 
Comment: These items, for me and my pathway, have been the most essential things learned in our Course. I found it difficult to pick only five items! We've needed DigitalAdidas to get through all the goodies! ---
This means an ability and especially a commitment and willingness, to customize the interactive environment and process for the users of your product. This calls on intuitive factors, knowledge and skills factors, and a very strong desire to BE a "messenger of information". Both Head and Mandel's writings were full of the standards that lead to creating such a product. I see the word "savvy" as more than just KNOWING things, or having a skill set. It goes deeper. Savvy means that your understanding of technology sometimes is NOT a skill, but the wisdom to see something that is needed, and knowing within your heart that you are willing to go after it. One thing that was addressed in our readings was that we are designing for a brand new set of learners ... we have all become lifelong learners, in order to succeed in online endeavors. Our new skills are the essence of the lifelong learner. If you don't have the techie knowledge today, you WILL have it very quickly. It's the inspirational portion of one's inbuilt ability to pick up skills. This is what will serve to inspire the users of our instructional designs, with new emphases in interface design. This may be the most-needed critical factor for succeeding in designing online environments. This will lead to being able to (as I've said so often) "tame the beast." It will enable the digital designer to distill the best portion of this growing base of knowledge, put it into the best possible format, and thereby help each user navigate a path that has perhaps never been explored. Organization of the parts and pieces of your course will enable your learners to approach not just the content, but the medium, with confidence. After more than 5 years of designing for the Web, this course brought home the importance of user interface and designing for the usability and comfort of the Web visitor. Our readings and searches reinforced this aspect — and I learned many new things about making a visitor WANT to return to the web site. The technical infrastructure of an online course must appear seamless and almost invisible, such as the enhanced uses of a database for research — while the usability factors are very visible and hopefully make the content easily navigable. I believe the most important thing I've gleaned has been that our inspection into interactive sites that offer web based communities has forever solidified for me, that THIS is where people will congregate, in huge numbers, as time goes on. I feel this is true for most of the future of online coursework, as well. We are designing for a specific group, and for specific topics. The convenience and camaraderie found in an excellent Community is well documented since the early days of The Well. Many of our examples showed that that need has continued, in the electronic environment. It is said that Content Is King (well, Queen :-) and our studies have proven this to be very correct. The sites that offer REAL offerings to the users, are the ones who are already succeeding. Usability of the interactive design on those sites, is of prime importance. One observation is that, within a community, much of the work is done by the user!! One thing gleaned in this class was the importance of giving great control to the user of the web site. They are more willing to participate. If we can architect our sites in this much more personal, giving, and meaningful environment ... with a bit of patience, I believe the rewards will be tremendous. WebSpinner@refuge-earth.org ( that's me — Leanne! )
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