This week, we explore a series of tools and methods for producing course content. In F2F courses you may have written and delivered lectures, or perhaps produce content by demonstrating and explicating procedures, experiments, or problem-solving. These acts of content creation can be transferred or better still, translated to the web in a variety of ways.
The internet has enabled new forms of media, or made other forms of media more readily available for classroom and online learning. Even simple audio files can create a more dramatic delivery or supply more subtle meaning for basic, introductory things you'd like your students to keep in mind. Moreover, we have a range of new tools for active learning, a few of which we'll look at this week, with more coming in the following weeks.
An excellent rule of thumb in online course design is to pair passive content items, where students read, listen to, or watch media that explains facts, ideas, procedures, or other concepts to them, with activities, where students respond to a prompt. The simplest activity, where students must at least click or tap icons, encourages engagement. Even better is interactivity where students apply or demonstrate their comprehension.
Many of the tools and methods we discuss can be used both by professors to create dynamic course content, but also by students to complete activities assigned to them. For example, you might use text, images and video to create online lessons that take the place of classroom lectures. Meanwhile, you can assign your students the job of creating audio podcasts, or even videos to respond to or explain something. This isn't (or shouldn't be) just using new technology for its own sake. When students create content of their own, be it traditional essays or research papers, or websites and videos, they can know and think critically about that media in new ways. By creating a short video clip, for example, a student might gain greater insight into the possibilities and limitations of documentary filmmaking.
New ways to interact with information and ideas are constantly appearing on the web. The following pages have just a small sample of options to get you started, and also to help you mentally organize the spectrum of passive content and learning activities. If you wish to know more about a particular tool or method, you can find plenty of documentation on the internet and tutorials on YouTube, as well as consult COLI staff. Above all, it's always helpful to speak with colleagues, both at Canisius and in your discipline elsewhere, to learn what they're using and experimenting with.
Remember that you need not try to incorporate every one of the following tools or methods in your courses right away. Instead, try to adopt or use the basic stuff in more creative ways. Each semester you teach online, try one (or maybe two, if they're simple) new things in your teaching.