Plan Content Move

In the previous section, you reflected on the type of course you have and identified the components of your current course that you want to move online. Now, you need to make decisions about the content itself.

A planning grid helps you ensure that you don't overlook any necessary elements. There are four components of any course that you need to consider:

  • Objectives
  • Interaction
  • Resources
  • Assessment

If you have learners complete activities that don't match any learning objectives, the question is raised, "what's the point?" If you match objectives and activities but don't provide any resources to support them, are you providing enough information? If you assess something that is not included in any learning outcome, is it a fair assessment? Do you see how each of the four should support each of the others?  Here is a sample to for you to use. Let's talk about each of the four.

  • Objectives

    A good first step whether you are developing a new course or redesigning an existing course is to review your learning objectives. Bloom's taxonomy has long been a framework that educators can use to help them write objectives and outcomes. The taxonomy provides a guide for organizing thinking according to six hierachies from basic to complex; therefore, it is useful to help faculty teach higher order thinking skills. Each objective should target a single skill and include a measurable action. If you need a refresher, read this quick article about writing measurable learning objectives; it even includes a verb wheel to help you apply specific verbs to the domains of Bloom's taxonomy.

  • Interaction

    There are three types of interaction and activity in any learning situation. Each interaction should be matched to one or more learning objectives so that you and the learners know that the activity isn't simply busy-work but is enabling students to work toward successful mastery of the course objectives. They are:

    Student-Content Student-Student Student-Faculty

    Photo of scaffolding

    As faculty, you should determine the scaffolding, or supports, that you will provide learners to assist them in completing interactions and activities. Scaffolding may include:

    • Prompts to guide discussions
    • Instructions for completing assignments
    • Examples
    • Resources

  • Resources

    Resources support learners in achieving mastery of the learning objectives. Resources may include:

    • Web links
    • Content that you develop
    • Supplemental materials such as presentations, articles, and examples
    • Multimedia such as video, podcasts, or narrations

    Resources, in this sense, is anything that you, the faculty, make available to teach or support students in their learning.

  • Assessment

    The way that you assess whether learners have met the objectives after applying the resources and interactions is the final step to complete in a planning grid. Too often faculty wait and "write the test" after the course has been developed (and often is being taught). A planning grid helps you match assessments to the other three components of the course planning. This ensures that what you are measuring is what learners have learned, which is directly related to what the purpose of the learning, or the objectives.

  • Accessibility

    Another area to consider when developing a new online course is accessibility guidelines and policies around accessibility, which is how a course is designed and organized to allow all students to be able to learn and access content.  

    Find out what is available and required at your institution before you start!

    There are many resources available about making courses more accessible, and over time there may be rules and guidelines put forth by your institution or others, so be sure to check with instructional designers or teaching and learning experts at your employer to make sure you are thinking about accessibility, as setting up a course correctly will take much less time than fixing a course that was not set up with accessibility in mind.  

    One site that includes many resources is the WCET Accessibility site. Your institution may also have resources available to you. 

Another Tool

A second tool, in addition to the planning grid, helps you stay on target when you identifing your current content. Later, as we discuss how to move existing content into formats that work well online, we will add to this tool.

Here is a sample to which I added some common face-to-face class components. You can save this as a springboard to get you started.

Activity

Begin planning using the two tools that I provided with this lesson. Consider what you currently have in your face-to-face course (if you are redesigning an existing course).

Next, we'll talk about translating PowerPoint presentations.