[LINK] Proposal for Teaching ICT Masters Students How to Teach On-line

[Tom Worthington]

On 11/02/13 09:34, Jan Whitaker wrote:

> Here's a story of an example of what *not* to do.
> http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/online-course-gets-an-f-20130208-2e2zq.html

Designing an on-line course is a skill which takes time to learn and 
Coursera are not the first to have problems with this. In 2010 I took 
part in an on-line tutor training course run for a consortium of 
universities. There were basic problems, such as not telling the 
students exactly when the course started: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/search/label/Online%20Student%20Reflections

Even the better on-line courses have had problems, such as unreadable 
eBooks: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2012/06/usq-online-pedagogy-course-let-down-by.html

It should be kept in mind that face-to-face courses also have problems. 
For the last year I have been a student of higher education and had 
fewer problems with on-line courses than a face to face ones. After 
studying the topic educational design and delivery, my 
not-very-revolutionary conclusion is that the basics of education are 
the same on-line and off-line: what is important is preparation and 
contact with the students.

Something else I learned is that being a university student is not like 
the TV ads: it is hard work and very frustrating much of the time.

ps: If anyone wants to experience an award winning on-line course, my 
"ICT Sustainability" starts at ANU on Monday (but it is not free, or 
easy): http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/