Purpose: After working through this checklist, instructors will have a thought through the design for their course(s) regardless of delivery mode.
Start here:
Ask: five years from now, what do I want my students to remember and use that they learned in my course? This is your overall goal.
Objectives:
- Establish measurable objectives for your course.
- Try to group your objectives to narrow them down to 3-5 objectives.
- Be sure the objectives are worded from the student’s perspective and contain measurable verbs.
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TIP: Students may need to reach certain levels of your objectives as well. So a student may need to show differing levels of achieving outcomes such as beginning, developing, or masteringexcelling.
Assessments:
- Using your objectives as a checklist, match each objective with an assessment to be sure that your course includes at least one assessment for each objective.
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- Identify criteria with assignment Rubrics/Metrics that show success and areas for improvement.
- Clearly identify the criteria for success on each assessment.
Assignments:
For each assignment, ask yourself the following questions:
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At this point, the course objectives, assessments, and assignments should align through rubrics, much like peas align in a pod.
Activities:
As you plan class activities, ask yourself the following questions:
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- Does this activity count toward "Participation" ? How have I defined "Participation"? How have I explained my evaluation process for "Participation"?
Designing Class Sessions/Modules/Weeks:
As you design each course session/module/week, focus on four activities for each session/module/week. Some you will conduct in mixed delivery mode. Some you’ll have students do outside of class Prepare for adaptability. Consider what students will do with you and away from you.
AWAY: Readings. Make these short if possible. Ensure that they are accessible. Use Open Educational Resources or materials that students can retrieve virtually from the SU Libraries. If you need support, contact your library liaison.
Practices: problems, written assignments or reflections, diagrams, drawings, etc.
WITH OR AWAY: Something to view/hear. Make these short if possible also. Online attention span is about 10-15 minutes, even if students are in class using Zoom or Collaborate.
- If you show a film, check for accessibility features like captioning or a transcript. Provide viewing instructions. What should students look for? What should students listen for?
TIP: If you need to show a film clip in class, be sure that you provide your away students with the timing marks so that they can watch the video on their own devices and “return” to the class when appropriate.
- If you plan to lecture, keep it at 10-15 minutes. Lecture in chunks. Provide notes or slides. After each “chunk,” provide some ways for students to check in to see if they have gathered the most important information.
TIP: Use Classroom Assessment Techniques or CATs. Sample techniques are available on Answers under the Summer Online Course Checklist.
WITH OR AWAY: Something to discuss. When students use new information or skills, they are more likely to encode that new information in their minds and to remember it. Discussion can help them to do exactly that. As you set up discussions, keep in mind the following best practices:
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TIP: If you allow students to use the chatdiscuss using chat or discussion boards, set thresholds for the kinds of writing you will accept. Will you allow text abbreviations, for example? Gifs? Emojis?
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Suggestions and directions for some techniques can be found here.
Running Class Sessions:
These class sessions will be demanding on your mental bandwidth, so try to have a plan for each class session.
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- Give yourself a note to remind yourself to look at the online students and to review their chat questions.
- Provide an “agenda” at the beginning of the class session.
Bonus TIP: If possible, select a TA to “proxy” for the online students. If you don’t have a TA, select three “note-taking” students and one “online representative.” These jobs should rotate through the students who are physically in the classroom. These “proxies” are responsible to keep an eye on the online students and their chat. When the online students have questions or contributions, the proxy indicates that and speaks for themgroup students by threes for note-taking. These notes can be shared between group members in order to ensure that students have accurate knowledge of the content and skills covered.
- Check in with students periodically to see how much progress they are making to the goal for that class session.
- Provide a “muddiest point” forum for students as well so that they have a place to indicate their learning challenge when they get stumped. Encourage students to answer their peers’ questions. Monitor the forum so that misinformation does not circulate.
- Consider using an “exit ticket” for each class to check on how well you and your students are achieving the objective for that session.