Steven Mintz of the University of Texas gives a fairly simple overview of the sorts of design approaches you can take with online learning. It’s particularly useful if MOOCs are your only, or primary experience.
He sets out 5 broad approaches
- Instructional Courseware
- Social by Design
- Discovery Learning
- Education at the scale of the world
- Curriculum as a plug and play endevour
- Instructional Modules and Just-In-Time learning
My favourite statement in the article is this.
“The most radical forms of online learning, like the most revolutionary forms of in-class and hybrid education, treat the student as a knowledge creator: as a fellow researcher, investigator, and problem-solver. Education, from this perspective, is not simply training. It goes beyond instruction or tutelage to give students opportunities to think like a practitioner, to undertake authentic projects rooted in a particular field of study, and to cultivate a professional identity.”
Read more about the 5 approaches here.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/next-generation-online-learning