Organizing your online course for maximum effect

If you are going to deliver a course online, it helps to have a plan in place for organizing that course so both you and your students have the best possible experience. You will need to explore ways to present the class format, content, syllabus, time line, use of technology, assessments, and evaluations. This article will help you put together a comprehensive organization plan for any online course, making the delivery of that course as smooth as possible.

 Identify the course design. Before you even decide on content and resources for your class, you will want to determine what the instructional design of the course will be. How will you present the information? Will there be videos, podcasts, or presentations? Will the ‘meetings’ with students be asynchronous (different times) or synchronous (at the same time)? What kind of technology will you use? How will the students access the course? When you have answered all these questions, you are ready to move on and start organizing the course.

 Consider course goals and objectives. The goals and objectives or outcomes and standards can be specific with easily measureable components, or broad and abstract, but you need to determine what they are in order to know how to present the material to the students. For help on developing outcomes and standards, please click on the hyperlinks.

 Consider content. Now that you understand what it is you want the students to learn (goals and objectives) it is time to consider the content you will give them so they can learn what they should be learning. What is the content? How will it be presented? Since you are already online, you can assume your students have at least a sense of technology, now is a good time to experiment with online delivery methods like podcasts, webinars, etc. Case studies are also very effective, but make sure they relate to the lives of the students so they buy into the concepts more readily.

 Consider readings. Because you are not in a face to face environment, you will want to provide interesting readings for your students. You can do this in a variety of ways: Internet links to current material, write your own mini lectures, even assign journal articles or books for reference. Make sure the readings are current, concise, and interesting so the student will eagerly read them.

 Consider resources. What resources are readily available within your own sphere of influence? Have a guest speaker appear for a few days in the discussion boards. Students will appreciate ‘talking’ to an expert in the content you are presenting and it is very easy to do that in an online class. Check with the library to see if there are resources you can have your students access there, either through your course or on their own.

 Consider copyright issues. This is an important one that is sometimes ignored. Yes, fair use policies will cover copyrighted material for educational use, but there are restrictions. It is good to review those restrictions. You can use the 10 percent rule, which suggests that using 10 percent or less of a total copyrighted work is considered to be fair use. You can also find more information in the Resource Links below.

 Determine methods of delivery. We have talked about this a bit already, but it bears repeating. An online course can be delivered in many ways, including webinars, podcasts, blogs, through Content Management software or through various Internet sites. Some will have a cost involved, some will not. Some will allow synchronous delivery, while others are strictly asynchronous. You need to determine which methods will be the most advantageous for your course.

 Inform your students. Yes, it is finally time to talk to the students! Let them know what the technology requirements are, what the reading and assignment requirements are, what kind of timelines are in place, and what your expectations are in regard to discussion forums, deadlines, assessment and evaluations.

 Finally, evaluate your course so you know what worked and what did not work! You are going to want to look at the course before instruction, during instruction, and after instruction in this evaluation. Get the opinion of your students as well. Take what you learned and use it to improve the course the next time you offer it.

 * An online course is dynamic, meaning it can be changed and updated on the fly – as you go and after it is finished. Take advantage of that.

 * Teaching online is not easy, but it is rewarding if it is done correctly.