18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
For more resources click here -> http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
Mission Impossible:
How to Design an Online Course Without a Team
Penny Ralston-Berg
Instructional Designer
University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations
Bethany Gordy
Instructional/Visual Designer
University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations
Although research shows that it takes a team of experts to efficiently develop a high quality online course, not all course
designers have the opportunity to use a formal team approach. Due to sparse or scattered resources, budget limitations,
time constraints, academic procedures and policies that may not fully accommodate distance learning, or other reasons
outside their control, some online course designers find themselves tasked with developing an online course from start to
finish with little or no help. While not the ideal situation, with planning and perseverance, a quality online course can be
produced under these circumstances.
Starting Points
When beginning to develop online courses, course designers must honestly assess their own skills and make plans
accordingly. In this model, it is assumed that the course designer is also the content expert. However, developing and
facilitating an online course requires a variety of additional design, production, technology, and communication skills.
Skill and experience related questions include:
Are you comfortable with technology in general?
Have you integrated Web technology into an existing face-to-face course?
Have you created your own Web pages?
Do you have a basic understanding of plug-ins and how they are used with Web browsers?
Are you familiar with rules and protocol of online communication?
Have you facilitated threaded discussions?
Have you facilitated online chats?
Are you familiar with successful teaching and learning styles relative to Web-based instruction?
Are you familiar with your campus policies on issues related to online learning including Web accessibility,
ADA compliance, and copyright guidelines?
Are you comfortable learning new things?
Do you know how to teach yourself new tasks in an efficient and effective way?
Can you set deadlines for yourself and complete tasks on time?
Are you familiar with library resources available to distance learning students?
Can you easily view a piece of instruction from a student point of view?
In addition to a self-assessment, online course designers must also consider how the course will be delivered to students.
The delivery method may have a tremendous impact on the development and facilitation timeline.
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and The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
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18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
Delivery related questions include:
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What software or courseware is available?
Will you need to acquire new skills to use it?
Is there a course administrator? Or will I be required to enroll students?
How will students register for the course?
How will I get access to the online learning environment?
What are the technical requirements for developing course materials?
When will I have access to the learning environment?
Is technical help available for students?
The answers to these questions and other skills and experiences will affect the time, budget, and in the end, the quality of
the online course. If knowledge gaps are identified, consider potential sources of help and seek them out. Are there
technology training, instructional design, or production resources available on campus? Are you really alone?
It helps to make these contacts early in the process. Sharing your own goals, experiences, strengths and weaknesses with
these contacts will also help make the most of available support and resources. If no help is available in certain areas,
prepare and list of tasks or needed skills and build this need for acquisition of new knowledge into the timeline for the
course.
Planning and Timelines
When planning, it is important to consider all the roles and tasks. Aside from content expert, other roles include:
Project manager
Interface designer
Instructional designer
Media developer
HTML author
Editor
Quality control analyst
Alpha-tester
Course administrator
Course facilitator
Technical support provider
Online library resources liaison
Self-motivator
Planning is the phase when the realistic appraisal of skills and experience meets the timeline. A realistic timeline must be
developed based on the self-assessments and information gathering mentioned above. There may be a need to delay the
actual development of the course in favor of increasing skill sets and working out details of delivery. The plan may also
include development tasks and professional development that occur simultaneously in order to meet the deadline for
delivery.
If development timelines are extremely short and help is very limited, it may also be necessary to drop extraneous media
or programming pieces that are not essential to the instructional goals and value of the course. It is also important to add
extra time for unexpected problems or steeper than expected learning curves. Media enhancements may be added to later
versions of the course, allowing those course designers with little or no available help to build new skills over time and
not to learn all possible skills in one development cycle. This practice of gaining mastery of new skills over time will also
add to the quality of the course.
Course Design
Course content can be presented
in an 2005
online
various
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media including
Copyright
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Board ofthrough
Regents of
the University
System. text, audio, video,
Duplication
or
redistribution
prohibited
without
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permission
of
the
author(s)
animation, presentation software, instructional graphics, etc. There are also a wide variety
of communication technologies
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and The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
For more resources click here -> http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
available including e-mail, online chat, threaded bulletin boards, etc. When selecting the media or tools to use within a
course, it is important that selections match instructional goals and objectives, the technical capability of the target
audience, and the resources available to the course designer. For those designers with little or no help, external, online
sources of pre-produced media may be available. There are also low no-cost communication technologies available.
