# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information

The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You're free to share, reproduce, or otherwise use it, as long as you attribute it to the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. For a higher resolution version, visit our Flickr account and look for the "Download this photo" icon.

Background Information

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.

The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as "skills and abilities," with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors' brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Handbook One, pp. 201-207):

Knowledge "involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting."

Comprehension "refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications."

Application refers to the "use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations."

Analysis represents the "breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit."

Synthesis involves the "putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole."

Evaluation engenders "judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes."

The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

Barbara Gross Davis, in the "Asking Questions" chapter of Tools for Teaching, also provides examples of questions corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These "action words" describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

Remember

Understand

Interpreting

Exemplifying

Classifying

Summarizing

Inferring

Comparing

Explaining

Apply

Analyze

Differentiating

Organizing

Attributing

Evaluate

Create

In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:

Factual Knowledge

Knowledge of terminology

Knowledge of specific details and elements

Conceptual Knowledge

Knowledge of classifications and categories

Knowledge of principles and generalizations

Knowledge of theories, models, and structures

Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms

Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods

Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures

Metacognitive Knowledge

Strategic Knowledge

Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge

Self-knowledge

Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:

1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.

2. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.

3. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:

"plan and deliver appropriate instruction";

"design valid assessment tasks and strategies";and

"ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives."

Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Further Information

Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, entitled "The Taxonomy in Use," provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy. Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.

Section IV, "The Taxonomy in Perspective," provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom's Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Patricia Armstrong Print Version Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/. Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

# data[].attributes.body
Appropirate verb choices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
4 Things You Need to Know to Be a Successful Instructional Designer

Instructional Strategies

How to Create a Portfolio to Land Your Dream Instructional Design Job

The ADDIE Model Infographic

Although there are many different models and methodologies for the creation of training materials in the eLearning world, the ADDIE model is, undoubtedly, the most popular of all. If you are a veteran, you certainly know what ADDIE is and how to create in line with that model, and I doubt I will be able to tell you anything you do not already know. However, if you are new to the industry, or simply have not heard the name before, the ADDIE Model Infographic will get you up to speed, introducing you to the methodology and showing you how it can help you.

The ADDIE model refers to:

Furthermore, provides a step-by-step process that helps instructional designers plan and create learning solutions with a framework in order to make sure that their instructional products are effective and that their processes are as efficient as they can possibly be.
See also:

Embed this Infographic on your site or blog!

Copy code The code has been copied to clipboard!

Stay up to date on the latest eLearning news, articles, and free resources sent straight to your inbox!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The ADDIE Model Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
4 Things You Need to Know to Be a Successful Instructional Designer Instructional Strategies How to Create a Portfolio to Land Your Dream Instructional Design Job Although there are many different models and methodologies for the creation of training materials in the eLearning world, the ADDIE model is, undoubtedly, the most popular of all.

# data[].attributes.headline
Questions to Ask While Designing an Online Course

# data[].attributes.subject
Questions to Ask While Designing an Online Course

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Considerations in Designing Effective Online Courses

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Considerations in Designing Effective Online Courses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Effective online courses are well designed so that teaching and learning is organized in the most effective and engaging manner possible. In an online learning situation, the student's learning experience is almost entirely mediated through some form of technology; therefore, the design of the teaching and learning experience is especially critical.

Instructional Design is a broad term that encompasses the selection, organization, sequencing, and assessment of content, tools, and experiences to help learners attain a certain set of goals. Poorly designed technology-based courses can confound learning, frustrate learners and instructors, and result in high attrition rates. Oftentimes, a focus on Instructional Design often focuses on micro-level actions - which apps to use, which videos to include in a course (all important). This article instead focuses on several (though not all) good, high-level, Instructional Design practices for creating effective online courses - primarily for teachers in an online learning program.

Instructional Design: A Big Picture View

Effective online courses do the following:

1. They Are Grounded In An Understanding Of The Learning Process.

An effectively designed online course or program must take into account multiple factors - the characteristics of targeted learners, the nature of the content, the role of the community in shaping learning, and integration of ongoing feedback and assessment; ample opportunities for practice and expert feedback to guide the development of knowledge in action.

2. They Are Based On The Needs Of Adult Learners.

Research on adult learning demonstrates that adult learners share common characteristics and beliefs that can be integrated into any learning experience. Adult learners:

Need to be treated with respect and recognition and their professional experiences integrated into workshops and discussions.

Are practical and want solutions they can implement to address real-life challenges.

Are self-directed and need to be given the opportunity to reflect on and analyze their own practice.

Need to process information as part of learning.

Have different learning styles.

Need support of peers.

3. They Link Theory And Practice.

Online teacher professional development has been critiqued for its relative failure vis-à-vis face-to-face instruction to integrate theory with practice. As such, concepts such as "pedagogical knowledge" remain more conceptual than practical - focusing on knowledge about practice versus knowledge in practice. Using real-time video -such as a videoconferencing system or web cameras- can capture practice "live" (though stationery video systems may not provide a full picture of student interactions and behaviors). Videorecording teachers' practice at certain points in the school year can provide a visual archive of teacher progression or regression in a certain area. And video can also be shared with other teachers as a study tool.

4. They Accommodate Range Of Learning Styles.

Cognitive models or "frames of mind" shape the way learners perceive and process information and suggest that an individual's ability to learn is influenced by the manner in which information is presented. Course designers should create an array of assignments, activities, and assessments that allow learners to interact and practice with content in multiple ways, on multiple cognitive levels and using multiple measures and methods to assess learning.

5. They Are Accessible.

Effective online courses should be accessible to all learners. One way to do this is to make sure courses are "universally" designed. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advocates that all learning experiences should be purposefully designed to be "barrier free" and accessible by providing multiple and flexible methods of the following elements:

Presentation of information and knowledge (e.g., voice-to-text applications, screen readers, digital books).

Expression with alternatives for students to demonstrate what they have learned (e.g., concept mapping).

Engagement to tap into diverse learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn (choices among various scenarios for learning the same competency).

6. They Are "Flexibly" Designed.

One of the most common misconceptions in online education is that face-to-face curriculum can be transferred wholesale to a distance education format. Rather, online courses must be designed "flexibly" and specifically for an online medium. Flexible design proposes that content be organized in flexible formats, used in a variety of activities and accessible through a variety of technologies to allow for customized learning experiences. Some of its key components are:
a) Medium of delivery.
Maximizing the strengths of the technology delivery model or modality while mitigating its weaknesses.
b) Organization.
Content, activities, and experiences should be sequential, cumulative, and coherent. They should be highly interactive and allow for a range of levels of learning, learner entry points, and experiences. Information should be "chunked" and moves sequentially from simple to complex; concrete to abstract and general to specific, in clear, concise text.
c) Design clarity.
This includes ease of access and navigation. Such clarity and the intuitive organization of materials significantly influence learners' satisfaction and perceived learning of course material in online learning environments.
d) Types of learner experiences.
Flexibly designed courses favor "ill structured" activities over well-structured ones; interactivity over passivity; inductive over deductive instruction; and activity over text and lecture. Such course design supports both the individual and group's learning and promotes applied approaches to learning.
e) Digital tools.
Must be functional; provide multichannel opportunities to build understanding of complex concepts; allow for the completion of a range of tasks (finding information, communicating, writing, reflecting, organizing information, etc). Technology should be not just a medium of delivery but a learning aid that provides opportunities for concrete, contextually meaningful experiences through which they can search for patterns, raise their own questions, and construct their own models, concepts, and strategies.

7. They Offer Flexible Delivery.

In addition to being flexibly designed, distance courses should be flexibly delivered. Flexibly delivered courses offer:

Realistic options and choice in terms of time, place, and technology.

Multiple modes of delivery (in the workplace; in block modes; modules; interactive format and other "non-standard" delivery).

Options for delivery include alternative ways of on campus, in-class, independent lectures, seminars, tutorials, and practical sessions.

Accommodation of the diverse learning needs and learning styles of learners.

Use of technology and resources for learning supports to provide options to any students to access and use materials in his/her own place (e.g., web-based teaching materials and exercises or assessment that is not time and place specific).

8. They Provide For Flexible Assessment.

Assessment is often the weakest component of an online program. One way to improve assessment is to design a "flexible assessment" system. Flexible assessment involves the following practices:

Uses synchronous and asynchronous approach to assessment.

Utilizes a range of assessment formats, for example computer-based, performance-based, and face-to-face assessments in a central location with proctors and invigilators.

Employs a combination of formative and summative assessments.

Collaborative assessments in which teachers and teacher candidates create, joint products to showcase their learning (e.g. folksonomies).

Grading policies that combine self-, peer-, and instructor assessment of the products, processes and progress of learning.

9. They Use A Variety Of Media.

A mix of media is more effective than the reliance on one type of media because it satisfies the many types of learning preferences that one person may embody or that a class embodies. Particularly in print- and web-based professional development courses which are primarily text heavy, the use of still and moving visual media can help learners who are poor readers better understand content.

Print instruction should be delivered in an individualized mode which allows the learner to set the learning pace. Visual media -such as animations and simulations- can help learners enhance their understanding of concepts, such as object identification and spatial relationships. Visual media which portray motion can demonstrate psychomotor or cognitive domain expectations by showing the skill as a model against which students can measure their performance. Images can enhance vocabulary and reading comprehension for poor readers. Full motion video can be used to depict performance so that learners can copy the movement. Audio narration can help poor readers comprehend information and music can serve as a memory aid. Literacy research shows that readers remember what they've read if key words are highlighted by different colors and font styles. Color coding concepts is also an effective visual mnemonic.

10. They Are Interactive.

"Interactivity" is one of those terms we often use without clearly defining. It involves 5 levels:

1. Learner interaction with an object or person in a way that allows learners to improve their knowledge and skills in a particular domain.

2. Multiple communications between learners around an object of study, a tool, or an experience.

3. Learner control and program adaptation based on learner input.

4. Reciprocal process of information exchange and sharing ideas between students and teachers.

5. Multiple forms of synergistic participation and communication that aid the development of meaningful learning.

A full list of references used in this post can be found in pages 138-150 of Burns, M. (2011), Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods. Washington, DC: Education Development Center, Inc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Designing Effective Online Courses: 10 Considerations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Want to know how to design Effective Online Courses? Check 10 Instructional Design best practices for Designing Effective Online Courses.

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Rules for Developing Your First Online Course

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Rules for Developing Your First Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Years of helping faculty pass to the dark side of online education have taught me a few simple rules that I brow beat (in a collegial way) into all new online teachers.

Rule 1: Provide Extra Detail in Your Online Syllabus
Most of us spend much of the first day of class going through the syllabus, taking time to elaborate on different points, and answering questions as we go along. Online classrooms lack this time, and so the syllabus must be more detailed than it would be for a face-to-face class, especially when it comes to procedures. You can also preempt problems and save time answering questions by creating a discussion forum devoted to common questions about the class itself.

Rule 2: Begin with Community Building
Despite appearances, online education is (should be) a fundamentally communal endeavor, with discussion taking center stage. But discussion requires trust, which can be built through community-building exercises. Some educators even recommend spending the first two weeks on community building, asserting that it will pay for itself in better performance over the remainder of the course.

Rule 3: Design for the Web
I remember building my first online course by transcribing the lectures from my face-to-face course into text. Somehow the students managed to get through them, bless their hearts. But, of course, the online environment is fundamentally visual, built on videos, interaction, exploration, etc. All effective communication requires an understanding of the rules of that environment. Don't view the online environment through the paradigm of the face-to-face environment. Rather, design for the web.

Rule 4: Account for Different Systems
It's easy to forget that web pages operate differently on different browsers, and especially on different devices. Ask your instructional designers to go over your course to confirm that everything will work on different systems. It's a good idea to check in with them before designing content so that they can give you a template that will work.

