For the Moodle course I am creating some major issues are:
- the large number of adult students per class and only one online facilitator.
- a wide range of student motivations. For example, some students are taking the course due to personal interests, whereas others are taking it as work-related professional development.
Often due to the lack of resources, non-credit adult education courses for professional development are often designed to be self-paced and without a facilitator or instructor. For example, think of the Human Resources or WHMIS courses organizations often require their employees to complete.
One of the goals for the course I am working on is for the learning to be based on constructivist principles, so that learners can share knowledge, and prepare them to access resources and become involved in the communities. Therefore, a facilitator is necessary to guide discourse, and provide expert input where required.
In order to focus attention to the integration of key concepts, rather than the memorization of knowledge, the course is designed to limit the instructor’s time with the rote knowledge. The use of frequent knowledge check-ins, thought-provoking questions, and weekly auto-graded quizzes will provide repetition, knowledge assessments, and feedback.
This will free up the facilitator’s time to focus on the discussions. The discussion questions are designed to capitalize on the wide knowledge base and experience of the learners.