The question that I feel that Benoit should be asking himself is the following:
Based on my own experience with web design, content development and technical skills with learning technologies what level of IT support do I need?
Importance: This question will allow him to determine whether his 5 hours per week that he can commit to making the online course will be able to used most effectively. If he does not need to rely on much IT support than each hour he works on the course should be an efficient use of his time but if he requires more IT support and historically the Help Desk is difficult to reach and he is always having to wait for email responses than his time is being wasted.
In terms of how much development time Benoit would need to develop the Business Writing online version I am not particularly sure how to allocate time for each tasks. I can start by identify tasks that need to be completed and defer to my group members for their insights. Benoit will need to:
– transfer the content from the old shell of WebCT Vista
– review the learning objectives of course
– decide the interactions that are most appropriate to develop the skills outline in learning objectives
– create the activities, discussion spaces and assessment tools
– review site for ease of use
I agree with you that it really does boil down to how much IT support is required. Maybe he can handle some of the IT support himself, seeing that he has created and uploaded content in other venues. He might even create something that is amazingly better than he thought possible.
Think big!
K 🙂
Hi Edwin and Keri,
I think that’s a consideration, definitely, but does the support have to come from the IT department? They don’t sound like the most helpful department on campus.
I’m not sure there is enough information to come up with a definite answer.
Jason
Hi Edwin, Hi Keri;
Edwin, your comment about IT support really made me think because I hadn’t even thought of how much support the instructor might need, I was thinking of IT support in terms of the students. However, you are right. Depending on how complex his learning objects are, and how complex his learning activities are, he really may need some support to ensure that it is uploaded and functioning the way he envisioned. If this is the case, then he may prefer Blackboard Learn because it is supported (albeit poorly) by the institution.
I agree with Keri though, from the description we are given, Benoit seems to have a lot of technology skills, so he may feel quite comfortable in the Moodle environment, especially if he can get tips from other faculty members in the English department who are adept in the software.
Now, what do you think about the students’ need for support? If Benoit chooses the institution’s LMS, then he is off the hook if students have technical issues. However, if he goes the Moodle route, then he could be spending hours each week just helping students navigate the system. (Case-in-point: Natasha has had to spend a lot of time over the past two weeks helping us get used to this platform. That is time that could have been spent marking or developing another course.) 🙂
I look forward to your comments.
Kind Regards,
Tanya
Good point, Tanya. Even if the institutional support is slow, there is accountability for the work done, and someone may answer for the poor service. If you rely completely on the network of colleagues (or your students on you), what will happen if people don’t answer to your question or not answer in time?
That being said, just as something to think about, I would like to raise another question: is support the most important driver of the decision? Think about Bates’ SECTIONS framework. Is there anything else that may be crucial for the selection?
Natasha
I think other factors that need to be considered in addition to the amount of technical support (whether that is through a formal IT Help Desk or through colleagues/peers) are ease of use/reliability and interactions.
Ease of use needs to be considered both from the perspective of the student AND the teacher (Benoit in this case). If it is too difficult and not user intuitive for the instructor using the platform to create the course then that can be a huge barrier. Furthermore, reliability of the platform needs to be considered. Will the platform work on all browsers, mobile device and tablets? In addition to these factors, Benoit should consider what interactions were most effective for learning in his f2f class. After careful consideration of factors, what media choice will enable the same benefits in an online format? It seems the factors that Benoit must consider relate both to himself as the creator and also students as the end user. Thinking back to my original post, it seems the technical support aspect being considered was biased more towards the needs of Benoit. Perhaps, I felt the focus was on him since he is the creator and only had 5 hours to allocate to creating the online version of the course. After reading other posts, it is evident to me that students/end users will always need to be considered concurrently when choosing/designing an online learning environment.
Hi Edwin,
it is so easy to be carried away with one particular aspect of the problem. Things are usually more complex, with so many nuances. Every item that you listed as something Benoit needed to do could be an issue in itself.
Natasha