3.1. CHOOSE THE KIND OF COURSE

With Web technologies, we can create several different kinds of courses, each providing learners with a distinctive type of learning experience and each suited to different situations. Some courses are led by an instructor who charts the path and sets the pace for a group of learners. In other courses, learners find their own way, set their own pace, and interact only with the computer. Let's consider the design decisions that will determine the nature of your course.

3.1.1. Instructor-led or learner-led?

One of the first and most important decisions facing designers is the role (or lack of a role) for an instructor. WBT does not eliminate the value of an instructor.

The teacher's role in coaching, observing learners, offering hints and reminders, providing feedback, scaffolding and fading, modeling, and so on, are powerful enhancements to any learning situation [83].

However, WBT gives us choices as to who leads: the instructor or individual learners. This choice is not limited to pure instructor-led or pure learner-led forms but includes a spectrum of possibilities in between these two extremes, as shown here:

The choice is not between pure instructor-led and pure learner-led training, but rather a range of possibilities between these two extremes. Pure instructor-led training is limited to short events such as broadcast presentations. Most ...

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