Top Ten Tips for Effective Online Course Design Presented by Paula Paul, District Technology Coordinator for Concordia Parish

Have a sound educational goal in mind Begin with a Purpose Think about why you are creating this Online Course Consider your learners/audience – What do they need/want from this experience? –Workshop for Teachers vs. Course for Graduate Credit for Teachers –High School Students vs. Teachers Try a needs assessment Bottom Line – Must be based on Meaningful Standards Based Content Number 10 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Create a User Friendly Environment –Friendly for Participants as well as Facilitators Write/design as if someone else will facilitate (hopefully the facilitator will be knowledgeable in the content area of the online course, but if not, make it easy for the facilitator to learn the material) –Consistent from session to session AND from course to course –Intuitive to navigate –Consider limiting the number of places content is placed (Don’t make the participants have to jump around or have to remember where resources are located) –Do NOT put things in more than one area (when updating you WILL forget to update both areas!) – Assume the facilitator and the learners are new to online learning Number 9 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Keep it Organized Each Session should include the same structure: –For example a required reading, an activity, a journal entry and participation in online discussions Balance the work load required of participants across all sessions Let each session build on the previous one Number 8 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Build in Ongoing Assessment Can be as simple as a check list Can be as elaborate as a timed test Learners want to know if they are on track – and they want some feedback that is not necessarily from the facilitator or from the other participants Number 7 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Be Aware of the challenges and benefits of adding multimedia content Video clips and other multimedia are marvelous teaching tools, but can be a source of frustration for both participants and facilitator Select a common readily available platform Give links to free downloads for media players Warn the participants at the beginning of the course they will need to download and suggest they practice Consider selecting videos which also have transcripts Number 6 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Avoid Copyright violations Research, research, research the sources of any content –Graphics –Links to multimedia –Links to any online resource Consider Creating your own content appropriate graphics or tutorials (or someone creating them for you) –Viewlet Builder –Use your own digital photos for graphics When in doubt, leave it out Number 5 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Make All Activities Meaningful Keep in mind the course is NOT just delivering Content - it is a to be a learning community – a group learning experience in an online learning environment and develop activities that foster relationships between the participants Each activity or task (such as a reading assignment, viewing a video, taking an online survey, etc.) should be assessed in some manner and should be related to the online discussion Don’t ask the participants to do something, then never ask them to be accountable for it –reflect upon it in the discussion area –a journal entry One of the most difficult aspects of building a course is knowing when enough is enough –Do all the activities yourself – time how long it takes you (and then double it!) Number 4 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Efforts should be made to ensure accessibility of course content for all learners Utilize Multiple Instructional Strategies –Instructional Strategies for Online Courses als/pedagogy/instructionalstrategies.asp als/pedagogy/instructionalstrategies.asp Universal Design for Learning –Council for Exceptional Children ?Section=Home&CONTENTID=1583&TE MPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm ?Section=Home&CONTENTID=1583&TE MPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm Number 3 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

It is Alive Because it is online, links will be broken Select resources that are from stable sources Try to select links that are not many, many layers down in a web site Content will need to be updated Number 2 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

Be Realistic About How Much Time You will Spend Determine how much time you will need to develop your online course Then double it! Or triple it! Time consuming activities include –Finding online resources –Checking on copyrights –Time spent readjusting to balance the sessions so the work is evenly spaced –Balancing the sessions so that engaging activities (fun things) are included in each –Finding and/or creating graphics Number 1 Top Ten Tip for Effective Online Course Design

In Conclusion – Top Ten Tips for Effective Online Course Design 10. Have a sound educational goal in mind 9. Create a User Friendly Environment 8. Keep it organized 7. Build in Ongoing Assessment 6. Be Aware of the challenges and benefits of adding multimedia content 5. Avoid Copyright violations 4. Make All Activities Meaningful 3. Efforts should be made to ensure accessibility of course content for all learners 2. It is Alive 1. Be Realistic About How Much Time You will Spend

Share your own successes and challenges in designing online content