Victoria ISD EdTech ConferenceMarch 5, 2011

Demystifying Online Course Design

Richard A. Smith, Ph.D.&

Caroline M. Crawford, Ed.D.School of Education

University of Houston-Clear Lake

Distance Education is NOT New

• Correspondence Schools– Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (1878)– Benton Harbor Plan (1922)

• Broadcast Radio & Television– Radio: State University of Iowa (1925)– TV: State University of Iowa (1934)

• Open Universities– Articulated Instructional Media Project (1964)

• Teleconferencing (1982)– Business Personnel Training/Star Schools Project

• Internet – Course Management Systems/Video/Teleconferencing

Creating A Distance Education Course

• Use a course management system (CMS)

– Blackboard

– Moodle

– 15Desks

– Etc.

• CMS provides the course foundation, skeleton, and scaffolding

– It contains the course

Getting Started

How To Prepare

• Get ducks in a row

Pretty Ducks All In A Row by Jessica Coulter Smith

Put Class Materials in Individual Folders

Class 1 Folder Opened

A Basic Online Class File

The Basics

• Decide Course Format

– Social Format – Less formal

• Based on a single forum for an entire course

– Topics Format – Concept Oriented

• Students work through a range of topics but a fixed schedule is not necessary.

– Weekly Format – Date Oriented

• Students work on topics in unison and on the same schedule

Basic Course Elements – Direct Instruction Model

• Overall Course

Units

Orientation

Syllabus

• Individual Classes

• Topic

• Goals

• Objectives

• Content

• Instruction

• Assignments

• Tests

• Standards

Course Design

Decisions

• Course Tree Diagram

– Course Goals

– Course Content/Units/Revision

– Course Length

– Test Questions

– Media Assignment

– Look and Feel of the Course

Visible to Student

Enter Course Here

Class Design – Introduction/Objectives

Class Design - Instruction

Class Design - Assignments

Weekly Assignments Due

Discussions

Assignment Tool

Tests

Rubrics for Teachers

Remember! A Folder for Everything

Folders Work Their Way into the CMS File System

1

2

Late Assignments

• Here is some great advice. Do not wait until the evening that your assignment is due to start work on it (and then plan to submit it). If you procrastinate until evening the assignment is due, I can virtually guarantee that you will not be able to submit your assignment. This is because the Assignment Tool link will close because one, or more, of the following catastrophes will occur:

• Your home clock will not be synchronized with the Blackboard clock • You will accidentally erase all file without having saved it (make back-up copies of everything you

do as you do it – do not wait until an assignment is finished to make a back-up copy) • The Blackboard server will be down for maintenance • A storm will interrupt your ISP service • Your computer will crash • You or a close relative (spouse, child, parent) will become ill • Your house will burn down • You cannot figure out how to complete your assignment • Your computer will be a victim of transient demonic possession • Martians will kidnap you and hold you for ransom until the President Obama agrees to give the

Martians the State of Alaska for food storage.

Let’s Build a Simple Online Course

• End

• Blank

Tree Diagram by UHCL Distance Education Student, Neil Snepp

A Basic Class File

• View of Class 1 file

Instruction

• How daily instruction appears