Online Course Design

Online Course Design Tips

There are a variety of different ways to teach online. This is selection of basic tips and ideas based on personal experience, experiences of colleagues, and current research in online pedagogy.

The Basics

1. Do not attempt to put an intact traditional co-located course online.
2. Poor off line course design = poor online course design x 100
3. Get acquainted with the latest pedagogical research. Lecture, reading, midterm, final, final paper traditional design does not function well in online courses (or offline). The "guide by the side" provides greater results than the "stage on the stage approach" regardless of teaching experience. Content is best delivered via text or graphics with short video lecture providing context. More and shorter assignments and revisions produce the best results. The main challenge of an online course is to keep students engaged in the course and this is why students need to have something specific to due every week.
4. Be pragmatic: students will not do something if it does not draw a grade or generate points. They, in most cases, do not have the time. Everything should have an assessment component. However, students will do a lot of very few points.
5. Go back to the learning objectives
6. Know the important elements of online teaching
   1. Establishing instructor "presence" in class: short contextualizing instant video; regular course announcements; posting selectively on discussion board; accessibility via email, chat, or Skype; over design presence. Cynically, this can seen as overt surveillance. 
   2. Realize that all communication becomes premeditated: create banks of common comments and messages for later use, especially on grading as a vast majority of any issues or errors are similar; make explicit directions for tasks (when students ask direct them there)
   3. Organization and the ability to project organization is key: establish a clear schedule for the term and specific deadlines for task completion; make any and all items clear and accessible.
   4. Pacing is everything: set a steady and consistent schedule; pick specific days and times that tasks are dues and keep to that schedule as much as possible. Since there is no meeting or rather the class is always meeting (24/7) you can establish course segments in any length instead by the "class meeting." Typically this is 7 day week model, for example the week starts Monday at 12:01 am and ends Sunday at 11:59 pm (avoids midnight/noon confusion). Online students often do a majority of their work on the weekends and evenings.
   5. Facilitate peer-to-peer communication: discussion boards and the ability to see each others work creates engagement and builds responsibility
   6. Student centered learning and responsibility
   7. The primary affordance of the online environment is its asynchrony and the flexibility for students and faculty to engage the materials and each other 24/7 as fits his/her lived world.  
   8. Online courses do not infinitely scale. While technology can automate many mundane tasks teaching is still mostly about people. Moving a course online does not mean you can add more students than in a physical class. Just like a traditional course, the more students you add in the less work and the less complex work you can require of them. 

What can be done in an online course?

• Quizzes
• Structured Discussion
• Workshops
• Written paper or Projects
• Automated Peer Review

The Humble Quiz

There are a variety of pedagogical uses for quizzes or tests. In this example, the purpose of the quiz is to motivate students to complete required readings by a certain date. A basic online multiple-choice quiz is great motivator for students to read required materials. Once a quiz is set-up, it runs automatically. Quizzes can also form an automated baseline for points in the course.

Once a quiz question bank is constructed, a quiz is created to access those questions. Quiz capabilities include:

• Timed: this limits the ability to look up answers
• Set for specific start and end dates
• Extending times for DRC access students
• Multiple attempts for individual or all students.
• Questions are pulled randomly from a pool
• The order of questions are randomized
• Scores are automatically entered into the grade book
• Are fully tracked and viewable by the instructor.
• 24/7 access for students

In a funnel strategy, a quiz on required readings would close at the end of the week in which the reading are required. Quiz points can be minimal, for example 15 points for a 15 questions quiz. Even at that rate the conceptual pressure on completing this type of assessment means there is high compliance. In my courses, I open all quizzes at the beginning of the term and close them as we cover the materials, an idea suggested by a student who wanted to work ahead.

Of course, an online quiz that can be taken at any time from anywhere means it would be open book or note. I have used these quizzes in dozens of courses and scores vary as much as a traditional paper in class quiz. However, it also means that students would be able to take quizzes in teams and look up answers. Realistically there is no way to prevent this, although few students appear to take the time to coordinate. I had student plainly tell me in a course that five of them would get together to take the quizzes. At first I was angry, but then I realized that getting 5 students to meet outside of class about course content was a good result in and of themselves. Moreover, that instead of each student taking one quiz, the each took the quiz 5 times! They came in contact with those questions and looked up those answers on specific and important course content multiple times. They would know the material and that seemed like a good outcome to me. Quizzes are also effective when paired with structured discussion.

Structured Discussion

Using a discussion board on Canvas brings in four benefits to students understanding course material. The first is that they get to apply course concepts. The second is that students are very peer conscious and are loath to under-perform to their peers, since everyone can see their posts. Third, unlike in class discussion, there is time and space for everyone to speak and respond. No one is interrupted and no one can monopolize the time.  Finally, it allows students to interact and build relationships in a safe and low stress environment. For instructors, it allows for selective interaction to address specific questions or praise insightful comments, to focus students on particular prompts, and it makes discussion easy to grade especially using the speedgrader function.

