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Instructions for Critical Role College Essay Examples

Title: Higher Education in Creating a Sustainable Future

Total Pages: 6 Words: 1510 Bibliography: 6 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: A research paper/ essay in which you will make an original argument calling for some change in policy or action related to the sustainability issue.... The Critical Role of Higher Educaton in creating a Sustainable Future.( article to follow) Propose a specific action the college community should undertake. Alternatively, propose a curriculum for elem. and middle schools and argue for its implementation.

Drawing from 6-8 sources of information create an argumentative thesis and write a 6 page research paper documenting all sources.

6-7 pages in length,double space,12 point font, Times New Roman, one inch margins top bottom and sides, parenthetical citations, list of works cited in essay. Annotated bibilography consisting of correctly formatted citation for a source followed by a one paragraph summary of the source and one or two sentences on how you plan to use the source in your research paper.
Fax will follow with article which the paper is based on and assignment sheet with specifications.
There are faxes for this order.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: The Discovery of the Structure of DNA by Watson and Crick

Total Pages: 5 Words: 1672 Sources: 5 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: **note, A bibliography or works cited page is requested**

The report on DNA must include the following:

a) a summary of scientific knowledge about what type of molecules were thought to carry hereditary information before Watson & Crick's discovery

b) a description of how the discovery was made, including the critical roles of scientists other than Watson & Crick,

c) a description of the human genome project and why it is important

d) application of your understanding of molecular genetics to discuss one or more problems that may arise from genetic engineering

e) a bibliography that includes all references cited in the report and a 1-2 sentence summary of what information was gained from each reference.



Additional Requirements for Major Paper- Using information from our textbook and at least 5 ADDITIONAL sources (books, journals, reputable websites), students will submit a 4-6 page report

Encyclopedias such as Wikipedia only count as one of the 5+ references.
Section (e) bibliography should include author, date, title, and sufficient source information that would allow me to look it up.
Reputable websites include those created by scientific organizations or major news organizations.
Avoid commercial websites that are trying to sell something or advocacy websites that promote one point of view.
Use size 12 font and double space. Please do not exceed 6 pages (4 is minimum).
Cite references where appropriate within the report.
The discussion on antibiotic resistance or genetic engineering must include at least one reference (other than your text) on recent data from 2007-2010.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Developing A Strong Bench

Total Pages: 5 Words: 1555 References: 0 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: To the researcher/ writer. Do an Article Summary of the article first explaining what the article title means.

Second provide a general overview of what the article is about.

Third summarize each major section of the article.

Fourth briefly explain how the following subject matters corresponds with the article itself,

What preliminary issues concerning the logic of prediction of employment internal selection, the type of predictors an employee selection plans.

How initial assessment method such as skill inventory, peer assessments, self assessment, managerial sponsorship help in selecting an applicant.

How substantive Assessment method such as Seniority and knowledge, job knowledge test, performance appraisal, promo ability rating, assessment center, interview simulations, promotion panels, review boards and choice of substantive assessment methods use in internal selection of candidates. How can discretionary assessment methods are used.

What are the legal issues, uniform guidelines on employee selection procedure, the glass ceiling involved? How the following relates to developing A Strong Bench


Finally the conclusion

Developing A Strong Bench

By Carla Joinson, HR Magazine; Jan98 Vol.43 Issue 1, pg 92, 5p, 4c

A good succession plan anticipates the competencies an organization will need in the future.

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION
A succession plan is one of a company's best tools for developing and retaining people. A good plan identifies important company players and it pinpoints organizational gaps in work experience and skills, information that is critical for determining training needs. For that reason, pushing succession planning down the organizational ladder to cover upper and middle management as well as senior executives is well worth the effort.

Having a plan for filling important management positions is particularly critical when there is either high turnover or high growth in your business, explains Mark Caruso, president and CEO of Success Associates Inc., a human resource consulting firm. "You need to focus on succession planning in this mid- to upper-level area, because these people are your key resources."


In the hospitality industry, for example, hotel general managers can be like gypsies, says Caruso. Positions such as food and beverage director, rooms director and housekeeping director form an important feeder group for replacing the general manager. "If you have lots of hotels, you need a database of these feeder groups," he says.
Although Wendy's International doesn't practice classic succession planning, the company takes "a very rigorous approach to building a talent pipeline," says Allen Larson, the company's director of management and organizational development. The primary outcome of that approach is having backup candidates available and increasing performance levels, says Larson.

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION

FOUR GENERATIONS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING
Succession planning can be categorized into four stages or generations, says William J. Rothwell, professor of human resource development at Pennsylvania State University and author of the book Effective Succession Planning (AMACOM, 1995). Most Fortune 500 companies are in generations 3 and 4, while most small businesses are not even at generation 1.

Generation 1. "The first generation is the simple replacement plan," Rothwell explains. He defines it as a risk-management tool: If a plane crashes with the chief executive officer, who will be in charge? "In a big company, there are only a handful of senior executives," he says. "You can handle the succession planning in an afternoon."

Generation 2. "In the second generation, you take the same logic, apply it downward and come up with replacements at even the middle-manager level," Rothwell says.
Generation 3. In the third generation, companies go beyond the organizational chart to evaluate the competencies they need, he says.

"At this level, you want to integrate succession planning with your development efforts and start grooming people from within," says Rothwell. "You'll be trying to develop a talent pool from which to draw the needed competencies."

Generation 4. In the fourth stage, organizations look beyond the in-house talent pool to see who is available outside, as well. "A company that outsources a significant portion of its manufacturing may be watching the manager of this outsourced function," he says. "Could he or she be a possible replacement for the company's vice president of manufacturing, should that individual get hit by a car?"
Of course, there are other variations on succession planning. Kenneth R. Pederson, global process leader for staffing and selection at Dow Chemical Co., explains that his company actually blends plans.

"If a role is unique, we use a list of ready-now candidates," says Pederson. "If we have jobs in which two or more roles have similar competencies, we will cluster roles and build a pool of ready-now candidates. Depending on availability, any of them could step in."

Pederson feels that any plan can have drawbacks. "Lists can easily end up on the shelf," he says, "or planners can get into a process in which candidates look primarily like the current management. It's a trap to view the incumbent as the role model, because things usually change."
On the other hand, he says, talent pools are very flexible, but if planners are not focused, they "can end up with lots of opinions on different candidates and not know who will get the job."

Rothwell says that at generations 1, 2 and 3, most candidates will be internal and immediate replacements - though they need not be permanent. Even at level 4, companies shouldn't be replacing more than 30-50 percent of their senior positions from outside the company.
Dow Chemical relies almost exclusively on replacement from within. "If you're not trying for strong internal bench strength," says Pederson, "why are you bothering with succession planning?"

