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Evaluating the Readiness of your Course
Evaluating the Readiness of your Course
Your strategic decisions regarding course structure, including learning modality (F2F, Blended, Online - Synchronous/Asynchronous), communications (Regular & Substantive Interaction best practices), active learning tasks, and formative and summative assessments, will impact how learners engage with the material and each other.
Before designing a course, take time to consider the following points:
the readiness of the course in its current state,
your comfort level with the educational technologies that can enhance it,
the resources, trainings, materials, and guidance from master course designers,
If you already teach a version of your online course in a physical classroom, you will need to adapt the existing materials to a digital format and factor in how to best utilize the same technologies online or choose different supporting technologies.
Remember, online course development is a longer process than for face-to-face courses because there is usually more media production, as well as more time spent on creating, testing, and troubleshooting the technology.
To help determine the scope of work that is needed to develop an online course, complete the SMCC Course Readiness Survey.
Adopted and modified from Digital Learning Toolkit
Factors to Consider about the Learners
Factors to Consider about the Learners
Who are my learners?
Who are my learners?
What is motivating learners to take this course?
Are learners taking my course to earn a degree or expand their professional skills in this subject area?
Do my learners have any professional experience?
Why?
Why?
Understanding the unique characteristics of your learners will help you design a course to leverage their intrinsic motivations. Additionally, identifying characteristics of a cohort or group can offer additional opportunities to engage your learners on that common ground. For example, an executive MBA program may expect learners with some degree of professional experience, while learners in an undergraduate course may not have any relevant work history.
What do my learners already know?
What do my learners already know?
Are learners familiar with the subject matter?
Have the learners completed the appropriate prerequisite coursework?
Do the learners have the technology skills necessary to complete assignments?
Why?
Why?
Having an idea of your learners’ knowledge base will help you focus your instructional goals. This way you do not spend valuable time reviewing material that they already know or expect them to succeed with concepts for which they do not yet have sufficient foundation.
Where are my learners coming from?
Where are my learners coming from?
Do any examples require specific cultural knowledge?
(e.g., American Football, pop culture, etc.)Do the learners have language barriers?
Is the content culturally sensitive?
Why?
Why?
The intent of instruction is to communicate with the learners, so it is important to be aware of any cultural factors that may impede or adversely impact the flow of information. In an online environment, this is particularly important because you cannot read body language or make eye contact with the learners.
How does access to electronic and web tools impact the learners?
How does access to electronic and web tools impact the learners?
How does access to electronic and web tools impact the learners?
How will learners access your course?
(e.g., computer lab or personal devices)Do the learners have access to all equipment necessary to complete assignments?
(e.g., video camera or software)Are your materials universally accessible?
(e.g., mobile-friendly, closed captioned, meaningful link titles, etc.)
Why?
Why?
As an educator, you want to be certain that all of your learners have the tools they need to succeed. If the content is developed and shared digitally, it is best to design with these considerations in mind so that you do not have to retrofit the content. You should develop flexible content that can be presented and consumed across various devices so that you do not exclude learners with limited technology options.
Adopted and modified from Digital Learning Toolkit
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