Determining Course Content (1:48)

Hightower: When we talk to an instructor, we usually know ahead of time that we'll have to scale back some of the material. You just can't deliver as much content in a distance education arena as you can in a regular course. You can cover the same theories, concepts, but not usually in the same detail. So when we're talking about content, I know we'll usually have to scale back. We ask the instructor what are the key concepts in your class that you want to get across. And from there, we try to take away any fluff that's in the course, anything that has been added to the course that is not absolutely necessary for the student to know about.

Irani: One of the things you have to do is to look at it from a student's standpoint, and as you develop each content block or content chunk, it's a good idea to sit back, do it yourself, and try to find out how long it takes you. We know that the mediated environment and the distance education experience is going to take the students a little bit longer for the students to experience the course. You have to take that into consideration and look at it from the student's perspective.

Rudd: As far as the objectives and content, they are very similar between those taught in a distance course and those taught in a traditional classroom. My personal philosophy is that a distance course shouldn't be any more of a course or any less of course as that taught in a traditional classroom. The objectives, basically, are the same. More of the content, in the distance course, is delivered by other media, instead of me talking to students in a traditional course.