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION

PLAN FOR SUCCESS

If your company is new to succession planning, a simple replacement plan is probably where you want to start. "Even an organizational chart that shows two to three people to fill each position and what you need to do to get them ready is useful," says Rothwell. "Just the exercise of completing such a chart can be an eye opener."

Companies can easily modify plans to meet their own needs. "Dow Chemical Co. defines 50-60 jobs that aren't subject to restructuring or downsizing as 'corporate critical roles,'" says Pederson. "These positions will usually be filled with discrete lists of ready-now candidates. Another 200-300 jobs are identified as needing continuity. Our functional leaders in manufacturing, research and development, finance and business services are responsible for succession planning in those areas.

"Especially today," Pederson says, "all positions are subject to periodic reviews as to whether they're still needed. There can be important roles that aren't of long duration. You don't need succession planning for a position that won't be filled in kind."

"If a simple replacement chart shows you have boxes with no names, you have to conclude you have low bench strength," says Caruso. He notes that many companies are also collecting data that say "ready now" or "ready in one year" and so on, or give an "earliest move date."

That depth of analysis will help your company create good development plans that target particular strengths and weaknesses. "Take this time with your senior people to assess that bench strength," he continues. "Who's on the list? What are we doing to develop these people?"

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION

DEVELOPMENT PLANS ARE CRUCIAL

"Some companies pair succession planning, which is top down, with development planning, which is bottom up," says Rothwell. "This takes time, but if we had a million-dollar machine, wouldn't we spend time on it? We spend that on an employee, too, over the course of his or her career."

Rothwell cautions that determining what skills need to be developed is not as simple as asking the incumbent what it takes to succeed. That provides "a past-oriented picture," he says. "Raise the question: Do you believe our business environment will be the same in the future as it is today? Rate the planners' picks against the new criteria for the future."

Creating a development plan for candidates can be fairly simple: Look first at how they're doing in their current job, then rate their potential against the job they're being groomed for. "Your plan should narrow the gaps you see," says Rothwell. But that doesn't necessarily mean sending your candidate to class, he says.

"Better tools can be short-term job assignments in other areas of the company and job rotations of any duration - one month to five years. Mentoring is also very valuable, and managers need to learn how to do this," says Rothwell.
Caruso feels that succession plans must be linked to development plans. He suggests HR ask these four questions:

* What are the organization's current and future needs for intellectual assets in order to be successful?
* What is the current bench strength of intellectual assets?
* What is the difference between what we have now and what we need now and in the future?
* What are we going to do about the gap?

"Development in its many forms is designed to address the gap," says Caruso, "and that can include acquiring new people." Succession planning without a development plan as well, is "just a waste of time," he says.

Allen Larson explains that Wendy's uses simple development plans, but they are pervasive and the development process is monitored and inspected. "Our training is anchored in the world of work," he says, "so it will be a tool employees can use. We make sure we give our employees guided work experiences when they get back from training."

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION

TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL?

When David Caruso moderated a panel discussion on succession planning issues at a recent conference, the hottest topic debated was whether or not companies should tell employees that they're on a succession plan.

"The very worst situation of all occurs when you don't take a position," says Caruso. "Then, some managers will talk with employees, some won't and you end up with a mess. Someone at the top needs to make a command decision."

The main reason not to tell employees about succession decisions is that judgments about potential are so subjective. "It's an art rather than a science," says Caruso. "There are bound to be mistakes, and companies don't want these mistakes floating around.
"Still," he adds, "people on a high-potential list tend to know it, anyway. They get the key assignments and that sort of thing."

Dow Chemical has a future leader process that identifies people with above-average capability. "However, it isn't a formal program with 'anointed ones' or even necessarily a leadership track," says Pederson. "We don't generally tell succession candidates they're in line for a specific job, but there's an expectation that if there's a development plan, the candidate will be clued in on it."

Rothwell says that two-thirds of companies don't tell employees. "They're usually afraid of a 'crown prince or princess' syndrome, or worry that the person will stop performing as well.

"But," Rothwell asks, "what if a key employee leaves the company because he or she didn't know your plans? Or what if you're grooming someone for a management position, and that person doesn't want it?"

He cautions employers, however, to be careful and seek competent legal advice about the proper way to tell people about these plans. "Don't say something like 'you'll get my job' because that may sound like an implicit contract."
Larson says that Wendy's culture encourages candor. "We have a series of meetings that are used to review promotability," he says. "Employees and managers do independent evaluations of the employee's performance, then meet to go over them. This is not to reach a consensus, but to explore differences. Employees know exactly where they stand."

Though succession plans vary, the dialogue between HR and the company's senior executives will always be the key to the plans' success. "Succession planning happens in all organizations," says Caruso. "The process can be carefully planned or haphazard - but it will happen."

TO THE WRITER SUMMARIZE THIS MAJOR SECTION

RELATED ARTICLE: PRACTICAL MATTERS

HR Is Key Facilitator
As with any project, the right people have to be involved in succession planning, and the company's CEO must buy into the plan wholeheartedly. Caruso suggests involving these key players in setting up a succession plan:

* Chair, CEO or senior executive sponsoring the process.
* Senior HR person.
* Upper- or middle-management person who will collect data, manage the database and create reports and charts.
* Data entry specialist or clerk.
* HR information specialist.

Caruso warns that the paperwork can seem overwhelming for a company just starting a succession plan. "There's a big hump when you first do this," he cautions. "It's better to work with 50-75 people and do the job thoroughly, rather than try to do too much at once." Caruso advises HR staff to interview people rather than hand out paper and worksheets when they initially collect information. "People will talk for three hours about six people, but won't fill out six forms," he says.

He also suggests that HR capture information in detail with appropriate succession planning software. "Eventually, you're going to need to move people and all their data from point A to point B. Even if you're doing that with a limited number of people, it makes sense to use a relational database instead of something like a Microsoft Word document."

Later, you can help management look at more complex requirements. A third or fourth generation plan that goes down to the mid-management level may include pages of job analysis, performance reviews, employee profiles, assessment forms and development plans. HR's jobs as educator and facilitator will grow, but the plan must continue to belong to the CEO.

Carla Joinson is a freelance writer in San Antonio who writes about business and management issues.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Society for Human Resource Management
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Moore Kearsley

Total Pages: 4 Words: 1075 Works Cited: 0 Citation Style: None Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: You are to write a 4-page paper. Read the article below and answer the discussion question. State the question first and then continue to answer. Do Not Use Outside Sources. “Use APA format when quoting from reading.” ***Carefully reflect on Garrison’s viewpoint, whicih is at the end of the Moore/Kearsley article. ***

Question:
1.What do you think may be the advantages of the different technologies for teaching at a distance?

