• Background
• CLASS Project
• CLASS Staff
• General Insights
• Questions & Considerations
• Content
• Development Teams
• Content Acquisition
• Assessment & Grading
• Design
• Introduction
• Modeling
• Presentation
• Interactivity
• Navigation
• Assessments
• National Standards
• Quality Assurance
• Courses
• Features
• Courses
• Copyrights
• Technology
• Building a Course
• See and Say
• There are Limits!
• Influence and Change
• CLASS Courses
• Content
• Extras Designed
• Extras Linked
• Class Assessments
• A Bit of Dreamweaver
• Proofing
• Graphics
• MOUs
• Detailing Treatment
• Course Credits
• CLASS Style
• Publications

Writing to Your Heart's Content: Content Acquisition

The CLASS™ project was established to deliver online courses that would allow a student to take an entire high school diploma sequence via the Internet. The courses were accredited through the Independent Study High School (ISHS), and each course covered one standard high school semester. All courses met national and Nebraska standards.

Through the duration of the CLASS™ Project, the Research & Development (R&D) unit used a variety of different sources for content. While the original intent of the project was to draw heavily on the existing print-based courses being used by the ISHS, only 14 of the final 53 courses used the print-based courses extensively (a point discussed in Adapting Existing Print or Classroom Materials for web Delivery). Most of the CLASS™ courses were written directly for online delivery.

The course content is derived from three major sources--subject matter experts (SME), existing print-based instructional materials, and internal content providers. Each requires different tactics and decisions for the content team.

Identification of Need

Course development begins with determining the needs of the students, teachers, schools, or institutions for which the course is being created. The needs generally fall into two major categories--course content and target audience.

Course Content

The content team makes decisions concerning course content based on state and national standards if they exist (to be discussed later) and accepted approaches of presenting the subject matter. Outside resources, such as teachers, educational journals, and members of the community are consulted to provide further insight.

Target Audience

The content team aims to create and develop content so as to meet the needs of the target audience for the course. Age, grade level, literacy, and learning styles are considered when determining course content. For example, the content team works with the design team to incorporate different approaches to course materials in order to reach visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

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