2 Important Principals

1.2.1 Course learning goals and objectives should be stated in a manner that is clear and measurable.

This is important when designing an online, eLearing or distance course because since you do not have control over the learning environment in the classroom each week, the objectives are what will really guide the students. In a classroom scenario, maybe a teacher could get away with a weak objective because they can provide in-class guidance throughout the semester. This leaves room for error in their objectives and allows them to mold the outcomes as they progress. In a distance course, it is so important to be precise and explicit in what the expectations are for the coarse and what the student is expected to know at the end of it. This is the only way for everyone to be on the same page and make sure the students can not give the teachers any excuses on why they did not accomplish something or did not understand something.

1.4.1 Methods and procedures for formative and summative course evaluation should be carefully planned in the course design process

In a distance course, the methods of evaluation are imperative to the students success. Since the course will depend on self-learning, the students may feel or be at a loss when it comes to how well they think they are doing in the course. They may have no idea that they are actually excelling in the program or even failing at adopting the concepts. It's not good enough of the teacher to simply respond to evaluation of work with a letter grade. It needs to more interactive for the students. The students need individual feedback on their strengths and weaknesses since this is something they will not be able to naturally pick up like they could in a classroom setting by comparing themselves to others and getting peer feedback as well. I believe the formative evaluations are the most crucial, especially if the course includes a project the students need to build off of each week, like in our course. If they start out wrong from the beginning and don't receive any form of evaluation, then their entire semester will be off-set and they will not be able to receive a fair and accurate summative evaluation because of lack of help.