main principle on which you structure your short course

How do I create an online course structure?

While creating your online course structure, it’s essential to go ahead and outline each lesson—even if it’s only for your own benefit. First, make sure each lesson is in the proper module and that they are ordered the way you want them. Then, decide on a flow that each lesson will follow.

What is the best way to structure a module?

Try to structure each module roughly similarly. For instance, if your first module includes an introduction, the learning objectives, a few lessons, and a review quiz, you should structure the rest of your modules the same way. This helps give your students an idea of what to expect as they move through the course.

What are some examples of institutions with different structures for teaching?

The Western Governors’ University, with its emphasis on competency-based learning, and Empire State College in New York State, with its emphasis on learning contracts for adult learners, are other examples of institutions that have different structures for teaching from the norm.

When is a looser class structure more suitable for students?

If on the other hand they are fourth year undergraduates or graduate students with a high degree of self-management, then a looser structure may be more suitable to their needs. Another determining factor will be the number of students in your class.

What is a strong structure in a course?

How to decide on a loose structure for a class?

How does blended learning work?

Why do instructors underestimate the amount of work required by students?

What are the constraints of teaching?

What happens if you offer a course that has not been offered on campus?

How many hours do you study in 3 credit?

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About this website

What makes a good online course?

A good online course requires a few things to make it worth the investment of time, effort, and money people are willing to invest in themselves an...

How long should a course outline be?

A course outline is a really important component of any prospective online course and it needs to fulfill a few different and important roles.An ou...

What is the difference between a course outline and a syllabus?

These are both very important but very different tools with quite distinct purposes, and they certainly shouldn’t be used interchangeably.The outli...

What should a course outline contain?

A course outline should contain several things. Ideally, it will include some basic information about the tutor such as name, contact information,...

Instructional Design Process: A Step-By-Step Guide

A Step By Step Guide To The Instructional Design Process. Every organization has its own process for developing online training courses. Some organizations follow a linear process, while others prefer an iterative one.

What do people ask themselves when creating a course?

Most people start to ask themselves, “What’s everything I know about this topic that I can teach my customers?”

Why would someone buy a course?

The only reason someone would purchase a course is to solve a problem they are currently facing or if they believe it will improve their life in some way. Therefore, your first step is to identify their current pain-points.

What is result centered training?

The Result Centered Training Formula is a simple framework that helps turns a disorganized mess of information into a strategically structured online course.

What is the biggest mistake a course creator makes?

So the big mistake course creators make is that they start filling in their course with all this content, and information about anything and everything they possibly know about the topic and it becomes this overinflated encyclopedia that leads to information overwhelm and their customers still don’t do what’s needed in order to reach the DESIRED RESULT.

What is the completion rate of online courses?

A study in the December 8 issue of Educause Review Online (ERO) by Harvard University researcher, Justin Reich, reveals that completion rates of online courses range, between 2 and 10 percent.

Why is it important to follow a framework?

In addition to ensuring your course is structured the right way, the other big benefit of following this framework is that it naturally makes the process of getting everything out of your head and organized into a systematic format so much faster.

What are the resources that make taking action easier?

Therefore, it’s extremely important to include resources that make taking action easier such as worksheets, checklists, cheat sheets, and step-by-step guides.

What is the difference between a week by week course and a step by step course?

The main difference is that the course structure is organized over a specific period, with time-sensitive modules and steps for each given week.

Why is consistency important in a course?

Consistency is Important. Once you choose your course outline strategy, the best thing you can do for your students is to be as consistent as possible. For instance, with in-person teaching, students are in the habit of going to class at the same time and same place every week.

Why do online courses require exams?

You can organize exams through various learning management platforms. For obvious reasons, exams are time-sensitive and must be completed before a specific deadline

What is a reference course?

A reference course, for the uninitiated, is a collection of content that is neatly organized together, in which students can jump to separate sections of the course whenever they need to.

Why is week by week structuring important?

Week by week structuring is a useful way of organizing the course if you have to teach a skill that takes a certain amount of time to learn. It also gives your students plenty of time to practice their newly acquired skills before moving to the next stage.

What is step by step online?

The step by step program is the most popular online course format that works by taking your clients on a clear journey and provides a more accurate estimation of the endpoint. Each step builds on the last one, contributing to specific goals as it reaches the end, where a learning objective is completed.

Why is it important to break up content into separate lessons?

Breaking up your content into a handful of separate lessons is useful and helps students recognize the main stages they will have to move through as they progress through the course.

Why is it important to plot out a course?

