What do you mean by “Online Learning?”

It may be that you equate asynchronous online teaching and learning (rich, engaging, interactive cohorts of learners guided by a “present” instructor) with self-paced online learning (individual, no interaction, no instructor presence, summative feedback that may or may not be automated, or timely) – that is an assumption to check, and NOT necessarily the case.

I do not typically advocate for, or design self-paced online asynchronous instruction. That is precisely what the DoE and RSI is intended to prevent/identify – as they equate self-paced with technology-enabled correspondence instruction, which is not eligible for financial aid.

That is not to say that self-paced instruction is not an effective, or legitimate instructional modality. If you have ever taken a MOOC that is essentially what it is, or any kind of corporate-type training. When done well, they present content, give you opportunities to reflect and apply concepts, provide quizzes to help check your mastery/understanding or to self-assess and options to review and retake quizzes… Some are enhanced with videos, progress bars, and provide take-away summary materials, or optional activities to further pursue topics, or to leave comments or reflections. Some may even offer the opportunity to view others’ reflections, posts, and add reactions, or even comments.

If you are designing any type of self-paced instruction, you definitely should work with an instructional designer to incorporate the unique technical and pedagogical design aspects of that modality to make it as effective, engaging, and successful as possible.

When I say “online instruction,” I am not referring to self-paced, synchronous online, or MOOC-type instructional teaching and learning environments.

Asynchronous online instruction, when done well, is about 3 types of rich asynchronous interaction and engagement.

1. 2-way asynchronous interaction between the instructor and learners (not at the same time), so that they can get feedback, correct misperceptions, guide, and be challenged to dig deeper into their thinking, learning, assumptions, and assertions and to provide help, answer questions, assessment, evaluation and feedback.
2. Asynchronous learner interaction with content and activities designed by the instructor to engage, challenge, perplex the learner to get them to make their thinking and learning visible and open to feedback, peer evaluation, and assessment.  This would include assigned readings, written, audio, or video mini lectures, demonstrations, presentations, observations, etc. that are produced by the instructor, from texts books, or curated by the instructor, etc.
3. Asynchronous collaboration and interaction between learners in academic and non-academic discussions, small group work, presentations, performances, demonstrations, team projects. This could include readings, written, audio, or video mini lectures, demonstrations, presentations, observations, etc. that are produced by the learner, curated by the learner, or developed in collaboration with other learners.

Online asynchronous education has a 30+ year history of understanding how people can teach and learn well in online asynchronous teaching and learning environments. A LOT is now known from the scholarly and practitioner perspectives about effective online course design and facilitation and creating vibrant, interactive and engaging online asynchronous teaching and learning environments.

Here is some information to get you started Step by Step. In conjunction with OSCQR, you would have all the information you need.

When designing online asynchronous instruction well, it is about:

1. Presenting content in an engaging and effective manner for the online asynchronous environment;
2. Designing asynchronous activities and interactions and asynchronous learner collaborations that are meaningful, relevant, engaging, and where relevant, experiential, which get learners to make their thinking and learning visible to you and their peers; So that you and their classmates can ask questions, and provide feedback and guidance.
3. Provide learners with prompt, rich, effective, efficient, and engaging assessments, evaluations, and feedback using online tools, that challenge learners to think ever more deeply about the course content, topics, themes, etc.

The magic formula for online asynchronous course design is to create well-designed learning objectives for which you create engaging targeted learning activities for which you provide assessments and prompt feedback.

If you have access to an online ID, you should definitely use them! ☺ None of this is intuitive and the online asynchronous environment has options and limitations (as does any learning environment including face-to-face classrooms), and tools that need to be used effectively to result in effective, efficient and engaging asynchronous instruction and learning.