When we sit down to eat our favorite dish or meal, we don’t consume the whole thing at once. We take a bite at a time. And, when we get full we stop. Using the web is not dissimilar. Absorbing information online is like an endless buffet.
Yet, we still have to absorb concepts, text, graphics...all of it… one piece at a time. Even if you cram a page full of links, pictures, text, whatever, users will still have to consume that information bit by bit. Information overload (getting full) is a real thing… and can cause users to unconsciously disengage.
According to the Health and Human Services report: Reseach-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines content is the most important piece of a website. Of course, we are looking for information, be it gathering facts or to be entertained. However, if you are overwhelmed with choices it will be difficult to prioritize the relative importance of each individual piece of information that is presented.
Putting the creation of online course into context
A chef painstakingly combining flavors to create a dish or a meal, knowing full well that the diner can only take one bite of a meal at a time. Much like the chef, it is the job of the web designer to make sure that each click the student makes has to have the promise of more great flavor to come.
How do you do that? If you were to go to a restaurant, you assume that the menu is planned and dish is planned in advance. This direction is passed on to the server who works to remain attentive to the diner’s needs along the way. I doubt you would give a great tip to a waitperson if they dropped your meal on the table and then ignored you for the rest of your meal.
The obvious difference between educators and the restaurant industry is that teachers have multiple roles. They may be course designers(design the menu), plan individual lessons (assemble the ingredients), deliver the lesson (serving the meal), assign and receive student work (cleaning off the tables) and responsible for student outcomes (running the business of the restaurant). Regardless if preparation is done by an individual or a group, it's the relationships between everyone involved that makes the meal and dining experience (or distance learning experience) a success.
Being New To Online Teaching
Like the old cliche´ (A chain is only as strong as its weakest link) an effective online teacher understands these roles and learns how to manage them. Unfortunately there are many teachers who have been thrust into teaching online without the guidance and time to master these new roles and skills. This puts teachers at a disadvantage. Their conscious or unconscious lack of awareness of these roles, and how they interact with each other, can create more problems. And, more problems means more time spent and focus being diverted from ensuring the student/diner/end user is taken care of.
Mental Overload
Sometimes we get lost and fail to see the forest through the trees. Software can do that do us. Hardware can do that do us. The pressures and details required to shift from the classroom to distance learning. Sometimes we need to step back and look at our situation through a different lens.
Avoid overeating
So, it most certainly can be overwhelming to dive into distance learning. But, if you use the dining example (knowing what needs to be online the plate and that the student can only take one bite at a time) you can prioritize your efforts and become more productive without losing sleep.
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