Rule 5: If Someone Can Say it Better Than You, Then Let Them
The first time I taught medical ethics, I wrote a long description of the Human Genome Project for my students to read. It took me hours and was boring. Then I discovered that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a beautiful website covering everything in my document and more. I could have saved myself a lot of time and provided better content by sending them to the NIH website.

Faculty often think they must develop every piece of content from scratch, but nearly all of the information in their head is available somewhere else. Use the web to your advantage by curating, rather than creating, content whenever possible.

Rule 6: Use a Consistent Format
Humans are fundamentally pattern-recognition animals, meaning that we will look for patterns to help guide our actions. Create a template of what you will want from students in each module and follow it. It might be that your modules start with a video overview of the material, links to various content, three discussion questions, etc. Changes in midstream invariably lead to students missing content or assignments.

Rule 7: Remember the Workload Parameters
Some faculty seem to think that they need to "make up" for the online format by assigning extra work, or maybe the cornucopia of material available on the web makes them want to assign all of it, less a student miss some detail that they may need 20 years down the line. Either way, faculty commonly assign too much content in an online class. If you assign too much, students will only view part of it, and the part they choose as more important may not be what you think is most important. Define a workload range and stay within it.

Rule 8: Provide Content in Different Formats Whenever Possible
While the premise that people have different learning styles is somewhat controversial, I've found that different people prefer different types of content. For this reason, as well as ADA purposes, it's a good idea to present content in different formats whenever possible. This could be as simple as providing a transcript to accompany a video.

Rule 9: Mix Content and Activities
One disadvantage of the traditional college lecture is that it separates content from engagement. The teacher talks for 50 minutes or longer, and the students engage with the material later as homework. But this is not how we learn. We need practice and reflection every 20 minutes or so to move knowledge from our short-term memory to our long-term memory. In the online classroom, systems like VoiceThread or Articulate Storyline are ideal for allowing teachers to intersperse activities with their content to enable immediate application and better retention.

Rule of Rules (10): It Takes Longer Than You Think
All faculty members, including me, underestimate how long it will take them to develop online content. I tell faculty to develop their content during the semester prior to the course going live, earlier if at all possible.
Dr. John Orlando writes, consults, and teaches faculty how to use technology to improve learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Top 10 Rules for Developing Your First Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Years of helping faculty pass to the dark side of online education have taught me a few simple rules that I brow beat (in a collegial way) into all new online teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Online: Designing Modules - UCF Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many modules include directions for students to perform tasks, both as a means of practicing the learning and to assess student comprehension. The nature of these tasks often appeals to diverse learning styles; those who relish interpersonal communication enjoy discussion boards, group projects, wikis, and blogs, while those who learn better independently are attracted to individual reports, online research, and individual homework.

# data[].attributes.headline
Online Course Design: Tips, Strategies, and Best Practices

# data[].attributes.subject
Online Course Design: Tips, Strategies, and Best Practices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Simply delivering a traditional course via the internet is not enough for today's students. Online learning needs to actively engage students if higher education leaders are going to expand access, improve learning outcomes, and close the degree attainment gap.

The Online Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University was founded to tackle exactly that question: How can learning science be used to inform online learning course design? Over 12 years of research, OLI found that by coupling effective learning practices (such as goal-directed practice and timely and targeted feedback) with predictive analytics and instructional design, they could create highly effective learning experiences tailored to the needs of each individual student based on data-validated knowledge gaps.

Acrobatiq, backed by Carnegie Mellon University, is rooted in the idea that good online course design emanates from learning science. Smart Author - Acrobatiq's course design and authoring tool - "bakes in" principles from learning design in the design workflow.

For example, lesson pages without associated learning objectives are "flagged" before they can be published for students. Assessments without sufficient practice are also flagged. Using the course design triangle as a framework, Smart Author simplifies the process of aligning course objectives with activities and assessments.

That is the first step toward developing high-impact online learning experiences for faculty and students. There are many other online course design models and frameworks to borrow from, and many share similar concepts, incorporating "active learning" to encourage engagement and participation; providing abundant goal-directed practice with timely and targeted feedback to help students get "unstuck"; and embedding metacognitive activities to help students develop self-awareness about their own learning styles.

Many colleges and universities are realizing the benefits of developing strong instructional design teams and best practices. This is because, as these institutes of higher learning are realizing, at the core of effective teaching and instruction is good instructional design.
San Juan College's compilation of research for online course design
San Juan College (SJC) in Farmington, New Mexico, compiled a comprehensive collection of research on best practices for online course design. Some highlights:

Set clear course goals that are achievable and measurable, and then communicate them to your learners.

Encourage critical thinking by presenting students with tasks that require analysis, synthesis, problem recognition, problem-solving, inference, and evaluation.

Insert questions, charts, and/or diagrams into text to help students better regulate their own comprehension or to visualize a concept.

Encourage good learning strategies, such as re-reading, note-taking, distributing learning over time, and time management.

These are just some highlights from this comprehensive collection of research; more details and links to the reference materials are available on their website. They actually offer 48 separate tips for online course design culled from an impressive list of different sources that you may want to review in detail.
Step-by-step guide to online course design by Las Positas College
Las Positas College (LPC) in Livermore, California produced a document called Best Practices in Designing Online Courses for its faculty. Their guide is a step-by-step collection of standards with instructions, examples, and useful references for any educator to build an excellent online course.

Course Introduction. Begin by detailing the general course content and student responsibilities, among other items, in your syllabus. Open your online course by greeting your students with a welcome message telling them how to get started in the course and showing them how to navigate the course. Introduce yourself to the class, and have students introduce themselves to you and to one another in order to begin building a "community of learners." You'll need to familiarize students with the course software and make sure they understand what is required for them to succeed in an online course.

Course Organization. LPC advises that you structure your course in a well-organized manner and make it easy to navigate. Test all of the links in your course to make sure they are active and up to date. Create web pages that are consistent and reasonably attractive and design your course so that all aspects of it are accessible to students with disabilities. Design your course so pages can be downloaded within a reasonable period of time even without a high-speed internet connection.

Be sure to include one discussion board forum where students can ask and answer class-related questions and one where they can ask and answer non-class-related questions. Also, post frequently asked questions in your course.

Instructional Design. Introduce learning units with an overview of the topic and connect what the students already know about the topic to what they are going to learn. Earlier, you defined what your objectives were for each course. Now, write and post objectives for each learning unit or module within the course. Align your learning activities and assessments to your objectives and outcomes. Clearly write your content and lessons and structure your learning activities to foster student-instructor, student-student, and student-content interactions.
Related reading: Creating Personalized Learning Experiences Online Coherent, Coordinated and Consistent Online Course Design
Christopher Pappas, founder of The eLearning Industry's Network, explores best practices for online course design that are "relevant, relatable, personal, and practical."

Create learner-centered goals and objectives.

Assess online learners to identify knowledge gaps through pre-assessments.

Immediate and personalized feedback helps see their progress toward objectives and to know. what they need put their attention into.

The most important components
Related reading: Taking Online Course Design Seriously

All of the experts agree: the most important components in your online course design include establishing objectives for your course and your learners, aligning learning activities with your objectives, and providing timely feedback to students.

And while the components of effective instructional design have complex and sophisticated learning science behind them, weaving them into course design has never been simpler. The step-by-step guidance of Smart Author enables swift creation of adaptive, customized, interactive online courses - courses that are rich with meaningful content, activities, and assessments, all clearly tied to the right outcomes.

These experts also agree on approaching online course design with a spirit of personal and professional growth. Don't be afraid to take risks. Get feedback from your colleagues and your students. Experiment, review, revise, enhance. Have fun in the process.
Pam Baker is a freelance writer specializing in human resources, information technology and online learning technology.
Because, as training designer and speaker Cathy Moore says, " Our job is to change what people DO, not just what they know. We need to design experiences, not information. Design practice, not a quiz."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Online Course Design: A Roundup of Tips, Strategies, and Best Practices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Simply delivering a traditional course via the internet is not enough for today's students. Online learning needs to actively engage students if higher education leaders are going to expand access, improve learning outcomes, and close the degree attainment gap.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It has long been understood that adults learn differently from children, and from students of traditional university age. With the recent shift toward continuous education and adult learning, especially in the professional sphere, it has become necessary to quantify these differences more closely.

Instructional design' is a science-based field that synthesizes pedagogical realities and the neurological facts of learning. Although it can be applied to any learning community, the field has attained widespread recognition due to its role in adult-focused pedagogy.

It builds on and implements existing theories of adult learning in modern, effective ways.

A Brief History and Definition of Malcolm Knowles' Theory of Andragogy

'Andragogy' refers to the specialized pursuit of effective curricular design and instruction delivery for adults. The basic theories of andragogy, as developed by Malcolm Knowles and others, are used extensively in the design of adult-oriented training programs. They are especially valuable in "soft skill" domains that are prized in the business world, such as management development.

Knowles was a U.S.-based adult educator who was first published in the 1950s. He became prominent over the next two decades for developing theories to assist adult learners, whom he referred to as "a neglected species." As executive director of the Adult Education Association of the USA, he was able to apply and refine his theories with the participation of large student communities.

Knowles recognized that adults cannot simply act as passive receptacles of others' expertise as children often do. To fully comprehend and use new information in the future, they must have a different level of engagement than what is required by youths. For example:

Adults desire explanations of why specific concepts are being taught in the first place;

They typically respond best to learning that is centered around performing common tasks;

Adult learning materials should take into account different levels of prior experience;

Adult students prefer a self-directed approach that allows for discovery on their own.

Styles of Learning: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic

The idea of different 'learning styles' has great currency among both adult and traditional learners. Harvard University's Howard Gardner is one of the top writers in this area, having defined seven distinct intelligences - with the potential for many more.

When learning experiences are tailored to the needs of the individual learner, that person is more likely to understand, recall and use new information. Learning styles can be categorized according to the most dominant "sense" the learner prefers to use.

The three major learning styles are as follows.

1. Visual: These learners prefer to see the process demonstrated in a step-by-step way. They benefit from video demonstrations and from lectures that focus on watching an expert perform a task. They also tend to use traditional class notes more effectively than others.

2. Auditory: These learners are most effective when they listen to a process or concept being described. They benefit most from a traditional lecture. Participating by actively asking questions may help them learn better. They gain advantages from recording each lecture.

3. Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic learners learn best by performing tasks. This is true even if they have not quite mastered the concepts and need to use trial and error. They can use either of the other learning styles as a secondary tool, but will benefit the most from project-based learning.

The Principles of Adult Learning Theory

What are the basic principles of adult learning? They derive from adults' experiences and needs.

As a general rule, adults need to be involved in planning their instruction and evaluating their results. They should be provided with an environment in which mistakes are safe, expected and a basis for continued learning, in keeping with a problem-centered approach to new ideas.

For the most part, adults have little time to learn new content for its own sake. Instead, they are interested in approaching tasks directly related to their occupation. To thrive in most learning environments, they must be clear on how each lesson fits into their goals for self-advancement.

From an early age, children are conditioned to recognize educators as authority figures who have broad-based power to tell them what to do, when and how. By contrast, adults expect that even the most credentialed expert will behave as a partner to them in a participative learning journey.

Overview of the ADDIE Instructional Design Model

Instructional designers must be prepared to develop materials and systems to meet the needs of many different educators and learning communities. They may not - and often do not - have any influence over how material is delivered or consumed once it is completed. As a result, there needs to be a robust and repeatable process for ensuring materials are effective.

