Designing an online course for women learners

1. Overview of the Course

Introduction

Online learning is increasingly found in every area of education, from schools to workplace skills training. Even where teaching is primarily ‘face to face’, online tools and interactions have become a key part of the learning experience. If you work in education or training at any level, online or face to face, you need to develop new skills and understanding in order to make the right decisions, make the most of the opportunities, and overcome common challenges.

In this free course, we share the basic knowledge needed to produce an effective online course. You will hear about the experiences of three Open University educators and learn about some tools that can help you design an online course. You will also learn useful methods for testing out these new ideas.

Watch this video in which Michael Ngoasong introduces the course.

Download this video clip.Video player: course_welcome_video_michael.mp4

Download

 

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• identify the differences between teaching online and teaching in a face-to-face environment
• understand the basics of how to design a course that targets women learners
• make informed decisions when choosing new tools, pedagogies and platforms suitable for your course content and assessment
• understand how to evaluate changes and enhancing your online course

How you can study this course

This course can be studied sequentially or used as a reference guide with sections studied in any order. It includes structured study time guided by the material.

The course is also available in alternative formats such as Word or PDF which you can download and study offline.

If you work through all the content in this course and pass the end-of-course quiz you will be awarded with a certificate and a badge to recognise your learning.

Badge Information

By studying this course, you have the option of gaining a digital badge.

Badges awarded within OpenLearn Create can be shared on multiple platforms using a badge aggregator such as Badgr, Badge Passport or Credly. They can then be shared to other platforms such as LinkedIn and Wordpress.

When you complete this course and hopefully start producing and delivering your own online courses you can build your digital badge and award to participants that complete your course.

Now go to Session 2.

2. How to design a course that is attractive to learners

This session begins with an activity in which you think about what makes a course attractive to learners, from your own experience.

The second activity introduces you to a tool to help you plan how to make your course attractive to learners.

Allow about 25 minutes for this session overall.

My experience of producing or studying an online course

Make brief notes on one occasion when you have either designed or studied an online course, as an individual or team. This could be in a university, a vocational training institute or a training course organised for staff in the organisation you work for or have previously worked. You might also think about situations where you spoke about a course with friends and family.

Here are some questions to get you started:

1. What was the online course about?
2. What role did you play in the course (e.g. course leader, facilitator, adviser, learner)?
3. How was digital technology used in the course (e.g. course material uploaded on platforms, discussion tools, online games, web pages)?
4. What did you like about the course and what did you find particularly challenging?

There are no right or wrong answers to the questions. This is just to help you to reflect on your own experiences.

It is important to keep a record of your notes throughout the course, which is why we encouraged you in the welcome message to use a notebook.

Use your notes to complete the next activity in Session 2.

The learning design wheel

The Open University's Learning Design team have created a word wheel to help shape your planning. The wheel is an interactive image of how to make your course attractive to learners.

In this activity you will review the image. As you do, think about how the ideas reflect your experience of what you have done in the past or can do to attract learners to a course.

Follow the following steps:

• Step 1. Click on The learning design wheel, to launch the interactive full screen.
• Step 2. Follow the instructions on the right to review the image. There are three instructions for you to toggle the numbers 1, 2 and 3 one at a time. For instance, to toggle 1, click and hold the mouse at the 1 while rotating the wheel. As you do this, make notes of the words that are revealed.
• Step 3. For the purpose of this activity, choose three words that you would use to describe what makes a course attractive to learners.
• Step 4. Now returning to your notes from the previous session about your experiences of course design, use the three words you identified in Step 3 to describe what makes a course attractive to learners.

Get started with Session 3.

3. Understanding the learning needs of women within their local context

Allow about 35 minutes for this session overall

Having studied what makes an online course attractive to learners, we now turn to the learner. The challenge for those who design and produce online courses is to understand who their learners are, their learning needs and how to link these to the learning outcomes, content and assessment of the course. Focusing on women in marginalised communities, this session provides three inter-linked activities for addressing this challenge.

Profile of women learners in marginalised communities

Allow about 15 minutes for this activity

For this activity, we have created six learner profiles based on women in marginalised communities as a starting point for you to consider the characteristics of women in the communities that you have been or will be working in. In creating the profiles, we considered important factors for course design as follows:

• Differences in country and community cultures: e.g. two profiles from each of Australia, Chile, Cameroon, Jordan, India and Mexico
• Demographic profile: e.g. young and older women, formal education and informal learning, marital status
• Work experience and aspirations: employees, entrepreneur (owner of small business), managers
• Learning behaviour: e.g. quick and slow learner, experience of online learning
• Course topics - life and career planning, financial planning and entrepreneurship, and digital literacy.

Now complete the following tasks:

• a. Review the six profiles of women  and identify one similarity and one difference that is evident across the profiles.
• b.Select a woman in the community you live or work in. This can be an employee, entrepreneur or unemployed. It can be a local role model, a relative, friend, or anyone you would like to study. Just make sure there is enough information available, based on the factors you have reviewed.
• c.Create a short PowerPoint slide describing the profile of the women as a learner. If you are unable to create a PowerPoint slide, do not worry. You can write down the profile of your selected learner in your notebook.

The learning needs of women within their local context

Allow about 10 minutes for this activity

Watch the following video exploring how to identify the learning needs of women learners through a review of their profiles. The presentation lasts about five minutes.

