Facing a compressed schedule that challenges a conventional approach to supporting instructors with course design? Struggling with how to best equip instructors for success? Consider our “jumpstart” workshop, a consultative model that makes targeted use of evidence-based planning tools to help instructors quickly navigate difficult online course design decisions.
Do all instructors need or want the rigor of conventional faculty development? What can you do when time is limited and a traditional approach is impractical? Facing these questions, instructional design and technology consultants are asked to help instructors navigate highly compressed timelines, balance competing priorities, and produce rigorous and engaging learning experiences. In response to these challenges, the presenters have piloted a novel support model that selectively melds aspects of community-based faculty development, design consultation, and structured hands-on work time. The result is a course design “jumpstart” that quickly and effectively propels a group of new online instructors through difficult conceptual challenges that emerge early in the course design process.
Facilitated by a small group of cross-campus instructional designers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jumpstart engages faculty participants in a series of phased activities that drive forward pedagogically-sound course planning. During three two-hour Jumpstart sessions, instructors get straight to work with proven planning tools that expedite a conventional approach to design. These tools include a course map, weekly rhythm diagram, activity planning guide, quality rubric, and Canvas templates.
During this session, we will recap the experience, sharing the tools and small-group activities that structured the workshop program. In addition to addressing the benefits for faculty participants, we will also share insights from the facilitator perspective, including the successes, limitations, and future directions of this approach.
In this session, the presenters will explain how the Jumpstart workshop format:
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Addresses workload pressures by engaging with faculty in efficient two-hour group sessions instead of multiple individual consultations.
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Works toward an actionable course plan that helps to articulate needs and shapes ongoing collaborative relationships.
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Sharpens individual consultative skills through partnerships with cross-campus instructional designers.
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Advances institutional design tools and metrics for quality online learning.
Further, the presenters will engage attendees in a frank conversation about challenging decisions that surface when designing a support model that prioritizes speed. These include:
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Determining how and when to integrate the theoretical underpinnings and scholarship of online course design.
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Deciding to side-step formal instructional design processes that offer a comprehensive and complete approach to course planning.
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Creating a program structure that combines flexibility and structure to make rapid progress while attending to individual instructor needs.
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Selecting faculty participants who would most benefit from this approach.
Session attendees will leave prepared to consider key challenges and design a jumpstart course workshop for their own professional contexts, armed with a collection of collaborative activities and online course planning tools.
Instructor survey feedback upon closure of Jumpstart:
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I would recommend to a colleague new to online instruction. (100%)
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The planning tools will help me better organize my teaching so that students meet course learning objectives. (100%)
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Jumpstart helped me to identify 2-3 foundational principles and practices to apply to my online course. (100%)