Courseware writers/developers/reviewers work in different environment settings. They can work in schools, colleges and even carve a niche for themselves in e-Learning companies for courseware and curriculam development as the education industry gains popularity.. This article will discuss the different stages of courseware development in any given environmental setup. These stages are:
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Doing Research
Before a courseware writer thinks about creating new material from scratch, he or she needs to glean information from existing media or interview subject matter experts (SMEs) to capture the concepts and procedures.
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Preparing a Content Outline (CO)
The courseware writer should use existing information to prepare the learning objectives of the course i.e. what will the learner learn or what he or she be able to do at the end of the course. The learning objectives of the course is also the Content Outline (CO) of the course.
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Writing the Content as Per the CO
After the CO is prepared, the courseware writer will start writing down the course content to support those learning objectives. He or she should have the ability to adapt content to meet the needs of a particular target audience. He should also have an understanding of large quantities of complex information and should be able to organise it in a logical flow. The courseware writer should also be able to select and apply appropriate instructional design methodologies, and adult learning principles, in the design and development of the course. He or she should be able to design and write instructional activities and elements such as self-check questions, learning exercises and final assessment questions.
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Sending it for Review
Often writers need to take a step back from their own written material and ask their peer to review their work to ensure that the content is instructionally sound and comprehensible and vocabulary used is suitable. Reviewers with a fresh mind will be able to identify errors in content flow and transition, sequencing of sentences or jumps in the narration of passages.
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Making the Fixes
After the course has been reviewed, the courseware writer should make the appropriate fixes to the course until it is the best it can possibly be and he or she should learn the reasons behind those changes.
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Copy Edit the Material
After reviewing the course, the courseware writer should do a final copyedit check to the written material. He or she must hold knowledge on basic grammatical structures, incorrect spellings, punctuation and inconistencies. He or she should have excellent editorial skills with strong knowledge of style. He or she should work within established style guidelines.
As courseware creators focus on a variety of target groups and adjust to specific learning and teaching objectives, it makes courseware creation an interesting challenge. No matter who the target audience is – all learners want to learn concepts from which they can make quick references to the real world. All learners also want to learn tips and tricks to face challenges of the real world.