Design

What adult learners need from traditional colleges and universities.

Although i have a doctoral degree in education, I decided that I wanted to get an MFA in Creative Writing. I had two criterion at the start of my search.  I wanted a wholly online degree program. I wanted a Massachusetts state school (I am an adjunct professor), because I will would hopefully be eligible for a discount on tuition. A wholly online degree program for an MFA in Creative Writing is not to be found in Massachusetts. Framingham State University came the closest but there were English requirements that were courses only available during the day and at the university.
I did not think that my quest for an online MFA in creative writing was unusual, so I started to search in other states. I guess I could pay full tuition. Program after program, I could not find an online MFA in creative writing. There were many reasons that the programs were not wholly online. One of the reasons was that “in-seat” time was required was because of guest lecturers that were famous or successful authors. Fair enough. I guess I would not mind sitting in a class where the guest lecturer was James Patterson or maybe even President Bill Clinton (he’s a fiction writer, now), https://www.amazon.com/President-Missing-Novel-James-Patterson/dp/0316412694 
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There’s something cathartic about commiserating in unpleasant shared experiences. Like that time you were looking over the courses in your LMS and realized that they had no standardized navigation. Maybe, that’s the reason for the uptick of emails from lost and confused students. You felt like a terrible, horrible, no good LMS administrator. Horrifying at the time, but when you describe the situation later to a fellow LMS admin, you feel a little better about that same situation happening to them.
Anthony (2012) researched the design of online courses and found that consistent course design is the most vital factor for student interaction and success. Recently, I was reviewing an online course for an LMS administrator friend of mine. I read the following message on a discussion board on the course’s second week. Student; “I can’t find the textbook information”. Teacher; “The textbook information is where it always is”. Not surprisingly, the student stopped submitting assignments on week six. (more…)