Module 3: Course Content
Course Content Best Practices
Because we can not get enough of them, here are some more Best Practices to consider when creating your course content:
Build a variety of large group, small group, and individual work opportunities.
A community works well when there are a variety of activities and experiences involved. Online courses can be more enjoyable and effective when students have the opportunity to brainstorm and work through concepts and assignments with fellow students. At the same time some students work and learn best on their own, so building in options and opportunities for students to work together as well as individually is highly recommended.
Working in groups is particularly effective when working on complex case studies or scenarios for the first time. Group settings in the learning management system allow for both collaborative and individual opportunities for learning. Group tools like Wikis, Journals, and Blogs can be invaluable for creating these opportunities.
Build using both synchronous and asynchronous activities
A little history lesson: when online courses were first introduced, they were almost totally asynchronous - an updated version of the distance learning courses by correspondence sent through the mail. Can you imagine? Now we have course management systems, videoconferencing, and audio tools that make it possible to do almost everything we do in campus classrooms. Plus we can often engage learners in collaborative and reflective activities, and what happens is recorded and archived for faculty to review and occasionally revise.
Sometimes there is nothing better than a real-time interactive brainstorming and sharing discussion; other times the requirement to think, plan, write and summarize is what makes learning most effective for an individual. Include video responses as well as written. The variety of activities that are now possible online makes it possible to create many types of effective learning environments.
Build a discussion forum that invites questions, engagement, reflection and dialogue
Discussions in an online course are the equivalent of class discussions in a face-to-face class. A key difference, of course, is that these discussions are asynchronous, providing time for thought and reflection and requiring written and/or audiovisual responses that become part of a course archive.
Here are a few hints for discussion postings pulled from many conversations with experienced online faculty:
- Create open-ended questions that learners can explore and use to apply the concepts that they are learning.
- Model good Socratic-type probing and follow-up questions. Why do you think that? What is your reasoning? Is there an alternative strategy? Ask clarifying questions that encourage students to think about what they know and don't know.
- Stagger due dates of the responses and consider mid-point summaries and/or encouraging comments.
- Provide guidelines and instruction on responding to other students. For example, suggest a two-part response: (1) what you liked or agreed with or what resonated with you, and (2) a follow-up question such as what you are wondering or curious about, etc.
- Don't post questions soliciting basic facts, or questions for which there is an obvious yes/no response. The reason for this is obvious. Once one student responds, there is not much more to say! Very specific fact-based questions that you want to be sure that you students know are best used in practice quizzes.
- Be there! Log in to your course consistently - answer email, monitor discussions, post reminders, and hold online office hours.
Build-in digital connections
Links to content resources, current events, and examples (i.e. YouTube) or are easily accessed from the learner's computers (i.e. UTEP Library databases/LibGuides).
If the content is not digital, it is as if it does not exist for many students. This means that the content that students will more likely use is the content and applications that are easily available right from their computers. Students want to be learning anywhere, anytime and often while they are doing other things. Carrying around large, heavy textbooks and even laptops sometimes feels like an anachronism. Content that is mobile and can be accessed via smartphones and tablets are welcome additions for many students.
Students enjoy seeing how what they are learning links to current news events. Thus, building current events into course discussions is often motivating to learners. You might enlist student to assistance in identifying high-quality content that is available online.
Build-in customized and personalized learning
Supporting learners with their professional goals that are closely linked to the performance goals of a course, and even beyond the course parameters, is a win-win for the learners individually and as a class. How does one do this? You can build in options and choices in assignments and special projects.
You might present concepts individually and in small clusters, so that you can also apply concepts within case studies, problems and analyses where students have to work within a context. This is especially important for students who are new to a field of study or discipline.
Build-in a good closing activity for the course
As courses come to a close, it is easy to forget the value of a good closing experience. These can often include student presentations, summaries and analyses, which provide insights into what useful knowledge students are taking away from a course, and a final opportunity for faculty to remind students of core concepts and fundamental principles.
Bonus Tip: Prepare and post all content and materials before the course starts. They do not need to be visible to students all at once. You can choose to hide them until you want the module/week to be released. Here is a quick tutorial on how to set up assignments for a later release date.