ABSTRACT
Today’s online courses are like old computer programs. People typically think of an online course as being similar to a textbook, or at best, a classroom where a course is being delivered. But from the standpoint of course design, it makes more sense to think of an online course as being similar to a computer program. This is especially evident when the problems facing early computer programmers and computer users are compared to the problems facing today’s online course designers. Early computer programs were written from scratch. They were expensive and time-consuming to create. Moreover, they didn’t work with other programs: a document created by one program could not be read by another program.
