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Creating a Distance Learning Course
UCEA Guidelines
These criteria for judging distance learning courses were developed in
1999-2000 by:
University Continuing Education Association
One Dupont Circle, Suite 615
Washington, DC 20036-1168
Phone: 202/659-3130
FAX: 202/785-0374
The Distance Learning Course Awards recognize new and innovative courses
that utilize one or more forms of instruction at a distance in three categories:
college, K-12, and non-credit.
Descriptions of Course Awards Criteria
I. COURSE PREFACE
1. Introduction, Overview, and General Objectives of the Course
The overview is usually a philosophic statement of the reason for
or value of studying the subject of the course, the sort of thing one
would expect a teacher to say in the first class of the semester. Effective
introductions make a convincing case that the subject is worth studying
and provide a clear notion of course content and approach to content.
Important here are clear and specific statements of what students should
be able to accomplish as a result of taking the course. Cognitive objectives
(be able to understand) are not prohibited, but the general objectives
should go beyond a summary of the topics to be mastered. Statements concerning
the kinds of problems to solve, the literary genre to analyze, the applications
to master, the experiments to perform--anything that relates to an ability
to do something--add strength to the general objectives. Useful under
this heading is a statement of prerequisites, including specific
courses taken, skills mastered, and experience obtained before beginning
this course. When appropriate, reassurance that no previous knowledge
is needed is also laudable.
2. Course Mechanics, Structure, Special Instructions, and Performance
Standards
This is the part of the introduction...which would not ordinarily be duplicated
in a professor's lecture in the first meeting of the classroom version
of the course. Points go to those instroductions that make an effort to
clarify the special procedures involved in independent study for
students who may never have attempted such an approach before. A brief
note of useful study skills (or ways of avoiding procrastination), or
an indication of the best order of progressing through a lesson would
gain points here. However, whatever directions are provided must not scare
students away nor browbeat them. Overkill can discourage students from
ever starting the course. Some schools provide this sort of information
under separate cover, in a folder or brochure...
Performance standards should be precise and intelligible. Students
should not receive the impression that grading depends on the whim of
the instructor or that the instructor has no systematic approach to grading
(or the evaluation of performance). Performance standards that provide
numerical calculations (to leave no doubt in a student's mind) are good,
but not the only way. A system that is too complex might be faulted. A
subject matter where numerical calculations are not relevant should be
judged on the author's success in defining or clarifying the terms of
the evaluation (e.g., use of a rating scale). In considering performance
standards, one must also consider whether the objectives are addressed
in the rest of the course and whether students receive the assistance
they may need in achieving the performance standards...
II. LESSONS
1. Stated Instructional Objectives
Although clearly stated performance objectives deserve an edge,
it is not necessary to downgrade a course whose objectives do not speak
in exclusively performance terms. Objectives should be read from the point
of view of students. Will students stop to read the objectives, or is
the list so long, general, and diverse that they just skip it? Do the
objectives focus students' attention on the material or give them a clear
sense of where the lesson is going? Or do the objectives merely list topics
or activities involved in the lesson? Simplicity, focus, clarity, force,
avoidance of jargon--all help the objectives. But these points are most
important: Will students find the objectives useful? Does the author follow
through on the objectives? Do other parts of the lesson, the written assignments,
and the examinations reflect the stated goals?
2. Commentary, Discussion, and Help, Including Possible Audio and
Video Components
Most of the time this item encompasses the author's commentary, but it
may include much more--study helps, like key topics and terms, illustrations,
outlines, any aids that help students organize lesson content. A variety
of approaches and teaching styles can be applied effectively in distance
learning courses.
The total effect of the discussion in the context of the rest
of the course is of key importance. In many courses that have won awards,
the discussion is an exposition, a substantive presentation of subject
matter that builds on, supplements, and highlights the textbook, or that
even supplants or relegates the textbook material to a secondary position.
In other award-winning courses, the discussion works more informally to
mediate between the student and the course matter, to help students understand
their reading rather than to reiterate it or to provide additional content
reading. These discussions make a special effort not to add more content
but to give the independent study student extra help in mastering content,
to help the penny drop rather than to plug another penny in. Some informality,
personal anecdote and interpretation, humor, commiseration with students
on the difficulty of the material, canniness about points students will
have problems mastering--these sorts of elements can count as much as
the power of a discussion that is a professional article or lecture...
more discussion is not necessarily better. A large quantity of discussion
can itself be a stumbling block to students--if it lacks clear order or
if too much is said without indicating what is most central and significant.
The quality of the media should be measured in terms of appropriateness
and utility. Will students find the media useful? Will they feel their
commitment of time to listen to or view a tape to be worthwhile? Even
gratuitous media (that which adds little subject content to the course)
can be useful--if the medium draws students into the course materials
or encourages them to keep working. However, gratuitous media that demand
a lot of students' time will often be ignored and should not receive extra
points. Media must be well integrated with the discussion elements of
the course.