The ADDIE Model provides such a process in five steps:

1. Analysis: Determine if training is appropriate, and define requirements for the training;

2. Design: Define objectives, build out the program and choose the methods and media;

3. Development: Conduct pilot courses using all materials in accordance with objectives;

4. Implementation: Implement 'version 1' of the training, evaluate it and refine it;

5. Evaluation: Perform evaluation at key milestones to ensure goals are being met.

Modern ideas about instructional design date back more than 50 years, with the ADDIE model appearing by the 1970s as a product of the United States military. By following the model, instructional design experts can take a data-driven approach that allows them to ensure systems are aligned with key goals. Plus, they have many opportunities to 'course correct' using periodic evaluation.

Instructional Design in the Future

The ADDIE Model represents one attempt at codifying all the most important aspects of IDS (Instructional Systems Design). This is seen as a comprehensive and systematic attempt to bring all the disparate parts of instructional design together. It synthesizes elements of the individual perspectives of learning styles and overarching principles of adult learning theory.

Although instructional design and its approaches have been in refinement for decades, they are now being applied more frequently than ever. New, innovative approaches will be necessary to design and deliver varied, large-scale curricula to diverse audiences around the world. No matter how complex this task becomes, a structured and systematic approach will remain vital.

Colleges, universities, businesses and NGOs all have different uses for instructional design. Wherever there is a need to make the process of adult learning more efficient and effective, the principles of instructional design can be used. At each level, the instructional designer must operationalize an understanding of the curriculum, the needs of learners and the end goal. Remaining focused on this perspective in every step allows even the most sophisticated learning system to develop according to plan.

Learn More

Information means more than knowledge, it means solutions. When technology, people and information intersect, society and industry benefit. You can harness the power of information with our online Master of Information degree at Rutgers University.

Sources

http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html
http://www.fgdla.us/uploads/White_Paper-Introduction_to_the_ADDIE_ISD_Model.pdf
http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy.html

Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Principles of Adult Learning Theory - Rutgers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It has long been understood that adults learn differently from children, and from students of traditional university age. With the recent shift toward continuous education and adult learning, especially in the professional sphere, it has become necessary to quantify these differences more closely.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Understanding Adult Online Learners Infographic

Adults are characterized by maturity, self-confidence, autonomy, solid decision-making, and are generally more practical, multi-tasking, purposeful, self-directed, experienced, and less open-minded and receptive to change. All these affect their motivation, as well as their ability to learn.

Adult learners respond best to when course designers keep their specific learning needs in mind. Great eLearning for adults needs to take cues from pioneers in adult learning, such as , who recognizes that adults learn in specific and different ways than traditional college students and other learners. Understanding the principles of adult learning leads to more successful .

The Understanding Adult Online Learners Infographic serves as a quick guide to understanding adult online learners focusing on 4 main points:

1. Adults bring experience to training. Allow them to use it.

2. Allow adult learners to make their own meaning.

3. Adult learners want to have fun.

4. Learning occurs when behavior changes.

Via: info.shiftelearning.com

Embed This Education Infographic on your Site or Blog! Copy and Paste the following code!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Understanding Adult Online Learners Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Adults are characterized by maturity, self-confidence, autonomy, solid decision-making, and are generally more practical, multi-tasking, purposeful, self-directed, experienced, and less open-minded and receptive to change. All these affect their motivation, as well as their ability to learn. Adult learners respond best to when course designers keep their specific learning needs in mind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Designing Engaging Online Learning for Adults

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This webinar delivered the key principles of online learning and provided best practice examples for course development and design. Intended for educators, tra...

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Make Learning Matter to Online Students

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Make Learning Matter to Online Students

# data[].attributes.body
Avoiding common pitfalls in course design

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The online classroom is a virtual meeting place where students spend hours each week in study. Proper classroom design makes the classroom environment inviting, organized, functional, friendly, and comfortable. Improper classroom design can cause an unsuccessful learning experience for students.

But how can one be certain their classroom design is flawed? Potential design problems are addressed below along with methods for eradicating these issues. In reviewing your classroom, if one or more of the following issues are present, there is a strong indication your students are being subjected to an less than optimal the learning experience.

More time can be spent learning course logistics than learning course topics. Course navigation should be as simple as possible. Moving through the classroom should be easy for the student. Navigation of the course should not require extensive interaction. The number of prompts required for the student to move between classroom areas should be as few as possible.

Making the online course format for all weeks similar is one approach for achieving simple logistics. Course navigation buttons should be consistent from week to week. Material and assignment format should also be similar from week to week.

Understanding assignments can require more time than working on them. In navigating the course, the number of transitions between information should be kept to a minimum. For example, a student looking at an assignment should not be required to use extensive links or visit multiple classroom areas in order to obtain information on the assignment.

The assignment description should contain all the information needed to complete the assignment. Students should not be expected to leave the classroom area (through links, etc.) to obtain information for assignments.

An assignment includes only the information necessary for completion. Not enough information causes additional searching for assignment details. Too much information creates confusion. Time is better spent completing the assignment.

Assignments, reference material, and related classroom areas should be available when needed by the student. Extra effort finding assignment information should not be required to complete the assignment.

All assignments for the course should be posted in a classroom area at the beginning of the course and be available throughout the course. This enables students to plan the weeks ahead with personal or professional schedules.

However, classroom areas for posting assignment material should be available only for a week. Students should not be allowed to post assignment material for weeks in advance. This keeps all students moving through classroom assignments together with an opportunity for interaction on assignments.

Incremental assignments can eliminate peak loads in the class workflow. The structure of assignments should be for completion of a topic, or subject, or learning objective, a piece at a time. This structure gives the flexibility for a particular part of the topic to move through the sequence of study.

For example, a business class may have assignments for a project plan. Assignments for the plan are to develop the document in increments - such as a statement of work, a work breakdown, work distribution, and work scheduling. Each week a different part of the project plan is developed as an increment of the whole.

Use of incremental assignments also enables the individualization of assignments. For example, an assignment can be for each student to study and present part of the material for the week to each other. This causes one student to become an expert on the topic and mentor of other students on the material. A quiz covering all the material assures students have learned from each other.

Unreasonable time limits detract from learning. Assignments during the week, and from week to week, should require about the same amount of time to complete. For example, reading should be the same amount each week depending on the difficulty of material. Another example is a course project, due at the end of a course, with parts due incrementally each week during the course.

Knowledge of the material by the course designer is a key factor in this load leveling exercise. The designer estimates what the load level will be. Should the load level prove to be different than estimated, the course design will need to be modified.

Participation assignments are counter-productive to learning objectives. The timing of assignments during the week should be for assignments to be sequenced such that one is due each day of the week. Proper scheduling of assignments automatically provides the participation required by an institution. This eliminates the need for a separate participation grade. When students post assignments, as scheduled, they automatically meet participation requirements.

Non-individualized assignments provide opportunity for plagiarism. Using incremental and individualized assignments eliminate plagiarism. There is no opportunity for plagiarism since each student has a different assignment. Often students learn as much from reading the perspective of other students as they learn from the text or the instructor. Since each student is an expert, the opportunity for plagiarism does not exist.

Multiple activities in the same classroom area are difficult to navigate and update. An assignment should be cohesive and concentrate on a particular area of study, set of learning objectives, or topics. This makes activities easier to navigate. Also, using modular structure for classroom activities enables faster course development and enhances the ability for update.

Confusion results from multiple learning experiences at the same time. Assignments in should be discussion based with students interacting in the classroom as much as possible. Also, assignments should be modular or stand alone. This means analysis assignments for a topic should be separated from the concept discussion assignments on that topic. This separation of activities provides on online course design that is easier to use and makes updating the course easier.

There is a tendency to employ analysis interaction during concept discussion activities. This approach often happens in a teacher driven discussion. The teacher poses leading questions to students encouraging interaction. However, integration of analysis interaction with concept discussion is not the best approach for an effective learning experience.

Geography of students assigned to groups can cause difficulty in communication. Communication is a basic requirement for all groups. Communication between members of the group becomes easier when the geographical area of the group is smaller. Consequently, a recommended approach for group composition is directing students to form groups based on their geographical location.

Exams without verification of identity of the student may cause academic standard issues. The online classroom has checks and policies limiting the use of the password for privacy and security of an individual. However, there is always the possibility that the person taking an online test is not the enrolled student. If a student wishes to be academically dishonest by giving their password to another person, this issue must be solved by a physical check of identification that is not online.

To assure the valid measurement of student learning, many institutions employ proctored testing. The student shows an identification containing a picture to the proctor, then completes the exam under proctor supervision. The proctor then returns the completed final exam to the instructor.

Conclusion

When design issues are absent from the classroom, a course is inviting and comfortable. Students move easily through the logistics of a properly designed course, willingly completing assignments that are inviting and friendly, rather than viewing assignments as a chore. Also, in a properly designed course, students understand and apply concepts rather than strive to meet time constraints or participation requirements.

Proper course design provides the student with a classroom that is organized, functional, and friendly. Students clearly understand expectations for their work from well designed assignments, while plagiarism is absent through use of individualized assignments.

The presence of one or more design issues in a classroom is cause for concern that the learning experience of students will not be optimal. If none of the issues, persist the classroom can be an environment for student success.

About the Author
Erlan Burk is a partner in Concept Management Corporation, an information management and educational consulting firm with offices in Scottsdale, AZ and Salt Lake City, UT. In addition, he is an Assistant Professor at Park University, serving as Program Coordinator of Information and Computer Science, responsible for face-to-face and online programs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
elearn Magazine: Online Learning Indicators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Presented are 11 issues that indicators of necessary course design. The Absence of one or more indicators in an online class can create difficulty for students and, in turn, cause learning to suffer. The result is an unsuccessful online learning experience.

# data[].attributes.headline
Expert Strategies for Designing an Online Course

# data[].attributes.subject
Expert Strategies for Designing an Online Course

# data[].attributes.body
Involvement, Collaboration, Clarity, and Reflection

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Salena Rabidoux and Amy Rottmann, Amy Rottmann, Salena Rabidoux

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Expert Strategies for Designing an Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Steps for success include involving the learner, making collaboration work, devising a consistent structure and revising based on evaluation.

# data[].attributes.body
Are you considering teaching online?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you are considering teaching online or are looking for ideas to freshen-up your current online course, you have come to the right resource. Designing for the online environment presents unique challenges, but it also opens a world of exciting possibilities for engaging students in their learning. Online education is not an "alternative" to traditional classroom learning. According to a 10 year study conducted by the Online Learning Consortium, 6.7 million students have taken at least one online course and roughly thirty-two percent of all higher-education students now take at least one online course during their educational career. And these numbers continue to rise. But despite more interest (from students and academic leaders) and enrollment in the online format, student success rates in online classes lags behind their face-to-face counterparts. So, we cannot afford to ignore the online format, but how do we design effectively for the unique teaching and learning challenges it presents?

Start with the learning; moving from solutions to possibilities!

It is common when transitioning to the online environment to start with the question, "how can I do this online?" If we approach it from this standpoint, we can get stuck looking for ways to mimic or retrofit face-to-face activities. This can be a frustrating and even disappointing solution goose chase. A more productive approach is to start with the question, "what do my students need to learn?". Using the learning as the focal point, you can more easily navigate the amazing possibilities presented by the online environment.

The the most effective teaching principles apply regardless of modality and often stand the test of time. Consider the principles identified by 50 years of research by A. Chickering and Z. Gamson in the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." ( AAHE Bulletin, March 1987):

encourage faculty-to-student interaction

encourage student-to-student interaction

promote active learning

communicate high expectations

facilitate time on task

provide rich, rapid feedback

respect diverse learning

Although the study was conducted in 1987, these principles identified are amongst the most frequently referenced by online course designers as best practices. Keep these strategies in mind as you examine and approach your course design.

Actualizing Best Practice

Before you start! Collect all the materials you use to teach your course.

