Designing the Online Learning Experience: Evidence-Based Principles and Strategies

This book provides instructors with a holistic way of thinking about learners, learning, and online course design. The distinctive strategies derived from an integrated framework for designing the online learning experience help create an experience that is more personalized, engaging, and meaningful for online learners.

The focus of this book is on the learners and the design of their online learning experiences. The authors refer to learning design instead of instructional design – which focuses on instruction and places the instructor at the center stage of the process. Therefore, the focus is on approaching a learner’s online course experience as a journey consisting of a combination of learning interactions with content, instructor, and other learners.

In most online courses, instructors and learners are separated in time and space and depend on technology to facilitate interactions that often lack a strong personal dimension. As online learning continues to proliferate and mature, the emphasis on simply making content available to students online is no longer acceptable. Creating online courses now requires a new way of thinking that incorporates new design ideas and approaches from a variety of fields; it also requires a new set of learning design skills for instructors and course designers.

Organized into eight chapters, this volume focuses on enhancing online learning experiences for each of the major aspects of an online course, providing evidence-based principles and strategies to promote learner engagement and deep learning. The concluding chapter provides an example illustrating a real-world application of the principles and strategies covered in the book, using Design Thinking to create learning experiences.

This book provides strategies for approaching the learning experience from an integrative perspective for both experienced online instructors and those new to online course design. These strategies are based on evidence-based learning design principles and encourage the reader to adopt an empathic mindset focused on the experience of the learner.

Simone C. O. Conceição is a professor and chair in the Department of Administrative Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She received her doctorate in adult and distance education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master's in adult and continuing education leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has served on the editorial board of six journals and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals; written more than 20 book chapters; and authored five books on the topics of online education, adult learning, online student motivation and support, and faculty workload when teaching online.

Les L. Howles has over30 years professional experience in distance educa­tion, eLearning, mediaproduction, and instructional design. He has held multiple positions at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison including direc­tor of Distance EducationProfessional Development, team leader for the Learning Solutions group andsenior eLearning consultant. Throughout his career, Howles has developed andtaught online courses, designed educational software, and led groups ofprofessionals in creating innovative learning solu­tions for education andtraining. He has worked in multiple industries includ­ing higher education,corporate training, government, health care, K–12 and is an independentlearning design strategist for Howles Associates. He serves on the editorialboard of eLearn Magazine and has authored and coauthored numerousarticles for professional publications. Howles holds undergradu­ate degreesfrom Saint Edward’s University and the State University of New York. He earnedhis graduate degree in Educational Technology from the University of Oregon.Howles has been a frequent presenter at regional, national, and internationalconferences and directed the Annual Distance Teaching & Learning Conferencein Madison, Wisconsin.