Designing an Online Course

I am about to begin my 7th year as a K-12 art teacher. The word create, is often used in my profession. This past summer I was enrolled in a course at MSU that required me to create something I never have created before, an online art course. I decided to create my course as a hybrid course, meaning the students would interact with the course in a regular classroom, face to face as well as online. This decision was made, so that I would be able to integrate the course module into my high school digital arts course this fall. You can view the module by clicking the link below. When designing a course module the beginning steps are decide what platform to use. You can spend days, testing and playing with different course managements softwares. I think it is important to find one that you feel comfortable with and fits all your course needs.

The course that I created, as mentioned before was a high school digital arts course. One of my goals for this course was to get students communicating with one another about art. I choose to use Haiku as my CMS. I liked the ease of the program and the communication opportunities within the system, such as discussion boards. Once you have found your CMS, as I did, the next step is to build a course to fit your needs, or more importantly your students’ needs. I suggest making a list of everything you would like your module to include and then begin creating these portions of the course. I think setting up a procedure for the students to follow for each lesson is beneficial, so the students will always know what is expected of them. After you have set up the technical aspects of the course, the rest is really quite simple. You input your lessons. Obviously, just like in a classroom we strive to create lessons that reach all our learners and address multiple learning styles. I think this is equally as an important online. Especially those course where there is no face to face interaction with the instructor.

In my short experience of creating an online course, I have learned to be flexible and patient. This is a must when working with technology. Be willing to try new applications and resources. If you can deliver your information in a new exciting way, try it. The kids will let you know if it was unsuccessful. Remember the essential rule of design, K.I.S.S., Keep it simple, stupid! You don’t want to overwhelm the students and add distractions, keep the course flow clean and simple. Good Luck in your online course designing!

Online Course:
https://www.myhaikuclass.com/do/share/eclass/1767316?k=3b16366fc15b65611cf790fde9a40a94515a17ec

Developer Notebook:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Zzp1WHjAaJQm_T09swueWEK-TRrDbu74GmjUzOYn14/edit?usp=sharing