Organization is key to any project. Gather all the resources from previous courses you have taught, content and instructional materials you have researched or picked-up from colleagues, etc.. Put them in a format/file and store in a way you can easily access (computer, online or USB Drive). This includes your syllabi, notes, textbook, lectures, hand-outs, quizzes, exams, assignments/papers/projects, online resources, journal articles, and any other pertinent resources. Ask your department or colleagues for resources specific to your subject area. Sample syllabi, lessons and even course templates may be available to get you started. Taking the time to organize up front will save you lots of time later, so don't skip this critical part of the process.

Establish a timeframe and goals.

Designing a quality course takes time. You need to dedicate constructive and uninterrupted time to plan, design and build. How long it takes is a function of where you are starting (new design or redesign) and your other obligations (work, family, etc.). To ensure your success, establish a realistic timeframe and set goals/benchmarks and deadlines.

In Maricopa there are "course level" competencies that are designed and written by faculty at the district level through the Instructional Council for each discipline. Course competencies are what is required to be covered and taught in every course. For course design and mapping, especially online, a faculty member designs activities, assessments, lectures, etc. to teach those competencies....along the way students will learn incrementally - those are unit or module level learning objectives. These help students understand what they will be learning, how all the activities and assignments help them learn, and then in the end see where they have been.

Design Practice #1: Course Mapping

Access and review the most current course competencies on the MCCCD Curriculum & Transfer website.

1. Which competencies will be threaded throughout the entire course?

2. Cluster competencies that are relatable. Sequence these clusters into a logical order based on your background knowledge and experiences in the discipline. Module/unit duration is flexible based on the depth of knowledge students might acquire with each topic.

3. What is the theme of each competency cluster? Choose 5-7 units for your course that encompass the competency clusters.

Design Practice #2: Module Map (Key Concepts, Activities, Resources, Vocabulary, and Assessment)
Access and review the most current course outline on the MCCCD Curriculum & Transfer website.

1. Select a module/unit (competency cluster). Which key concepts will be emphasized in the course design?

2. For each key concept, which activities and resources will you integrate for students to make-meaning of course content?

3. Which academic and technical (discipline-specific) terms will you emphasize in each module/unit?

Map Outline Concept Map

Module Map Planning Example
University of Michigan, Center for Research on Teaching & Learning; Active Learning Strategies North Carolina Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire
Plan for interaction! Make sure your course is rich in opportunities for students to engage with the content, with you and with each other. This means creating diverse activities like discussions, group work, case studies and collaborative problem-solving. Also, be sure to select resources that are relevant and present a variety of viewpoints and meet different learning styles. Consider multimedia, periodicals, web resources, etc.

Tip: Don't get too caught up in specifics. This map should be an outline of the unit NOT the individual lessons.
Considerations
Design Practice #3: Module Level Learning Objectives

Using Course Competencies, pick a module and write learning objectives for one or more module/unit.

Does it begin with an action statement?

Is it clean and direct?

Does it express what we can expect students to be able to do?

Is it clear what we mean?

Does it reflect the essence of the cluster?

Creating Learning Objectives

It is essential to build measurable and clear objectives that outline what is expected of the learner. These objectives will make it easy to align the rest of your course and will serve to communicate learning expectations to students.

Using Blooms Taxonomy to find Measurable Verbs - Benjamin Bloom and a committee of colleagues identified three domains of learning and objectives can be written for any type of learning (Skills, Knowledge and Attitude). Bloom, and later Anderson & Krathwohl, also outlined categories of thinking. Learning objectives should encourage students to reach higher orders of thinking through careful scaffolding of concepts (structuring learning to build on prior concept knowledge). Using actionable verbs you can create objectives that target learning within these learning types and categories. It is very important that these verbs are measurable so that you can assess whether students understood the concept(s). For example:

Non-measurable verbs: understood, appreciate, learn.
Watch this brief video to learn more.
Measurable verbs: explain, discuss, compare, etc.
Resources:
ABCD Method - An easy framework for creating learning objectives is the A.B.C.D. method. This stands for Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree. Learning objectives that contain each of these elements will clearly outline the learning that is to be achieved after completing each module.

Tip: Each module should have approximately 3-5 learning objectives. If you have more, your objectives may be too task oriented or your module theme could be too broad.

Use this Blooms Taxonomy Levels Guide to find verbs for your learning objectives. This handy spreadsheet also includes ideas for assignments, activities and assessments that align with these verbs.

Penn State University offers a wonderful interactive tutorial to create objectives according to the ABCD method.

Use the University of Central Florida Objective Builder to create measurable objectives according to the ABCD method.

Design Practice #4: Align your module (activities, assignments, materials/technology and assessments) to the objectives.

We all love our course content! As a result, it is tempting to throw everything into your course in an effort to spark that same love in the heart of your students. But how do students know what is important and essential to their learning? How do we help them focus?

Achieving Alignment through a Conceptual Framework

Using the learning objectives you can become more selective in what you include in your course. This selection process is known as alignment. Alignment occurs when the course component (activity, assignment, material, technology and/or assessment) will help the student meet the learning objectives. To get started, build a Conceptual Framework for each module. In this framework outline the learning by identifying the course competencies and learning objectives for the module. Then review the course components (each piece of your module that you identified in the module map process) and see if they fit (align), i.e. contribute to the student achieving the stated learning objective. If a component does not align you need to either change the objective, change the course component or if it is essential to keep this non-aligned component, make sure that it is clearly identified as supplemental.

Tip: Make sure that your framework is as detailed as possible. This framework can be used to provide learners with an overview of each unit that includes what they are to learn (competencies/objectives), with what (activity, assignment, material, technology and/or assessment) and where (in class or online). As an option, you can add a sequence and timeframe to your framework and you have outlined a complete module schedule for your students!

Resources: Use the Module Conceptual Framework Form for a course to check your module alignment.

Design Practice #5: Assessment for Learning

You are almost ready to start putting your course online! But before you do, you need to consider how you will assess student learning. Assessment is more than just tests, quizzes and final projects. Truly "informative" assessment helps students measure their progress and helps to guide your instruction. How will you embed informal and formal assessments for students to demonstrate understanding of major course concepts?
C.A.T.s (Classroom Assessment Techniques)
Summative and Formative

Assessments come in two varieties, summative and formative. Summative Assessment evaluates student learning, skill and academic achievement at the end of a defined instructional period (i.e. project, unit, course, semester, etc.). Formative Assessments monitor student learning through formal and informal processes to gather evidence to improve learning (i.e. guiding learning from concept to concept, activity to activity and lesson to lesson; identifying clarifications and misconceptions before moving on to the next concept).

One highly effective type of Formative Assessment is called a C.A.T. (Classroom Assessment Technique). These serve two main purposes, 1) assesses how well your students are learning the content and 2) provides invaluable feedback to guide instruction. C.A.T.s also serve to regularly check that your students are participating and comprehending the content before they get to a Summative Assessment. Regular and purposeful use of C.A.T.s allows the learner to apply and practice what is taught and keeps them engaged in the course more frequently. These opportunities directly contribute to student success and retention.

Tip: Well designed C.A.T.s include a planning, implementing and responding phase.

Rubrics

A rubric is a coherent set of criteria for students' work that includes descriptions of levels of performance quality on the criteria. The main purpose of rubrics is to assess performances (Brookhart, 2013).

Explore four types of rubrics that you might use to assess assignments in your course. These teacher-created rubrics provide an objective framework to assignments that may lend to subjective review. Select a rubric type that fits your instructional style.

If you are assessing MCC's 4Cs in addition to grading the assignment, import the scoring guidelines into your course and attach the scoring guideline descriptors to your rubric.

Rubric Templates to Import into Your Canvas Course

Step 1: Download the for the template.
Export Package - Note: Do not rename or unzip this package file.

Step 2: Go to the course you want to import the rubrics into and access the settings from the course navigation.

Step 3: Select the "Import Content into this Course" option from the right-side menu.

Step 4: From the Content Type menu select "Canvas Course Export Package".

Step 5: Choose a file and locate the template export package. Note: The file extension will end with .imscc.

Step 6: Choose the "Select specific content" radial option.

Step 7: Ignore the date settings and select Import.

Step 8: When the file has run, choose the Select Content option.

Step 9: Under the Rubrics area select each rubric type. Leave all other items unchecked.

Step 10: Click the Select Content button.

Desired Characteristics of Criteria/Descriptors for Rubrics

Appropriate: Represents a competency or learning outcome

Definable: Clear to the instructor and student

Observable: Quality can be seen or heard

Distinct from one another: Each criterion identifies a separate aspect of the learning outcome

Complete: All criteria together describe the whole of the learning outcome

Able to support descriptions along a continuum: Each criterion can be described over a range of performance levels

Ready. Set. GO! Start building your course.

Congratulations the hard work is done! No really, it is! You have mapped your course and your modules, created measurable objectives, aligned all your course components (activities, assignment, materials/technology and assessments) and designed meaningful and varied assessments. So now what? You are ready to put your course online! Let's look at strategies to purposefully approach this process.
MCC Courses
Strategy 1: Look at Sample Courses
Canvas Courses
Examine other online courses to see the features and design elements that you think serve your learning goals. Most faculty like to start by viewing a course in their own discipline, but don't stop there. You'll get a wealth design ideas from courses regardless of the subject area. Good design is not content specific.

MCC provides previews a sampling of online classes at our eLearning Site. This is a great place to start.

Canvas is our Learning Management System (LMS) for MCCCD. View courses from a variety of colleges that use our LMS Canvas in the Canvas Catalog. For even more course samples using Canvas explore by feature.

Open Source Courses

Go beyond Canvas to discover even more amazing course designs.

Merlot provides peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials.

edEx Courses are made available by the Harvard Extension School's Open Learning Initiative. Featuring Harvard faculty, the noncredit courses are open to the public. You do not need to register to view the lecture videos.

The MIT Open Courseware Initiative makes MIT course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world.

Open Educational Resources & the Creative Commons
Strategy 2: Identify Quality & Aligned Content Materials
OER Commons Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
You may want to find additional resources to supplement your own content. The key is make sure that all of your content (regardless of source) aligns with the learning objectives as outlined in Step 3.
Find CC-licensed Works Publisher Content
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, open licensed, teaching and learning materials. There are worldwide repositories for the sharing and use of OER. Materials are available in almost any subject area and can include a single image, assignment or activity OR a full textbook and even an entire course.

Creative Commons resources are less specific and include a variety of resources (educational in purpose or not) that can be used under specific more open licensing arrangements than traditional copyright process. Items include clip art, images, videos, music and more.

Publishers often create online courses and course materials that go with your textbook. Talk to your publisher to receive access to the content. Often, you can select the materials and customize it to reach your learning objectives.
MCC Center for Teaching & Learning, Creating Accessible Course Materials
Strategy 3: Going beyond Accessibility; Engage in Universal Design

Regardless of where you get your content from, it needs to be accessible. But more than that, your content needs to be Universal. Universal Design or UDL is a set of best practices to help instructors meet the needs of all learners. From designing pages that can be read by mobile devices to screen readers, UDL is about considering the wide diversity of learner needs, not just abilities.

Strategy 4: Using Canvas

Canvas is the MCCCD adopted Learning Management System (LMS). It is called a learning management system because the focus is on the facilitation of learning, not on the storage of content. You will find that Canvas provides wonderful opportunities to enrich the online learning environment, including a built-in multimedia tool, the Edu Apps Center, quizzes, discussions, group and peer review, collaborative documents and so much more!

Canvas is designed to support modules! So, all that hard work you have done mapping out each of your learning units will pay off now. To get started with Canvas take advantage of one of the many opportunities to learn how the system works.