Moore/Kearsley
Instructional System Design
In addressing these questions, most organizations follow certain steps commonly referred to as ISD, or instructional systems design. Instructional systems design emerged after World War II, and with his origins in the pressure for designing training more efficiently during the war. It is a product of several their radical perspectives on learning and teaching; these include system theory, behavioral psychology, and communications and information theory.

Stages in Instructional Design
The central idea is that the development of instruction can be divided into a number of stages, each of which requires certain critical design decisions. In the analysis stage, the designer must conduct some form of task or job analysis – or in an academic area must analyze content – to identify the specific skills that are involved in the task war job war to identify performance that would demonstrate mastery of the subject matter. Another step in the analysis stage is to identify the current wrist of the learner and the learning environment, and to find out what the students need to know if they are to be able to perform the desired behavior at desired the level. In the design stage, the required performance of students as a result of the course and each of its components are articulated as learning objectives in very specific terms. Learning objectives have been classified my educational psychologist such as Bloom (1956) and Gagne et al. (1992). Bloom’s hierarchy lists six levels of objectives in the cognitive domain: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evolution. Gagne describes five types: intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, verbal information, motor skills, and attitudes. A learning object of consist of behaviors, the conditions under which it should be evaluated and a criterion for its measurement. Thus, test items matching the objectives can be created in the design stage. Since each objective designs a specific behavior, the media are selected to communicate the information to student needs and to provide opportunity for them to practice that particular behavior. If, for example, a college wishes its students to “know Hamlet,” this goal will have to be broken into many specific objectives; for each it will have to be decided what can be achieved by reading, by listening, by viewing, and by practicing (e.g. speeches). Testing and feedback will have to be designed to ensure student eventually can perform, in writing or orally, what is specified in each objective. Course designers must invest in an exhaustive effort to articulate what they believe their student should learn and how that learning will be demonstrated, as a result of their study in every module (typically the most gross division of a course), every unit, every lesson, and every part of each lesson. This does not (as some people think) limit distance teaching to merely lower-level, easily measured cognitive objectives at the expense of the learner creativity, learner involvement, or even learners self-direction; nor does it deny the development of problem-solving skills or knowledge and sensitivity in the affective domain. All these and similar high level learning – provided it can be defined by subject specialists – can be articulated to the students and their instructors in terms of what the learners will be able to do and what learners will be able to present as evidence of their accomplishment, by the end of the module, unit, lesson, or part of the lesson. If – as is sometimes just that – the behavior of a successful student in a given subject truly cannot be described, and the ending indeed it would be difficult to specify a learning object of, then it is equally impossible to construct a teaching program when it is not known what it is that one is trying to teach! Fortunately there are very few such cases; more often than not, the inability to define learning in terms of student behavior is a result of lack of knowledge about the procedure by the instructor(s). when help to achieve such specificity regarding their goals, most and shoppers appreciate the better quality that such clear vision brings to their teaching. During the development stage, designers and producers create the instructional materials that communicate what is needed for achieving the learning objectives. They include web pages, films, study guides, books, audio tapes and teleconference outlines. Teachers and staff may also need training at this stage. The implementation phase is a bit like the performance of a play that has been written and rehearsed; the audience (i.e. students) arrives. They register; finished functional materials are delivered, and the Interfax with their instructors and perhaps other students, based on the materials and teaching plans so carefully design in advance. Evaluation activities include ongoing (formative) testing and grading, unit by unit, module by module, at the implementation stage, as to who’s worked through the course, as well as occasional investigations to assess the effectiveness of which include course materials and procedures. The result of this formative evaluation can lead to intervention to change the analysis, design, or development procedures; but mainly it leads to change in implementation, when results of the students test showed the need for intervention with particular instructors. Summative evaluation at the end of the course may lead to improvements in any of the phases of the model when the course is offered in the future.
A Planned Approach
The instructional systems design approach emphasizes planning. As little should be left to chance or ad hoc decision-making in the implementation stage as possible. Each stage of instructional systems design cycle results in a product that must be delivered in order that later steps in the instructional systems design process can move forward. For example, in the design phase, it is the statement of learning objectives that enable the development of an evaluation plan that outlines how the course will be assessed and how learning will be measured. Planning the teaching strategies, such as how information will be presented and what activities learners will be expected to do, cannot begin until the objectives and evaluation plan have been prepared. Each of these different stages of course design in a subsystem, linked together into a system. The five stages are shown as a cycle, since this is an ongoing process. For example, even though the activities of analysis are conducted at the beginning of a development effort, they could be revisited in any time if there is a question or problem about the validity of the instructional needs, learners, or the learning environment. Evaluation of one course or part of the course is very closely related to the analysis of need for a subsequent course. The extent to which some or all of the procedures are followed in each stage of the instructional systems design cycle depends upon several factors. One is the understanding of the educators involved, another is the commitment of the teaching institution to the instructional systems design approach and the extent to which the institution is actually organized to support it. It is a time-consuming process and can be expensive. It is difficult for an individual teacher to follow the model except officially because of the time needed. Open universities, large corporations, and the Department of Defense tend to employ instructional systems design approaches more extensively and more intensively then do traditional universities or home study schools. This is partly a result of the training that is given to employees of those institutions; partly the greater funding they often have; and partly the way he that such organizations are organized to support a total systems approach to education and training. Many academics resist the discipline and the supervision implied in working in a systems way. However there is very little doubt that there is a direct relationship between the time and effort put into the instructional systems design and the ultimate quality of the distance education program.
The Development Team
On several previous occasions, we have suggested that designing in teaching he distance education core should be a team effort. The size of the team may be small, with a view as two individuals (the “author – editor” model) or may be a large group of 20 or more people (the “course team” model). The size and nature of the team depends mainly on how the providing institution has organized its distance education program, which in turn reflects its mission and the policies of its management. Developing a course by using only one or two people is far less intrusive on the mainstream activity of a dual mode institution then developing a course with a course team.
The Author – Editor Model
The author—editor model was the usual method of course development in the correspondence instruction , when the a subject matter expert rule the draft of correspondence study guide and an editor polished it up in readings for production. The course development process is a matter of getting reviews from other experts and perhaps potential students, obtaining copyright clearance, designing page layout, proofreading, making corrections, and printing or duplicating the text. Although the author-editor of approach developed as the favorite way of producing printed correspondence courses, an analogous practice occur with some web-based instruction, were an academic forefront of content experts provide the subject matter, which a Web designer in authors for placing on a server. Which is usually missing in these arrangements is an instructional designer and the investment of time that the instructional systems design approach requires. At best, the author or web designer must try to influence the author to produce learning objectives, evaluation criteria, and teaching strategies, which some content specialists are willing and able to do, and others are not. The familiar patterns is for a content expert to think of learning objectives as content to be present, rather than what learners will be required to know. Such experts invariably present a volume of materials in excess of what a student can learn in the time available. A competent instructional design always ascertains the study time available, and in Taylor’s the content accordingly! Sometimes a web designer can achieve these Indians, but in real life, editors and Web designers are outranked by authors, and the authors will usually prevails.
