An online learning material repository co-created by experienced faculty and instructional design colleagues would be a valuable and time-saving resource for anyone needing to move online rapidly (or for the first time). Come learn how we developed ours and pick up tips and tricks for developing your own!
With the sudden move to online learning in Spring 2020, many programs found themselves needing to rapidly remediate courses into the online space. As such, many faculty found themselves struggling to develop effective learning materials in a short period of time. Through this process, many classroom-based faculty found themselves struggling to develop effective online learning materials that fill the same learning objectives they hoped to accomplish in the classroom. As we envision the future of online, blended, and digital learning, we ask the question, do they even have to?
At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, our team of two faculty members, an instructional designer, and a media developer came together thanks to an institutional online learning development grant. Somewhat ironically, the purpose of the grant was to develop a repository of online learning materials for the faculty and teaching graduate students within the program of the two faculty members working on the grant. After our university completed the move from a proprietary online learning system to one more mainstream, some materials developed in the older system became lost and/or had become, frankly, outdated. We hoped, therefore, to update old materials as well as create new ones in support of both faculty and new teaching graduate student colleagues of the two faculty members working on the grant. The efforts put forth in this initiative have become, thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, more important than ever.
With the repository, we saved our instructional designers time by allowing them to develop materials for common courses across multiple instructors, vetted by faculty who teach sections of those courses. We collaborated on best practices and were able to develop content that was scaffolded, allowing faculty to choose how and to what degree they wished to implement the new material. We also developed resources that faculty external to the program but within the university could reference as well.
Building a communal repository for programs offers a win-win scenario for faculty, instructional designers, and universities alike. New online and blended faculty can reference repositories for ideas and materials, allowing them to save time when needing to develop (or re-develop) courses. Instructional designers can have a greater reach and impact throughout their university by being able to develop materials that can be used across multiple faculty members. Administrators can breathe a little easier knowing that if a rapid move to online becomes necessary (again), faculty won’t need as much time readjusting.
The development of a repository of teaching materials, however, takes time and expertise. Who should be on the team? How often should outside stakeholders be involved? What should and should not be included? Come find out how you can pursue a similar initiative! Faculty will learn how to best propose such a project, along with what their role as subject matter expert should entail. Instructional designers will be able to identify new opportunities for collaboration. Everyone will discover one way we can ensure that the future of online learning includes easy access not just for students, but faculty as well.
Level of Participation and Session Goals:
We will be taking full advantage of the innovative and new “Discovery Session” format. The nature of an online repository is one that allows a viewer to look through what’s available and pick and choose what’s most useful to them, which in itself is very similar to the Discovery Sessions being offered this year! Within our discovery session, we’ll provide attendees with opportunities to discuss ways in which similar initiatives would work within their own programs or universities. For faculty, we’ll help you identify what types of materials would best go in a repository for your field. Instructional designers will help pinpoint methods that would be most effective for developing said materials. By the end, everyone will have developed their own checklist of what you’ll need to do to get a similar project off the ground.