They Aren’t Wrong, We Are: Designing Online Courses for How Students Actually Use Them

Thursday, Oct. 6 | 2–3 p.m. | WebEx

From the University of Minnesota: This month we’ll continue our “Best of Summit” series from 2-3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6. Joining us via WebEx will be Ellyn Buchanan, Sara Hurley and Audra Kerlin from the University of Minnesota presenting: 

They Aren’t Wrong, We Are: Designing Online Courses for How Students Actually Use Them

As instructional designers and academic technologists, we devote our time to working with faculty and content experts to meticulously design and develop online courses. The student voice, however, is all but absent in this process. We are making broad assumptions about who our students are and how they will interact with the environments we design. We are creating these courses for them, and if they aren’t using them the way we expect, they aren’t doing it wrong, we are. After undergoing usability testing of multiple online course designs, the Office of E-Learning Services, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, gained a better understanding of how students think and operate in our online courses. As a result of this testing we have implemented numerous changes to our design process, the most important of which is a commitment to building relationships with our students.

Presenters:

  1. Ellyn Buchanan, PhD, is the Learning Technologist with the Office of E-Learning Services, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. Her interests include design and aesthetics in online education and technology integration. She created and currently manages the Student Advisory Board for Online Learning in the School of Public Health.
  2. Sara Hurley, MFA, PhD, is the director of the Office of E-Learning Services at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She is a relentless advocate for putting student experience first and using technology to create better learning experiences.
  3. Audra Kerlin is a multimedia project coordinator with the Office of E-Learning Services at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health. She supervises undergraduate student workers and manages the production of multimedia projects. Her background is in Library and Information Science and she is passionate about digital literacy and user experience design.

eLearning Summit presentation link: http://pubs.lib.umn.edu/minnesota-elearning-summit/2016/program/69/

Topic: MNLC – Meeting & Webinar

Session number: 809 657 965

Session Password: MNLC@2016

Date: Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016

Time: 2 p.m., Central Daylight Time (Chicago, GMT-05:00)

Teleconference information

To receive a call back, provide your phone number when you join the training session. Alternatively, you can call one of the following numbers and enter the access code:

Call-in toll-free number:1-(888) 742-5095  (US)

Call-in number:1-(619) 377-3319  (US)

Conference Code: 297 345 8873

WebEx Windows 10 Compatibility Issue – Participants with the Windows 10 operating system will need to use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as an alternate web browser and adjust the compatibility mode of the alternate browser to Windows 7. Note: This issue applies to Windows 10 only. If you have Windows 10 as your operating system complete these steps to enable viewing of this webinar:

  1. Use either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as your browser.
  2. Complete the following steps prior to connecting to the WebEx webinar.
    1. Go to the start menu.
    2. Select “All Programs” and find the browser in the program list.
    3. Right mouse click on the browser. From the box that pops up select “Properties”.
    4. From the Properties box select the “Compatibility” tab.
    5. On the Compatibility tab select the box “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
    6. From the drop down box under the check box select “Windows 7”.
    7. At the bottom of the Properties box select “Apply” and then “OK”.
    8. Connect to the WebEx webinar.