Role and Function of Theory in Online Education Development and Delivery
Describe an online learning module that was most beneficial to me.
As a web designer and ecommerce developer, I have learned a lot from using tutorials and training modules for open source content management systems like Magento and Joomla. Their communities offer a blend of videos, forums, PDFs, screen shots and even flash tutorials to help you learn and develop your own web site. They have support to contact if you can’t find an answer through any of the other mediums, and the professional relationships that can be built through interacting with other users are very valuable.
Describe an online learning module that was NOT beneficial to me.
When I was employed as a sales rep for Dell, we had monthly training sessions; and they had their own digital platform that was so painful to sit through. The powerpoint slides didn’t match the audio, voting polls never added up to the right number of participants, and it was too easy for the listeners to deactivate listen-only and interrupt the presenter. The worst part was – to take official attendance, we had to call in to a 1-800 number and listen to the entire meeting through our personal cell phones.
What makes a good online learning experience?
If the learning experience is synchronous and in presentation format, it should be to the point, and the images compliment the slides. If there is a lot of information to be processed; the presenter should accompany the presentation with a PDF with the in-depth information because with an over-load of text, one can easily be distracted. If the purpose is educational; I think learning modules should be interactive and not too linear. The user should be able to jump around between topics, as I feel it helps them stay engaged. Also – a search feature is so important for quickly accessing information.
-Wesley Parsell
