1. Designing the “Perfect” Course
Best Practices
for
Distance Education
Designing the “Perfect” Course
Michael Simonson, Ph.D.
Program Professor
Instructional Technology and Distance Education
Fischler School of Education
Field of Dreams.avi

2. Teacher as ?

3. Teacher (Nursing Educator?) as Skeuomorph
Skeumorph

9. What do we know?

10. Definition of Distance Education
Institution-based formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems/media are used to connect learners, resources and instructors. 6

11. Coldeway's Quadrants ST SP DT SP ST DP DT DP 2

12. Teaching
Face to Face
Instruction
Distance Delivered
Instruction 2

15. Staggering Growth of DE

16. Best Practices Logical and Intuitive Organization
Multimedia Use to Present Content
High Quality Production Standards
Content-Rich Design
Meaningful, Quick and Meaningful Interaction
Self Pacing Apparent
Continuous Evaluation and Revision

17. Best Practices: Instruction
Content
Readings
Viewings
Listenings
Interaction
Chats
Discussions
Teamwork
VOIP
Telephone
Live Presentations
Assessment
Exams
Presentaitons
Writing
Journals
Blogs

18. Rules of Thumb For a typical 3-credit course
hours of student involvement
10 – 25 students/instructor
Clear organization ~ 45 topics, 15 modules, and 3 units
Build Communities >5 <10
Grade often and everything
<1 instructor posting to 4 student postings

19. The perfect Course

20. The Standard? 3 Credit, Carnegie Unit Course =
3 x 750 minutes of class time = 2250 minutes or ~45, 50-minutes classes

21. Equivalency Theory of Distance Education
“Learners, distant and local, should be provide equivalent learning experiences in order for them to achieve similar learning outcomes” 10

22. Learning Experiences
Anything that happens to or with a student that promotes learning, including what is observed, felt, heard, or done.

23. Chunking of Information
Pre-Chunking
Post- Chunking

24. Equivalency Units (vs. Carnegie Units) Modules (3-5/Unit)
Topics (3-5/Module, each with a Learning Outcome)

25. 3 x 5 x 5 Approach 3 Units/3Credit Course 5 Modules/Unit
5 Concepts/Module
&
1 Objective/Concept

27. 1 Semester Credit = 1 Unit = 5 Modules = 15 Concepts

28. Trigger Videos
A motion media production (most often a video) that presents a dilemma without resolving it, with the intent that this video will lead to a discussion among the group for which it is intended. The dilemma may be of any type – ethical, professional, moral, financial, social, organizational.
Mike Simonson,

29. Exemplary Course WebCT Pages
Examples
EDD 8123 WebCT
Exemplary Course WebCT Pages

30. Types of Trigger Videos
Instructional – Introduction
Instructional – Problems
Professional
Organizational
Situations – Vignettes
Case Studies