Canvas 101 is an open enrollment course that will walk you through the basics of setting up a new course in Canvas. To enroll, simply click on the "Join this course" button on the Course Home Page. There is no facilitator, but it is a good series of self exercises.

Canvas 102 Demo Videos Pt 1-3, a comprehensive over 3 hour presentation of all things Canvas for instructors.

Guides (software developer guides) cover all major features of Canvas by question topic. They are easy to navigate and mostly image-based walk thru demonstrations of how to use a particular feature.

The MCC CTL Getting Started with Canvas in 10 Steps Guide is basic primer to get a first time user off the ground.

The MCC Center for Teaching and Learning also offers in-person training for teaching with Canvas. Please visit our . Stay up-to-date with all things Canvas by calendar for information on upcoming learning opportunities visiting the CTL LMS News.

Resources for Students - If you are looking for Canvas Guides to assist your students, point them to the Canvas Tutorials and 101 Course. This course will walk students through all the major features of Canvas making it easy for you to focus on teaching, rather than troubleshooting technology and navigation.

Strategy 5: Getting Started Module

MCC has created a "start here" template module for instructors to import into their courses. Once you bring template in to your Canvas course, you can modify it to meet your specific needs. Instructions on how to import the template are included within the resource.

Step 1: Download the Canvas Export Package for the template.
Export Package :
Note: Do not rename or unzip this package file.

Step 2: Go to the course you want to import the module to and access the settings from the course navigation.

Step 3: Select the "Import Content into this Course" option from the right-side menu.

Step 4: From the Content Type menu select "Canvas Course Export Package".

Step 5: Choose a file and locate the template export package. Note: The file extension will end with .imscc.

Step 6: Choose the "Select specific content" radial option.

Step 7: Ignore the date settings and select Import.

Step 8: When the file has run, choose the Select Content option.

Step 9: Under the Modules area select the Getting Started Module. Leave all other items unchecked.

Step 10: Click the Select Content button.

Final Thoughts

Relax! You won't be creating the perfect online course, at least not the first time you teach it. It takes teaching an online course a few semesters to improve and enhance it. Continue to experiment with new approaches, refining your teaching according to your learning objectives and the feedback of your students. We highly recommend including a Course Survey in your final module so that you can collect valuable data and insights from the student perspective on the design, content and delivery of your course. Give yourself permission to be a student too - to learn over time. This guide will help you create a very good online course to start with. You can improve it from there!

Design + Delivery = Learning

Even a well-designed course can fall short without purposeful delivery throughout the course. Delivery includes pacing, feedback, communication, monitoring and adjusting instruction, etc.. that will actively engage and support the diverse learner needs. Continue your professional development by researching and exploring resources on best practices on instructional delivery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you are considering teaching online or are looking for ideas to freshen-up your current online course, you have come to the right resource. Designing for the online environment presents unique challenges, but it also opens a world of exciting possibilities for engaging students in their learning.

# data[].attributes.headline
Universal Design and Strategies to Support Non-Traditional Learners

# data[].attributes.subject
Universal Design and Strategies to Support Non-Traditional Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With its unique position as one of few four-year universities located at a crossroads in the Pacific ocean, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa serves a diverse population of students from the U.S, Asia and the Pacific. The university's College of Education (CoE) provides teacher education programs for students from various Hawaiian islands and from several Pacific island entities (such as American Samoa, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia). With this geographically-dispersed population, distance learning programs are a necessary and practical way for the CoE to reach students. Online courses have created outreach opportunities and enabled students to enroll in certificate and degree programs that they are not otherwise able to access.

Our online teacher education programs attract many "non-traditional students," learners who do not fit the profile of a typical college-age young adult. "Non-traditional students" include students who live in rural and remote communities, students with disabilities, and adult learners who are returning to school to earn certifications or degrees. The CoE's non-traditional student population includes individuals who are culturally and linguistically diverse, many from traditional and indigenous backgrounds. These non-traditional students have a range of characteristics and needs, based on their backgrounds, experiences, and life situations.

Universal design (UD) educational models provide useful frameworks to consider when creating courses for the diverse and non-traditional students served by the CoE's online programs. With a deliberate application of UD principles during the instructional design process, instructors can proactively develop courses that address the needs of diverse learners. UD principles can be taken into consideration when making determinations about various course elements and pedagogical practices for an online course, including decisions about how to use both asynchronous (e.g. course management systems) and synchronous technologies (e.g virtual classrooms via web-conferencing).

Considerations for Non-Traditional Learners

Our non-traditional learners are often: (a) rural and remote students, some from traditional and indigenous cultures, (b) students with disabilities, © adult learners, and (d) students for whom the language of instruction is not a first language (EFL students). These categories are not mutually exclusive; a non-traditional learner may fall into one or more of them. Table 1 lists some challenges that non-traditional students may experience in an online environment, which include ambiguity and uncertainty about expectations, excessive reliance on text-based learning modalities, isolation and lack of community, and technology challenges (Ho & Burniske, 2005; McLoughlin & Oliver, 2000; Rao, Eady, Edelen-Smith, 2010, Zepke & Leach, 2002).

Challenges/Issues

Rural/remote learners

Students with disabilities

Adult learners

EFL students

Universal Instructional Design: Applying Principles to Practice

Instructors often design courses before they know exactly who will be enrolled. During the instructional design phase, instructors can include course elements and pedagogical strategies that will address the needs of various types of diverse students who may enroll in their courses. The Universal Instructional Design (UID) framework provides guidelines that instructors can use to proactively building in supports for various learner needs. The eight principles of UID, based on Chickering and Gamson's (1987) principles for effective practices in undergraduate education and modified by Goff and Higbee to further include universal design elements, are:

1. Creating welcoming classrooms

2. Determining essential components of a course

3. Communicating clear expectations

4. Providing timely and constructive feedback

5. Exploring use of natural supports for learning, including technology

6. Designing teaching methods that consider diverse learning styles, abilities, ways of knowing, and previous experience and background knowledge

7. Creating multiple ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge

8. Promoting interaction among and between faculty and students
(Goff & Higbee, 2008)

Silver, Bourke and Strehorn (1998) state, "with UID, students may find that many of the instructional accommodations they would request are already part of the faculty members' overall instructional design. Furthermore, these approaches may benefit all students in the class" (p. 47). Berger and Van Thanh (2004) note that the UID principles can foster equity and inclusion of students with disabilities and create campus environments that respect and value diversity.

Table 2 provides an overview of the pedagogical strategies that instructors can incorporate when designing and implementing online courses in order to address the four challenges presented in Table 1 for non-traditional learners, and maps how the strategies align to universal instructional design principles. Though Table 2 specifically aligns strategies to the UID principles, these course elements and strategies also align to the principles of the other UD educational models of Universal Design of Instruction (UDI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The principles of these three UD educational models have similarities, each stemming from the core universal design philosophy of creating access to learning environments and curricular content. Detailed descriptions of the strategies described in Table 2 can be found in the Rao and Tanners (2011) article in the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability and in the Rao, Eady, Edelen-Smith (2011) article in Phi Delta Kappan magazine.

A: Welcoming classrooms

B: Essential course

C: Clear expectations

D: Timely, constructive feedback

E: Diverse teaching methods

F: Natural supports

G: Demonstrate knowledge

H: Interaction-students/ faculty

Challenges

Pedagogical Strategies

UID

Ambiguity/ uncertainty of expectations

Personalized introduction
Consistent and organized use of CMS
Provide clear syllabus and rubrics

X

X

X

Excessive reliance on textbased learning

Provide multimodal sources of information Include digital texts and audio files for reading assignments

Provide assignment choices with alternate ways to demonstrate knowledge

X

X

X

Isolation/ lack of community

Include synchronous class meetings
Have short, frequent lower-stakes assignments instead of larger high-stakes assignments

Provide timely feedback from instructor on all assignments

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Technology barriers

Provide proactive tech support
Create mechanisms for peer assistance

X

X

X

Student Feedback

Course surveys and interview data indicate that students have favorable perceptions of courses that incorporate elements that align to universal design principles. Non-traditional students from rural and remote communities particularly appreciated the supports that were put in place to address issues of isolation and the excessive reliance on text (Rao, Eady, Edelen, Smith, 2010), such as regular virtual meetings online and course content presented in multimodal formats. Students reported that having audio and video files (prepared by the instructor) about key course concepts in addition to the textbook for the course helped them comprehend content and made the course feel manageable. The instructor provided video and audio files that had captions and transcripts available when possible and created guided notes to accompany many of the video/audio materials, thereby giving students multiple means for accessing course content. Students commented that the guided notes helped them focus on key concepts as they viewed or listened to assigned materials, which was especially helpful in this online learning environment where they had to navigate through and absorb a lot of new information independently.

Weekly synchronous "virtual class" meetings using a web-conference environment (e.g., Elluminate or Blackboard Collaborate) provided a connection with instructors that the students found sustaining and supportive. Students appreciated the fact that during the synchronous sessions, the instructors presented slides and a lecture about the course content and also included engaging activities that fostered active discussion and interaction. During synchronous sessions, instructors used varied methods to foster peer interactions, using the "breakout room" feature of the virtual meeting software to let students discuss course concepts in small groups and then report back to the whole group. Students commented that these peer interactions helped build online community and allowed them to discuss issues relevant to their local and cultural contexts. Students also appreciated consistent and specific feedback from instructors on weekly assignments, noting that feeling consistently connected to the instructor helped them to stay motivated to continue in the online course.

Student data collected on an online course designed for adult learners who were returning to school for teacher certification indicated that students valued various "universally-designed" course elements (Rao & Tanners, 2011). Students commented on the organization of the course, noting that having materials in a consistent format and place each week was helpful. Students highly valued having multimodal sources of information and being given options to complete assignments in various formats (text-based and multimedia). Many commented favorably on the utility of having more frequent low-value assignments, noting that this allowed them to keep up with coursework in their busy schedules juggling school, jobs, and families.

Conclusion

The promise of earning advanced degrees and certifications through distance education is appealing to many students who need the flexibility offered by the online format. However, many facets of this format create barriers and challenges for the very students who need distance education options the most. By being open to and aware of students' backgrounds, experiences, and needs, instructors can build supports into their courses, proactively creating online environments that make it possible for students to complete courses and reach their educational goals.

Course design and development takes time and advance planning. Integrating UD-based strategies requires additional forethought, planning, and resources on an instructor's part during the instructional design phase. To make this process manageable, instructors can add UD-based strategies incrementally into their courses, rather than feeling compelled to address every UD principle concurrently; by adding a few UD-based strategies each time they teach a course and assessing what works for their student populations, instructors can create a foundation for an accessible and accommodating learning environment that can be built upon and refined as needed.

References

Goff, E., & Higbee, J. L. (Eds.). (2008). Pedagogy and student services for institutional transformation: Implementing universal design in higher education. Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, University of Minnesota.

Rao, K., & Tanners, A. (2011). Curb cuts in cyberspace: Universal instructional design for online courses. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, (3), 211-229. Retrieved January 1, 2013, from www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ966125

Acknowledgments

This article is part of the collection Universal Design in Higher Education: Promising Practices sponsored by the DO-IT Center. The content is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #HRD-0929006. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of funding sources or the DO-IT Center.

Copyright (c) 2013. Permission is granted to copy and distribute these materials for educational, noncommercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged.

Reference Format for this Content

Rao, K. (2013). Universal instructional design of online courses: Strategies to support non-traditional learners in postsecondary environments. In S. Burgstahler (Ed.), Universal design in higher education: Promising practices. Seattle: DO-IT, University of Washington. Retrieved from www.uw.edu/doit/UDHE-promising-practices/uid_online.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Universal instructional design of online courses: Strategies to support non-traditional learners in postsecondary environments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With its unique position as one of few four-year universities located at a crossroads in the Pacific ocean, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa serves a diverse population of students from the U.S, Asia and the Pacific.

