In the digital era we are living in, all professional sectors are running digitally. The same happens with our education system too. Leaving behind the conventional methods of teaching and learning, online education is reaching greater heights of success.
With the better flexibility, convenience, comfort, and cost-effectiveness provided by the online courses platform, educators and learners are opting for the same. To design an effective online course and provide students with the best academic services, including a few main elements are important. Let us discuss the main elements of a good online course.
Elements of a good online course
- Provides in-hand information and affordable
To provide students with a great learning and administrative experience, providing them with hand information easily is important. If students and parents have to struggle to know about your online course, and the complete details, they might not join it or drop it off later. So make sure you provide learners with the proper course details and be in touch with them regularly. Also, designing a pocket-friendly course is important. If the course fees are high, it will become financially stressful for students to pay and this can make you lag in the competitive race too. Therefore, budget and course fees are important elements to be taken care of.
- Regular instructor presence
Without teachers’ support, guidance, and regular presence, the academic understanding, and performance of the students can be affected to a great extent. Having a regular instructor presence is an important element to be included for online course success. Without an instructor’s presence, students might feel left out and alone.
Therefore make sure that teachers are in regular touch with students. In the case of synchronous learning, live classes should be conducted constantly. Also, in the case of asynchronous learning, be actively involved with students via emails, messages, assignment submissions, feedback, and more. This will make students feel valued, and also their academic needs will be met too.
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- Includes a standard study material
An important element to be included in the online course is standard study material. The study material should include quality recorded videos for students. Audio lessons and other technical learning tools like educational videos, modules, demonstrations, picture cards, PowerPoint presentations, visual notes, graphs, and more should also be provided to students. With the help of visualization, students tend to understand the concepts better and quicker.
- Engaging, and challenging for students
An important element of an online course is that it should be engaging and challenging for the students. A teacher-centered approach to teaching won’t work to boost students’ learning skills and also make the classes monotonous. Make sure that you interact with students in the classes throughout.
Also conduct participatory activities such as group discussions, recitations, question-answer rounds, presentations, quizzes, oral tests, and more. Don’t keep things very easy. Let students be accountable, face challenges, and excel in the learning field. Set a healthy class competition too.
- Should include practice
Online courses should not be limited to listening to the teachers or reading the lessons or texts. An effective online course should include practice and applying the knowledge gained. For how to sell courses online successfully, make sure you have practice sessions too. For example in an English class, making students write on creative writing topics and grammar practice is important. Also, in applicative subject classes, numerical and word problems practice is necessary.
- Assessment for successful completion of online course
For effective teaching and learning, only attending the classes is not enough. To see how much students understood, and how effective the course was for them, conducting assessments is important. Assessment is a significant element that every online course creator must include in their courses. Assignments can be taken in both formative and summative methods. Starting from the pen-paper method of taking tests, you can practice different assignment modes.
For example, conducting online quizzes. Or making google forms on question answers, filling in the blanks, ticking the correct option, etc can also be conducted. This will help to check students’ understanding and knowledge of the academic subjects being taught to them. The better the assessment results, the more the course and students’ success respectively.
Conclusion
With the advancements in science and technology, online course platforms are increasing rapidly. To make an online course successful, including the main elements in it is important. By following the above-mentioned elements, educators can create effective online courses to provide students with a quality learning experience.
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