Discussion Questions for Designing Courseware for the Web

1.	What reasons do you see for a person wanting to teach in an online environment? Why would a student want to attend an online class?
2.	What role does the student play in defining the learning outcomes in the onground learning model? How does this change with the online learning model?
3.	What do you see as the primary difference in the curriculum used onground and the curriculum used in the online model?
4.	Identify what you believe to be the first step in converting an onground curriculum to an online curriculum. Why?
5.	In the Virtual Classroom, lectures are short and few. With this being the case, where are the students going to get the information they need in obtaining the learning objectives?
6.	Identify two tools utilized in the online environment and describe how you would use them in enhancing the learning process.
7.	Discuss the idea of "value added" in terms of adding video, audio, and/or real-time activities to a text-based asynchronous online learning program.
8.	Identify ways a facilitator can control the flow of material in the class (speed up or slow down the number of messages going to the Virtual Classroom.
9.	Why is lecturing the least productive method of teaching in the Virtual Classroom? Lecturing plays a major role in the traditional classroom, what does this say about the traditional classroom?
10.	Subjecting students to memorization testing in the Virtual Classroom should be minimized, if not eliminated as an assessment tool. Why? (hint, think about the context in which the learning process takes place).
11.	Identify two means of measuring learning outcomes in the VC.
12.	If you teach a subject where memorization is necessary to achieve the course objectives (i.e. Chemistry), how can discussion contribute to your course materials? What tools cold you use to facilitate the learning process and how would you measure the success of the learning process?
13.	The statement has been made that "text-based systems do not remove bias, they merely shift it around" What does this mean?
14.	What do you believe to be the appropriate level of computer knowledge/experience for a beginning online student? Why? What should the student’s attitude towards the technology be? Why?
15.	In designing your online course, why is it important to know the level of system capability and computer experience of your target audience? Give specific examples.

Designing Courseware for the Web Discussion Questions

Designing Courseware for the Web
Discussion Questions