Before looking at instructional design, let\u2019s look at what we mean by an online course. At one end of the spectrum, you\u2019ve got the digital download for a text book and at the other you\u2019ve got Minecraft and let\u2019s face it, some of the claims made by online learning providers are quite simply marketing hype.<\/p>\n
What is an online course?<\/h3>\n
It all comes down to your starting point. If you\u2019re a tech enthusiast, you\u2019ll want to amaze people with your clever tech, if you\u2019re a graphic artist or animator, you\u2019ll want your product to have the wow factor, if you\u2019re a teacher, you should be asking yourself two questions at the beginning:<\/p>\n
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- What am I trying to get all my students to learn in the next 30 minutes?<\/li>\n
- How can I achieve that without them switching off, getting bored and reaching for their mobile phones?<\/li>\n
- And one question at the end: Did that work for everyone?\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The best online learning of course has all of the teaching, technology and graphic design experts working closely together but the starting point must be the learning outcomes.<\/p>\n
There are several other key considerations involved in online learning development:<\/p>\n
Are you aiming to impart a certain body of information like Covid prevention or are you trying to teach skills – a language perhaps?\u00a0Are you aiming to keep students engaged for an hour or two or are you trying to teach a whole syllabus?<\/p>\n
Effectiveness of online learning starts with instructional design<\/h3>\n
The effectiveness of online learning often comes back to what\u2019s called \u2018instructional design\u2019 in the trade \u2013 the skill that lies behind the selection and sequencing of the content you see on the screen. It\u2019s the choice of content and the implementation of effective instructional methods and strategies.<\/p>\n
It depends on the skill and intuitive knowledge professionals gain about how people learn not just what they learn. That often comes from spending years in a classroom, thinking and reflecting on what impact you\u2019re having on the individuals in front of you.<\/p>\n
Watching a really effective teacher should be like watching an elite sportsperson make a complex skill look simple and effortless. It should also be engaging. You learn better if you\u2019re having fun.<\/p>\n
Online learning needs to do the same. It needs to exploit technology and where possible, use gaming techniques to achieve the same kind of immersive experience and level of engagement that games achieve.<\/p>\n
Instructional design experts are at the heart of Klik2learn online course design team. They are responsible for setting student learning outcomes, selecting teaching methods (pedagogy) for online environments and digitising course content to increase engagement and embed learning.<\/p>\n
Best practice not platforms<\/h3>\n
Getting instructional design right results in an online learning course which is not driven by whatever an e-authoring platform provides. An online course may deploy some of the more hi-tec gadgets and technologies that are available like AR and VR headsets but it shouldn\u2019t depend on them. It can involve AI but not for its own sake.<\/p>\n
Even the world\u2019s most popular language learning app, Duolingo, admits \u2018there is very little research on leveraging AI for education at any real scale..\u2019 Duolingo\u2019s desire to \u2018humanize\u2019 learning is a recognition that for the time being, humans work better than algorithms and bots. No matter how sophisticated your spaced recognition algorithms are, they\u2019re of limited value if they teach you , and I quote, \u2018 Where do I posit my flowerpot?\u2019<\/p>\n
Klik2learn\u2019s courses are designed and made by humans and hand-coded based on these principles. Klik2learn has the freedom to use a variety of tools: to develop its own games: to decide which interactive functions to use, to develop its own approach to adaptive learning and to devise its own revision and consolidation tools.<\/p>\n
At Klik2learn, we never stop learning and asking ourselves how we can improve. We hope that the same will be true for our students. The reward comes when you design something that results in learning \u2018by default.\u2019 As one of our intermediate students recently commented,<\/p>\n
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