Implications for Online Courses and Programs

Introduction

Standard GeorgiaVIEW Template

The Center for Online Learning promotes best practice by setting standards of best practice for online course design and delivery. It is imperative that faculty who develop courses for online programs closely adhere to the standards. The COL has developed a standard GeorgiaVIEW template that incorporates best practices. The template uses learning modules to present course content. Each learning module uses an "overview" page to set expectations and guild the students through the learning activities. The standard template has 16 learning modules, but if your instructional design is such that you require fewer or more, that is fine. What is required is that you use learning modules with overview pages as opposed to Organizer Pages (folders) to organize instructional units. View a demo course based on the Standard GeorgiaVIEW Template.

Consistency Across Courses in a Program Benefits Students

The online environment necessitates that the interface of courses within a program have consistent, logical form and function to create a sense of familiarity for the students from one course to the next. This promotes higher student satisfaction and retention in online degree programs.

Consistent Course Design Benefits Faculty

Using a consistent course design gives faculty a common framework within which to discuss course development and online teaching. It also speeds up course development process, allowing the faculty to focus more on content rather than on course design issues.

Programs that come under external accreditation (such as Nursing or Engineering) need to "map" the "key assessments" to specific courses throughout the program. Key assessments are stated to the students in terms of expected learning outcome statements (course objectives). Those objectives must be assessed (key assessments) to see if the student is meeting program requirements. Accreditation agencies look at student products to see if learning outcome expectations are being met. If there is a gap between desired program outcomes and student program outcomes, then there is a problem.

This is not new news to program administrators, however, it may not be well known among faculty who develop and deliver courses within a program. The following image illustrates mapping key assessments within a program.

Notice how "Course 2" maps STD 1 in week 2, STD 2 in week 3, and STD 3 in week 5.

Implications for Course and Program Development

Faculty who are involved in course development that support online degrees need to consult with administrators and other faculty in their unit to insure that key assessments are being met within the courses in a program. Not all programs and courses fall under accreditation agencies; however, there may be other external forces that drive course content and course objectives. For more information, read Origins of Objectives for a Course. Furthermore, it must be determined if lower level courses contain the appropriate pre-requisite content to prepare the students to succeed in higher level courses.

It is beyond the scope of the Center for Online Learning to assist faculty at this level of course development since program development requires content experts to determine key assessments and sequencing of content in courses to scaffold learning through the program.