Discussion capabilities include:

• Set for specific start and end dates

• Embed links and media including instant video
• Easily identify participants
• Easy to grade with feedback and automatically enter in gradebook
• Can also grade simply by button click (credit/no credit or meet basic parameters)
• Obviously, for ELL/ESL students who may have better writing than speaking skills or DRC students who may have speaking impediments, it is can be a great outlet.

A structured discussion can be constructed to meet specific instructional goals. Again, for my purposes, discussion is the next step in understanding the readings. In this step they need to be able to apply and/or think about the content and discuss it with peers.

The key to a good discussion is a clear prompt to start off the discussion period. There are a variety of ways to structure a prompt. Successful prompts include; 4/4; quotes; concepts; and questions.

4/4: Interesting and Important

This prompt is more of a reading review and is particularly effective in preparing students for class meetings by ensuring they not only do the readings but have thought about the important elements and what they found interesting and why. This provides two points of access for students to engage the readings. Students compile a list of four important items and four interesting items and what makes them interesting and important. Usually used one per week or reading period.

Advantages: ease of grading, easy for students to understand, and is complex enough to encourage a careful reading and discourage "cherry picking" items through light skimming.

Disadvantages: does not engage in more complex ideas or concepts. Does not work as well with shorter readings. This is suitable only for reading-based activities.

Quotable Quotes

This prompt is also geared toward reading review, comprehension, and application. Students select a specific quote they find meaningful from the text and explain why is resonates with them and apply to an example for their own lives. Usually used two or more times per reading period.

Advantages: moderately easy to grade, engages students on a deeper level, good for application of course concepts.

Disadvantages: prone to cherry picking of quotes or simply using quotes from other students as their prompt. Application to own life can be superficial.

Concepts

This prompt can be used for reading review or more complex materials or tasks, events, or observations. Students select a concept they find compelling and explore it in detail. Can be made more specific and "gradable" by requiring page numbers for the course of the prompt when used for readings. Usually used two or more times per reading period.

Advantages: moderately easy to grade, flexible since the same basic format can be used for a variety of materials, and engages students in deeper comprehension and application of the materials.

Disadvantages: concepts can be vague or simplistic as can the discussion. Can be prone to tangents and padding.

Questions

This is a specific question or problem or issue that students must answer. This prompt is scalable by requiring more or less specific criteria for student's answers. Requiring specific elements can make it more gradable. Usually used two or more times per reading period.

Advantages: potential for easier grading, flexible since the same basic format can be used for a variety of materials, and engages students in deeper comprehension and application of the materials.

Disadvantages: depending on the specific application and its complexity could be prone to students basing posts on other student's materials or student confusion.

Assignment Discussion

Another strategy for using a discussion board is to provide a space where students can discuss other assignments such as papers or research projects. The structured opportunity for students to work out their ideas, ask questions of peers, process anxiety, and address complex problems can greatly improve understanding, satisfaction, and the quality of submitted work. More experienced/engaged peers can greatly increase comprehension. Students state they find this exercise to be very helpful in comprehension and reducing stress. It also encourages students to, at the very least, start thinking about an assignment ahead of its due date. It also provides instructors a window into student perspectives and process and allows for early intervention in students misunderstanding instructions or the purpose/conceptual frame of an assignment. Moreover, it can be a useful diagnostic tool for assignment design and display. The role of social support by both peers and the instructor cannot be underestimated. It is less confusing if an instructor uses the same basic schedule as other structured discussion such as described above. In that case, I require a primary post on major issues, concerns, or tips and two replies to others posts. Quite often students post more than is required.

Finally, discussion boards can be used as a more complex and detailed “ice breaker” at the start of the term. For example, offering extra credit for introducing themselves and responding to a peer’s introduction. Also, at the end of the term it can provide a forum for processing the course and providing suggestions for improvement. For example, I ask students to provide 3 things they liked about the course, and three things they did not like or ideas for improving it, and a piece of advice for future students. I take selected advice and include it in my future courses (usually as part of an orientation workshop) as peers take each others’ advice more seriously then an instructors!

Basic Rules for a functional graded Discussion Board

As we know, students can be very clever and opportunistic in "interpreting" assignment rules.

The idea of discussion board is to simulate a discussion albeit in slow motion. This involves pacing and multiple visits by students. If you do not impose some basic rules students tend to show up once near the end of the discussion period, post several times, and then leave.

While the idea of a freeform discussion space is conceptually attractive, generally students do not participate if there are not points/grade involved and this requires some structure. 

