of knowledge and should provide assistance,
guidance and communication to the learners’ community. It also needs to be
easily updatable, reliable and navigable.
Supports Learners’
self-directed learning: The course
should be designed to respect learners’ flexibility, and allow them to progress
at their own pace with respect to interacting with the learning community.
Admission information: The course should state
any admission/degree requirement and prerequisites, the curriculum overview,
specific delivery format, and grading methods. In addition, it should state
learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria, tuition fees,
books/materials, equipment, institutional regulations, policies on plagiarism,
entry-level technical skills, and course evaluations.
Reflective: Personal
Experiences
I
have taken four online courses including this one. Aside from the negative
experience I had during the ‘mediation and conflict resolution’ course
described earlier in this paper, my VCC elearning experiences have been great. Like
most elearning students, I expect to receive a high quality education, and my
goal is to design and deliver an efficient and effective online course so that
learners can smoothly complete it successfully.
Interpretive: Meaning
of the Guidelines
As
technology continues to develop and more learners take advantage of online
programs, the need for designers capable of creating effective, high quality
online courses increases. To create courses of this caliber, I must incorporate
guidelines reflective of my learners’ needs and perceptions. The negative
experience I had in the ‘mediation and conflict resolution’ online course did
not discourage me from taking more online courses. However, it motivated me to become
involved in this profession to do this right and design an elearning course based
on ethical guidelines maximizing opportunities for the learners’ community to
acquire knowledge and meaningful skills.
Decisional: Concluding
Remarks
As
a growing method of education, elearning courses must be designed and delivered
with care within the framework of standard guidelines so that the learners are
able to successfully complete their courses and fulfill their educational
goals. From my own experiences, and by reading elearning guidelines for
creating and delivering effective courses, I learned about the importance of ensuring
high quality design in all online courses and am determined to deepen my
knowledge of how to do this. Finally, with respect to recommendations offered
by Barker (2002), I will incorporate all the standard guidelines when
structuring, designing and developing learner-centered online courses.
Work Cited
Barker, K. (2002) Canadian Recommended
E-learning Guidelines (CanREGs). Published by Future Ed
and Canadian Association for Community
Education. Retrieved on Dec 18, 2013 from
http://www.futured.com/pdf/CanREGs%20Eng.pdf
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