Regardless of the type of course you choose, it is essential that you plot it out carefully, so that your pupils can understand what is expected of them at each stage.

What is designing a course without an outline?

Designing your course without an outline is like beginning a journey without a map.

What is an outline in a course?

The outline accounts for each step along the way to your goal, complete with material formats, lesson structures, and how you’ll measure your students’ success as they progress through the course.

Why do we need an outline?

An outline helps you keep your ideas organized when you are designing a course. It enables you to group together related topics, not to mention see the order in which topics need to be addressed. Starting with an outline helps you create the course more efficiently.

What is the key to creating an effective online course outline?

The key to creating an effective online course outline is to make itsimple, clear, and easy to understand.

What is course outline?

A course outline is one of the most crucial elements you can create for your online class. It’s the blueprint showing the foundational structure and design for ...

Why is it important to divide an online course into parts?

Designing an online course can be an overwhelming process, which is why it’s helpful to divide it up into parts. Your students will also be able to follow your course more easily if it’s broken down into a few digestible components.

1. Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive Learning Theory focuses on learners objectively analyzing their thoughts and feelings ( metacognition) to gain information more effectively. In other words, it asks them to ‘think about how they think’.

2. Behavioral Learning Theory

Pioneered by researchers like John Watson and B.F. Skinner, Behavioral Learning Theory (behaviorism) centers on the idea that people learn by interacting with their environments through a system of stimuli and response.

3. Constructivist Learning Theory

Under the Constructivist Learning Theory (constructivism), learners build knowledge as they experience the world and one another. As its name implies, the theory argues that learners formulate their own set of knowledge, adding to that understanding as they gain information and experience. For constructivists, the learning process is cumulative.

4. Connectivism Learning Theory

One of the most recent learning theories mentioned here, connectivism considers the impact of the digital age on learning. It argues that social connections and technology shape learning and that we must adapt to constantly changing knowledge.

5. Adult Learning Theory

Adult Learning Theory establishes that adults have different learning needs than children because they have more preconceived notions and biases due to living a longer life. They have more internal motivation to learn than children and want to learn information that they can use to achieve personal goals.

6. Transformative Learning

Transformative learning explores meaning structures — the beliefs and experiences that influence how we interpret ideas — and how reflection-based learning can help us transform them. Practices based on transformative learning often aim to create a “ disorienting dilemma ” that challenges the learner’s worldview.

7. Learning Curve Theory

According to the Learning Curve Theory, an employee will become faster and more effective at completing a task as they do the task over and over.

What is a strong structure in a course?

If you have a strong view of the content that must be covered in a particular course, and the sequence in which it must be presented (or if you are given a mandated curriculum by an accrediting body), then you are likely to want to provide a very strong structure, with specific topics assigned for study at particular points in the course, with student work or activities tightly linked.

How to decide on a loose structure for a class?

This decision should also be influenced by the type of students you are teaching. If students come without independent learning skills, or know nothing about the subject area, they will need a strong structure to guide their studies, at least initially. If on the other hand they are fourth year undergraduates or graduate students with a high degree of self-management, then a looser structure may be more suitable to their needs. Another determining factor will be the number of students in your class. With large numbers of students, a strong, well defined structure will be necessary to control your workload, as loose structures require more negotiation and support for individual students.

How does blended learning work?

Many blended learning courses are designed almost by accident, rather than deliberately. Online components, such as a learning management system to contain online learning materials, lecture notes or online readings, are gradually added to regular classroom teaching. There are obvious dangers in doing this if the face-to-face component is not adjusted at the same time. After a number of years, more and more materials, activities and work for students is added online, often optional but sometimes essential for assignments. Student workloads can increase dramatically as a result – and so too can the instructor’s, with more and more material to manage.

Why do instructors underestimate the amount of work required by students?

Since there is far more content that could be put in a course than students will have time to study , this usually means choosing the minimum amount of content for the course for it to be academically sound, while still allowing students time for activities such as individual research, assignments or project work. In general, because instructors are experts in a subject and students are not, there is a tendency for instructors to underestimate the amount of work required by a student to cover a topic. Again, an instructional designer can be useful here, providing a second opinion on student workload.

What are the constraints of teaching?

In particular, the curriculum needs to fit within the time ‘units’ available, such as the length of the semester and the number of credits and contact hours for a particular course. The teaching has to take into account class size and classroom availability. Students (and teachers and instructors) have to be at specific places (classrooms, examination rooms, laboratories) at specific times.

What happens if you offer a course that has not been offered on campus?

