What is a canned course? Faculty perceptions of courses created by others


“If the best faculty in your discipline were brought together with the best instructional designers and media developers,
and if they then created the best online course in your area, would you use it?” (Threlkheld, 2006). Join us in a discussion of faculty views on using online courses through a national repository of high quality, media-rich courses developed for a worldwide audience. This blank easel will frame the discussion with a quote from the white paper titled, How Community College Faculty View Online Learning: Conversations with the Field (Threlkheld, 2006).

See photos from the Blank Easel: Proctor & Rominger .


Some notes from the dialogue:

Many parsed the meaning of the question, asking for clarification on “best,” “use” and “you.”

How have courses been designed?

Past (1990s):
By instructor – on own
Text based
Work for hire
Based on textbook
Start with learning objectives

Current
All of the above
team approach entering (library, instructional design, copyright expert, experienced teacher)
DL courses now more mainstream

Emerging
Standard platforms emerging
More common courses taught across different institutions to achieve efficiency

How is content delivered?

Past:video tapes, text, TV, web sites
Current: LMS, online conferencing, multimedia (mostly one way, not interactive)
Emerging: hybrid, mobile, open source, learning objects

Where does content come from?
Past: Textbooks, SME
Current: course cartridges from publishers, open courseware
Emerging: open courseware, learning object repositories, learner generated,

What is satisfying about teaching online: flexibility, global. Access, potential for democratic student participation

Stereotypes associated with “canned courses:”

Negative:
Pre-structure is limiting,
“college lite”
dump the cartridge in, easy
“I am the best”
“I am reduced to being the facilitator of someone else’s content”
for TAs and adjuncts
gets stale
like buying a term paper
monolithic. can’t be modified

Positive;
clear expectations
more multimedia that would be difficult or time consuming to build on your own
consistency
economically repeated
quality – adheres to single learning theory

Desired:
Customizable
Modular
Acquire content resources but you define the learning experience (assignments and activities that engages the content)
Open Source (free!) Shared source (shred within a defined network)
Instructor tool-kits – resources and training to new tools for teaching
Tools to track student participation
Feedback tools



dwproctor
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dwproctor SLOAN November 2007 0 Jun 28 2007, 1:57 PM EDT by dwproctor
dwproctor
Thread started: Jun 28 2007, 1:57 PM EDT  Watch
This presentation was accepted for the SLOAN 2007 conference. If you would like to be a part of the ongoing conversation on this topic, please come see Ruth and me!


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RRominger Canned Courses - Emerging trends, flexible source material 0 Mar 6 2007, 11:36 AM EST by RRominger
RRominger
Thread started: Mar 6 2007, 11:36 AM EST  Watch
In this workshop we revisited the concept of "canned courses" in light of the emerging sources that allow instructors/faculty to customize their courses by "mashup"... mixing content from various sources, adding their own material and sourcing from course repositories (like the National Repository of Online Courses --NROCNetwork.org), and open education resources.
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Nick_Carbone How Instructors View Canned Courses 0 Mar 6 2007, 7:40 AM EST by Nick_Carbone
Nick_Carbone
Thread started: Mar 6 2007, 7:40 AM EST  Watch
"The Standardization of College Teaching" by Shari Wilson in _Inside Higher Ed_ is about being forced to use a particular textbook in a traditional course, but a lot of what she describes applies to how many instructors feel about 'canned course." http://insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/12/wilson.
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dwproctor FLIKR Photos of this session are available 1 Mar 5 2007, 8:55 PM EST by dwproctor
dwproctor
Thread started: Mar 5 2007, 8:47 PM EST  Watch
To get a look at the Rominger and Proctor session and to see an example of Visual Facilitation Graphics associated with presentation go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7216696@N07/

Visual Facilitation by R. Rominger
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dwproctor Related ULRs 1 Mar 5 2007, 12:40 PM EST by dwproctor
dwproctor
Thread started: Mar 5 2007, 12:37 PM EST  Watch
Find about Montery Institute of Technology(MITE) & National Respository of Online Courses (NROC)
http://www.montereyinstitute.org/

Find out about the Minnesota Online Digital Exchange project and NROC content.
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