Self-help exercises give students a way to check their mastery
of course material without the risk and time involved in submitting them
for grading. They are often comprehension checks. Distance learning students,
without the benefit of classroom discussion to check their progress against
other students in the course, can benefit from well-designed self-help.
Certainly, factual material set up in short-answer questions with answers
available (but not too available) are an obvious good choice. Study questions
regarding readings in a lesson are also helpful; extra points may be given
to courses that attempt to provide some answers, or the places to find
answers in the textbook etc. Self-help can be encouraged in other ways
as well, for example by giving students a questionnaire to try out with
family and friends, or generally by providing exercises for which students
can get reactions from people available to them, or perhaps providing
students with a computer diskette with (or other computer access to) CAI
programs. Copiousness of self-help exercises certainly adds credit; however,
there is a saturation point. Such exercises are valuable only to the extent
that students use them. If the exercises are too time-consuming, too prolific,
or too demanding (Write out three seven-page papers in answer to these
study questions and keep them handy for your reference in studying for
the exam), then students will avoid them.
3. Submitted Assignments and Assessment
Just as in any other type of teaching-learning effort, the primary consideration
for assignments is what they cause to happen in the student's mind.
The kinds of questions asked and the other kinds of activities assigned
should be appropriate to the subject matter and promote not only mastery,
but also thoughtful consideration of the content and skills the course
is designed to teach. assignments can do at least two things not usually
considered in the design of submissions for a classroom course; they can
promote the rapport between instructor and student that physical presence
usually generates in the classroom, and they can motivate students to
keep up their progress through course work.
One rule for a good submission is that it is something the students will
be anxious to hear the instructor's response to. An answer sheet with
nothing but a series of blanks filled in hardly promotes rapport, and
most students are canny enough to know that they would probably get as
much with the answers listed in the back of their study guides. Variety
in the types of exercises students submit is also desirable if it helps
students avoid the sense of being constantly drilled or falling into a
black hole of routine. Assignments should require students to consolidate,
analyze, and interpret subject matter, as well as ask them to repeat and
report it. Large projects, such as term papers, surveys, continuing lab
experiments, even annotated bibliographies, may be valuable. When possible
and not inappropriate, it is useful to give students a chance to make
a personal response to material as a means for allowing the instructor
to make a personal and individual response, but a little of this goes
a long way. A course that bases a substantial part of a student's grade
on purely personal reactions can be faulted.
If the course has exams, the study guide should prepare the student
for them. Do lesson discussions give students clear signals and help in
preparing for the exam? Does the study guide provide a separate section
to assist students in organizing their study for an exam?
III. COMMUNICATIONS VARIANTS
1. Writing Style
This item already provides some assistance--written to the level of the
audience. That is a key element here, but one must also consider other
elements of good writing: clarity, conciseness, elegance, order, eloquence.
More prose is not necessarily better prose. Also valuable is personality--will
students react to the prose by thinking a live human being wrote it, or
will they refer to thecourse introduction as the bureaucratic "they"?
Does the author address you or the student (For example, "I will
ask you to write" rather than "the students will be asked to
write")?
2. Writing Mechanics and Editorial Consistency
The course should reflect the highest professional standards. Certainly
this includes careful attention to fundamentals such as grammar, spelling,
and mechanics. Whereas inconsistency in editing hinders the learning process,
consistency in editing supports the academic function of the materials.
3. Page Organization, Layout, Cover, Additional Graphics
Effective page organization and layout can improve students' ability to
comprehend and master course material and can present that material in
ways that promote student comfort and progress. Some consideration for
evaluating this category include: Is each page of the material filled
to capacity with legible print? If the lesson follows a specific logical
or sequential order, are the elements laid out on the page to suggest
that order? Simple matters like spacing and tabbing--can make all the
difference. Also, a certain liberality of design helps; some open spaces
to provide the illusion of speed as students work through a lesson can
motivate students to keep going. Not absolutely necessary, but sometimes
effective, are the use of different styles of type for different parts
of a lesson, bullets and rules... inset quotes, summaries, lists of words,
and the like, to break up otherwise solid chunks of text. To avoid prejudicing
the criteria in favor of programs that have copious resources for development
and production, one can apply the standard--has a program made the most
of the resources it has available?
IV. GENERAL QUALITY
A course gets extra points in this category when all its elements fit
together neatly, when no single element is weak or lacking, and when each
lesson forms a part of a coherent progress (rather than one of a series
of disconnected units). At the end, a student should have an idea of how
the various pieces fit together into the whole. In this holistic category,
a course can also receive points for filling a special need--successfully
addressing a specialized audience or topic--or for being particularly
innovative.
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