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Steps Toward Universal Design in an Online Course

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Steps Toward Universal Design in an Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Making Documents Accessible - Disability Support Resources - Grand Valley State University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
All multimedia resources available to the general public must be captioned. Captioned media displays the audio content of a program as text on-screen and synchronized with the dialogue of the speaker, and includes additional auditory information such as sound-effects.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education 

# data[].attributes.subject
Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LibGuides @ URI: Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education: Examples: Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Presents copyright concerns regarding online instruction and offers guidance in applying fair use when appropriate.

# data[].attributes.headline
Best Practice Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity in Online Education

# data[].attributes.subject
Best Practice Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity in Online Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Karin Kirk, Science Education Resource Center

,

and Mel Huff, Geology & Environmental Science Faculty, NEO A&M College

Summary

This quiz helps students make sure they understand the important policies of the course before they embark into the course. Because students in online courses need to digest all of the course rules by reading through various documents on the course website, they may miss key aspects of the course structure, leaving them woefully unaware of important course policies.

Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications

Context

Audience

This could be used in any course, but seems especially relevant for online, introductory-level courses where students are more likely to need additional orientation for the course.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Before taking the quiz, students are supposed to have read and digested the course syllabus and other important policies.
Students will also need to know how to login to the course, find the quiz, and submit it. This sounds simple, but many students need reassurance that they will be able to master the technical skills to take an online course.

How the activity is situated in the course

This quiz takes place in the first week of the course. Students must complete this quiz before week 2, when the real course content begins. Some faculty may elect to lock everything beyond the quiz so that students have to complete it prior to proceeding to the rest of the course.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

The only goals for this assignment are that the students understand important course policies, such as:

attendance

point values of various parts of the course

rules for plagiarism

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for this activity

Using the course platform

Submitting the quiz

Description of the activity/assignment

This quiz is part of the first unit of the course. The text of two examples quizzes is below, and of course you would want to change the questions and answers to reflect the policies and important points of your own course.

Self Test: Course Guidelines
Correct answers are in italics.
Attendance in this course is Attendance You may contact me by
Correct answers are in italics.

Teaching Tips

Adaptations that allow this activity to be successful in an online environment

This assignment replaces the first day of class when you jump up and down and reiterate how important it is that students know the course policies.

Elements of this activity that are most effective

The effectiveness of a syllabus quiz depends on the students' abilities to remember information and pick out what is important. I have used my quiz for several years. For the most part, I believe it is very effective (even in a face 2 face class) as it forces students to focus on the points I have deemed most important. That said, I still get a few students asking if they can make up an exam, for example. When I remind them about the rules in the syllabus, generally their response is that they have a hard time remember what rules/syllabus go with each course. It is my opinion that students in an online course know and remember the rules a lot better.

Recommendations for other faculty adapting this activity to their own course:

Obviously you can adapt this quiz to the particulars of your own course. I change the questions from semester to semester if the previous class had struggled understanding or remembering part of the syllabus. These questions are the ones that I repeatedly get asked throughout each semester, or ones that students get surprised by.

Determining whether students have met the goals

A syllabus quiz is ideal when it is self-grading and students receive instant feedback.

If possible, set up the quiz so that they may take the quiz as many times as needed to get all the questions correct.

Some faculty do not score the quiz; others may elect to have the quiz grade count so that students take it more seriously.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.
Download teaching materials and tips

Other Materials

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
teach the earth:enhancing your teaching:online teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
higher education :undergraduate (lower division)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
on the cutting edge:cutting edge activity review:exemplary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Karin Kirk, Science Education Resource Center , and Mel Huff, Geology & Environmental Science Faculty, NEO A&M College Summary This quiz helps students make sure they understand the important policies of the course before they embark into the course.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
April 2

By: Lolita Paff, PhD

When teachers are tasked with developing an online course, their thinking often follows along these lines: This is what I do in class. How can that be translated online?

What if we reversed our thinking?

Instead of assuming what's done on ground is ideal, what if we looked at teaching online as a means of improving our face-to-face teaching skills? The process of developing an online course, starting with a clean slate instead of converting resident instruction via technology, leads to an examination of our classroom-based course design, assumptions about learning, and ultimately improves instructional practice in both settings along several dimensions: teaching persona, power distance, instructional clarity, student interaction, and learning assessment.

Presence and Distance
From the minute we enter the classroom, students are sizing us up. Our appearance, demeanor, voice, word choice, and mannerisms project an image. Similarly, the teacher may notice a variety of student characteristics: clothing, tone of voice, behavior, and level of attention. All this happens automatically when we share a physical space with our students.

Online first impressions begin with the learning management interface, course organization, and whatever materials and resources the teacher has chosen to share when the course opens. While teaching online means we may not have to worry about physical appearance, it does mean we have to spend time thinking about how to create and maintain a presence online. Who am I? How can or should I communicate my identity to students?

I didn't invest a lot of time thinking about this before I started teaching online. Thus, I missed opportunities to make learning personal. Online teaching forces us to think more carefully about persona, values, and priorities than the face-to-face context. Teaching online has made me more intentional about establishing and maintaining my teaching persona online and face-to-face.

March 9

By: S. Beth Bellman and Nina Kim

In an online environment, keeping your audience's attention and focus on the critical concepts can be a challenge. Visuals are one of the most powerful ways to engage online learners, especially those from the upcoming generations. We will discuss how the visual design quality of course materials impacts student learning and describe seven simple design techniques that educators can use to create clean, clear, and uncluttered visuals.
Why does good design matter?
Design affects our emotions and perceptions. Attractive visual design can evoke positive emotions in learners and facilitate learning (Plass et al., 2014). Designing attractive, simple, and uncluttered course materials contributes to emotional design, thereby enhancing positive feelings of learners and increasing motivation. Positive emotions have been shown to contribute to more flexible and adaptive thinking and encourage creativity, problem solving, recall, and innovation (Isen, 2002). People also perceive well-designed objects as easier to use (Norman, 2005). Utilizing a few simple design techniques to create clean, clear, and uncluttered course materials can help enhance learning.

Good design also impacts cognitive processing, increasing both comprehension and information retention. Research suggests that visual design affects cognitive processing in four main ways: selection, organization, integration, and processing efficiency (McCrudden & Rapp, 2015). Good design allows students to identify and focus on the most relevant information and efficiently organize that key information in memory, increasing comprehension and information retention.

Finally, well-designed course visuals communicate the credibility of, and care taken by, the presenter. Research has found that judgments of credibility are largely influenced by design elements like layout, font, and color (Robins & Holmes, 2007). Given that materials that look good tend to be judged as both better and more credible, design improvements can increase presenter credibility and communicate that the presenter cares about both the audience and the topic.

October 27, 2017

By: John Orlando, PhD

While most faculty stick with the tried-and-true quiz and paper assessment strategies for their online courses, the wide range of technologies available today offers a variety of assessment options beyond the traditional forms. But what do students think of these different forms?

Scott Bailey, Stacy Hendricks, and Stephanie Applewhite of Stephen F. Austin State University experimented with different assessment strategies in two online courses in educational leadership, and surveyed students afterward on their impressions of each one. The students were asked to score the strategies using three criteria: 1) enjoyment, 2) engagement with the material, and 3) transferability of knowledge gained to practice. The resulting votes allowed investigators to rank the various strategies from least to most preferred by students.

September 9, 2017

By: Angela Heath

What are communities of practice?
A community of practice is a network of people who exchange knowledge about a common profession. Members of the community exchange best practices and share evidence and results while supporting each other on a personal level. Good examples of these communities are the LinkedIn groups that can be found for nearly any profession.

While communities of practice are common and valuable in the working world, too often the interactions within a course are designed to apply only to that course, rather than prepare the student for the broader discussion within the profession that they will encounter after leaving school. That's why I focus on forming communities of practice within my online courses.

A gradual approach to communities of practice
While there are various ways to promote communities of practices in online courses, I find discussion forums are the easiest place to start. When I design my discussion forums for my classes, I use a gradual design approach that spans the entire semester. The idea is to use the forum to facilitate a pathway toward communities of practice for the students.

August 22, 2017

By: Brian Udermann, PhD

When talking about online education, quality can be hard to define. This should come as no surprise, though. Institutions have been struggling for years to define quality in face-to-face courses.

Consider this dictionary definition of quality: The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

Institutions may attempt to measure the quality of online courses and programs in a variety of ways, including student and faculty satisfaction data, retention rates, student evaluations of teaching, student learning outcomes for a course, peer (instructor) evaluations of teaching, course design, student graduation or exit surveys, employer surveys, etc.

There is no question that institutions have been placing more emphasis on the quality of their online programs in the last five to ten years. Here are some thoughts in response to that new interest-principles that I've found to be important in maintaining quality in online courses.

May 14, 2017

By: Meixun Sinky Zheng, PhD

1. Do you ask discussion questions that promote critical thinking?

2. Do you engage students in different types of discussion activities?

3. Do you clearly explain your expectations?

4. Do you provide exemplary and poor discussion post examples to students?

5. Do you handle desirable and undesirable discussion behaviors effectively?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
online course design Archives - Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
April 2 By: Lolita Paff, PhD When teachers are tasked with developing an online course, their thinking often follows along these lines: This is what I do in class. How can that be translated online? What if we reversed our thinking?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Active Learning in Online Courses " Center for Instructional Technology & Training " University of Florida

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Strategies for incorporating active learning into blended and online courses can include well-conceived discussion prompts, synchronous online meetings, cooperative group work, "flipping" classrooms, adaptive assessments, virtual interactions, and developing problem-based learning assignments or activities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ten Online Teaching Tips You May  Not Have Heard

# data[].attributes.subject
Ten Online Teaching Tips You May  Not Have Heard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At a time when online institutions are in fierce competition for students and accreditation agencies are taking a critical look at online course quality, it is becoming increasingly important for online instructors to ensure that they are exceeding their institution's expectations.

Students are also expecting more from their online courses. And while most of us know the importance of addressing students by name in the discussion board and offering students substantive feedback on assignments, there many more things we can do.

In this article, I outline 10 online teaching tips that may be less well-known but can lead to a more positive experience for both professor and student.

1. Communicate Information Using Multiple Channels - If you have important information to convey to students, don't use just one channel of communication, use multiple. For example, instead of simply posting information only in the announcements area, or only in the feedback area, or sending it only via email, include the information in all three of these places. This will reduce the number of students saying they did not get the memo. Posting information in as many places as possible will result in more students getting the information they need to succeed.

2. Sync School Email Account to Phone - Contact your institution's help desk for instructions on how to sync your school email account to your iPhone or Android. Not only will receiving email in multiple places reduce your likelihood of missing messages, it will also allow you to address urgent questions and concerns in a timely fashion. Students are often pleasantly surprised at my response time. However, it is important to set boundaries by letting students know when to expect a reply. For example, you can inform them that you normally respond within a 24-hour period, during regular business hours. This will help maintain your work-life balance.

3. Text - If you can't reach a student via phone or email, try texting! It's harder to miss or ignore a text message. Also, students will appreciate the fact that they can text you if they have a quick question. My students have thanked me numerous times for being accessible in this way. This tip comes with a caveat: While students will benefit from being able to text, it is also important to let them know upfront (via the syllabus or another memo) that it can take up to 24 hours for you to reply.

4. Create an Instagram account - Utilize social media to motivate and share information with students. Create an Instagram page just for students to include motivational quotes, memes, reminders, tips, etc. You might even include a photo or two of yourself, your kids, or pets! Most students enjoy getting to know their professor as a person.

