In addition to having a usable delivery environment, there is a need to create a course organization that supports remote students. Our approach is to build extensive structure into the course materials and activities. Our general experience with ALN offerings is that the course activities must be completely defined and clearly structured before the course begins. Making additions or adjustments during course delivery is difficult to do without creating a lot of confusion among the students. One of the key issues in developing the structure for class activities is to decide whether there are any points of synchronization of activities across students.
Several models are possible.
This model supports self-paced instruction, but it limits collaborative learning since students could become widely dispersed over the set of course activities. An alternative model includes synchronization points but allows asynchronous activity between those points. This has the reverse effect of limiting self-pacing but promoting collaborative learning. We have adopted this second model for the Drexel courses since we wanted to promote collaboration among students. At a practical level, this means that each course product and activity has a schedule.