| In recent years there has been an enormous rise in the number of high school students enrolling in online classes and in turn a tremendous increase in the number of programs, both private and public, devoted to online learning for high school students. As online classes for high school students have evolved, they have become more complex, adding design elements such as online forums, simulation, multimedia, and graphics in an attempt to harness the power of the Internet to deliver engaging classes to the Millennial student. This qualitative study attempted to answer the following questions: What are the learning needs and expectations of the Millennials? Which design elements commonly used by course developers do online students find engaging and useful? Given the limited resources at the K-12 level of education that can be devoted to the development of online courses, can one isolate those elements that most likely impact student engagement and success? How can designers best focus not only on the content but the context of the information presented? A Web-based survey of online learners was constructed to gather feedback from learners regarding what common design elements they found to be engaging and useful in online classes. From the data supplied, a ranked matrix of design elements identified by the participants was developed. |
