Course Design Types
Notice:

This tutorial is designed to work with the Blackboard course management system.

Online Courses

Design Objectives

The planning and design of an online course requires us to strike a unique balance between a course that is highly structured and detailed prior to the first day of class, with the need to retain flexibility and spontaneity as it relates to both teaching and learning. Online students need to experience a course that is well designed, permitting them to navigate through it with little confusion and gain a clear sense of what is expected. And, that those same online students also need to know that there is always room for exploring the unexpected; raising unanticipated questions or following the unforeseen learning path.

Creating and online learning environment, where learning and success are the norms and collaboration and self-directed learning are the methods, should be the goal. Implementing learner centered practices and assessment methods are the means by which that goal can be reached.

The power of Learner Centered curriculum design depends on the degree of alignment between the program objectives, course objectives and unit objectives. The stronger the alignment, the more powerful the program becomes and the higher the level of student success. A direct alignment between what we want students to know and be able to do upon exiting our program, the outcomes we designate for each course and the enabling outcomes we teach within each unit of each course, creates a success loaded online learning environment.

Course Content Recommendations

For fully online courses that will not have classroom meetings. All course instruction, activities, and assignments are communicated and submitted online through the menu areas listed below.

Menu Area Recommended Content
Start Here Provide links to technical help and resources, system requirements, and quick-start tools guide. Frequently asked questions -- taken from discussions and emails to instructor from current and previous classes, as well as potential Q & As.
Announcements Welcome students; use to announce events, assignment due dates approaching, course changes and other course information.
Syllabus Student orientation to course web site, grading criteria, online class rules and expectations, text books and other required supplies or plugins, including links to online sources for purchase and downloading
Course Materials Lecture notes, handouts, Powerpoints, Web links to related topics for use in researching class projects, or as supplemental information, list of assignments, due dates, examples and other course materials.
My Grades Allows students to view grades (if Blackboard gradebook is used)
Discussion Board/or Blogs Provide access to Discussion Board or blogs for online community building. Used in place of the classroom discussions and for peer-to-peer support. Can augment instructor-to-student support.
Course Tools Enable tools including: Blackboard Student Manual, groups, electronic conferencing, Chat, or Wikis
Faculty Information Note who you are, how you can be reached, expected turnaround time on questions from students, photo, and brief biography in this section

Teaching Online Courses

As you prepare to take your course online, first consider the type of learning environment you will want to create for your students. You will want to establish an environment which encourages active learning as opposed to passive, rote learning. From your own personal experiences, you already know that as a student yourself, you enjoyed learning and got more out of a lesson or activity when you were encouraged to be an active participant in the learning process. Interactive learning can take place in a variety of ways in an on-line classroom; between instructor and student, between student and the learning materials, among students, or between student and guest lecturer. It will be, however, your responsibility, as the instructor, to design a course that provides your students with these varied formats, and create a classroom that has an active, student-centered environment. This site will provide you with many suggestions which will assist you as you design a meaningful, interactive, and successful on-line course for both you and your students.

Exchanging the classroom for a monitor and eye contact for a keyboard requires a major shift in our thinking about our role as both a teacher and course developer. We have all come to depend so much on a quizzical tip of the head or a sudden arm shooting into the air for clues as to how the lesson is going. Many of us have spent time after class re-explaining a concept or listening to a student's new idea. And, it is a rare teacher who has not, at the last minute, changed a lesson plan or added an activity to the day's instruction. So, how is it that we can be expected to teach in cyberspace when we can't watch our student's faces, capture the teachable moment online when our lesson is already planned, or be assured that our students are really learning, when we can not even hear their voices?

The answer is that it does work and has been working for many distance educators. What we have learned is that the successful distance educator knows their students, "not by their faces or their seat position in a vast lecture auditorium; but instead by the words and ideas they express in their weekly assignments?. And, that the student in cyberspace knows us, the teachers, not by our cheerful smiles and quirky styles, but by the individual and personal comments we make to them as they complete activities and engage in weekly discussions. There is no doubt about it, we have moved into a very different format for teaching and learning. But when we really think about it, teaching at a distance just reinforces what we have always believed about learning all along - that is, real education does not occur in a classroom or on a campus. It occurs in the minds of our students.

The tools and checklists provided in this section will help make our on-line classroom a place that is friendly, inviting, and optimizes learning.

What steps should I take?

To assist in the development of your first fully online course we have broken the design process down into eleven (11) steps.

  • If you already have a web-presence or web-enhanced course in place you can skip some of the steps noted below.
  • If you are designing a new course we recommended that the steps be completed in the order presented. (Keep in mind that you can call on the Instructional Designers on campus to assist you with course design at any time.)

Each step has a detail page associated with it that provides recommendations, samples, and in many cases additional resources. Click on the titles to access the additional information, then click the brower back key or the [Online] button at the top of this window when you want to return to this page.

 

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