What makes an online course effective?

    

    One key factor to making an online course effective is the cost, in past times online courses were sometimes more expensive than traditional face-to-face classes. During the pandemic, a majority of higher education institutions offered online courses for the same price as traditional tuition. 

    Engagement, it is vital that the learners are engaged otherwise the learning will not occur. According to Inside Higher Ed, students feel a heightened level of engagement when they receive regular updates about current and upcoming content. Any attempt to increase social presence creates a simulative environment of a real-world experience for students. This can be done through the use of an online learning database such as Canvas, Blackboard, or Edline. 

    Collaborative work is a huge part of making the online environment feel like a community for the students and reinforces engagement. The use of video conferencing or group phone calls is one way to bring students together for collaboration work. During the pandemic many educators resorted to using an online application called Zoom for their video conferencing, this application is good for creating in-class groups so students can collaborate on projects and in-class assignments. Another tool used by teachers for collaboration is Google Docs and Google Slides. This tool is used so students can work on one assignment all at the same time, this is great for students to grow and work together to complete projects, assignments, and peer reviews. 

    Having a consistent structure is important to keep students organized and engaged. Often instructors have an abundance of information that needs to be accessible to students through their online learning environment. This also includes the design of the course must fit the genre of the class so that the student can navigate the site with ease. The design of the online course must be able to achieve its goal purpose of successfully teaching the course material. 

    There are limitations with online learning and it can not be compared to traditional on-campus learning. Technology can hinder just as much as it can help educators collaborate with learners to reach those goals.