The Course Team Model
The single mode open universities use the team approach to course design, and the UK open University provided the best-known examples of this model. Each course is designed and produced by a team that might consist of as many as 20 oh more people, in which every member is a specialist. At the stage design of the in traditional systems design process, a group of academics who are specialists in different aspects of the subject rights outlines the what should be taught in their particular specialties, and it engaged in extensive negotiations regarding the allocations of the students time budget for study in the course. They produced drafts of learning objectives and conscience of each unit and modules into which the course time budget dished ruptured. As well as taking responsibility for content in the study guide, the academics assemble books of readings; make audio and video recordings, plan web pages and web-based activities, and design test and exercise, all with the assistance of specialist in these tasks. These technical experts include: where producers, text editors, graphic designers, radio and television producers, instructional designers, librarians, and even a specialist photoliberian. On every team are one of more specialists in the adult distance learning process, people will close contact with the ultimate users of the course materials. Ash draft course outlines and objectives are debated, decisions are taken about teaching strategies, such as, for example, were proportion of time is it to be spent on readings versus audio or video materials. From the first expiratory meetings of experts and practitioners in the field to divine the object is in content, the process depends on many formal and informal meetings, a lot of telephone and e-mail consultation, and a great deal of argument. In the team’s Ritalin meetings to review each component of the course as it is designed, arguments may be fierce regarding what content to include, and especially on what is to be left out, with subject experts defining their own territory against their rivals. Criticism of the draft materials is also intends. They are written and rewritten, to take into account the various criticisms, and must be approved by the whole team before finally been approved for production. Eventually after several separate and drafts have been presented (in the case of UKOU practice there are three), a prototype for the study guide on that subject emerges. Then photographs or artwork can be commissioned, audio and video components can be scripted, and the production process can begin; with audio and video programs being carefully integrated with the printed study guide and even the discussion questions for tutorial at study sinners or online being planned to fit well with the audio, video and text materials. Copyright clearance must be octane for materials from secondary sources, for which purposes the single mode institution is likely to maintain a specialist copyright office. Manual for instructors who will implement the course include guidelines about what is required in each assignment – the vital student product that forms the basic formative assessment. Finally, meetings are held in the field with representatives of students, tutors, and employers to test the course materials and assure they are effective. Managing the course development process and of course team is very complex business, with many tasks to be accomplished by different people. It is usually desirable traversing your academic to head out the team and steer the process, and an administrator to be responsible for ensuring that each task in the development schedule (which often last 1-2years) is completed on time.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Both the author-editor and course team approaches to the development and delivery of distance education have their strengths and weaknesses. The author – editor model is a great deal cheaper than a course team, and results in relatively quick development and modification of courses. In American universities work out which he have other responsibilities at least as great as those preparing courses for distance teaching, it has proven, so far, impossible to find an organizational structure that can successfully demand more of their time than that required by the author – editor model. There are disadvantages with this, however. Neither the content specialist nor the editor/web designer is an instructional designer, but if one of them has instructional design skills, the content and teaching strategies are derived from the knowledge and experience of only one or two people. The greater wealth of knowledge and experience in the course team almost inevitably means the course materials will be superior. Furthermore, the course thing, since it has representatives of different technologies and media, encourages the use of multiple media; whereas the author-editor model typically results in teaching been delivered by a single medium – the medium that the editor is an expert in. The course team, approach, however, is very labor intensive and therefore expensive, and it involves an empty development period. It can be justified for courses with large enrollments having long-term use, where is it would not make economic sense for a course with very small enrollments or short life expectancy. To obtain the benefits of the team approach at a cost effective level, it is necessary for administrators to organize the presentation of courses to a larger population, and dust or paint economies of scale that make the team approach viable. This takes us back, yet again, to the underlying problem of wheat organizational structures are rising from week institutional and national policies that often prevent the application of the best practice. In the US, virtual courses of specialist from different institutions have been assembled by some of the consortia.
The “Lean Team”
In dual mode institution were courses have not only been delivered by correspondence, but also by television, video conferencing, or the Internet, the author-editor partnership has sometimes expanded to include a member of other specialist, though not on a scale comparable to the course teams of the single mode institutions. Some special skills and attitudes are needed to be a successful member of a design team, and these are not the skills and attitudes normally associated with University academics. First, it has to be recognized that no individual is a teacher in this system, but that indeed it is the system that teaches. Even the content is not “owned” by a professor, but is the product of group consensus. Team members have to be willing to bury their eagles and relinquish decision-making control to the team, to be willing to compromise and to it here to decisions taken by consensus. A hearing to procedures and policies established by the group is essential if the work is to flow smoothly. For example, if a standard format is established for a study guide or for a web site, course writers and designers cannot prepare the materials in any other format, or there could be an oval run in the time allocated for editing and layout of the guide.
Designing Study Guide
Almost all distance education courses are based on a study guide, which provides a map of the course and the framework for the other materials to rest on. Much of the presentation of information, and analysis, explanation, and discussion that an instructor might make in face-to-face settings can be put into the study guide. Traditionally the study guide is distributed in printed form, but it may be placed on an Internet server. A typical study guide contains the following: an introduction to the course and a statement of its goals and objectives, a calendar and schedule of when specific lessons or activities are to be completed, a map that makes the structure of the course clear, guidance about how to use the time allotted study, a substantial presentation of information relevant to each objective, with the instructors commentary and discussion, explanations of relationships between conscience of reading and other media, directions for activities and exercises, a set of self testing questions to be answered or issues to be discussed for purpose of self evaluation, an explanation of the grading scheme and other course requirements, directions and advice regarding the preparation and submission of written and other assignments, an annotated bibliography and other references, suggestions for application work or other activities outside the course, suggestions regarding good study techniques, and information about how and when to contact an instructor or counselor. The study guide is quite different from a textbook war looks of readings. These are intended primarily to communicate information; the study guide is intended to communicate teaching. It has sometimes been referred to as “a tutorial in text.” Even an online course can be considered a tutorial in text.”
Creating Lessons or Units
