Designing Your Course

Designing Your Course How To Begin

Introduction

Creating an online course for the first time can seem an overwhelming and daunting task. Teaching online has both unique challenges and opportunities. Online learning opens up worlds of possibilities for rich student interactions and personalized student assessments that may not be possible in a face-to-face class. Most of the same principles for effective instruction in undergraduate education apply in an online course format. Seven principles for good practice to keep in mind include:

  • Encourage faculty-to-student interaction
  • Encourage student-to-student interaction
  • Promote active learning
  • Communicate high expectations
  • Facilitate time on task
  • Provide rich, rapid feedback
  • Respect diverse learning

(A.Chickering and Z. Gamson. “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” AAHE Bulletin, March 1987.)

First Steps in Online Course Design

Many instructors may be tempted to begin by worrying about details of technology for implementing their online course. Instead, your course creation process should begin with Learning Outcomes. Before doing anything else, you want to figure out what it is you want students to learn and how you will measure their success.

Think about: What do you want students to learn? How will you know if they achieve the outcome?

Once you have settled on your Learning Outcomes, you will want to begin thinking about the course Learning Experiences. How will students be presented with content? What sorts of learning activities will the students engage in? This process is called Backwards Design and you will learn more by clicking the next button below to get started.