Center of Online Learning Faculty Developer's Guide

About this Template Guide

This guide was created to help you plan, set-up, and use this template to aid in the development of your course including:

• Instructions for using the Getting Started Module
• Instructions for using and duplicating the content pages within the learning modules
• Best practice tips for the design and organization of your course

Please read this document thoroughly. Because it's meant to be a reference guide, some of the more important points may be repeated.

Throughout this guide you will find reference to the QM specific standards template components support. The template can not ensure all QM standards are met, it is only meant to provide a framework towards a QM certified course.

General Template Information

This is a template that includes a 'Getting Started' module and 8 sample modules that include template content pages to provide a framework for the design and development of a quality course. The design of this template is meant to assist the developer with meeting the QM standards and Columbus State University Online Course Accessibility Guidelines. The headings, images, lists, tables, font color, links, and page titles are designed to be accessible. The design is meant to be flexible to allow the designer to determine the amount of modules needed for their course by deleting or adding to the existing modules.

Recommended Design & Development Process

When beginning the design and development of a course it can be overwhelming and difficult to determine the best place to start. There are multiple paths to the completion of an online course, below is a systematic process that can be used. Read the assigned module book material.

Design (see Appendix A - Course Design Planning Worksheet)

1. Identify your course objectives.
2. Identify or construct your module learning outcomes.
3. Identify what type of assessments you will use to assess the learning outcomes.
4. Identify the instructional materials to be used to support the achievement of the learning outcomes in each module.
5. Identify the learning activities to be used to support the achievement of the learning outcomes in each module.
6. Identify tools (e.g., discussion, assignments, YouTube, etc.) needed to support the design of your course.

Development (begin work in CougarVIEW)

*With the exception of #1 and #6 these steps could be done by module or for the entire course.

1. Set up your grade book based on your outlined grading scale.
2. Build your assignments and assessments attaching them to the associated grade item.
3. Develop content pages including an overview and review page with module learning objectives.
4. Insert links to instructional materials and learning activities.
5. Add links to assignments and assessments within the modules.
6. Fill in the needed content for the 'START HERE!' module including a welcome, syllabus, and course schedule. Make sure to include any information to help students navigate your specific course design. Also, hide or delete any content included that is not applicable to your course.
7. Use the D2L Accessibility Checker to make sure your Announcements, Discussions, Assessments, and content pages are accessible.