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Course Overview

Course Objectives

Preparing to Teach Online fulfills the SACS training requirement for faculty who teach online courses. The course is based on the Quality Matters rubric which provides standards for accessing the quality of online courses.  Faculty enrolled in Preparing to Teach Online will: 1) develop measurable and specific course objectives; 2) create a welcome or introduction video; 3) create an alignment map detailing assessment and teaching strategies. By the end of this course, faculty will be able to:

• Draft a course syllabus that meets all of the specific standards for Quality Matters general standards 1 and 7.
• Select appropriate course technology tools based on instructional strategies and best online teaching practices.
• Design a welcome page that orients learners to their online course.

Course Goals

• Faculty will gain the skills necessary to develop and facilitate quality online learning experiences.
• Faculty will gain a better understanding of how to use Moodle to manage their courses.
• The course will model technology and design strategies that faculty find applicable to their face-to-face and online courses.

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How This Course Is Structured

The modules were designed to be completed in the order that they are listed and should take approximately 60-90 minutes to complete. This is an estimate. It is very possible to complete them in less time.  If you have any questions, please contact the course facilitator.

Layout

Helpful Hints

Look for lightbulbs throughout the course. The lightbulb explains how activities were created or what learning strategies are being used.   For example, this section of the course was made using the Book tool found under the Resources tab in the activity menu.

Activity Completion Tracking

In the course settings, I have have opted to enable completion tracking. As a result, for certain activities, you will notice that a checkmark appears when you have either viewed or completed the activity. Lessons are marked complete once you have viewed the last page of the lesson. Quizzes are marked complete once you received a passing grade.

Under each page in the menu, you will see a progress monitor that tracks your completion of tasks within the module.  Please don't feel pressured by those numbers. The system is designed to help online learners with time and task management. There is also an option to allow students to check off activities when they feel they are complete.  You may want to turn activity completion tracking on or for your online course. 

Tips from Veteran Online Instructors

Important Terms to Know

Online courses can be structured in a variety of ways: synchronous, asynchronous, self-paced, gradual release, etc. Before we launch into course design and development, there are few decisions you will need to make regarding the structure of your course. You can always change your mind, but your course structure will inform your instructional strategies. 

Online vs Hybrid 

An “online” course is any course including 80% or more of instructional contact time offered through distance education modes. A hybrid course provides at least 50% of instruction online with the remaining instruction provided in a more traditional or face-to-face setting. 

Asynchronous vs Synchronous

Asynchronous online courses include few, if any, face to face or virtual meetings.  Synchronous courses have regularly scheduled face-to-face or virtual meetings. An online course can be asynchronous or synchronous based on the instructor's preference. 

However, keep in mind that many students take online courses for flexibility and scheduling convenience. If your course will have synchronous sessions, consider recording the sessions and making live attendance optional. This makes content available for students to watch at their convenience.  You may also want to consider adding information about synchronous sessions to your course description so that students can make the best decisions during registration.  

Instructor-Paced vs Self-Paced

Asynchronous courses may be self-paced but are not synonymous with self-paced courses. All content in a self-paced course is available at the beginning or early in the course for students to progress through at their own pace. The other option is an instructor-paced course which encourages cohorts to move through the course using the same timetable. In an instructor-paced course, new content becomes available at specific intervals and students are required to participate in course activities during the same period of time. This course is self-paced which means that learners will participate in and complete it at different times.

Modular vs Non-Modular

A modular course structure divides content chronologically into multiple units with each module containing all of the course materials, learning activities, assignments, and assessments for that unit. This course is modular.

A non-modular course might provide a general calendar of activities and deadlines with resources spread throughout sections of the course. A non-modular structure may provide a folder with all of the course readings, a page with all the assignments, etc. 

Starting this summer, a modular course structure is required for all online courses at Birmingham-Southern with some exceptions made for internships and other unique course structures.

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