Other design elements to consider include:
Infuse your personality and teaching style into the course
Creating effective discussions by eliciting critical thinking
Break lengthy content pieces into smaller chunks
Present complicated concepts or processes as informational graphics
Add FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pieces based on your experience with traditional classroom students
Remember that group work is still possible
View the course from a student’s point of view (or ask someone else to do so)
Remove as many questions or unknowns as possible from learning activities
Be aware of and follow any copyright and fair use policies on your campus
Be aware of and follow any ADA or accessibility policies on your campus
Again, extras add to development time and require advanced skill sets. Instructional goals and objectives within the course
should be the first determining factor in the decision to develop additional media, graphics, interactive pieces, or
communication-based activities for the course. A mixture of well-presented content enhanced with instructionally
appropriate media and thought-provoking discussions can result in a satisfying and effective learning experience for
online students.
Facilitating Online Courses
Just as in the traditional classroom, online courses require more than just a content expert. They require a motivational
coach, discussion facilitator, mentor, and mediator.
Other keys to facilitating online courses include:
Set communication ground rules early in the course
Lead by example in online discussions; your participation encourages students to participate
Give feedback on a regular basis
Set clear expectations on when and how feedback will be given
Provide office hours for online students via bulletin board, e-mail, chat or phone
Provide the students with a master calendar or checklist of all learning activities and due dates
Provide students with list of contacts by topic (content, tech support, registration, etc.)
Facilitate, mediate, mentor, and coach; be active and ever-present
Develop time-saving techniques for yourself
Try to anticipate technological glitches
Build redundant or alternative procedures into the course to accommodate these glitches
Get preferred or most frequently used e-mail addresses from all students
Evaluation in Online Courses
Online course development is a continuous cycle of development and revision. To keep quality high, use evaluation
results to drive revisions to the course.
Ideas for evaluations include:
Treat the first run of the course as a pilot, gathering extensive data from participants
Online surveys before, during and after the course
Small surveys for individual
activities
within
a course
Copyright 2005
The Board
of Regents
of the University of Wisconsin System.
Duplication
or
redistribution
prohibited
without written permission of the author(s)
Focus groups
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18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
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In-person, e-mail, or phone interviews with former students
Share Results and Experiences
At the completion of the course development process, it is important to share results and experiences – both good and bad.
Sharing helps online course designers to reflect and plan improvements for future courses. Inexperienced faculty can also
benefit from lessons learned by others.
Sharing can be accomplished locally through presentations, brown-bag informational sessions, or meeting with other
online faculty throughout each school year to revisit lessons learned and share new experiences. As experience grows,
some faculty may become mentors to others. Sharing can also bring visibility to the need for support of online course
development and to the potential benefits of a team approach to online course development.
References
Bates, A. (2001). Developing cost-effective online distance education courses. Presentation at the 2001 17th Annual
Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Madison. Available:
http://bates.cstudies.ubc.ca/pdf/cost_benefit_lecture.pdf
Burford, S. and Cooper, L. (2000). Online development using WebCT: A faculty managed process for quality. Australian
Journal of Educational Technology, 16(3), 201-214. Available:
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet16/burford.html
Hill, M. (1998). Staffing a distance learning team: Whom do you really need. Online Journal of Distance Learning
Administration, 1(1), Spring. Available: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/hill11.html
Webb, G. (2001). Building a whole-of-organisation approach to online education. Paper presented at the 2001 Net
Working conference, Australia. Available: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2001/01_attending/papers/43Webb.doc
Wells, M., Warner, P., & Steele, S. (1999). A team approach to developing online courses: Anne Arundel Community
College’s Online Academy. The Agenda, Spring/Summer. Available:
http://www.pbs.org/als/agenda/articles/tapproach.html
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Copyright 2005 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the author(s)
and The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
For more resources click here -> http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
Biographical Sketches
Penny Ralston-Berg is a lead Instructional Designer for University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations. She promotes
best practices in instructional design within the organization as well as with faculty from UW Learning Innovations’
partner institutions. She also works to create and refine models for effective and efficient development of online courses.
As a student, she has experienced instruction at a distance through print, videotape, compressed digital video, satellite
teleconference, and the Internet. Her primary areas of interest within the field of instructional design are the needs of
online learners and how those needs might be met with just-in-time training.
Address:
E-mail:
Phone:
Fax:
UW Learning Innovations
Suite 200
505 S. Rosa Road
Madison, WI 53719
[email protected]
608.262.8095
608.265.9396
Bethany Gordy is an Instructional/Visual Designer for University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations. She works with
faculty members to incorporate instructional technology into their curricula. Within this capacity she has developed
sophisticated procedure and processes to streamline course production. In addition, she also works with the different
departments throughout University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations to unify collateral material and marketing
strategies. Her primary areas of interest involve the creation and implementation of multimedia in Web-based courses.
Address:
E-mail:
Phone:
Fax:
5
UW Learning Innovations
Suite 200
505 S. Rosa Road
Madison, WI 53719
[email protected]
608.265.2843
608.265.9396
Copyright 2005 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Duplication or redistribution prohibited without written permission of the author(s)
and The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/