Objective:
With constant
growth and fast-paced changing technologies information about almost anything
is available to anyone with just a quick “google search.” As a result it important
that online courses maintain a standard in which educational institutions,
faculty, and students can adhere to. The importance of developing and following
quality guidelines when creating an online course can help ensure success not
only for the learners but also make the course enjoyable to teach for the
instructor. If quality guidelines are
not used effectively within an online course, the potential of misuse and
misunderstandings can occur. This could
potentially result in failed learning experiences and comprehension of critical
information. By developing and following
my own checklist or ones recommended by an educational institute I will be
better able to meet the needs of my learners.
I feel that this is very important especially in healthcare professions
as we are held accountable to provide the most beneficence to our patients in
terms of following the best evidenced based practices and research. The same can be said for when developing quality
guidelines in terms of educating learners.
Reflective:
When
reflecting back to my own education, I never really thought about the quality
guidelines that institutions or instructors had developed for their courses but
understood there was some form of quality control. My most recent education from Athabasca
University was completed all through online courses. I would say my overall
experience was successful. After conducting
my own research I found it difficult to find a set checklist of quality
guidelines. However I was able to find
that Athabasca University is a full member of many associations that do have
recommendations of quality guidelines such as the International Council for
Open and Distance Education, Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and
the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
Interpretive:
After seeing how
Athabasca University chooses to follow quality guidelines I have come to realize
that it is not a simple task of just checking off items on a checklist. Many organizations can be involved if a
school decides to incorporate more based on the size and depth of learning
taking place. This has been eye-opening for me as I did not realize the amount
of work required to not only develop but also continuously reevaluate the
guidelines to ensure they are meeting the most current educational needs and
requirements of the learners.
Decisional:
This new
learning will be applied to my online course by taking the time to appropriately
researching and developing a specific set of guidelines. I would want to know more so if there are
specific guidelines for healthcare courses and how they could be incorporated
into a potential course that I would develop or teach. More so, by having a basic understanding of
the importance of quality guidelines I can also be better prepared if I start
to teach an existing or developed online course. I would want to ensure that not only the
educational institutes’ guidelines were being followed but also be able to
implement any changes I would deem beneficial for the overall course. The examples given by the Canadian
Recommended E-learning Guidelines provides a great outline in which I would definitely
like to try and incorporate into my own checklists (Barker, 2002).
References:
Athabasca University (2017). Accreditation. Retrieved
from:
Barker, K. (2002).
Canadian Recommended E-learning Guidelines (CanREGs). Retrieved
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