The information and activities that are communicated in distance learning mature should be organized into self-contained lessons or units. One other reasons a person enrolls any distance learning program, rather than simply research the subject alone, is that a course of study provides a structure of the content and the learning process. The place to start is to lay out how the team will use the number of hours for student is to devote to the subject. If, for example, the courses 150 hours in land and there are 15 weeks for completion, the course can be constructed in 15 units of 10 hours. Then the amount of reading, writing, viewing, listening, practicing, and testing can be designed within this time budget. Each unit might correspond to a single instructional objective, and includes some or modify you wish an activity that allows students to check the extent to which they have learned the materials. Some teams might want to break each unit into 15-20 minute segments of study. In this way, a unit could correspond to what would be done in a 90 minute classroom session, but consist of six separate activities. For one period the student may read the study guide; then be told to make some notes, then to listen to an audiotape or online audio clip next to do a self tests, and finally read the study guide again. In distance education courses that involve teleconferences, each unit of the course guide could correspond with separate teleconference. In an online course, the design is my budget a period of time for searching the web in an individual or group project and sometime maybe given to participate in the discussion forum. Although some academic purists made express the view that breaking the course material into many small units makes it choppy or disconnected, there are several reasons why it is good to brick the course down into a series of units and short lesson segments. For one thing, it makes it easier for the student to fit study into the normal, active adult life cycle; covering three segments of the unit might use up exactly the time of a daily railroad commute, or the time that is available when the chow is in day care. Short segments also help the student to concentrate, and makes information easier to assimilate and to integrate. Segmenting the content and activities allow students to stop when they want to, providing a sense of closure and progress. It is also easier to identify student problems with the materials is divided up this way, since they can be localized to a specific objective or learning activity. Instructional designers should aim to bring integration into the pieces by discussing the relationships among content in the introduction to each unit and in summaries, as well as by designing evaluation activities that require the student to make their own comparison and linkage.
Writing Style
Although all authors can be encouraged to develop some personal writing styles, it is important that study materials be written in a conversational rather than a literary or scholarly tone. This means using the first person rather than a third person, and using a simple vocabulary as the subject and level of student allows. The study guide is meant to substitute for the normal explanations given by an instructor in a classroom or instructor’s office, and the language should reflect this. The way in which difficult concepts are recognized as such, the use of personal anecdotes or examples, comments reflecting different opinions or disagreements with the texts or readings, and rising of questions for students think about, all helped to establish a more institutional atmosphere in the study guide. Ideally, the design team can project finished up his personality into the study guide, so the student have a sense of being taught by a specific individual. Although this may appear to be inconsistent with the point made earlier about a distance education course being told by a team, it is not. This course is designed and delivered my team, but at the point of interface of the learner with the system, designed to provide a named and knowable human face, which humanizes the experience from the student’s point of view.
Layout
Just as the experience classroom teacher has a repertoire of aural and visual techniques for drawing attention to certain points, ways of planting questions or ideas in the students mine, and techniques for provoking responses and for helping students bring synthesis and closure, so all these must be accomplished by designers are teaching at a distance. One of the techniques for doing this is the creative positioning of text and graphic on the printed page for online screen. Probably the most important factor in organizing printed text is allowing ample white space in the document so it is visually attractive and avoids overloading the learner with too much information at one time. White spaces in the text literally give a student space to think. Online, the same principle applies, with care taken not to put too much information in one screen. In the same way, choices of typefaces, indentations, graphics, and headings all play pedagogical roles in the study guide, whether in print for online. Use of color can be helpful bowled in inch dropping the content as well as producing an attractive an interesting document or web site, but successful application depends on professional understanding and judicious selecting from among alternatives.
Designing and Audio-Conference
Audio conferencing is an excellent technology for delivering small-scale distance education since it can be used with a minimum of technical assistance and is cheaper than other forms of teleconference. It can also be a valuable part of a multimedia delivery system. Unfortunately it is now overshadowed by enthusiasm for text based online conferencing, which is a pity because an audio conference can be a very nice complement to the text. The first step in designing a course base and audio conference is the creation and you should be of the study guide, readings and other recorded materials. The series of audio conferences will provide opportunity for elaboration, explanation and exchange of ideas, and bring a long life and color to the learning experience but they have to be designed to complement the distance and density of information that can best be communicated by a textbook or other readings. Therefore it will still be necessary to provide a study guide that gives the background information necessary to understand the content and to participate in the discussions. As mentioned before and outlines the guide can be an excellent complement to the audio conference technique. Every audio conference must have a structure. The structure is more open than that of a radio program and probably more open than a videoconference. However although from the point of view of the student in the conference and there may appear to be no type structure and there may appear to be considerable freedom to be spontaneous in participating, the instructor should have a firm understanding that all times of where the students are in the sequence of planned events and where they are going next. For this reason, one of the most important design steps is to prepare an outline of the planned audio conference that identifies the segments and student activities against schedule. In most programs are typical segment is usually to be about 10 to 15 minutes in length and correspond to a specific learning objective. So segments the ideally correspond to the segments in the study patterns as discussed previously except the material in the audio segment consist of comments, questions, or ideas intended to promote interaction. It could involve an interview (live or taped), panel, debate, role-playing, brainstorming… or simply a short introduction by the injector. It should never consist of a simple reading from bills or a text. A very valuable technique is to organize students to make brief presentations of assignments or their own projects. A third preparatory step is for the instructor to prepare a class roster with background information about each to lose that can be you referred to easily during an audio conference. This lousy and structure to add specific students questions related to the interest or experiences and enables the instructor to control both excess and inadequate of inputs by different individuals. This class roster can be distributed to all students as well as facilitate interaction. As we have stated before the reliability of the communication technology is an absolutely central prerequisite for a successful teleconference. Students should never have difficulty hearing even in an audio conference that is more important than seeing. The technology should be made as transparent as humanly possible the simplest way of ensuring this is to test the connections and sound quality before the students arrive. But not only once. An hour before the class may be too late to fix a serious problem. Our practice is to test a month before the beginning of the sequence of the teleconference been a week prior to the first event and then the day before, and finally the before. After the course is underway and things are proper written smoothly we can test the day before an hour before the class. In this way we has been able to avoid the embarrassment and disillusioned we have witnessed were in shelters have simply plunked in the audio equipment, experience noise or the problems and had a disastrous session usually blaming the hardware when in fact the basis of the problem was the failure to set up and tested it adequately.
Designing a Satellite Video-Conference
Satellite video conferences are frequently one-off events but they can also be organized in the sequence similar to the audio conference discussed previously. Similar design consideration to those listed for the audio conference apply but there is likely to be more supporting personnel involved in the audio conferencing. This brings its benefits but also adds the responsibilities of the insured. A typical satellite videoconference is 1-3 hours in duration, originates from one site, and is broadcast in many locations nationally or internationally. Usually video images transmitted to the distant sites and communication from the sites to the transmitting stations by audio (i.e. telephone). Most successful video conferences involving local component (e.g. panel of local experts or small group discussion sessions), which helps participants applied to the content of the program to their own settings. A satellite videoconference is a more structured event – with less into action – then an audio, audio graphic, or two-way videoconference for an online discussion forum, because of the large number of sites and large number of people involved. The balance between presentation and interaction in a satellite video teleconference leans more toward the presentation than the interaction.
