Web Based Courses

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WebBased Online Courses

What is an Online Course?

An Online or Web Based course allows use of the technological media, such as the Telephone, Internet and other communications technology as the medium for interfacing the Instructor with the students.

How Online Courses Work?

There are a number of different technologies and software packages that can serve as the medium for Online courses.  

In its simplest format, we can use the telephone, with the Instructor on one end and a group of students on the other.  Course material could be sent ahead of time so each attendee has either paper or presentation slides in front of him/her as the instructor lectures.  The Instructor can inform the students what page of the course notes to look at.  The telephone can be used for questions, or optionally, the telephone can be muted on the students' end.

Variations exist to improve on this simplest format.  For example, the course material can be placed on a web page and the students given access to it for the duration of the course.  Using some software tools, both students and instructors can write onto the slides while the class is in progress.

Major Variations in Online Courses

Beyond the type of technology that is used to convey the course, here are some variations that you should consider in Online Courses:

• Webinar - A broadcasting of a topic, usually prerecorded and presented to a large audience over the Internet at a given time.  You will be asked to log in at the time the course is given.  Questions may or may not be posed in real time, due to synchronization problems.  Questions may be emailed, however, and the instructor may be able to respond before the presentation ends.
• Webinar Archive - This is usually the saved copy of the Webinar and when available you can acquire it by downloading it and view it at your leisure.
• Online Course to a Single Facility - This is the method we discussed in the previous paragraph.  Cost of the telephone connection is minimized and the number of attendees can be increased.
• Online Course to Multiple Recipients - This method allows the Online Course to be presented to geographically separate locations simultaneously.  Due to Internet synchronization problems, typically the telephone is used, which increases the cost of the presentation.
• Online Courses with Educational Software - There are an increasing number of Educational Software packages that can overcome some of the limitations.  Use of such software may add to the cost.

Benefits of Online Courses

The major benefits of Online Courses are as follows:

• There is no need for travel.
• The time can be set so that it is convenient for the attendees.
• With multiple location courses, companies can train their staff together without the need for travel.
• The courses can be customized to your needs.
• The number of attendees at each of your locations is not a cost factor (though too many questions will slow the progress of the class).

Concerns of Online Courses

In our experience with teaching Online and WebBased Courses, we found a few issues of concern that you should be aware of:

• Despite the technology, communication in this format is not as smooth as it is in a classroom setting.
• Questions submitted in written form are not as clear and the answers may fail to grasp the question accurately.
• The amount of time one can comfortably spend on an online course is a maximum of 3 hours.  After that the attention span decreases rapidly.  So what would be normally a 3-day course (at 6 hours per day) will likely take 6 days to cover.

In general Online Courses are better at being able to present information than at receiving information.

Proceed with the selection of
WebBased Online Courses

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