Amid frequent textbook changes, ever-shrinking budgets, and thinly stretched staff resources, universities struggle to keep online courses up-to-date and engaging. Faced with increasing enrollments and pressure for more online courses, Central Michigan University developed a fiscally responsible model, allowing for the expansion of online offerings while keeping existing courses current.
To reach larger student populations and strengthen enrollment, institutional focus often places priority on resources to develop new courses for online offering. Central Michigan University is no exception, with close to 500 online courses and dozens more on schedule to be developed. This growth trend brings the immense challenge of maintaining courses once developed, often in the face of limited, if not declining, resources and budgets. As student success advocates, we cannot ignore the fact that course content has a shelf life, and just like any product, can quickly reach expiration. With all that said, how can courses remain as current and relevant as they are when first developed without over-burdening instructional designers and subject matter experts who often lack the time needed to perform maintenance tasks? To address this need, we developed a model to update online courses while keeping costs minimal and staff resources untaxed.
In this session, you will learn how Central Michigan University saved over $100,000 through the implementation of a Course Update Model utilizing a team of well-qualified support staff that includes course production, design production, student help, and subject librarians. Specialists in learning management system, instructional design, teaching and learning, faculty support and assessment, and media productions are also included as needed.
The process starts with identifying which courses need an update. Course update triggers include new textbook edition releases, high attrition rates, end of course survey or teaching instructor feedback, or the age of a course. A curated, ready repository of user-friendly resources is employed to save time, ensure consistency among online course offerings, and create university branding. The repository includes a collection of standardized verbiage, support information, tutorials, and course design graphic elements that can be easily copied and customized. By incorporating course design best practices, faculty are provided with a clear starting point, and in conjunction with a course instructor guide, have a clear overview on the course they are about to teach.
More specifically, this interactive session will:
- Demonstrate methods for managing on-going maintenance of online courses
- Describe examples of curated resources
- Explain how a ready supply of curated resources can facilitate a quicker course update
- Identify a variety of course support services that leverage areas of expertise (e.g. LMS specialists, graphic design, subject matter experts, instructional design) to distribute the workload and result in faster completion times.
Since the implementation of the Course Update Model in 2016, we have completed 112 course updates and thereby saved over $100,000 by completing routine course maintenance with qualified personnel already on staff. In conjunction with the implementation of an innovative model for new course developments, instructional designers have been able to concentrate their focus in this area, resulting in triple the number of new online courses developed in a given year. Furthermore, the amount of time to update a course has declined from 95 days to 30 days. Course updates have also made a positive impact on attrition rates; showing updated courses have a reduced rate of attrition.
The audience will be invited for input and comments throughout the presentation. Slides will be available on the conference website.