Components of a Satellite Teleconference
Here are the major components in activities that have to be designed for the satellite video teleconference: locating and preparing site coordinators. Good site coordination can make or break a teleconference. In some organization this is an official job responsibility though probably not a full-time art in some cases someone will be designated for will volunteer for the role. Since it must be assumed that the site coordinator me not have much experience it is important to provide detailed guidelines checklist are ideal for task that should be performed, their progress in the following these guidelines should be checked by telephone. The site coordinator identifies local experts were willing to participate and also arranges for technical support, equipment needed facilities, and catering. And selecting the teleconference dissenters and moderator. Popular presents readers are usually experts in the field but also have the kind of dynamic personality that projects well in television. Once the presenter have been selected they must provide materials for graphics, video tape segments and the participant’s package. The moderator should have conscience expertise as well as television and conferencing experience. The moderator must manage the presenter deal with participants questions aimed any discussions that occur as well as followed the instructions of the director or producer. It into action is considered important in a particular program and it is the moderator’s job to ask the questions and stimulate discussion. Preparing the satellite teleconference announcement and participants materials. The teleconference announcements plays a critical role in attracting participants in establishing their expectations about the content. Announcements provide details on the originator, date and time of transmission, satellite band, rationale, objectives, intended audience, content online, credentials of presenters and their topics, registration fees, which Chechens on taping and reuse, and cancellation policy. Site coordinators should provide posters, press release and promotional videotape to help the market the teleconference locally. Participant materials presenters’ biography, readings, bibliography, resource lists insure that participants have all necessary reference material to prepare themselves for the teleconference. In order to do should be them to the sites in a timely fashion is necessary to prepare them and well in advance this means finalizing all details of the teleconference quite early typically 6-9 months before the teleconference date. Preregistration/registration participants must usually preregister for the teleconference and be provided with details about the location, agenda, background experts, and relevant readings. Typically, participants receive packages of materials when they register. One site registry she should begin well before the teleconference starts 1-2hours. Preconference activities: rehearsal. A well executed video teleconference is a complicated undertaking and it must be with her stick everything is to go smoothly. The moderator should go through the complete script with the producer/director and practice each segment. Presenters should run through their segments a number of times so they are comfortable with the timing, camera angles, and use of graphics and video tapes. Panel discussion and calling questions can also be practice with the site coordinators – they will not be the same during the teleconference but the general nature will be the same. Before the teleconference begins participant should have an opportunity to meet each other as well as the local experts. This meeting may take place in the form of an informal coffee hour or formal presentation by the local experts in a panel. The tests, in the hour before the teleconference, technicians checked out the settling signal as well as a television monitor, speakers, and microphone or fax to be used for questions. The teleconference a schedule should be prepared according to principles illustrated in the various sections regarding the audio conferencing. This will be particularly important at the transmitting site where camera work is needed to cover a variety of events and technical person they’ll need to know what is to be expecting. With other systems that force the instructor to manage cameras and other equipment having a well-prepared schedule is even more critical. Interaction during the teleconference there should be opportunities for participants at each site to ask questions and make inputs. This has to be managed by the local site coordinator in conjunction with the originating site. Participants may pastor questions directly or give them in written form to the site coordinator to ask or even to fax. Backup arrangements have to be playing to deal with transmission problems during the conference a satellite link is more likely to be interrupted than an audio link. Post conference activity after the teleconference the local experts may be asked to comment or answer questions. Participants might break into working groups or discuss specific issues. Alternatively the teleconference may be followed by a social event that allows informal discussions. Wrap up and evaluation the moderator should summarize the main points of the teleconference and any themes that emerge in the Post conference discussion. And evaluation questionnaire should be completed by participants to access the effectiveness and the value of the teleconference.
Design and Development of Web-Based Courses
Web-based injunction can be invaluable component of the multimedia course work the course can be delivered on the Web alone. It is an increasingly common practice in conventional teaching institutions required about to take on a small number of students at a distance, teaching a course designed entirely by the classroom instructor. Among the drawbacks to this is the weak quality of most and do-it-yourself instructional design and especially the inability of Internet to deliver good-quality video and sound even if the injectors able to design audio and video program. Whether the web materials are designed by the classroom should go or by a web designer on behalf of the course team there are at least three approaches to the process of design and development. They are by use of authoring tools, by designing materials as Web documents, and by using integrated learning systems. Some of the best-known authoring tools for designing introduction to be delivered on computers are authorware, toolbook, director, and flash. These tools allow the designer to create interactive sequences, animation, cats, and multimedia presentations. Although powerful these schools are not easy to learn. They were designed prior to the emergence of the Web although they all can be used to produce where programs this is a relatively complicated process. In the simplest way to produce web-based learning materials is to create them as Web documents in HTML format using a web editing programs such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. Also the latest version of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint can save documents directly in Web format. They can then be uploaded to a server and the URL provided to students to allow access. Links can be placed in documents to allow movements throughout the documents or to access external documents. However it is not possible to develop interactive exercise or cast without using the Web programming language such as JavaScript or Java. Most do it yourself instructors uses approach to put syllabus, so the guys, readings, handouts and other course materials online with your students.if an online courses being delivered fire and integrated learning systems such as blackboard or web C. T. the content can be designed using the editing capabilities of the system. The system provides a structure for the creation of the course materials, and the instructors decide which of the options provided they want to use. Content can be typed indirectly or cut and paste from other documents. Editing devices are also provided for the creation of exams and surveys. Although it takes a little more time to Keith used to creating course via an integrated learning system most than shelters are comfortable using them with in a few weeks. Although use of integrated learning system makes it relatively easy and quick to develop an online course it does not allow for the creation of interactive activities or multimedia. For that authoring tools must be used. Regardless of how content is created for online courses the same kind of creativity must be put into the layout and design of web pages as we discussed earlier with regard to print. Although Web design principles are similar in some respects to those for print design, they are additional factors to be considered due to the nature of screen display and use your controls. The most important consideration are reliability, usability, and information complexity. Like print documents screens must be made as easy to read as possible. This depends upon typography, layout, writing style, and organization. Web sites must also be easy to use (i.e. to navigate) because they become too complex, most users will get agitated and stop using them.
Designing for Accessibility: Students with Disabilities on the Web
