Developing Online Courses: A Human-Centered Approach.
Rovy F. Branon, Brian Beatty, Jack Wilson · 2001
Companies and universities are increasingly moving to online delivery for much of their training and education needs, and designing and building quality distance education is a challenge facing many organizations. Option Six is an independent company that is building customized e-learning solutions. Over the last 2 years, the instructional designers and user experience analysts at Option Six worked to help develop a 4-stage process for evaluating e-learning courses. The process is built around Donald Norman's (2000) definition of human-centered design. Human-centered development utilizes input from students in the target audience during the earliest stages of development. By having students involved early, unnecessary complexity can be eliminated and learning can be maximized. This paper describes the process used by Option Six and outlines the benefits and challenge of human-centered design for distance education. (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Abstract Developing Online Courses: A Human-Centered ApproachDeveloping Online Courses: A Human-Centered Approach Rovy Branon Brian Beatty Jack Wilson Indiana University and Option Six, Inc. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION fCENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization . originating it. 1:1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. kr) v;) Designing and building quality distance education is a challenge facing many organizations. Option Six is an independent company building customized e-learning solutions. Over the last two years, the instructional designers and user experience analysts at Option Six worked to help develop a four-stage 7t. process for evaluating e-learning courses. The process is built around Donald Norman's (2000) definition of human-centered design. This paper describes the process used by Option Six and outlines the benefits and challenge of human-centered design for distance education.