Effective Strategies for Online Course Design: Insights from Dr. Alisa Cooper

1. Online Course Design Instructional Design Strategies for Online Course Dr. Alisa Cooper Instructional Technologist & English Faculty Glendale Community College

2. Face to Face Converting or Creating? • Pros and cons • Pitfalls and opportunities • Hybrid • Online • Online • New

3. Starting with Objectives • Bloom’s Taxonomy • Assessment • Depth of learning • First step in creating modules

4. Why Objectives? • Clear statement of what students will be able to do when they are finished with an instructional segment • Focuses on student performance • Provides structure: beginning, middle, and end • What are the core concepts your students must learn for each module? • What do they need to know? • What do they need to be able to do? • What will they know as a result of my instruction?

5. Objective ABCDs • Audience (the learners) • Identify who it is that will be doing the performance (not the instructor). • Behavior (Performance): • Make sure it is something that can be seen or heard. • Condition (under which the learners must demonstrate their mastery of the objective): • What will the learners be allowed to use? What won't the learners be allowed to use? • Degree (HOW WELL the behavior must be done): • Common degrees include: Speed, Accuracy, Quality

6. Support Objectives by • Integrating learning technologies • Classroom technologies • Web 2.0 technologies • Online resources • Developing diverse assessment techniques • Infusing active learning, interaction, and peer engagement

7. Meeting Objectives

8. create Bloom’s Taxonomy • evaluate • analyze • Focus on learner performance/outcomes • For each module • What do they need to know? • What do they need to be able to do? • What will they know as a result of my instruction? • What can they learn in other ways? • apply • understand • remember http://online-course-design.pbwiki.com/Instructional-Design-Strategies-for-Online-Courses

9. Why Modules? • “7 +/-2 rule” • Support consistency in look and feel • Easier to find course content • Content becomes/feels more manageable • Prevents information overload • Allows students to focus on content rather than form

10. Readings • Video Module Possibilities • Assessment • Project • Content “chunks” • Let the content set the chunks • Content organized in conceptually related blocks • Apply past experience • Writing

11. Course Organization • Dates • Topic • Readings • Section • Unit • Module

12. The Project • Discussion: what is the course you’ll be using to redesign a module in this workshop • Identifying the “chunk” • Will use a course site

13. Mapping your CourseKey Points: 4 Basic Redesign Steps • Identify course content for a module • Write learning objectives and develop instructional modules • Select course delivery strategies appropriate for your content • Integrate course content with activities, resources, interaction, and technology (alignment)

15. Redesigning Your Course • Discussion: keeping the wheel in mind, share what components currently make up your existing course. • What do you think will “translate” most easily? • What do you think will be most difficult to “translate”? Resources: Assessing the Role of Teaching Presence from the Learner Perspective. Dr. Randy Garrison, Dr. Norm Vaughan. Available at Blended Learning and Course Redesign in Higher Education & http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI07159.pdf.

16. 5 Principles of Successful Course Redesign • Redesign the whole course. • Encourage active learning. • Provide students with individualized assistance. • Build in ongoing assessment and prompt feedback. • Ensure sufficient time on task and monitor student progress. http://thencat.org/PlanRes/R2R_PrinCR.htm

17. Assessment & Evaluation • Assessment - characterizes the value and appraisal of the individual; well institutionalized, if not always accurate about learner achievement. • Evaluation – makes a judgment about the value of instructional experiences and designs; less documented across programs colleges, institutions.

18. Your Online Course Toolbox • Worksheets • Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for Objective Development • Mapping Your Course • Resources • Course re(Design) Resources wiki page • Sample face-to-face syllabus • (re)Design handouts: 2

19. Mapping Your Course • Step 1 • Go back to Bloom’s handout, where you started mapping out the objectives for your course and indicated the level of Bloom’s addressed

20. Mapping Your Course • Step 2 • Transfer objectives (some) to Mapping Your Course handout • Step 3 • What does the instructor do? • What does the learner do?

21. Mapping Your Course • Step 4 • Identify a module or chunk • Add more detail to objectives • Indicate instructor and student activity • Indicate Bloom’s level addressed • Consider alignment/relationship to other content

22. CONTACT INFO • Alisa Cooper, EdD • dr.coop@gmail.com • 602-325-3259