Choosing between face-to-face and online teaching on campus

 

Which mode? Student needs

It will be suggested that when making choices about mode of delivery, teachers and instructors need to ask the following four questions: 
  • who are – or could be – my students? 
  • what is my preferred teaching approach? 
  • what are the content and skills that I need to teach? 
  • what resources will I have to support my decision? As always, start with the learners. 

Entirely online/distance learners, Research has repeatedly shown that fully online courses suit some types of students better than others: older, more mature students; students with already high levels of education; part-time students working and/or with families. Today, ‘distance’ is more likely to be psychological or social, rather than geographical.

Choosing between face-to-face and online teaching on campus

Analyzing student demographics may help to decide whether or not a course or program should be either campus-based or fully online, but we need to consider more than just student demographics to make the decision about what to do online and what to do on campus for the majority of campus-based courses and programs that will increasingly have an online component. 

Steps


Step 1: identify the main instructional approach.
Step 2. Identify the main content to be covered.
Step 3. Identify the main skills to be developed during the course.
Step 4: Analyse the most appropriate mode for each learning objective.