This interactive session will explore a collaborative model for online course development. Participants will learn how to avoid the dreaded “document dump” and instead, create well-designed, engaging online courses that leverage the expertise of faculty and staff.
Developing a quality online course can be an intimidating task. In many instances, faculty may find themselves working in isolation, responsible for course content, structure, design, and even support. This can result in starkly different iterations of online courses across an institution with pockets of high quality and other courses needing significant improvements.
With 17 online graduate programs in education at Wilkes University, a streamlined process was needed to address the high volume of course development and revisions. In this session we will detail the university’s process from course planning through rollout. Special focus will be given to the ways in which faculty and staff work together to create a consistent look and feel for courses and familiar navigation that call attention to the curriculum being presented. Attention will also be given to complementary support and revision processes.
To engage participants, this interactive session will utilize opportunities for discussion along with polling to gather real-time data on topics like the frequency of collaborative course development practices, the consistency of courses across institutions, and the individual comfort level with course development.
Participants in this session will learn:
- How faculty and staff can collaborate during the course development process
- Strategies for supporting online courses
- How a standardized development process can aid with compliance
- How consistency across courses supports overall program quality
- Strategies to support faculty in the online environment