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Instructional Planning and Design of Online Learning Experiences

Student Name

Institution

Course Name

Instructor

Date
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Instructional Planning and Design of Online Learning Experiences

Presence at the Course Site

The most fundamental of all practices is being present on the course site. Studies done

before have indicated that students like faculties that are present several times a week.

Interaction tools such as faculty blogs, discussion board postings and announcements

promote an optimum online learning experience. Presence is essential to the online learning

experience as it helps the students evolve and develop both personal and intellectual as a

group (Beach, 2017). The community bonding in an online platform replicates a face-to-face

classroom. The three types of online presence that a faculty should promote are cognitive

presence, teaching presence and social presence.

Use Synchronous Learning Techniques

The culture of online learning was introduced in an almost perfectly asynchronous

manner. Correspondence distance learning is currently widespread, and synchronization of

learning activities is core to its success. When designing instructional planning and online

education, the course management systems, learning collaboration tools and other web tools

must be designed synchronized (Luo et al., 2018). This aids in a comprehensive learning

experience for students with different study support backgrounds. Therefore, students can

learn from the platform despite accessing it from other device types, internet quality, and

maybe time zones. Students should also review the courses at their own time and gain similar

learning from the live classrooms.

Early Informal Feedback

In most cases, students are encouraged to provide their feedback in course

evaluations. These course evaluations are, however, a postmortem effect as they are done

after the fact. At the course evaluations, nothing meaningful can be done to change the
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students learning experience (Trust & Pektas, 2018). Early feedback effectively assists

students to share their learning experience on what's working and what's not. A faculty can

also solicit suggestions from students on what might help them gain a better experience from

a course.

Professional Dispositions of Learners

The learning behaviors towards students, families, colleagues, professional ethics,

commitments influence the community, and values are referred to as dispositions.

Dispositions affect educator's professional growth, motivation and development, student and

achievement and learning. These dispositions should dictate the patterns of professional

conduct of learners. Examples of dispositions include high exceptions, respect for the

diversity of others, professional conduct and reflection. This paper further elucidates how

respect for others diversity supports best teaching and learning practices in higher education.

Respect for The Diversity of Others

Educators should find the social needs of students, such as the community's cultural

diversity, as sensitive to their learning (Beach, 2017). The relationships built with students,

parents, fellow administrators and the community should be characterized by rapport and

respect (Boelens et al., 2018). Diversity can be promoted and appreciated by learning about

the backgrounds and cultures of other students, setting a culture of intolerance towards any

behavior that shows discrimination based on diversity among others.

Respect for other people's backgrounds prepares students for diverse workplaces in

the future. Students, administrators and parent also feel safe and confident among each other.

Appreciation of diversity also helps the students become more emphatic and avoid any

prejudices against any community in the future. Students gain a comprehensive

understanding of classroom subjects as they are approached from different backgrounds

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(Boelens et al., 2018). Appreciation of diversity is essential to both modern and traditional

forms of higher learning. Students and other stakeholders should treat each other with utmost

respect irrespective of their backgrounds.

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References

Beach, P. (2017). Self-directed online learning: A theoretical model for understanding

elementary teachers' online learning experiences. Teaching and Teacher

Education, 61, 60-72.

Boelens, R., Voet, M., & De Wever, B. (2018). The design of blended learning in response to

student diversity in higher education: Instructors’ views and use of differentiated

instruction in blended learning. Computers & Education, 120, 197-212.

Luo, T., Murray, A., & Crompton, H. (2017). Designing authentic learning activities to train

pre-service teachers about teaching Online. International Review of Research in open

and distributed Learning, 18(7).

Trust, T., & Pektas, E. (2018). Using the ADDIE model and universal design for learning

principles to develop an open online course for teacher professional

development. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(4), 219-233.