Designing online courses: what do learners value? [1754] Home : Annual Conference 2017

Public Group active 3 years ago

Tue, Sep 5 2017, 3:30pm – 5:00pm

Authors: Diana Foster, Ellen Morgan, Jeff McCarthy, and Hannah Holmes

Room: Elizabeth Gidney I (2)

Theme: Learning Spaces

Type: 40-minute session

Description

In a world of ever-expanding learning spaces, learning can be designed to leverage the best of the physical and virtual worlds. With so many technological innovations at our fingertips, learning experiences can have even more dimensions. For teams involved in designing learning, it is an exciting time but one that can be difficult to evolve into and navigate. To help, teams need to find a compass they trust to give direction for how they design learning spaces.

Our Pearson team went straight to the source – the learners. We discovered what they expect from their learning experience by asking the following questions:

How do learners want to interact with the course?
How do learners want the course to be designed?
How do learners want to gain employability skills?
How much support do learners want?
How will learners access the course?
What are learner expectations regarding specific aspects of their learning journey?

We analysed a large scale survey of online learners along with a number of academic articles based on research using smaller sample sizes. The large scale study is the Aslanian Market Research annual report which asks 1,500 learners about their preferences and expectations of online courses and thus offers specific insights on course design (Aslanian, 2015). The smaller scale academic articles are less specific to course design and less statistically robust, but provide useful points of departure for design considerations (Hoffman, 2015; Koper, 2015; Garcia-O’Neil, 2016 to name a few). The report also takes into account a number of anonymised surveys delivered by UK HEIs around their learners’ experience of online courses.

Then, we brainstormed numerous strategies for how each of the researched expectations can be met by implementing specific learning design principles in the course structure. The strategies are based on a wide range of insight gained from Pearson-led focus groups, industry-accepted principles, research from Pearson’s team of PhDs in learning sciences and third-party research studies.

While strategies are high in quantity when looking at each expectation individually, five core themes emerged overall:

Strong level of instructor presence and expertise in online delivery is important

Collaboration and contact with peers is seen (generally) as important to learners
Emphasis on employability is key
Self-paced learning is favoured over a traditional, rigorously scheduled approach
Interactivity is important to keep learners engaged

When co-developing courses with our partners, we appreciate the university’s unique delivery mode, content, instructor approach and assessment type and then tailor suggestions on how these themes can come to life in their courses. In true partnership, the University’s expert input and ultimate approval ensure that we agree on a cohesive course design that will meet learners’ varied expectations.

Our session will explain the research, run roundtable debriefs on the six questions, demonstrate how the themes are brought to life in a course and then allow time for participants to share their takeaways. As such, participants will engage in a lively session and leave with actionable insights about designing online courses that meet learners’ expectations.

References

Aslanian Market Research with The Learning House Online College Students 2015

Hoffman (2015) Designing learning scenarios for e-learning, Available online: http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki/index.php/Designing_learning_scenarios_for_e-learning

Koper (2015) How Do Learners Want to Learn in Online Distance Education? Profiling Learner Preferences, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol. 16, No. 1

Garcia-O’Neil, E. (2016) 7 Things Instructional Designers Can Do to Improve Social Presence in Online Learning, eLearning industry, Available online: http://elearningindustry.com/social-presence-in-online-learning-7-things-instructional-designers-can-improve

Koper (2015) How Do Learners Want to Learn in Online Distance Education? Profiling Learner Preferences, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol. 16, No. 1

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