The Poor Course Developer

The Poor Course Developer

With the rapid growth and ease of getting an online education, online course developers are the silent contributors to the field of learning. They are not the teachers who are at the front end to deliver the course, but in actual practice,  they may be filling the positions of subject matter expert, instructional designer, media specialist, or even content editor.  To be a course developer, one should understand the cognitive and learning theories as his course would be a tool to invoke learning a new concept. Learners are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in a course when they consider that the content can meet their personal and professional needs. The content developer must recognize the psychological needs of the learner. He has to keep in mind that the course is motivational enough to encourage participation, curiosity, openness, and confidence. The belongingness and relatedness of the topic, promote self-actualization and develops self-esteem in the student, making learning pleasant in an effective learning environment.

Developing a corporate training on the usage of a Municipal Solid Waste to Energy facility is quite a task for me. Being a mechanical engineer, and having field experience in industrial plant commissioning, the concept and working of such a plant is easy for me. I am familiar with the different sections, components, processes of incineration, conversion of thermal energy to mechanical and then electrical energy, but putting all of it together as a course is a tedious and cumbersome process. I can design engineering plants, draw their components, do engineering calculations, but putting it all together as a training is difficult. I am glad that I took a course in Instructional Design earlier, but I am a not naturally gifted writer at all. I have to force myself to write and to be realistic, I am not very successful at it.

The course development started with an ID development document. The technical content is being written and I have to keep in mind the technical and intellectual knowledge of my audience. My students would be comprised of highly qualified engineers, rich businessmen, elected city officials, and bureaucrats. They all are professionals in their respective fields, but very unlikely to be knowledgeable in others. I should develop this training at a level that would promote learning in all of my students, and of course, keeping it interesting for them at the same time. I am glad that my colleague and reviewer is an English teacher. She was very kind and precise on finding mistakes in my writing and suggested corrections to make the material up to standard. 

The CANVAS learning management system is very robust and easy to use not only to instructors but to students as well.  Canvas LMS offers a platform with which I can generate an effective and easy learning atmosphere that I want for my learners. Reviewing the features, I learned that the CANVAS LMS can provide feedback, merge videos, blogs, and other channels of education while tracking students’ progress. The flexibility and customization capabilities of this LMS would make my job easier. The best part is that the students can interact with their teacher by uploading audio and video files.

I am still learning to use the features of this great LMS and hopefully, I would be able to develop a good course for my class.