5. Keep a Running List of Resources to Include in Feedback - Compile a list of helpful resources to send to students who are struggling in certain areas. For example, if a student submits a paper that illustrates he or she does not know how to use commas, don't just point out the mistake, but refer to your list of resources and include the appropriate resource in your feedback. A Word document, bookmarks folder, or desktop sticky note are great places to keep these resources handy.

6. Use Reflection Questions - Get students thinking more critically about their writing assignments by asking questions, such as:

In what ways, if any, did writing this paper change your views about the topic?

What did you find most challenging about writing about this topic?

What do you still want to know about this topic?

What did you enjoy most about writing this paper?

What did you discover about this topic that surprised you?

7. Create a Forum - If your Learning Management System allows, create a forum where students can go to find useful information and ask questions on a subject. For example, if you notice that most of your students struggle with APA, create a forum where they can easily locate resources on the subject and ask related questions.

8. Do a Welcome Call/Email - If you have time, call each student at the start of the term to say hello and find out what they hope to get out of the class. Most students will appreciate the time you take to do this. If time doesn't allow, send a private email, addressing each student by name, and asking a direct question to start a brief dialogue.

9. Promote the Rubric - Remind students of the grading rubric for the week's main assignment in announcements and email to make sure they know what they will be graded on to eliminate questions like "How long does the paper have to be?"

10. Reflect on Your Teaching - On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, ask yourself:

What can be improved about my individual interactions with students?

What more can I do to make this subject more engaging and memorable?

What is lacking in my classroom?

Dr. Noura Badawi has been teaching online for more than 12 years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ten Online Teaching Tips You May Not Have Heard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At a time when online institutions are in fierce competition for students and accreditation agencies are taking a critical look at online course quality, it is becoming increasingly important for online instructors to ensure that they are exceeding their institution's expectations. Students are also expecting more from their online courses.

# data[].attributes.headline
List of Great Online Course Design Resources

# data[].attributes.subject
List of Great Online Course Design Resources

# data[].attributes.body
Want to learn more?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Are you interested in learning more about online course design and online teaching, but not sure where to start? Check out these great books and you may find a few to use in your own teaching!

1. A Guide to Online Course Design: Strategies for Student Success, by Tina Stavredes and Tiffany Herder. This resource offers instructors, educational technologists, and learning designers a practical and principles-based approach to designing outcomes-based learning experiences with a focus on quality design to support learner persistence. Learn about assessment design, sequencing instruction, selection of instructional materials, and multimedia design principles to engage your learners. A chapter on continuous quality improvement includes useful course design review criteria worksheets to support learner success.

2. A Guide to Online Course Design and Instruction, by Israel Galindo. This compact book is designed as a self-directed guide for creating an effective online course, including a "Teaching for Understanding" model and its application to course design, and helpful course design worksheets. While the book was written originally for course within the context of a theological curriculum, I found it an excellent resource for my online course projects.

3. Conquering the Content: A Blueprint for Online Course Design and Development (2nd edition) by Robin M. Smith. This great book blends the best of online teaching and course design in a practical framework that includes developing a content map, learning guide, a course development map, and applying sound pedagogical approaches to presenting content online.

4. Essentials of Online Course Design: A Standards-Based Guide (2nd edition) by Marjorie Vai and Kristen Sosulski. This good read focuses on designing online instruction that engages the learner, with practical applications. Useful for instructors and designers developing both fully online and blended course models, the chapters on assessment and feedback, and building the course foundation (outcomes, syllabus, and course outline) are especially helpful. The authors also cover visual design basics, language and writing style for online instruction.

5. Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (4th edition), by Susan Ko and Steve Rossen. A comprehensive guidebook on online teaching for faculty who are developing a new course or who want to redesign and refine their online course. This revised and expanded edition includes MOOCs, Open Education Resources (OERs), case studies, and faculty interviews. A great book and one I've used in my own teaching!

6. The Online Teaching Survival Guide (2nd edition) Judith V. Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad. A great resource for faculty with expanded tips for online and blended teaching with advanced course design approaches founded on learning theories. Faculty new to online teaching will find "Letting Go of the Power" particularly useful with its discussion on the role of the faculty-mentor. Packed with practical, pedagogically based teaching tips. Includes suggestions for faculty planning to redesign their online course, with advice from fellow online instructors. There is an expanded set of online resources and journals in the appendix. A robust resource for faculty and instructional designers.

Locate more resources for your teaching by visiting Learning Innovation.

Author: Sophia Stone, Ed.D.

Sophia collaborates with faculty to provide pedagogical and academic technology consulting, training, and project management, for campus-based and online initiatives. She consults on innovative teaching practices across academic disciplines, and works with faculty on course planning, course design and development, and assessment strategies. Her research interests include global online education, instructional design, faculty development, distance education, and international learners. Read more posts by Sophia Stone, Ed.D. " email

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Read more posts by Sophia Stone, Ed.D. "

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Our List of Must-Read Resources on Online Course Design

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are you interested in learning more about online course design and online teaching, but not sure where to start? Check out these great books and you may find a few to use in your own teaching! A Guide to Online Course Design: Strategies for Student Success , by Tina Stavredes and Tiffany Herder.

# data[].attributes.headline
Designing Effective and Innovation Courses Tutorial

# data[].attributes.subject
Designing Effective and Innovation Courses Tutorial

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Developed by Barbara J. Tewksbury (Hamilton College) and R. Heather Macdonald (College of William and Mary)

Is it time to really shake the tree and do something about one of your courses? This tutorial will give you a way to get your arms around what is typically a daunting task and will guide you through a practical, effective strategy for designing or redesigning a course.

[If you are involved in professional development for faculty and would like information on how we run our course design workshops, plus suggestions for how to use this tutorial with faculty, visit the faculty professional development page for more information.]

What is this tutorial designed to help you do?

Articulate goals for a course or portion of a course.

Build a course or portion of a course that meets those goals and assesses student learning.

Explore a variety of teaching techniques that emphasize student engagement and that place responsibility for learning on the students.

Develop a plan for a rigorous, effective, and innovative course.

Why use our tutorial?

This tutorial provides a pathway through what can look like a big, amorphous, overwhelming task and presents a logical way to proceed from the glimmer of a good idea toward a new course while avoiding too much blundering in the dark. Read a short synopsis of our approach.

Using this tutorial lets you avoid wasting energy on reinventing the wheel. We provide links to hundreds of activities that can be used either directly or indirectly as templates, plus examples of goals and syllabi that can be used as catalysts for your own work and that were developed by other faculty.

We know that the design strategy in this tutorial works.

This tutorial is an on-line version of a face-to-face course design workshop run successfully by us for undergraduate geoscience faculty through On the Cutting Edge. Workshop participants comment that our course design process helped them to develop rigorous, effective, and innovative courses and to make thoughtful choices about what and how to teach.

In a follow-up survey of workshop participants, 90% of respondents followed through to teach the rigorous, goals-based, innovative course that they had begun to develop at the workshop. Furthermore, 80% of respondents found our course design process so useful that they followed it again when designing or redesigning another course.

Who is this tutorial for?

Most of the examples in this tutorial come from undergraduate courses in the geosciences, although some portions have links to examples from undergraduate courses in other disciplines.

Despite the focus on geoscience, the process is generic, and we've used simple examples. If you are interested in designing a course outside the geosciences, you should have little trouble using the tutorial.

Go to the tutorial :: About the developers
This tutorial is part of On the Cutting Edge, a professional development program for current and future geoscience faculty. On the Cutting Edge is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation-Division of Undergraduate Education .

____

©2005 On-line Course Design Tutorial developed by Dr. Barbara J. Tewksbury (Hamilton College) and Dr. R. Heather Macdonald (College of William and Mary) as part of the program On the Cutting Edge, funded by NSF grant DUE-0127310.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
teach the earth:enhancing your teaching:course design

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Developed by Barbara J. Tewksbury (Hamilton College) and R. Heather Macdonald (College of William and Mary) Is it time to really shake the tree and do something about one of your courses? This tutorial will give you a way to get your arms around what is typically a daunting task and will guide you through a practical, effective strategy for designing or redesigning a course.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Integrate Collaboration Tools to Support Online Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Integrate Collaboration Tools to Support Online Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Open educational resources can provide access to high-quality resources while offsetting the costs of traditional textbooks. An array of costs are associated with the "free" approach, however, and institutions that are successful with OER understand that moving to open resources requires extensive planning, selection, management, and maintenance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Open educational resources can provide access to high-quality resources while offsetting the costs of traditional textbooks. An array of costs are associated with the "free" approach, however, and institutions that are successful with OER understand that moving to open resources requires extensive planning, selection, management, and maintenance.

# data[].attributes.headline
Promoting Higher Level Thinking in Online Classrooms

# data[].attributes.subject
Promoting Higher Level Thinking in Online Classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One of the most important responsibilities online instructors face is teaching students how to think critically. Successful achievement of this task requires that instructors provide the right setting and the appropriate activities that will prompt a student on to higher-level thinking. Though this mission is not exclusive to online instruction, the online environment presents some unique challenges and opportunities that distinguish this type of learning environment from traditional face-to-face classroom instruction.

Educators are continually reminded that successful demonstration of higher-level thinking by students is an essential objective of their classes. Thus, faculty members are well aware of their responsibility to provide critical-thinking learning opportunities. What may be less clear, however, is what exactly "critical thinking" means and just how students may practice and accomplish it.

Teachers are very familiar with the illustrious taxonomy Benjamin Bloom and a group of educational psychologists created in 1956. Bloom's taxonomy classified intellectual behavior on a hierarchy from the most basic level (knowledge) to increasingly complex classes including comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Overbaugh and Schultz 2008). Critical thinking involves all levels of Bloom's taxonomy, as the higher levels cannot be obtained without achieving the more basic levels.

The constructivist aspect of higher-level thinking seen in the more advanced classes of Bloom's taxonomy is especially noteworthy: critical thinking requires students to not only analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and problems, but also to examine their own thinking. Students must be permitted to construct their own knowledge by monitoring, directing, and correcting how and what they think (Paul and Elder 2006). Research shows that meaningful learning results when students are empowered to self-direct their learning. When educators change their role from givers of information to collaborators and instigators (" Murchú 2005), and when students are engaged in critical thinking via stimulating and supporting activities, then faculty assist students in becoming self-directed learners and critical thinkers.

Even when instructors clearly understand what critical thinking is and what it entails, implementing activities that promote higher-level thinking may still present a challenge. Any number of assignments that fit the criteria/definition for critical thinking described above may be appropriate. Each educator's specific discipline and subject matter will determine the exact critical-thinking elements that should be stressed. Nevertheless, there is at least one tool that online instructors from every discipline may use to support critical inquiry: online discussions, particularly those that promote collaborative learning and that are problem-based in nature.

Establishing guidelines for online discussions
In order for online discussions to successfully generate critical thinking among students, faculty must first set and clearly communicate preestablished discussion guidelines. Examples of guidelines include the instructor's expectations, e.g., deadlines, proper netiquette, how discussions will be graded. It is also important that students are aware of the goal of the discussion activity and why it is relevant to their learning, as this knowledge tends to motivate students and generate enthusiasm for the discussion.

Faculty support focused and disciplined discussions by clearly stating information for learners to critically reflect upon and review at their own pace in advance of the discussion. Good class discussions start with problem-based springboard focus questions. Critical-thinking questions require students to go beyond facts and discuss problems to work out. Problem-based focus questions require students to provide evidence, evaluate assumptions, describe implications and potential consequences, and/or propose solutions. Examples of questioning techniques that promote critical thinking include convergent, divergent, evaluative, and Socratic-questioning strategies.

