Designing your Online Course Checklist

Welcome Back, Professor! Here is a quick list of technical reminders to help you set-up your classes again in course site.

For Tips on Teaching and Learning such as how to design a course, write learning objectives, plan assignments, and develop a course schedule: Please see our Resources Page

General Principles

As you think about your online course, bear in mind the “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education” (Chickering and Gamson)

Encourage contact between faculty and students
Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students
Use active learning techniques
Give prompt feedback Emphasize time on task
Communicate high expectations
Respect diverse talents and ways of learning

Syllabus

Create a draft of your Syllabus with this Template

You may find it helpful to read “Syllabus Planning: 10 Questions,” which discusses general principles of good syllabus development.

Course Design

Develop course objectives
Identify the key things students will be doing (and when) and you will be doing (and when)
Develop appropriate assignments, activities, and assessments
Design a schedule that optimizes student time on task and student flexibility, while promoting time for discussion, collaboration, and feedback from you
Write a description of what quality work looks like so you can set expectations and guide students
Give instructions for everything—make explicit things you might take for granted in a face-to-face class

Course Site Specifics

Use Announcements rather than email for group communications
Place “First time here? Visit [name of your introductory session]” label just under Announcements
Place your Syllabus just under that
Place key activities under that, then the week-by-week, session-by-session instructions
Create space in the center of the page by minimizing or removing blocks on the left- or right-hand sides

Personalizing

Plan for a welcome video, midpoint video, closing video
Plan for a photo upload and personalized introductions by you and students
Be responsive to student requests for help

Content

1. the course material (books, texts, textbooks, articles, films, websites)

Use digitized texts where possible
- If students must purchase texts, give them advance notice (2 weeks)
If you are planning to stream video (a documentary, a film, submit a Streaming Video Request Form at least 3 weeks prior to the date needed.
- Streaming Video Request

2. your explanation/elaboration/interpretation of that material If you are using video:

Use Panopto for video of you/ your voice over documents, presentations, websites, drawings, etc.
Use Bb Collaborate to create video of interactions or collaboratively created presentations, etc.)
Use Ensemble for video that needs to be streamed -use the Digital Media Studio for any high production quality videos you wish to create

Feedback

Assessment

Need Help?

For more information or additional consultation using these tools, contact the instructional technology team!

Already taught an online course?

Here is a checklist full or technical details to help you get started on how to copy over content, add TAs and more.

Course Site - Start of the Semester Checklist