Designing the Online Course | Best Practices for Online Teaching

Below is a summary of best practices; however, it is recommended that you use the CSU Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) evaluation instruments to guide the design and delivery of your online, blended, and flipped courses to assure quality.

Course Development

Build in opportunities for collaboration and communication
Build in activities that engage students with real world responsibilities and/or resources, e.g., Student teachers create a lesson plan, or Business students search online for a company’s mission statement (rather than just read in textbook)
Create learning activities that enable students to achieve the Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)

Share content through multiple modes, e.g. video, images, audio, in addition to text

blackboard text that says it is time to inspire

Plan frequent, varied and ongoing assessment strategies (e.g., forums, games, self-assessment activities, quizzes, case scenarios, applied practice problems)
Limit/avoid high-stakes exams (e.g., exams alone or combined contribute to a significant portion of the grade)
Ensure assessment outcomes demonstrate students have achieved the SLOs
Create active and authentic (real world) assessments
Incorporate student choice and creativity in assignments/projects (e.g., if the assignment is a project, let students decide how to share outcome, such as a video, PowerPoint presentation, animation, webpage, etc.)
Use rubrics and scoring checklists to convey expectations and grade objectively
Provide examples for students to apply the criteria and standards
Provide students with multiple opportunities to self-reflect on their learning and the course during the semester

Use your instructor Sandbox within TITANium to design and develop your course before teaching it.

Plan your site structure before creating your course site. Will you organize the course modules by weeks, by topics, by theme? What is the length of the module, e.g., 1 week or 2 weeks? One week modules are typical but not the only way to go.
Plan a consistent module layout to include:

Module title (e.g. meaningful title, week #, dates)
Image that represents/reinforces module content (an enhancement rather than essential); make sure images do not infringe on copyright and attribution is given.
Module objectives
- Created by instructor to align with established course objectives
- Objectives are student-centered and include an observable verb
- Module learning objectives will be met through instructional strategies and activities

Content, activities and assessments within the module are organized in a logical sequence, and the sequence is consistent from week-to-week (or topic-to-topic). Use formatting methods such as subheadings, indentation, and/or step numbers to convey organization and sequence at a glance. View two examples.

Provide a schedule for the course and a clear path for completing each module (where relevant), e.g., a weekly checklist of what must be completed by the end of the module
Include a Getting Started module to assist in getting off to a good start (e.g., syllabus, course orientation, site orientation, instructor introduction)

Include a summary of course/student resources, policies, info on being a successful online student, community-building activities, etc.

Take advantage of the tools and features provided in TITANium (e.g. Forum, Assignment tool, Turnitin, Gradebook, and much more)
Create accessible instructional materials (e.g., all videos have captioning, Word documents pass Accessibility Checker)