Instructional Technologies: Cognitive Aspects of Online Programs : 9781591402374

Instructional Technologies: Cognitive Aspects of Online Programs provides insight into creating and utilizing successful online educational technologies and programs. Discussing the generalities of Web-based education and the specific technology applications and organizational support necessary to sustaining these programs, this important book will prove useful to scholars and students as they venture into this new educational arena.

The average student today is difficult to stereotype. Most will be in some form of employment, either part or full time, and many are professionals who find it difficult to balance work, education and family. Many working professionals are now returning to universities to either complete studies, or undertake new programs to further their skills. Above all is the requirement for flexibility. The ubiquitous nature of the Web has provided an almost perfect platform for hosting the online classroom environments and delivering the flexibility of access. The design of the online program itself can provide further flexibility, depending on the paradigm used. While online learning does not necessarily involve the Web, it has been predominately used in one form or another as a means for universal delivery.

There are issues such as quality of the program, how educationally sound the program is (not necessarily the same as quality), its effectiveness and of course its applicability. There are also concerns about the risks of such programs, should we embrace the online paradigm without caution. Many of the instructional technologies we now utilize allow us to address these issues and focus more on the cognitive aspects in online course design. However, when focusing on such issues it becomes clear that the courses must be designed around the major stakeholder, the student. While there are other stakeholders in the learning process, due to the essential individual nature of the online learner, it is vitally important that more focus be placed on the individual. This is often not practical in the counterpart on-ground course, and thus becomes a major challenge for the online developer.

In focusing on the individual, attention must be given from the initial development stages of the course to the rights, expectations and achievable outcomes of the students undertaking online study.

About the Author
Paul Darbyshire is a Lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He lectures in Object-Oriented systems, C, Java programming, Internet Programming, and has research interests in the application of Java and Web technologies to the support of teaching, as well as the application of AI to multi-agent systems. His current research is in the use of Reinforcement Learning and multi-agent systems to simulate land combat as a complex adaptive system.