Tag: course design

Instructor Bio Tips & Tricks

by Jan 17, 2018

The instructor bio is such a simple, basic part of the course that it can be easy to overlook its importance. When so much time is taken up with assignment rubrics, video scripts, and discussion prompts, thinking of how to describe yourself to students can seem pretty minor. But it is worth thinking about. The instructor bio is often the first introduction that students will have to you–as an educator, as a subject matter expert, and as a person. So it’s key to make a good first impression with an instructor bio that students will want to read. Quality Matters

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Distance Learning: The Next Best Thing to Being There?

by Oct 26, 2017

On October 10, I had the privilege of presenting at a symposium held by the National Resource Center for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, or OLLIs, provide university-level, non-credit educational opportunities for their membership, adults aged 50 and older. The symposium brought together a select group of OLLI directors from around the U.S. to consider a number of issues of interest to OLLIs, among the use of the distance learning technology. My presentation, “Distance Learning: The Next Best Thing to Being There?”, considered the the acceptance of distance learning technology by the OLLI membership, who typically

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Using Game Concepts to Create a Gamified Online Course Template

by Oct 02, 2017

We hear the word gamification a lot, however it still remains quite a mystery to many educators. As I have mentioned in past posts, Gamification is not simply adding games to courses, but is instead the utilization of gaming concepts in courses. So where exactly do you get started when creating a gamified online course template? My last post suggested that you think of your students as heroes and use their journey to come up with materials for your course. But you can also take things one step further and use game components (instructions, story, levels) to make your gamified

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Documenting the Course Development Process

by Aug 28, 2017

Recently, the Big 10 Academic Alliance conference invited School of Professional Studies and the Office of Distance Learning representatives to share highlights about our online course development process. The conference organizers asked for the presentations to be delivered as recorded videos that were viewed online by a small audience before the conference and discussed during a meeting during the conference. To keep the production of the video presentations simple and efficient we repurposed some existing materials when possible. The segments of the video that made use of existing material, such as previously recorded videos, graphics templates, or outlines from other

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Effective Working Relationships – Faculty and Staff

by Jul 31, 2017

Introduction What is at the core of a successful online course development or revision? A really great collaboration between a faculty member, a  Learning Designer, and an Instructional Technologist. Working with a course development team for the first time can feel new or overwhelming. There are so many new terms and roles to figure out! So, what can be done to build effective working relationships that last from the kickoff meeting through the course launch? Inspired by the May 2017 Inside Higher Ed article, “Quashing Tension, Boosting Cooperation,” we asked School of Professional Studies faculty what worked for them. Although

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