WHY DO I HAVE TO DO IT ALL?

Why can't instructional media specialists simply create a course with my content? I'm a teacher -- do I also have to be a computer expert and spend months working on the technology involved in creating an online course to teach online?

The answer to the first question is that you can collaborate with HCC media specialists to create an online course. You can be the content expert and leave most of the computer configuration of the course to a specialist in our Educational Media Center. Not only is it possible, but especially if you are not a computer whiz, it is strongly advised over attempting it yourself and putting a course on line that has serious shortcomings because of your limited computer expertise. If you look at some of the nationally top rated courses online, you usually find that they were created collaboratively by an instructor and media specialists. As a rule, instructors can create the text portion of a course online, but their skills are limited when it comes to creating graphic images, color, tables, forms, animations, video clips, etc. and when it comes to "ergonomic design" and interactivity -- those things that make the course much more than lecture notes online.

The answer to the second question is that you do not need to spend months learning computer programs and mechanics to put a course online. As an instructor, the most valuable use of your time is in creating the basic content of a course and in delivering the course after it has been set up for you. The best use of your time is in working directly with students (firstly) and with your subject matter (secondly), not in "slaving" over the computer so that later you can do those things that are most important to you as a teacher.

The advisability of spending a lot of time outside of your field of expertise and outside of actual teaching to learn new computer programs and procedures is particularly questionable in view of the widespread belief of computer experts that computers will fairly soon be almost as easy to use as radios and toasters. Struggling to learn a hypertext language, hundreds of computer-related acronyms, and different programs for web formatting, scanning, photo editing, drawing, animating, etc. may be unnecessary in the near future for people other than computer programmers and software designers. It's even possible there there will be no such thing as software as we currently know it.

If you want a course you are teaching to be converted to an online course, talk to Jon Blumhardt, Director of the HCC Educational Media Center. He has course templates, a wealth of resources, and expertise ready to help you. You will make all important content and format decisions. In every way, the course will be yours. It will not be turned into something you do not want or bear someone else's "signature." You have the right to reject anything. Jon will not take your content and "run with it," but will rather consult closely with you to create the course YOU want.

However, it is not quite as simple as it may sound up to this point. For the Educational Media Center to help you, you must provide certain things, including....

a basic scheme -- classes, modules, or other basic format of the course,
the content -- preferrably on disk, alternatively typed and appropriate for text scanning,
written outcomes, objectives, or competencies -- preferrably for each unit (class, module, or whatever),
interactivity plan (or ideas) -- how students will interact with you and other students,
a course syllabus -- containing a course overview, course title, how to contact you, your grading and assignment policies, required textbooks, etc.
assignments and tests,
photos and/or other graphic materials you want included, and
your ideas about how students will be able to approach the course differently depending on their learning styles. See information about learning styles elsewhere in the Faculty Guidebook. Jon can work with you on developing multiple approaches, however.

The most difficult part for some instructors is developing written outcomes (behavioral objectives, or competencies). For the Educational Media Center to help you, it is a minimum requirement that your course is "student centered," which means that objectives are written in terms of the learning that students will acquire (quantifiable in some way) rather than in terms of the teaching that will take place. Anyone developing a web course should be aware of the fact that the Western Governors University, involving HCC online courses, will require that all online WGU courses are competency-based.

Development of a web course by the Educational Media Center may take anywhere from one to six months. Consultations will be required weekly or more often. In addition to having the course developed for you, you should expect training (if necessary) in working with it after it is placed on line, editing course content, etc.