Conquering the Content

Put your course online now, without sacrificing pedagogical quality With guidance on incorporating learning theory into online course content, as well as a host of templates, learning guides, and sample files, Conquering the Content furnishes instructors with the information and tools they need to design and develop their course content to better serve online students. This second edition introduces relevance statements and time-saving tips as well as content maps which provide a scaffold for content organization and help students anchor the topics in their memories for retrieval. Readers will gain expert insight and best practices for designing within the rapidly changing online learning environment and learn to incorporate recent advances that can improve student outcomes. The book's focus on online pedagogy makes it evergreen, regardless of what tools are popular at the moment. Readers will learn how to create student-friendly navigation structures that support what is known about the brain and learning; organize content based on priority, flow, and easy navigation; create assessments that work within the parameters of an online course; chunk information for better processing; and more! If you are designing an online course, you need this book to help you do it right. Dr. Smith has distilled critical lessons into concise insights that will make your learners successful. And that is how you become successful teaching online. It's really that simple. -Patti Shank, author of The Online Learning Idea Book and research director, The eLearning Guild Conquering the Content is wonderfully succinct and straightforward, and written in a voice that resonates with our faculty. The process described dovetails nicely with the tools in our learning management system as well as the leading rubrics for evaluating the quality of an online course. -Mark A. Kelly, director, Teaching and Learning Center, Lake Michigan College The purpose of Conquering the Content, Second Edition is to help faculty understand how to convert their courses from on ground to online. In that respect, this book is perfect! The process is easy-to-follow, backed by a wealth of research and experience, and effective. Robin has a gift for writing in plain English so that faculty are not fearful of the process. -Susan Manning, online instructor, instructional design, University of Wisconsin-Stout Robin M. Smith is director of Accelerated and Online Programs at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.