Design Considerations in the Development of an Online Course in E-Business

Abstract

This chapter describes how U21 Global (U21G), an e-university formed by a consortium of traditional brick-and-mortar universities, approached the design of MBA650, its online course in e-business. MBA650 is a core course in U21G’s MBA program. Gagne’s theory (Little, 2001), a pedagogical framework taken from the literature, is used to frame and explain the rationale for the design of MBA650. Gagne’s theory identifies a number of instructional events including the identification of learning objectives, presentation of content, provision of learner guidance, feedback, and performance assessment. An evaluation of MBA650 based on student feedback is presented. Finally, several key design considerations in the development of e-business courses are discussed such as including attention to learning outcomes, the student audience, syllabus, key messages, theory vs. practice, team working, and the use of case studies.