Let’s face it, the problem with many online courses is that we ask students to read page after page of electronically generated text. Faculty who take the step of transitioning a face-to-face course to an online environment tend to take existing content and convert it into an electronic version of what they have been doing in their classrooms. For the most part, that simply does not work. We need to move beyond feeding students page after page of text. And to do that, we need to find ways to change the delivery of 50 minutes worth of primarily verbal content into easily absorbed “bits” of information.
One way to begin is to look at how the content of your online course is structured. One of the more accepted structures follows a unit-module-topic approach. Each unit of the course would be the equivalent of one semester hour of content. And each unit would contain 3-5 modules. Each of the modules would have 3-5 topics, with each topic having a single learning outcome. Using this approach, a typical three credit-hour course might have 3 units, 12 modules (approximately one per week), 48 topics, and 48 learning outcomes.
This type of structure both assures and enables a designer and/ or faculty member to chunk course content. The concept of chunking is not new and has been applied to instructional situations for quite some time. Simply put, the concept of chunking refers to breaking information down into chewable segments. Recent literature suggests that a chunk is no more than 2 or 3 “screens” of paged text. Given that the smallest item in our course structure is a “topic,” this would mean that each topic in the course might be considered to be a chunk. One rule of thumb is to limit your chunk to things students can assimilate in no more than 15 minutes.
There is much you can do to chunk course content. Let’s begin with the task of transitioning an existing face-to-face course to an online environment. Begin by closely analyzing the content of the course. Break it down (roughly at first) into manageable segments that approach the module concept described above. Next, take a close, critical look at each of the resulting “modules” with the express purpose of breaking the information down even further, where possible. Then begin the process of “building” the course in your online learning environment. As you do this, ask yourself a series of questions:
If your course has a textbook, how will you make it a resource for students, as opposed to reiterating its content?
What portions of the course content can best be delivered electronically in text format?
What portions of the content might better be delivered using various forms of multimedia?
What is it that you are asking students to do—and how does this affect the design and structure of course assignments?
What Web-based resources are available to supplement the content you are making available within your online course?
With conceptual answers to these questions in hand, you can turn your attention to the actua structure of the course. While there are many course structure model available, you might find my “5 A’s” model useful:
Aims: the learning outcome(s) foi the topic.
Advance Organizer: a preamble of sorts, that provides student with information about wha they are about to study.
Activities: your content plus things students will do as they navigate their way through the content. These are you “chunks.”
Assignment(s): those things your students will do to earn points in your course.
Assessment: quizzes and tests.
My suggestions are merely starting points. All I have written here— and everything you do as you transition your course to an online learning environment—has been with one thought in mind: what is best for the students who will take this course?
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