This proposal addresses the implementation of an online course design and development process at a state college. The process has created a collaborative experience and produced over 180 interactive, engaging, and effective online courses to date. In this session, we discuss the cultural shift, related personnel and process modifications, and illustrations of our successes and challenges five years after implementation.
Objectives:
Presentation attendees will learn how to implement a student-centered online course development process which ensures that courses are developed with the goal of providing a valuable online learning experience, quality education, and academic success.
Overview:
The presentation will address the institution’s online course development process from start to finish as well as the successes and challenges of implementation. From the instructional design perspective, two approaches to online course development appear in the literature. One is the traditional faculty-designed/faculty-developed solo course model; the other is a team approach involving instructional designers and faculty members (Rosenblum, 2000). The presentation will explore how this institution has incorporated a collaborative approach to course development which leads to high-quality online courses.
This collaborative process entails a well thought-out plan during the design, development and implementation phases in order to offer high-quality online courses to students. Courses that are initially proposed to be offered in an e-learning format (online or hybrid) must either exist as a face-to-face course or have gone through an extensive review process. The design team, which includes the subject matter expert (SME), instructional designer and multimedia specialist, then works together to determine the best instructional strategies for the subject matter to design and develop the online course. This student-centered process ensures that online courses meet and exceed student expectations of distance education.
During the presentation, several key issues concerning the implementation of this process will be discussed including problems with previous practices, implementing the new practice and what it offers, lessons learned, and recommendations for the future.
Problems with the previous practice will cover the lack of collaboration due to the creation of a workplace culture of negativity between the SME and instructional design team and restrictions on the development of content by SMEs.
Implementing the new practice led to many challenges and successes including the institutions resistance to change, administrative concerns on what programs and courses were being developed and their priority, availability of funds to compensate SMEs, overcoming the negative perception of the role of the SME and building trust and support between the design team members.
The new practice offers high-quality instruction through e-learning modalities, SMEs who work collaboratively and exhibit the highest level of expertise, a peer review process to ensure high-quality online courses, a review process every three years or upon adoption of primary e-course materials, and compensation for the SME by the institution for the value of the content developed during the process.
Although this team centered approach poses its own set of challenges, this institution has found this process most beneficial and has many lessons learned and recommendations for the future to share with the audience. The shift from the former approach resulted in better quality online courses, a steady increase in the number of courses developed, as well as an opportunity for subject matter experts to be engaged in the entire planning and development process. The final results, as Oblinger, D. G., & Hawkins, B. L. (2006) identified, showed teams-not individuals-develop and deliver the most effective online courses.
References:
American Distance Education Consortium. (2003). ADEC guiding principles for distance teaching and learning.
Kemp, J. E. (1971). Instructional Design; A Plan for Unit and Course Development.
Oblinger, D. G., & Hawkins, B. L. (2006). The Myth about Online Course Development:" A Faculty Member Can Individually Develop and Deliver an Effective Online Course". EDUCAUSE review, 41(1), 14-15.
Rosenblum, J. (2000, March). Design and development of online courses: Faculty working in collaboration. Syllabus Magazine, 13(7), 5–6.