In our earlier years of education from head start to K-12, one hardly think of how lessons are prepared let alone the curriculum that organizes these lessons. It is simply assumed that the teacher has everything worked out which is mostly true. While we were familiar with home works, tests, and exams it would be an exaggeration to think about course syllabus even at high school level as a student. However as we enter college our first intimate contact with the teacher is a copy of the course syllabus which he/she hands out to the class. From undergraduate through graduate level the teacher has consistently performed this ritual of passing out the course syllabus and we have come to expect it at first day of class. Sometimes we even look for it at the point of registration for the course and sometimes it is provided at this point.
This ritual and expectations underscores the importance of the course syllabus. But what is a course syllabus? Although all college courses provide these artifacts each one is unique. Even within the same environment – whether it is online or on-ground the course syllabus is unique to the particular course it is designed for. They are like the houses we live in – each house is built according to the purpose [needs] and available resources. While a two bedroom house may be fine for a family of three it may be too crowded for that of four unless the later is operating on a shoestring budget. At the same time all houses must have at least a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom – the four fundamental functions of a family house.
As a former adult education teacher and a current online student I have found that there are at least three building blocks among others that are common to all course designs namely design goal, course content, and environment. These three elements form the basic course structure of many good curriculums that I am familiar with in both online and on-ground settings. The course structure is a thoroughly detailed description of the various sub sections that provides the student/ learner and the instructor a clear picture of what the course entails in terms of purpose, the target audience, the workload, the course duration, and expected outcomes, etc. Like the house analogy it is these details that make each course design unique and explicitly fits it to a specific subject.
My general approach to online course design is to keep it simple and let it evolve as I gain more experience in teaching. This is because although I have done some teaching it has all been in traditional classroom and in less formal environment involving either continuing education or K-12 substitute teacher program. This approach involves a two step process. The first step is to analyze the needs for my online course and identify possible solutions for these needs. The second step is to choose the best solution that imposes the least constraints in terms of design among available options and then structure the course accordingly. The first step asks the questions including who, what, why, and how? Who needs the above course? What are their backgrounds [education, skills, and experience]? Why are they interested in taking this course? How can I design this course to maximize their goals?
The rationale behind asking these questions is to have a clear picture of what and where the needs are and how best to address these needs. The answers to the above questions shall inform my choice of the overall design structure of the course from introduction through course outline to assessment and evaluation. Once the needs and complementary solutions are identified and established; the second step shall use the above information to functionally structure the course into two primary sections including the course syllabus, and the course orientation. When designing an online course, it is important that one pay particular attention to the unique needs that distinguish the online course from that of on-ground. For example aside from content, the learner-instructor interactions in the two environments are completely different. While the instructor in classroom environment can resolve learner lesson issues immediately the online learner must rely on the course management technology to transmit and receive instructor feedback on any particular issue.
Sometimes this may take days and the learner must wait to receive the needed feedback before he/she can proceed to the next stage. This requires that the online course designer be clear on how to effectively address such course issues to reduce turnaround communication cycle between the instructor and the student. One of the ways to achieve this would be to integrate as many synchronous hours as possible in the course design and to also state the [instructor] online office hours for such issues. This can be chat hours embedded into the course design that provide the learner an advance information on how to quickly resolve online issues that require urgent attention by the instructor. The other alternative would be to embed asynchronous tools that the learner and the instructor would use to communicate when necessary inside the course design. Both synchronous and asynchronous tools are usually integral part of the online course management platform such as the Blackboard or the WebCt.
I expect to design an online version of Social Public Policy – POJS 837 which is currently being offered only in traditional classroom environment as a graduate level elective at GSU. I have great expectations for this design course. I believe that it shall provide me with a strong foundation to build on and develop expertise in online course design. It is hoped that this course shall give me the opportunity to apply the five course design principles namely analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate – the ADDIE process. After taking this course I expect to have the necessary knowledge, skills, and ability to design an online course that can adapt to various learning styles.
Finally I expect that there will be some challenges mostly due to the compression of the course into a shorter course period. This demands devoting extra time to the course. These challenges shall be overcome by rearranging my schedule. This course is crucial to my overall goal of becoming a certified online instructor. I plan to devote at least 3-4 hours/day on this course during this short summer period in order to successfully master the design principles in this course and build on them as I gain experience in online teaching.
