VI.2 The tools and media enhance student interactivity and guide the student to become a more active learner.

(Very Important Standard -- 2 points)

Expectations

• 1. As one of the primary goals of an online course should be to engage the student--studies have shown that an engaged student is a successful one (see Quality Matters Research Literature: Roblyer & Wiencke (2003))--your tools and media should be engaging (see Examples below)

  2. Utilizing the student-tracking tool to make sure a student is active in the course.

  3. Games that reinforce module or course objectives.

Examples

Interactive tools & media:

• • Discussions requiring students to post messages and respond to others.

  • Practice quizzes, especially those that provide instant feedback.

  • Animated examples, like those built in Flash, Java, HTML5.

  • Exercises formatted like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.

  • Simulations, which can be especially useful tools. For example, a host of physics simulations can be found at MyPhysicsLab (http://www.myphysicslab.com/) and a virtual university simulator can be found at Virtual U (http://virtual-u.org/). Many others can be found by simply using Google.