3 Tips

Three tips I would use as a facilitator for a distance education course are:

1. All first-time distance education students should be given a clear statement of course requirements in advance. This should include:
(1) all course requirements; (2) the weekly time commitment and specific computer skills required by the course; and (3) a presentation of the practical difficulties of working at a distance and what is needed to manage those challenges successfully. This information must be provided either in written form or through a same-time same-place video or Internet-based orientation program.
This is important to know what the student is expecting out of the course and that their level of learning matches the amount of material that will be taught.

2. The amount of material covered in a distance education course, and the depth with which it is covered, should equal that of a classroom-based course.
This is important because students wanting to take online classes are usually the ones looking for the least amount of work or just trying to make class as convenient as possible. Therefore material should be described in greater detail so that these online students may accomplish the assignments successfully without any problems, but not being given less work.

3. To maximize communication electronically, distance learning courses should, to the greatest extent possible, incorporate both:
- real-time electronic interchange through devices such as chat rooms and discussion groups
- asynchronous forms of communication such as e-mail and computer bulletin boards.
This is important because communication between the instructor and students or between students and students will make the non-physical part of an online course much easier to cope with.