University of Tasmania, Australia

One of the principle reasons for using online teaching and learning is to meet students' needs in a more flexible and accessible manner. It is logical then that planning for student needs be an important consideration in design and development work. This will require knowledge of the range of students who typically undertake your unit, and their various needs.

Some key issues for consideration are:

• What access do your students have to computers — on and off campus?
• What quality/speed of access do students have to the Internet — particularly from off-campus?
• Will the size/complexity of your online resources cause difficulties for students?
• Do students have the necessary browsers, plug-ins and software to use your online resources?
• Will students need to print-out the content provided online? If so, download time, printing costs etc. should be considered.
• Should alternative formats be made available - i.e.printed copies, text-versions of multimedia resources?
• What educational advantage/justification is there for using the online resources and tools you have selected?

For assistance with these considerations please contact a CALT educational developer.

There is a range of online advice for staff, and support resources for students on this site. See for example (on the homepage):

• Resourcing students for online learning
• Preparing students for online learning

Students' needs and design issues are covered in more detail in the following Teaching Online Essentials self-paced modules (available on request - see Self-paced online modules.

• Exploring the Build View in MyLO (PDF 64KB)
• Introduction to preparing and presenting content (PDF 58KB)