Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development, C. R. Wright

8/9/2019 Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development, C. R. Wright

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Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development

Clayton R. Wright, PhDcrwr77[at]gmail.com

Function ActivityProject Coordination • If several courses are being developed for distance delivery at

the same time, a project coordinator may be required.Frequently, however, the course developer or the instructionaldesigner takes on this role.

• A project coordinator provides overall management for theproject, establishes timelines and team responsibilities, monitorsprogress and project expenditures, and reviews all materialsbefore they are printed or produced.

• An advisory committee may be established to oversee theproject, especially if the program in which the courses will beused is new to the institution. The committee contributes to the

overall planning of the project, provides feedback, validates theaccuracy and currency of the course material, and evaluates theproject outcomes.

CourseWriting/Development

A course developer converts existing course materials or lecture-based course to a distance course. Frequently, the coursedeveloper is the instructor who has knowledge about the subjectmatter, the learners, and instructional methods. The developer:

• conducts background research regarding the subject matter

• completes a course blueprint that outlines the approach to thetopic and the congruency among objectives, activities, andevaluation methodology

• establishes goals and objectives for the course

• outlines the content of the course and decides on the content

sequence• identifies resources that could be used

• identifies items that may need copyright clearance

• writes and/or develops the learning material

• prepares media material or outlines what the media personnelneed to produce

• develops activities, assignments and self-tests

• prepares final course evaluative instruments.

Course Review • A course reviewer verifies academic content and methodology.This individual cannot be the original writer of the material as itcan be difficult to spot errors in one’s own work. Frequently, anexternal reviewer is appointed to conduct this review. If funds are

limited, the reviewer may be an in-house instructor or theprogram chair who is familiar with the content and the studentswho will take the course.

Clerical Support • Support personnel may be required to enter drafts and final text.Many course developers do not require this assistance as theydo the word processing themselves.

Copyright Clearance • An intellectual property officer obtains clearances for the use of copyrighted material. (Payments may vary depending on the



quantity of material, number of users of the material, where theusers are located, and the length of time permission is grantedfor the use of the material.)

Instructional Design Instructional designers assist course developers with:

• identifying suitable asynchronous and synchronous deliverymethods based primarily on learning and instructional needs and

the accessibility of delivery mechanisms such as mail, radio,audioconferencing, teleconferencing, compact discs, digital videodiscs, and the Internet

selecting and writing objectives

organizing content

generating learning activities

• identifying, obtaining, and/or creating learning materials

• developing formative and summative evaluation activities

• quality assurance by checking that the course adheres to aspecified standard or meets criteria such as those provided inCriteria for Evaluating the Quality of Online Courses(Wright,2003).

Editing Editors are vital as they help to ensure that a quality product isproduced. They:

• edit a course for meaning, style, spelling, and punctuation

• check material for gender, political and/or other biases which areparticularly relevant when adapting materials from another source

• verify that all quotations and resources have been accuratelyrecorded and identified

• proofread the final material.

Media Support Media personnel may perform a variety of tasks, including thosebelow.

• Reformat existing graphics or other media. For example, thevideo format used in North America is different from the oneused in Africa or Southeast Asia.

• Prepare new graphics including front page or home page,illustrations and icons.

• Take photographs.

• Produce animation and video streaming material.

• Write radio, audio, and/or video scripts.

• Produce radio, audio, and video productions.

• Combine all the above to be delivered via compact discs or theInternet.

• Perform HTML coding for items delivered via the Internet.

Course Evaluation A course evaluator:

• develops and analyses student and tutor questionnaires

• recommends changes that should and could be made to thelearning materials.

Materials should be piloted prior to general distribution. However,this is frequently done during the first offering of a course andinfrequently after the initial offering.

All courses should be reviewed and revised on a regular basis.Online distance courses can be revised “on the fly” or when theneed arises. However, print-based courses with technical

Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development by C. R. Wright 2



information should be revised every year or at least every twoyears. Other courses should be thoroughly revised every four or five years. Between course revisions, an “update sheet” can beprovided each year.

Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development by C. R. Wright 3

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Expertise Required for Distance Delivery Course Development, C. R. Wright