Online Course Delivery Styles

Now that you have defined the learning objectives for your course and are familiar with learning styles, you can determine how each module should be delivered.

An online course can be delivered using a variety of means such as video, screen casts, slides,
animations, visuals, audio and text.

Your choice will be influenced by how complex and specific the learning objective is.

For example, let’s say your course is on baking and the objective is simply to “recall” the ingredients of a basic sponge cake, then this could be delivered with just some text and visuals.

However if the objective was more complex such as to “apply” a technique to create a fluffy cake filling, then a video would probably be more appropriate.

You may even find that some objectives are difficult to deliver in an online course and maybe better suited to in person.

This could be for practical reasons such as a need for smell or if it is risky such as like learning to sky dive. Maybe there is a need for real time active feedback such as when learning to fine tune a tennis serve.

You may find that this opens up opportunities for you to delivery by other mechanisms in addition to your online course such as consultation or one one one coaching.

You’ll also want to keep in mind maintenance.

Information that can change such as prices or links to a website would be best in supporting text rather than in a video. This way you can more easily make updates.

Having said all of that, I think for the most the part, your online course modules should be video based.

That doesn’t just mean it has to be you in front of the camera all the time. It could be screencasts or slides with your voice over.

Simple text and images are great as a supplement such as for support material like a workbook or infographic.