When you're designing instruction for the online medium, you must always keep account for the separation between the learner and the learning resource. Instant feedback really contributes to the process of instruction, and it's generally not possible in an online environment. There are two common strategies that compensate for the loss of the feedback loop, and many projects use both of them:

Strategy 1: Build a Channel into Your Design
You can include a way for learners to communicate with an instructional leader, thus providing at least a partial substitute for the instant feedback loop we enjoy in the classroom.

• If you're using the Web to deliver your instruction, for example, you can include an email address on every page to make it more convenient for learners to message the instructor.
• You can create a registration procedure that captures learners' email addresses, so that the instructor can message them.
• Or, you might schedule real-time chat events to give everyone a chance to discuss content or process together.
• If scheduling conflicts preclude real-time communication, you might include a Web-based message board or a listserv as part of your design so that two-way communication need not be time-dependent.

But what if want to build a stand-alone resource that won't necessarily have a "live body" to manage the instruction? You could design your resource so that learners can support each other, through email or other messaging environments. (Many resources do this anyway, even when there is built-in leadership.)

But what if your learners will enter and leave the resource at different times, or progress through your material at different speeds? What about learners who don't arrive in groups, or don't form or join groups when they get here? In other words, what if you can't count on the presence of communicating partners? "It takes two to tango," as they say. Communication can't happen at all without communicators, so you may need another strategy!

Strategy 2: Anticipate and Respond to the Underlying Need
If providing a communication channel is not a practical strategy, you can try instead to anticipate learners' needs. For example, if learners are likely to ask questions because they are uncertain about the content, you could try to anticipate their questions and provide the answers ahead of time. You might supply the information as an integral part of your learning resource. Or you might create an information supplement that learners can call up when they need it.

Our technical glossary is an example of this supplemental approach. As you've probably noticed by now, the glossary waits in the background. If you don't need it, it doesn't distract you from the main body of material. But when you come across a highlighted term you don't understand, you can click on that term and the glossary supplies a definition.

How do you know what needs to anticipate? Ask! As you develop your resource, recruit people who are similar to (or familiar with) the learners you mean to serve. Ask them to test your resource as it develops and to share with you any uncertainties they experience. Better still, sit with them as they work with your resource and watch. If you have the resources, consider putting together an advisory board or focus group of prototypical users. A group of advisors who are familiar with your resource can help in many ways by bringing the user's perspective to the project before its parts are fixed in stone.

Learners' uncertainties aren't the only things that stimulate communication in the classroom. Teachers have questions, too -- about their students. And research shows that such interaction is also a powerful motivator. What motivates your learners? What design choices can help you gather the information you need to teach your online students effectively? We'll begin by examining features of their local learning context and the impact these have on the design of online instruction.