Preparation Ecosystem
- Environment
- Students need a certain environment (PC, connection, software) and some preparation needs to be done to make sure that the student has that.
- Tech skills
- Students need to know something about how to use whatever learning system exists. there has to be a way to impart this knowledge.
- Subject matter skills
- Students need to have some pre-requisite knowledge in the discipline to take the course.
- Study skills
- Students need to have the discipline and learning skills to benefit from the course.
- Support
- When students run into problems with any of these there has to be a mechanism to:
- find out and
- help them through it.
- Content
- Designed for interaction - to keep students engaged - page clicking won't necessarily motivate students.
- Learner
- Disciplined, motivated to learn, has a need for learning, self-directed.
- Instructor
- Aware of students needs/concerns and involvement levels, attempts to draw students in to discussions early, organized schedule, provides resources for learners in need of additional learning (remedial).
- Technology
- Should play a servant role. Tools should be selected that involve learners and help them to connect with each other/content/instructor. For example chat, discussion questions, voice over IP are useful for connecting students and can be seen as student-centered technologies.
- Organization
- Focused on learning, time and resources made available, learners supported (through help desks etc.).
Many of these areas are outside of the instructors influence...but still need to be considered or if an area is weak (i.e. limited organizational support), other areas may have to play a more prominent role to ensure learners are prepared and succeed.