If you are offering a course or program that has not to date been offered on campus (for instance a professional or applied masters program) then you have much more scope for developing a unique structure that best fits the online environment and also the type of students that may take this kind of course (for example, working adults).

How many hours do you study in 3 credit?

A reasonable estimate is that a three credit undergraduate course is roughly equivalent to about 8-9 hours study a week, or a total of roughly 100 hours over 13 weeks. (A full-time student then taking 10 x 3 credits a year, with five 3 credit courses per semester, would be studying between 40-45 hours a week during the two semesters, or slightly less if the studying continued over the inter-semester period.).

What should instructors focus on in a learning community?

Students also benefit from this information. Instructors should focus on community at large and cohesion, or lack thereof, in the learning environment. Areas for improvement can also be addressed.

How to build a sense of community?

A strong sense of community begins with faculty designing and planning for the sense of community in the course. In order to build a strong sense of community within an online course, instructors should start by identifying the type of community they want to create. In other words, what is the common thread that runs through an online course: ...

What is the reaction to learning about UDL?

An initial reaction to learning about UDL is that it often seems like a time-consuming way to support student engagement. Certainly, it can take time to recognize and anticipate the range of students in your class. But doing so can have immediate rewards around building trust and community with you and your students.

What is UDL framework?

A framework that is becoming increasingly popular for supporting engagement within and among diverse student audiences is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL, developed by the CAST Organization, offers three key guidelines for educators: Offer multiple means of student engagement.

Do you have to offer a whole menu of options for engagement entirely up front?

Plus, you don’t have to offer a whole menu of options for engagement entirely up front; even if you can offer just one alternative way to complete an assignment or participate in an online environment, you open just one more avenue to support students in your class.

Can an instructor shape students' online experiences?

At the same time, you, as the instructor, aren’t the only person who can shape students’ experiences online in positive ways. There are many members of your university’s community who can help you work with your students to build a strong sense of community and to foster engagement.

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What is a strong structure in a course?

If you have a strong view of the content that must be covered in a particular course, and the sequence in which it must be presented (or if you are given a mandated curriculum by an accrediting body), then you are likely to want to provide a very strong structure, with specific topics assigned for study at particular points in the course, with student work or activities tightly linked.

How to decide on a loose structure for a class?

This decision should also be influenced by the type of students you are teaching. If students come without independent learning skills, or know nothing about the subject area, they will need a strong structure to guide their studies, at least initially. If on the other hand they are fourth year undergraduates or graduate students with a high degree of self-management, then a looser structure may be more suitable to their needs. Another determining factor will be the number of students in your class. With large numbers of students, a strong, well defined structure will be necessary to control your workload, as loose structures require more negotiation and support for individual students.

How does blended learning work?

Many blended learning courses are designed almost by accident, rather than deliberately. Online components, such as a learning management system to contain online learning materials, lecture notes or online readings, are gradually added to regular classroom teaching. There are obvious dangers in doing this if the face-to-face component is not adjusted at the same time. After a number of years, more and more materials, activities and work for students is added online, often optional but sometimes essential for assignments. Student workloads can increase dramatically as a result – and so too can the instructor’s, with more and more material to manage.

Why do instructors underestimate the amount of work required by students?

Since there is far more content that could be put in a course than students will have time to study , this usually means choosing the minimum amount of content for the course for it to be academically sound, while still allowing students time for activities such as individual research, assignments or project work. In general, because instructors are experts in a subject and students are not, there is a tendency for instructors to underestimate the amount of work required by a student to cover a topic. Again, an instructional designer can be useful here, providing a second opinion on student workload.

What are the constraints of teaching?

In particular, the curriculum needs to fit within the time ‘units’ available, such as the length of the semester and the number of credits and contact hours for a particular course. The teaching has to take into account class size and classroom availability. Students (and teachers and instructors) have to be at specific places (classrooms, examination rooms, laboratories) at specific times.

What happens if you offer a course that has not been offered on campus?

If you are offering a course or program that has not to date been offered on campus (for instance a professional or applied masters program) then you have much more scope for developing a unique structure that best fits the online environment and also the type of students that may take this kind of course (for example, working adults).

How many hours do you study in 3 credit?

A reasonable estimate is that a three credit undergraduate course is roughly equivalent to about 8-9 hours study a week, or a total of roughly 100 hours over 13 weeks. (A full-time student then taking 10 x 3 credits a year, with five 3 credit courses per semester, would be studying between 40-45 hours a week during the two semesters, or slightly less if the studying continued over the inter-semester period.).