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Rating: 
Summary: A basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction.
Review: Designing And Teaching An On-Line Course is a basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction that is highly recommended, invaluable reading for anyone charged with the responsibility of creating and implementing an on-line course of instruction regardless of topic category or subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: A basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction.
Review: Designing And Teaching An On-Line Course is a basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction that is highly recommended, invaluable reading for anyone charged with the responsibility of creating and implementing an on-line course of instruction regardless of topic category or subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: A basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction.
Review: Designing And Teaching An On-Line Course is a basic, seminal, benchmark, "how to" introduction that is highly recommended, invaluable reading for anyone charged with the responsibility of creating and implementing an on-line course of instruction regardless of topic category or subject matter.
Rating: 
Summary: Thumbs Down!
Review: For a book on instruction, the least the author or publisher could have done was to hire a copy editor. Besides the lack of useful material about setting up an online course, the book was full of grammatical, usage and even spelling errors. I'm not sure I want to take any teaching advice from someone who confuses compliment and complement. There are plenty of other books--The Online Teaching Guide by Ken White and Bob Weight is one-- dealing with this subject that do a much better job. I'll use this one for scratch paper.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Going On-Line - This is the Book for Me!
Review: I've taught on ground in many formats. I've served on Faculty Development Committees. I've taken an on-line course on teaching on-line. I think this is a great book on what's important. The back cover review is right on target.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: No depth of topic...many grammatical and spelling errors. Screen shots are way too small. The examples were completely innapropriate and too thin to learn anything. It was hard to believe this was written by an academic. I thought about donating it to the library..but they didn't want it either. And by the way it should have been grounded in research...where's the data???? The developmental strategies are WEAK. Thumbs down. As a corporate web developer it was useless for my needs.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the "Back Cover" blurb
Review: The "Editorial Review: From the back cover" does not actually appear on the back cover. Good thing, too, because that review is obviously about some other book. "Spinning" takes an hour to read, and punishes you every inch of the way. The book's 8.5 by 11 inch format is filled with full-width lines -- 7 inches of type, 85 characters across. The screen-shot examples are worse, requiring a magnifying glass for lines 140 characters long, in effectively 3-point type. The live, "read this" content area of the screen-shots uses only 50% of the "screen", showing the disrespect for current online design standards inherent in Schweizer's chosen IBM-Lotus Learning Spaces course container. Once past the mechanical hurdles, you hit the content bricks. "Spinning" is more about how to replicate a classroom experience online than it is about how to design and teach an online course. For instance, the section on "Design Principles for On-Line Courses" is one and a half pages! Use Times Roman and Helvetica or other fonts if you find any, "White space can tell a student where one section ends and another begins", and Keep It Simple -- "Whenever possible, lecture notes should be organized into concise points, making use of graphic organizers or bulleted key concepts." There you have it -- now you know all about On-line course design. Schweizer may be an expert on instructional technology, but it's hard to tell from this book. To demonstrate performance-based assessment, she presents a "rubric" (table formatted lists of concept, observable task, and success criteria) for passing a driver's license test (start car, shift gears, change lanes, parallel park...). Online Driver's Ed courses may be a hot item in your school system, but not in mine. The chapter called "Guideline for On-Line Course Development" touches on performance-based curriculum design, but treats the concept like an infomercial buzzword instead of a practical design methodology. You will not learn how to create performance-based courseware here. The chapter ends almost before it starts, with "Writing a Course Outline". The book never addresses how to design and produce the actual content for such an outline. I wish I had bought the book described in the "Editorial Review". I thought I did. In my opinion, if you buy this book you may not be as profoundly disappointed as I was was, but you will be disappointed nonetheless.
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