Developing an Online Course

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Developing an Online Course

• Presented by
• Kathy Cousins-Cooper, Ph.D., J.D.
• Associate Professor of Mathematics
• North Carolina AT State University
• Greensboro, NC 27411
• cousinsk_at_ncat.edu

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Three phases of developing an online course
(Cain, 2007)

• 1) Course Design
• 2) Development and Implementation
• 3) Course Delivery

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Phase One - Course Design

• Identify the course objectives
• Identify the strategies that you use to get these
  course objectives across in the traditional
  classroom and determine if these strategies will
  work with an online class.
• Identify course components. What things need to
  be included to help facilitate the learning
  process?

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(cont) Phase One - Course Design

• Determine the course structure. (i.e. How the
  course should be divided into units.) If you use
  a textbook for the course, the structure could be
  based on that used in the textbook. If you do
  not use a textbook, then you will have to
  determine the structure that best serves your
  students.
• Gather online resources to which your students
  can refer.

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Things to Remember when in the Course Design
Phase

• As a part of the planning process, you may have
  to state the obvious as we do in traditional
  classrooms (e.g. print a copy of the syllabus)
• Planning for an online course is much more
  stringent than for a traditional course (Meyen,
  1997)
• Approach the planning phase by using your
  students perspectives on entering the course
• Things that you have an opportunity to say in
  class, you will have to post to course online and
  in advance

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(cont) Things to Remember when in the Course
Design Phase

• Provide students with an information sheet that
  requests data on the students and require them to
  submit it back to you as soon as possible
• You may want to include in the information sheet
  items that request students interest in online
  instruction, prior experience with the Internet,
  and technical skills (Meyen, 1997)

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Establish Rules on the Following

• 1) Late work policy
• 2) Academic honesty
• 3) University attendance policy and your own
  class attendance policy
• 4) Military deployment policy
• 5) Instructions on how to turn in work
• 6) Incomplete Assignments
• 7) Posting Grades
• 8) Online Behavior

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Phase Two Development and Implementation

• Choose a format in which to create your course
  content.
• Upload your course content into a course
  management system. (such as Blackboard)
• After you have uploaded your course, test it to
  make sure that everything works and appears as
  you want the students to view it. (Click on
  links and make sure they work.)

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Phase Three Course Delivery

• A major component of the delivery process is the
  communication between the instructor and
  students.
• Communication may take several forms
• 1) emailing students and responding to their
  emails
• 2) posting announcements
• 3) monitoring student discussion groups
• 4) conducting online office hours

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(cont) Phase Three - Delivery

• Embedded in the course delivery phase is the
  online teaching and the evaluation of the
  students progress.

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Things to Remember when teaching your online
course

• Research indicates that interaction is important
  to distance learner satisfaction (Berge, 2002)
• An important component to web-based instruction
  is communication (VanSickle, 2003)
• Students expect more feedback and prompt
  responses
• The more you provide students with opportunities
  to participate, the more successful your online
  course will be.

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(cont) Things to Remember when Teaching your
online course

• Do not expect students to remember important
  deadlines. Remind your students of important
  deadlines using email, announcements, discussion
  boards, etc.
• Students will complain about technical
  difficulties. Refer them to technical support.
• Encourage all students enrolled in your online
  course to participate as soon as possible. If
  you do not get your students engaged in the
  course, you may have students enrolled in your
  class that do nothing.
• Online teaching time is devoted to responding to
  students work and e-mail communications (Meyen,
  1997)

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(cont) Things to Remember when teaching your
online course

• Establish your office hours and post them several
  places on your course website
• With the exception of office hours, try not to
  establish a set time for students to log on to
  the course. Students appreciate flexibility.

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Things to Remember when evaluating your online
students progress

• Monitoring your students progress is important
  because online instruction is a form of
  independent study (Meyen, 1997)
• All quizzes, tests, homework assignments, and
  assigned readings should be prepared before the
  course starts so that students will know what is
  required from day one of the course

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(cont) Things to Remember when evaluating your
online students progress

• Alternate forms of assessment can be used in an
  online class, such as a students participation
  in the class
• Also, the use of rubrics helps to clarify the
  grading process for students (Havice et al.,
  2000) and rubrics allow the students to evaluate
  themselves and concentrate on areas where they
  need improvement

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Suggestions

• Plan on spending more of your time in the course
  design phase
• Realize that most of your course delivery time
  will be devoted to communication in the form of
  responding to emails and providing feedback to
  students work
• Be prompt in responding to students emails
• Remind students of deadlines

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References

• Berge, Z.L. (2002). Active, interactive, and
  reflective e-learning. The Quarterly Review of
  Distance Education, 3(2), 181-190.
• Cain, G.B. Crawford, C. (2007, October).
  Creating an Online Course Development Process.
  Educause Annual Conference.
• Havice, P., Havice, W., Isabell. (2000).
  Rubrics and a Strategy for Integrating
  Traditional Instruction and Distributed Learning.
  In C. Mann, B.L. (Ed.), Perspectives in web
  course management (pp. 199-210). Toronto
  Canadian Scholars Press.
• Meyen, E., Lian, C. Tangen, P. (1997, January
  1). Teaching Online Courses. Focus on Autism
  and Other Developmental disabilities, 12(3), 166.
• VanSickle, J. (2003, May 1). Making the
  Transition to Teaching Online Strategies and
  Methods for the First-Time, Online Instructor.
  (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
  ED479882).