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Determining Course Content: The Message
What are you trying to say, to get across in your course? The message or content should be decided even before a medium, such as videotape, Web, or videoconference, is chosen. Good, sound content is at the heart of an effective distance education course, just as it is in a traditional course.

A professor usually wants to cover too much content in a distance education class. How is this possible? Do you remember how you teach the content in a traditional class? Much of an instructor's delivery of content is embellishment which doesn't directly address the content. And sometimes the stories told in a class don't pertain to the content at all. An instructor does not have that flexibility in a distance class because of the time differential: media/technology slow down interaction. As a result, plan to cover about two-thirds of what you would in a regular classroom situation. Make up the lost content with handouts or other media (e.g. e-mail, computer conferencing, and telephone office hours).

Does this mean that you cover less material, that the distance education experience is a "watered-down" version of your regular class? Not at all. Many professors have found out that much of the material left out of their distance education classes really wasn't missed. Distance education helped them tighten up their presentations and focus on what is really important. They've been able to streamline their distance course and then have taken the content from their newly lean, mean teaching machine to their traditional classes.

Dr. John Zenger found he could trim content from his distance education course without negatively impacting the course.        Watch Video (2 min.)

What overall message/content do you want to present? Email Address (required):