Moving a course from the classroom to cyberspace

Hours: 8 / Access Length: 3 Weeks / Delivery: Monthly, Mentor Supported
Retail Price: $225.00

Course Overview:

Building an online course is not the same preparing to teach in the classroom. A well-designed online course requires more preparation. And since learning online is different than learning in the classroom, you will need to be aware of what works and what doesn't. This course will introduce you to the process of instructional design for online learning and walks you through the process of building one unit of study for your course. You will learn how to build online interactions and to make your courses more student-centered.

Students will:

• identify differences and similarities between learning in a classroom and learning online.
• identify the steps involved in designing instructional materials.
• identify strategies for delivering content online.
• identify tools that can be used to teach, collaborate, interact and assess student performance.
• reflect on what they have learned and discuss their plans for building their online courses.

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Comparing the Traditional and Online Classrooms

Welcome to the virtual classroom! During this first lesson we want you to come in, take a look around, meet your classmates and get comfortable with the learning environment. If this is your first online class I would like for you to pay particular attention to everything you are feeling right now. These feelings will be similar to those your future students have when they start their classes - the ones you will be developing or teaching.

During this lesson we want to compare teaching and learning online with teaching and learning in a traditional classroom. In what ways is learning online better? In what ways is it not as good as in the classroom? We also want to explore the differences in the roles of the instructor and the learner. The instructor has gone from the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side". Learners are no longer able to sit quietly in the back row and hope the teacher does not call on them. To make the grade they need to active participants in all aspects of the learning process.

Lesson 2: The Instructional Design Process

Now that you have a little bit of an idea of what a virtual classroom is like and how it works, we are going to start working on the class you will be developing. Actually, you already have! The first part of the assignment for Lesson 1 was a simple form of analysis, the first step in the instructional design process.

In this lesson we will introduce you to several instructional design strategies, but we will cover the ADDIE model, perhaps the best known instructional design model. This will give you a background in designing instruction and a firm basis for designing your own online courses.

Lesson 3: Developing Course Content

In this lesson we will look at the Develop phase in more detail. We will explore the types of content you can create for your course, how to develop the materials so they help students learn better, how learning styles affect how students learn and what you can do about it, and how a student's cultural background affects how they will learn and how you can be aware of that.

Lesson 4: Developing Course Activities

You have all your content ready, the students are gathered -- then what? Time for some learning activities! Learning activities can be used to gather information on the subject matter, allow students to share what they have learned, compare their understanding and assess student learning.

Some of the activities you have used in the classroom will also work online, but we will explore additional activities that may be used online. As we have seen in the last lesson, it is a good idea to have a variety of activities that appeal to wide range of learners. Just because you hate quizzes keep in mind that other students may find them a valuable learning tool.

Lesson 5: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

To finish this course we will take a look back over the course to see how we have progressed. By the end of this lesson you will have completed your first online lesson for your course. Is the lesson different from the way you teach it in the classroom?

We will explore how your attitudes about teaching and learning online have changed.

All necessary materials are included.

System Requirements:

• Cable and DSL internet connections are recommended for the best experience.

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 2 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone (Webinar / Live Online sessions)

• Microsoft Windows 7 or 10 (Home, Pro)
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is denoted in the above course outline.