According to” An Open Introductory Computer Science Course” introduce an online course, Udacity CS101. CS101 is an introductory computer science course, targeted to students with no previous background in computing who want to understand the foundations of computer science and learn how to program. (Major, 2015, p.102) Especially, This course is an open-enrollment course is available for anyone who has reasonable access to the Internet to participate and is for free. The course divided into two parts. One focuses the course around a motivating project that would be used as a vehicle for introducing the computing concepts throughout the course. The other one is designing the lectures to discuss the exercises and answer questions from students to maintain frequent communication. There also are the basic things of the online course. The following two tools satisfy both of these conditions.

The first tool is Blogger. Blogger has many features, such as privacy, multiple contributors, social-media widgets, and the capability for hosting discussions. (Major, 2015, p.93) It can manage three missions, discussion, presentation, and analysis. With these reasonable and clear curriculum design. All students will grade on following assignment instructions or not, creating clear and concise posts and comments, and completing assignments on time.

The second tool is Moodle. The Moodle system allows the main page of the course to be organized like a syllabus, with blocks for each week’s activities and smaller information blocks on each side of the screen. (Major, 2015, p.88)The students also can know grade and participation in Moodle.

Overall, I think a successful course is to involve students and learn about it. These tools can help instructors manage the course better, and help students can learn clearly. The online courses are inseparable from this type of tool.

 

Reference

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.