U.S. Census data indicate that 20% of the Americans – about 27 million people – have some kind of disability. Online courses are both a boon and a bane to disabled individuals. On the one hand they provide learning opportunities free from the complications of attending classes. On the other hand many web-based courses present new problems, for example, screens that are difficult to view, sites that are difficult to navigate, color they cannot be distinguished, and audio that cannot be heard. The promises and pitfalls of online learning for disabled individuals are discussed by Cantor (2001); Kim-Rupnow, Dowrick and Burke 2001; and Robertson 2002. Designing online courses so there are accessible to disabled learners is more than merely the right thing to do. Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act mandates that all government-funded information technology which includes web-based courses designed by any Federal or department of defense agencies must be fully accessible to persons with disabilities.
Designing student participation
Regardless of what form of distance education is being designed one implement that must be uppermost in the designer’s mind is to the extent of student participation that is needed and how to engineer. In an audio, video, computer-based or web-based course that is usually achieved by setting of discussion groups, or making students contribute their own presentations. More structured activities such as quizzes, role-play, or simulations can also be arranged. Students need to be given a chance to ask or answer questions and in the most subjects need an opportunity she to express opinions. Participation in this kind of activity can be integrated with a print base course or video telecourse by the addition of a teleconference or by setting up student discussion groups at local sites. People are naturally more cautious at a distance especially when they’re not able to see the other participants and more so in asynchronous rather than synchronous communication. For this reason whether the form of communication technology used participation is not likely to happen unless it is well-planned and the structures have training to facilitate it. It is not possible to provide an interconnect technology and study is limited to recorded material such as the printed study guide or audio/video tapes getting the student into a pact with the subject is even more challenging. One way course designers can achieve some degree of student participation is to present questions or problems that require response for example, at the end of each unit such items can be multiple-choice or open-ended questions with the answers as close as a part of the narrative texts were recorded media. Although some students will skip the self test more will take advantage of the opportunity to shake their understanding of the materials. In most distance education courses students have a hand in assignment for evaluation and communication technology used for this allows them to ask and receive responses to questions. Giving feedback in this way allows the instructor, moderator, or the tour to establish some sense of participation in the course. Although many students can tolerate sums it laid most people like feedback to be immediate and few people find one-way communication with no feedback to be given, the subject of interaction between student and instructor, students and students.
Self-directed Learning
The ability to undertake all or most of the design of one’s own learning to evaluate one’s performance and take a justice of quarterly aren’t you attributes of a self-directed learning. People who aren’t good self-directed learners are able to design their own learning objectives, identify resources that will help them achieve their objectives, choose learning methods to achieve the objectives, and test and evaluate informants. Distance education is easier for people who have some degree of ability to direct their own learning that it is for people who will are very dependent on futures direction, encouragement, and feedback. Desires of distance education material like other educators must keep in mind the desirability of encouraging and supporting self-directed learning while its same time giving the sport needed by people at different stages of silk directness. The range of ability to see self-directed and the exercise to learner autonomy is the key concept in distance learning. The most important thing to remember is that more on anonymous, self-directed learners need less into action with instructor and needless instructor materials and people were less capable at managing their own learning. Very in mind that interaction costs money and time it becomes important for the decided to give to estimate the extent to which their students are able to hold independently and the extent to which they need interaction with instructor and teaching situation.
Monitoring and Evaluation
In distance education because the learner is separate from the instructor and instructors usually separated from the administering agency success of the whole enterprise depends on an effective monitoring and evaluation system. For instructor it is not only by using very which matures and procedures designing web pages institution that they can know if there students are experiencing difficulty. With the right kind of evaluation data it should be possible to determine precisely what kind of help is needed by a particular individual. It is the monarchy system that provides data. A good monitoring system also tells the ministries of our problems experienced by the shelter as well as a student and indicates if delays or breakdowns occur in the communication system while there’s still enough time to take a remedial action. Effect of monarchy requires a network of indicated that picked up the necessary data about learners performs instructor performance this must be done rapidly and routinely in the data has to be relayed with a similar routine to a control center where it can be evaluated. Evaluation in this context is the process of analyzing the feedback data gathered by the monitoring system, reviewing it, and making decisions about well the distance education system and its various parts are operating as learners, instructors, designers, administrators, and communication resources work together to accomplish short and long-term goals. For an educational system the most important of these goals are learning outcomes however the articles are legitimate and may be monitored and evaluated e.g. maintaining cost-effectiveness or rectifying demographic imbalances in the student population. One of the few generalizations one can make about any distance education program would ever the communication technology use whatever the level of the content is that a good monitoring and evaluation system is likely to lead to the excess will program while a poor systems almost certain to lead to failure. What, then, are some of the features of a good system? There are three key features.
The first is the preliminary specification of the learning objects is that were mentioned earlier. From the beginning of the course design process until the final summation evaluation of the project and no matter how large or small the course for how long or brief is duration the central questions aren’t the same, namely :did each student produce evidence of having learned what was required as a specifiedin the learning objectives, and if, why not? All evaluations must mostly address the question and whether or not be of value waiters can show whether the project was effective will depend mostly on how well the object is of the project have been stated at all levels of course. The second key to success monitoring and evaluation is the construction and later the handling of the product submitted by the students were trainees as evidence of learning, commonly referred to as assignments. It is the assignments that provide indicators that were referred to earlier – they are the source of feedback signals that should alert authorities threw out a system whenever a problem arises. In most courses the assignment is a written document handed to an instructor in person at a steady site or sent by mail either electronically or hardcopy format. It may be an essay, map metal compilations, a report observation of natural phenomenon, an experiment, or social event; it could be a multiple-choice tests, and analysis of the case that he, the solution to a problem, it could be it a work of art, poem or a piece of music. Use of tape recordings, audio or video, allows the students report or an even wider range of learned accomplishments and then text alone permits. All that is necessary in designing interests and swore Simons the size a crystal-clear awareness of the learning that the students expected to straight is a created interest in the task – worth stating because it is often missing when people constructing a course understand content far more than process – and an appreciation of the instructional value that really interests and challenging assignments add to the course. A related awareness the absence of which explains many unsuccessful assignments is that of time limitations. Every lesson in every course has to be completed within their defined period of student time and that budget has to be included the time needed to complete the assignment if course designers asked for in an assignment that can be accomplished within the time budget obviously there will be a greater or lesser degree of failure though no fault of the student or perhaps the instruction. When failure occurs evaluators need to look at several remedies, as will be discussed shortly but it is worth saying here that one remedy is to consider whether the assignment itself is unachievable in the allotted time.