Download this video clip.Video player: understanding_learning_needs.mp4

Download

 

Click here to download the ‘Women’s learning needs’ PowerPoint slides

Now make notes on the following:

• a.the main learning needs of women that are identified in the presentation.
• b.any learning needs of women in your country, city or village that are not covered in the presentation.

Setting learning outcomes and course content

Watch the following video exploring how to write learning outcomes for a course that targets women learners. The presentation lasts about five minutes.

Download this video clip.Video player: developing_learning_outcomes.mp4

Download

 

Click here to download the ‘Developing learning outcomes’ PowerPoint slides

Now complete the following tasks:

• a.Write down examples of each type of learning outcome presented in the video: knowledge and understanding, cognitive skills, key skills, professional and practical skills.
• b.Write your own examples of learning outcomes targeting the women learner profiles that you studied and the one you created. Write one learning outcome for each of the types of learning outcomes discussed in the presentation.

Now go to Session 4.

4. Learning from case studies

In this session you will learn from a case study how to understand the opportunities and challenges of online learning in your local context and develop actions you can take to address these. The case has been designed to take you through a trial run in adapting an existing face-to-face course for delivery online.

You will read the case study and examine the opportunities and challenges of creating and delivering an online course that targets women in your local communities. The case study illustrates both the contextual factors that the training provider had to address, and the actions that organization implemented in response to these factors.

SSA Institute - a case study

Allow about 30 minutes to read the case and answer the questions that follow

Anisa Manjate, the Director of SSA Institute in India, is considering how the SSA Institute can adapt and deliver an existing course online in a way that works for both staff and women learners. The opportunities are huge, but so too are the challenges. How should SSA Institute proceed to deliver their existing course online?

The SSA Institute delivers training and learning opportunities to disadvantaged young women. Most of the women have faced barriers to their education of some sort, including cultural barriers, gender-based violence, poverty, early marriage and childhood pregnancy, and conflict and displacement.

Over the past years several training and support activities have been provided by the SSA Institute. An important change is how developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital technologies provide opportunities to provide training to more women.

Paying for goods and services can now be done through mobile phones. Text messaging is increasingly being used by hospitals to communicate with patients. Social media apps are used by women to tell people about their small businesses.

ICT is also used to communicate with work colleagues, external partners and patients. In fact, even those women located in the most remote areas are being reached at a distance through phone calls and social media channels. This new reality makes online learning attractive for training providers.

Adopting online learning does not only require a focus on the learning needs of the women. It also requires training providers to consider how to train their staff to engage with emerging technologies. Collaborative online learning tools, such as discussion forums, Facebook, phone texting and WhatsApp can promote peer-to-peer collaboration, and motivate and empower learners to create and share knowledge. They also enable trainers to better monitor their students’ progress online wherever they are.

In the workplace, organizations are using these tools to encourage knowledge sharing among their staff. Those staff who can post information online at speed can do so, and others can go online and access the informaton without the need to wait for face-to-face meetings.

This type of virtual knowledge sharing, and online interaction can improve awareness and self-confidence. In short, online learning can be great for marginalised women.

Delivering their courses online may enhance the capacity of SSA Institute to train more women, especially those who have access to the internet but are unable to travel long distances to attend face-to-face training. Whatever the approach chosen, Anisa is certain about two things.

First, the SSA Institute stands to benefit from the opportunity to deliver courses online.

Second, delivering courses wholly online will not be all that easy. The SSA Institute’s existing technology and internet infrastructure may have to be upgraded, their existing courses may require adaptation, teaching staff and students will require some IT training and support.

After reflecting on the opportunities and challenges for online learning against its existing face-to-face training, Anisa recommended that SSA Institute should adapt and deliver its existing course online. Table 1 provides a summary of how one of its short courses on ‘Management basics’ was adapted and delivered online.

Now answer the following questions

1. What online learning opportunities and challenges are evident in the case?
2. What is the difference between face-to-face and online learning?
3. From your knowledge of the ICTs and digital technology in your country, what challenges do you see in replicating the approach to adapting and delivering an existing course online?

5. Course Summary and Assessment

End-of-course assessment

Allow about 25 minutes for this session overall

To test your understanding of the course and claim your certificate you will now complete a quiz. You must obtain a score of at least 50% to qualify for the badge. The quiz has six questions.

Some of the questions have more than one answer, in which case you will get part of the marks for any correct answer. Other questions have one answer choice only.

There is no limit to the number of attempts at the whole quiz.

If you get less than 50%, you will need to start again if you want to earn your badge.

If you are not successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again until you pass.

When you have finished the quiz, click on “Finish attempt” to review your ‘Summary of attempt’. Once you are happy with your answers ‘Submit all and finish’.

Grading method: Highest grade

Now complete the quiz by clicking on End-of-course quiz

Next steps in designing online courses

Congratulations on completing this course. Take some time to create a plan or identify the steps you can take to continue to develop your skills in producing online courses in future.

Completing the quiz also helps you to discover some of the principles and good practice involved in building quiz questions for online assessment purposes. Essay questions can be impossible to administer in an online course which has no teachers. Devising a quiz which engages and retains the interest of learners without asking them to write essay type answers becomes useful in assessing learners.

If you want to develop your knowledge and skills in producing and uploading online courses on a platform, try this free Open University course on How to make an open online course.

Course acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This free course was written by Michael Ngoasong, Elizabeth Daniel and Joanna Brewis of the Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University.

Course image: Women of Color in Tech stock images

Banner image: ©LovePik