Welcome to Online Learning

Background

During the analysis  phase of the  EIP Online Tutorials project, I researched what kind of student questions were coming through our support email account. I learned that students were not just asking how to complete common activities in any given course, but wanted to know what an online course looks like and how to navigate one, what could they expect and what's expected of them, what kind of presence does the instructor have - simply, how does online learning work? 

We had been ignoring two target audiences – prospective students that were interested in enrolling but wanted to understand online learning a bit more before making the jump, and those that were already enrolled but wanted to prepare before their first class. 

So, I developed two videos:

essentials_of_online_learning_2019_final.mp4

Essentials of Online Learning

Target Audience: Prospective students, haven’t taken an online course before, low-literate tech

Key Topics: Fundamentals of online learning, key difference between face-to-face and online courses, benefits afforded by online learning, instructor presence and communication, qualities of successful online learners, technology and computer literacy considerations

getting_ready_for_online_learning_2019_final.mp4

Getting Ready for Online Learning

Target Audience: Enrolled students, haven’t taken an online course before, want to prepare for upcoming online course

Key Topics: Be tech ready (hardware and software), organization and time management best practices, online communication skills

Implementation

Since the videos targeted two very different audiences, the videos were implemented in separate areas.

For Essentials, the video was posted on each online program homepage and was viewable by the general public. The student enrollment process begins on these program homepages, so implementing Essentials here was critical in informing students about online learning at EIP during their decision-making process. 

Getting Ready targeted students that were already enrolled and wanted to prepare for their upcoming course. So, we added it to the EIP Online Tutorials website. The website link was already being sent to students via email prior to the beginning of the course, so it was a natural fit for the new video.