Many years of research provide some snippet in knowledge about assignment and a Simon handling. We know that distance learners are more likely to continue and complete a course if they have frequent assignments. We also know there is a close relationship between students propensity to continue or dropout of a course and the length of delay between assignments submissions and returns. We know that early success in assignment completion is expressed important and that the capacity to tolerate agitation with assignments grows with experience as a distance learner. From such research and experience we know that in a typical course it may be desirable to require submission of a Simons as prickly as once a week. When this is the casein sharpener has two responsibilities to respond weakly to the student and to make weekly reports of results of the assignments to the agency’s administration. This leads to the third key to good monitoring and evaluation which is a good data gathering and reporting system. Whether weekly or less frequent after the introductory value waste assignment instructor must have procedures and documents report such data as the date of receipt of assignment and scores or grades given. In a major distance education system there’s likely to be a regional administration as well as a central administration so that reports have to be provided for evaluation and a regional as well as a central level. The region review reports from a sure person submits composite reports or reports to exceptional instance to the center. In a dual mode institution reports of student progress may be presented to both the academic department as well as distance teaching department. Whatever the particular administrative culture however what is common is the necessity for reports to review by senior staff in the system were able to recognize symptoms of system failure. At higher levels i.e. beyond the instructor marching is a default system, regional and central administrators do not normally review satisfactory assignments or looked in depth that instructors or study sites were students show evidence of satisfactorily meeting learning objectives. Like a pilot in the cockpit who looks with a red lights not green their interest is not primarily in the indicator showing where the system works i.e. the students are learning to look for the warning signals that indicate some part of the system is inoperative or operating below expectations. More specifically if a student fails to complete an assignment while other students evaluated by the same instructor do so, the inch Drucker is alerted to identify and rectify the problem experienced by the particular student. However if all or many students of the same inch dropped or have difficulty with an assignment and students of other instructors to not evaluators must ascertain what circumstances cause difficulty for the particular group of students. Perhaps the instructor is misinterpreting evaluation criteria perhaps the group of students did not receive a package of learning materials perhaps an incorrect interpretation was given at the study site tutorial meeting. At a more general level steel if all the students in the region failed to complete the assignment and those and others do it successfully there is a suggestion of a regional breakdown perhaps Internet connections failed, or television broadcast that reached other regions was not received in the region in question; perhaps assignment packages arrived late and assignments were rushed, etc.; perhaps a briefing or training session was missed in that particular region. Finally, evaluators have to deal with the situation in which large number of students across the whole system perform badly on an assignment, the administration then has to investigate if the teaching materials were inappropriate, the objectives was unattainable, or the assignment itself was an ineffective measure of the objective.
With clearly specified learning objectives and instructional materials and procedures developed to help students and trainees to achieve those objectives with a Symons designed to test exactly no more or less what is expected from the learning program, and with a network of people knowing their roles in the monitoring system, where failure can be identified quickly and efficiently the monitoring and evaluation subsystem plays a critical part in success of any good-quality distance education Project.
Copyright
Everyone who designs in structural materials have to comply with copyright laws. In general this means obtaining permission from a copyright owner i.e. authors, publishers, institutions to use or reproduce their work in teaching materials, and paying a royalty were licensing fee if requested to do so. Although teachers in the classroom may be able to claim the protection of the fair use exception when they use copyrighted materials this is hard to justify when the materials are packaged and distributed to students. Online makes copyright compliance is even more problematic since it is so easy to copy and paste text or graphics from a web site. In 1998 the Digital millennium copyright act was passed to address the copyright implications posed by Digital media. However this act was quickly found to be to reach tricked up for teachers and institutions engaging in distance education. To rectify the situation and provide more flexibility with respect to the use of materials for distance learning courses, in 2002, the technology, education and copyright harmonization act, commonly known as the TEACH act was passed. The size the issue associate with copyright compliance this educational institutions are concerned about ownership rights were online materials. The long-standing tradition in the academic world has been for ownership of what a person writes to belong to that individual but with any online courses being developed by teams and paid for by the institution distal longer seems so appropriate.
General Design Principles
It should be apparent from the preceding section of this chapter that although there are different design considerations associated with the various technologies and media used in distance education there are some general principles that applied to them all. These includes: good structure the organization of the course and its components must be well defined and understandable for the student there must be internal consistencies among the different parts of the course, students should at all times know what they have to learn, what is expected of them to achieve the learning, and when they have arrived at the goal. Clear objectives only when a course has clear learning objectives unambiguous statements of what the student should be able to do as evidence of having learned – can instructional designers identify the most suitable learning experience, make a good technology and media selections, and design appropriate evaluation instruments. Small units the content of the core should be broken down and presented in small units each of which might correspond to a single learning object. Plan participation a fundamental mistake by inexperience educators will become involved in distance education to assume that students will participate. Participation and interaction have to be structured. Questions and assignments must be prepared to ensure that students interact with the instructor, other students, and the subject matter itself. It is not good enough to simply ask “any questions?” completeness course materials are for more than a textbook or informative web site, and should contain instructional commentary, activities, and illustrations and Mr. those that would be provided, often contemporaneously in a traditional classroom setting. Repetition unlike some other media applications in teaching it is acceptable for the text, audio, video, or computer-based systems sometimes repeat key ideas and information e.g. in an online closure summaries to provide reinforcement and to compensate for distractions and memory limitations. Synthesis in porn ideas expressed in the materials or contributed by students should be woven together especially in summaries. People do not learn as well as from being told as when they discover for themselves and then are helped to synthesize organize what they have discovered. Stimulation and variety through the use of interesting formats, content, or guests, course materials need to capture and hold the attention of students. Information should be presented in a number of different formats and by different media to appeal to varying interests and backgrounds on the students open ended assignments, examples, and problems should, where possible, be open ended to allow students to adapt content to their own interests or situations. Feedback and evaluation student should receive read with feedback on their assignments and general progress in the course. The effectiveness of media and the structural method should be routinely monitored and evaluated.

Garrison’s Viewpoint
In distance education designed by an individual teacher, it is normally not possible to satisfy all of these design considerations fully, if only because of time and budget limitations. However the more factors that can be addressed; the more effective of the course is likely to be. In single mode—and some dual mode – distance education institutions there is enough money and specialist personnel to attend more fully to all the design features, which is mainly why they are able to develop higher-quality courses.
It is time to seriously consider how we design and deliver educational experiences considering the widespread adoption of communications technology in society at large. To date, these developments have not significantly impacted traditional educational institutions.
The current challenge for administrators, policymakers, and faculty of higher education institutions is to acknowledge and accept that there have been significant and irreversible changes in societal demands, funding shortfalls, competition, technological innovations, and student demographics. In higher education we must and can to do better than lecturing to students in a 300-seat theater. As has been demonstrated by some leading institutions, once there is clear policy and leadership, the transformation will be rapid. The only question is whether educational institutions will position themselves as leaders or risk their demise.

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