Based on years of experience and consultation with many experienced instructors here are some basic discussion rules:

1. Beginning and an end: Discussion boards should be for set time periods to focus students on the task(s).
2. Deadlines: set specific deadlines when students need to complete their posts. This will ensure pacing and keep the discussion from backing up at the end of the discussion period.
3. Clearly designate the purpose of posts: generally this done by content posts as described above and replies to other students. Reply posts are critical because it gets students to read each others posts. It is where the "discussion" comes from but this will not happen unless students are directed to do it.
4. Posting time separation: to keep students from dumping a batch of posts all at once, it is useful to require a minimum time separation in hours. If it is per day, then students will post right before and after midnight. I suggest 12 hours, which is long enough to encourage more interaction opportunities but short enough that enterprising students can post twice at either end of one day. For grading, 12 hours is easy to calculate quickly.
5. Minimum word count: to avoid low to no content micro posts such as "Yeah, I totally agree" you will want to include a minimum word count. Instructors are able to quickly "eyeball" what that specific number is but you can always copy and paste into a word document for an official word count. 150 words per post is not very long but long enough to increase the likelihood of meaning content.
6. Consider extra credit: to encourage earlier interaction you may wish to consider some extra credit for posting early. Usually setting the first post a day early. This satisfies those A students and quickly becomes a game for others to post to get those points. Students pick up on this game quickly. I have reduced my extra credit points to just 2 per week (20-30 points possible on 1000 point scale). It is the idea as opposed to the number.
7. Set hard rules on extra credit! I require that students complete all posts in order to ear extra credit. This means no posts that violate any of the rules. Otherwise students will not post one post but try for extra credit to take less of an overall loss (seriously).

Workshops

I use workshops, simply content that students have to apply to a task in the form of a webpage or slides in research method, theory/topic, and practice skills courses. Workshops in this format provide an opportunity for students to do the basic work needed to tackle more advanced activities or discussions.  Workshops can be set up as assignments in Canvas. Assignments capabilities include:

• Set open and close dates
• In textbox, url, multimedia, or specific attached files types (restricted as needed)
• Rubrics and Speedgrader that allows viewing of almost all file types in frame and the ability to make comments, attach a score, and automatically transfer grades into gradebook.
• Allows students to engage in conversations over submissions.

Here are two different examples of how I use workshops in different courses.

Research methods courses demand the use of certain research methods or related research skills. Workshops allow students to try and use these methods/techniques to prepare for more complex assignments. For example, I have students attempt to code data based on their email accounts. Aside of doing the task student need to address specific prompt on process, insights, or findings.

Theory or topic courses demand a deeper understanding of what theory is and how it is applied to specific instances/examples. Usually, I create a workshop that looks at one or more theories and have them apply it to cases, current events, or their own experiences. Aside of doing the task student need to address specific prompt on process, insights, or findings.

Workshops provide a way for students to test drive different skills, processes or ideas. These provide a common knowledge or experience base for the class meeting. Often students do not even know what questions to ask until they have tried to make something work. The experience allows for more productive repetition or higher-level tasks/discussions.

Projects, Research Papers or other Assignments

There are a wide variety of assignments that work in an online course. In fact, many of the same assignments used in traditional classes can work. There are several major affordances that specifically come from using an online learning platform. I discuss peer review below and assignment discussions above. The third major affordance is that assignment can be submitted via Canvas in almost any format, you can restrict or designate formats to use, and most formats can be read within Canvas itself.

For assignments that do not require any sort of line specific feedback or editing and grading rubric can be used to assign points with or without feedback. Comments can be made and students can reply to those comments within their assignments page. Grades automatically go to the gradebook.

For more complex assignments that need to be annotated directly, files can be downloaded en masse as a zip file, graded, and rezipped, and uploaded as a group with each returning to the student's assignment page. Grades can be entered on each assignments page or via the gradebook.

Peer Review

I had never been a fan of peer review for student assignments. I found the logistical hurdles and the quality of feedback was not worth the effort. However, once I started teaching 100w and found the ease of using the Canvas peer review function, I am a convert. I find that, broadly, peer review reduces basic and annoying technical errors as well as misunderstanding of directions. For example, using scholarly sources. This can really improve the quality of submitted work and reduce grading time. Peers tend to be very concerned on how they are perceived by fellow students and often put more effort into work they know their peers are seeing. I was honestly amazed at the reduction of basic technical errors. A caveat is that, overall, students are loath to be critical of each other when points or grades are involved. I suggest making peer review assignment credit/no credit.

Some basic instruction in how to review a particular assignment type is highly recommended. Canvas provides a rubric function than can guide students to focus on particular issues.

In Canvas, students can upload assignment and those assignments can be can randomly assigned to peers for review. Students can be assigned any number of peer reviews. At a minimum, instructors should assign two papers for each student to account for non-compliance and ensure every student benefits from the process. Peer review trains students to create initial drafts of a paper instead of just one draft (at the last minute) for submission.

Peer review can reduce the number of basic questions on assignments. Students essentially have completed an early preliminary draft that receives feedback with little or no instructor input. Often students do not even know what questions to ask or potential issues with an assignment until they actually try to execute them. This makes discussion or review of assignments more focused and productive because the students have something concrete on which to fix ideas. This creates a solid context for their questions/concerns.