Designing Online Courses: What Works

Instructional designers (ID) are increasingly integrating aspects of socio-cultural instructional design. Briefly, the primary learning strategy with this approach is discourse –among learners, members of the community and the teacher. It emphasizes the development of higher-order learning skills through collaboration and generative (i.e., creating, elaborating) learning activities within authentic communities of practice.

Rich Environments for Active Learning (REAL) are comprehensive instructional systems that engage learners in dynamic, authentic learning activities that increase their control and responsibility over the learning process while they learn problem-solving and collaborative skills and content (Grabinger & Dunlap, 2002). The REAL model uses the following instructional strategies:

• intentional learning and student responsibility
• authentic contexts and relevant, meaningful learning
• dynamic, generative learning activities
• collaboration and discourse
• extensive reflection and self-assessment

Each REAL strategy draws upon the consistent theme of interaction or engagement of the learners in the learning process, a potential benefit of online learning.

Briefly, intentional learning implies that learners take ownership for their learning. IDs support self-directed learning skills in several ways:

• enable students to set personal goals
• ask questions to guide student thinking and use text field for student responses;
• clearly state expectations up-front (course pace, dates and deadlines, demands of ongoing interaction through discussion forum);
• have students build annotated resource lists and webliographies and post to a Blog;
• have students create action plans;
• develop metacognitive awareness by
• scaffolding learning
• designing regular opportunities to reflect on use of learning strategies and to analyze the effectiveness of their learning
• interacting with students at the metacognitive level
• providing alternatives to help stimulate thinking

Use of authentic contexts supports learning transfer from one situation to another. Authentic learning activities prepare learners for the cognitive demands of the profession in the real world. Some of the ways that IDs support authenticity include

• asking students to describe relevance (their specific situation and needs),
• having students solve “real wicked problems”, using real data and information
• posing controversial questions to stimulate students to share alternative points of view, and
• connecting students to experts/practitioners working in the community of practice
• requiring collaboration

Generative learning activities reflect student interests that facilitate learning: inquiry, communication, construction, and expression (John Dewey as cited in Bruce & Levin, 1997). When learning requires students to take action such as gathering, synthesizing, and disseminating information, they are more likely to access this personally organized material later (Bruner, 1966). IDs plan a variety of individual and collaborative learning activities/projects that require learners to actively construct knowledge:

• case studies,
• presentations,
• role play,
• debate,
• critiques,
• interviews,
• eportfolios,
• eposters,
• products/solutions,
• journals,
• papers,
• proposals,
• project prospectus
• discussion.

It is important that students select the form and format they wish to use to express their work and that they are encouraged to use a variety of methods and technologies (i.e., Web pages, printable documents, photostory, multimedia presentation).

REALS demand collaboration among students to achieve complex learning goals (Grabinger & Dunlap, 2002). Strategies that IDs use to support collaboration include

• private team work spaces and document sharing tools,
• student homepages,
• discussion rubrics to encourage group work at a metacognitive level (evidence-based, succinct writing, netiquette),
• negotiated ground rules of engagement,
• dedicated time for negotiating roles and responsibilities in and evaluation of team projects,
• and other activities to connect learners besides teamwork (debate, peer coaching, interviewing).

REALS embed reflection and self-assessment activities to support development of knowledge and metacognitive skills. To encourage learners to reflect “on the action” (Schon, 1987), IDs may opt to design

• regular reflective activities,
• directed journals,
• “what if” questions,
• self-assessment tools (learner and subject matter expert (SME) designed,
• activities that cause students to relate to practice or daily activities,
• have students build job aids, lessons learned checklists, frequently asked questions (FAQ) reference pages, e-poster presentations (for the next group of students to refer to when they work on same project).

By using the REAL model as a framework for online instructional design, the author successfully incorporates good pedagogy with rich interaction that effectively addresses higher-order learning outcomes. This constructivist approach not only enhances learning, but also supports lifelong learning. It prepares students to apply knowledge and skills in ever-changing work situations while at the same time satisfying their needs by dealing with personal constraints and barriers.