Convergent questions require students to demonstrate understanding of content by interpreting information in a new way. These questions utilize verbs such as judge, explain, demonstrate, and support. Divergent questions seek to stimulate creativity by asking for alternative outcomes or variations to a scenario. Evaluative questions afford learners reflective opportunities through questions that call for justifying beliefs and gathering resources to defend and support one's opinions. Socratic-questions ask learners to examine reasons, assumptions, and perspectives and to provide justification and evidence for them (Walker 2005). Use of these question types is most effective for promoting critical interaction when implemented in asynchronous online discussions.

After the focus question is asked and students are given the opportunity to reflect, it then becomes the instructor's job to facilitate the discussion. Once discussion begins, faculty must encourage participation whereby students demonstrate respect for each other's ideas and where they build upon each other's ideas. Instructors are responsible for keeping the discussion focused and asking probing questions that require students to reason through their thinking and construct their own understanding, e.g., by asking for elaboration or clarification (MacKnight 2000).

Examples of clarification questions include:

"What do you mean when you say ___?"

"How could you rephrase that statement?" and

"Would you please explain that point further?"

When online class discussions require student collaboration, the opportunities for practicing critical thinking are further enhanced. The instructor may instruct the class to engage in discussion using an online expanded group format in which the springboard question is discussed by both instructor and students. For example, groups may be assigned to analyze a real or simulated complex problem and offer a solution or decision. Another collaborative approach includes dividing the class into debating teams in which students are required to argue a position and defend it against a counter-position. A third approach includes breaking students into subgroups to discuss specific parts of a topic and then teach the other students that information (MacKnight 2000).

Opportunities for tapping into higher-level thinking in online classes abound. Discussions are a unique tool of the online environment in that they provide students with occasions for careful reflection and review before participation is required. Instructors play a critical role in online class discussions if they are to generate higher-level thinking among students. The educator's responsibility is twofold: 1) instructors initiate productive and stimulating online discussion by formulating questions that prompt analysis, synthesis, reasoning, and/or evaluation and 2) faculty continue to support online discussion by monitoring the discussion and keeping it focused through their participation and through clarifying questions. Instructors cultivate learning and problem solving in discussions by modeling critical thinking and questioning techniques. By using these methods, educators enable students to gradually accept more responsibility for their ideas and to practice higher-level thinking.

References:
MacKnight, C. (2000). Teaching Critical Thinking through Online Discussions. Educause Quarterly, Number 4. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0048.pdf.

" Murchú, D. and Muirhead, B. (2005). Insights into Promoting Critical Thinking in Online Classes. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Vol. 2 (No. 6). Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://itdl.org/Journal/Jun_05/article01.htm.

Overbaugh, R. and Schultz, L. (2008). Bloom's Taxonomy.
Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm.

Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2006). The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/files/Concepts_Tools.pdf.

Walker, G. (2005). Critical Thinking in Asynchronous Discussions. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Vol. 2 (No. 6). Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://itdl.org/Journal/Jun_05/article02.htm.
Anne Saxe is a geography instructor at Saddleback College.
Reprinted from Online Classroom, January 2009.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tapping Into Higher-Level Thinking in Online Courses - Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of the most important responsibilities online instructors face is teaching students how to think critically. Successful achievement of this task requires that instructors provide the right setting and the appropriate activities that will prompt a student on to higher-level thinking.

# data[].attributes.body
Video describing the basics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Online Pedagogy: The Basics: Mini 11: Conferencing and Chat

# data[].attributes.headline
Active Learning Strategies for the Online Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Active Learning Strategies for the Online Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Digital Learning | Educational Innovation Across Northwestern

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ELIZABETH LEMKE ON FEBRUARY 13, 2017

Think about the last time you learned something. What was it? How did you learn it? The last time I learned something, I received direct instruction from a peer where I watched a process being done while it was explained, and then I went off on my own to try it. I was given resources and tutorials to help me along the way if I got stuck. I was able to ask clarifying questions and received feedback on how I performed. I learned by participating in doing the thing being taught to me. How people learn has been studied and researched for centuries (literally!).

For example, in the 1980s Mortimer J. Adler stated:

"All genuine learning is active, not passive. It is a process of discovery in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher." ( )

And Sophocles, in the 5th Century said:

"One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it-you have no certainty until you try." ( Sophocles, 5th C )

By implementing active learning strategies in a student-centered learning environment, students get the chance to engage with course materials and their peers on a deeper level. They can construct, interpret, and share their own understanding of the course material through multiple interactions and apply it in relevant and authentic ways. The role of instructor moderation and feedback is essential when carrying out active learning in any classroom, but especially in the online classroom.

Let's look at a few traditional learning activities and some suggestions for making them more active and authentic.

Lectures and Presentations

Guest lectures can be beneficial to students, getting them excited about the industry or field they are studying by providing real-world knowledge and insight. Keep in mind that this too can easily become a passive experience for students. To make it more active, provide students with a teaser of the presentation, such as an abstract or summary, and ask students to submit questions beforehand. Provide guiding questions or key topics for students to use to formulate their own relevant follow-up questions. Use live polling to gauge engagement and comprehension. For example, Poll Everywhere is easy to use and integrates with Google Slides or PowerPoint presentations.

Readings and Resources

Existing readings and resources from professionals and scholars working in the field are an essential component to any course of study. A journal article, textbook chapter, or case study can easily be assigned, but it can also appear to students that they are simply being given a reading list. Why not assign students a case study that reflects a real-world situation and ask students to write a short analysis or reflection to share in a discussion forum? This helps students direct their focus when reading, and they get to share insights with their peers.

Another example is to have students curate their own readings or section of the readings for the week. Based on the week's topic, ask students to locate a current events article from a news source. Provide examples of trusted news sources and assignment details, such as "find reporting from a trusted news source on X topic and analyze how the local population has been impacted." After locating the article, students can submit a mock news report, video presentation, or written analysis. Giving students different format options helps them practice new skills and gives them the chance to be self-directed learners. Current events activities are a great way to get students thinking about what's going on in the field . It can help bridge abstract theoretical concepts with application in the real world.

Writing Assignments

The post Active Learning Strategies for the Online Classroom appeared first on SPS | Distance Learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Active Learning Strategies for the Online Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ELIZABETH LEMKE ON FEBRUARY 13, 2017 Think about the last time you learned something. What was it? How did you learn it? The last time I learned something, I received direct instruction from a peer where I watched a process being done while it was explained, and then I went off on my own to try it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Five Pedagogical Practices to Improve Your Online Course

# data[].attributes.subject
Five Pedagogical Practices to Improve Your Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Because online courses have fewer opportunities for the spontaneous, real-time exchanges of the face-to-face classroom, online instruction requires a deliberate approach to design and facilitation. As Bethany Simunich says, "Online, learning doesn't happen by chance." In an interview with Online Classroom, Simunich, associate director of online learning at Kent State University, offered the following techniques to improve an online course:

Vary the learning experiences. Assignments should move students from the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains (remember and understand) to higher levels (apply and analyze), and highest levels (evaluate and create). The instructional designer and instructor need to be deliberate about helping students achieve higher levels of learning, perhaps more so than in the face-to-face environment where opportunities for discussion help students achieve higher levels of thinking more spontaneously, Simunich says.

Using a backward design approach, Simunich has instructors consider what types of activities will enable students to demonstrate that they have achieved the course's learning outcomes.

Depending on those outcomes, the best approach might be an individual assignment or one that involves collaboration in small or large groups. Individual assignments are appropriate when the instructor needs to understand an individual student's thought processes and measure his or her progress, such as a writing assignment in an English course where the student's use of proper grammar and progress in writing ability need to be assessed. Other learner goals might be better served when students contribute to a common project, such as a group blog, where students can post things from their communities that are relevant to a topic, concept, or theory being discussed in the course.

Have successful discussions. "If you had a discussion in a face-to-face classroom, you probably would not throw out a question and expect every student in your classroom to answer it individually. But oftentimes, that's what we expect of online students. We expect those students to have something new or different to contribute," Simunich says.

The instructor needs to design the discussion to give students a way to enter the conversation. To that end, Simunich recommends designing discussions with the following questions in mind:

What is the purpose of this discussion?

Does the prompt foster dialogue?

Does the prompt make students think?

Dividing students into small groups can help students get involved in the discussion. The instructor needs to be an active participant, not to respond to each student's posts but to help guide the discussion. "Sometimes there will be a lull and perhaps students aren't taking the discussion cognitively in the direction that you want, so you need to ask probing questions [using] the Socratic method where you're getting students to cognitively engage with the discussion a little bit more. That is something that also encourages active learning. Instead of just putting something out there and expecting students to give you something back, think about how students can actively engage with the material you're putting into your online course," Simunich says.

Plan a closing or wrap-up activity. When the course is coming to an end give students a chance to reflect on what they've learned. This will often be the course's culminating project, which provides the opportunity for students to apply the concepts they've learned throughout the course. You can include questions such as

Where are you now in your understanding of this concept versus where you were at the beginning of the course?

Did you learn the things you thought you would learn?

What aspect of the course did you find most interesting?

What do you think you can apply most to your other courses?

This exercise is good for the students as well as the instructor. It provides closure, creates connections among the students, and provides the instructor with valuable feedback and insights into possible ways to improve the course's design and facilitation, Simunich says.

Provide personal feedback. In interviews with approximately 100 online learners at Kent State, Simunich and her colleagues have found that students crave interaction with their instructors, particularly personal interaction, such as emails thanking the student for submitting an assignment, acknowledging their performance, and offering additional help. "We need to check in with our students, and these are things that take time. It's going to sap your time, but if you do a lot of prior work in planning and designing your course ... then you have a lot more time to spend on things like this," Simunich says.
Interestingly, the majority of students who were interviewed did not view things such as embedded comments in assignments as interaction with the instructor. "That was perhaps the biggest shock to us. Instructors would say that's clearly interaction. Instructors spend so much time giving quality feedback on that," Simunich says.

Although she has yet study learners' impressions of embedded audio comments in assignments, Simunich recommends that instructors use this approach so student can hear the tone and inflection of the instructor's voice. This can convey the instructor's personality and the impression that the instructor cares about the student's progress, Simunich says.

Ask students for feedback. Check in with students throughout the semester. Simunich makes it a point to check in with students during the first week of the course, asking if they can find everything and whether they are having trouble with the technology. In addition to addressing students' problems early on, this also helps create a sense of instructor presence. "Teacher presence is so much more important in the beginning. You need to work to have a little bit more of it in the beginning so students can set off on the right foot," Simunich says.
Here are some examples of questions to ask students throughout the course:

Do you need any concepts clarified?

Was the assignment rubric clear enough?

Do you understand how this assignment connects to your learning in the course?

Providing opportunities for students to offer feedback gives them a chance to reflect on the learning experience, and it conveys to the students that their opinions matter and that the instructor is willing to try to improve the course. And of course, student feedback can help the instructor improve the course for current and future students.

Reprinted from Online Classroom, 13.2 (2013): 4, 5. © Magna Publications. All Rights Reserved.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Five Pedagogical Practices to Improve Your Online Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Because online courses have fewer opportunities for the spontaneous, real-time exchanges of the face-to-face classroom, online instruction requires a deliberate approach to design and facilitation. As Bethany Simunich says, "Online, learning doesn't happen by chance." In an interview with Online Classroom, Simunich, associate director of online learning at Kent State University, offered the following techniques to improve an online course: Vary the learning experiences.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Effective Use of Video in Online Classrooms

# data[].attributes.subject
The Effective Use of Video in Online Classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Effective Use of Video in Online Courses Infographic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Effective Use of Video in Online Courses Infographic shows a variety of methods and effective practices for using videos in an online course.

# data[].attributes.headline
Six General Principles of Online Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.subject
Six General Principles of Online Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six General Principles of Online Pedagogy: Transitioning to Teaching Online -Fall 2015