Developing Curriculum for Online Programs

UCLA Extension, Education X 396.05 4 units, Registration #F0737
Nov. 11-Dec. 16

This course is designed to assist you in adapting, transforming or creating new courses for online delivery. The emphasis in this course is on creating an online learning environment and understanding all the elements that comprise a successful online course.

What are the special aspects of online teaching that need to be considered when developing a course? Are there types of courses that are particularly appropriate for online delivery? How can one go about creating a classroom environment that is conducive to the online learning process? What are the unique opportunities presented by online delivery? What is the perfect mix of software to fit your design needs? How do you integrate web resources into your course and still maintain course integrity? These are just some of the questions we will be addressing in this course.

One of our goals is finding the right mix of technology and pedagogy that suits your particular objectives and preferred teaching style. There is no one-size-fits-all in online teaching any more than there is in the live classroom. While there are some common pitfalls and special requirements in the online environment, many different teaching techniques are equally effective when adapted to the online environment. For example, we will look at how collaborative and cooperative learning can be managed online, as well as explore some new possibilities for the lecture mode. Individual syllabi, transcripts from discussion forums and online course environments will be examined to demonstrate real-life situations.

Course Objectives and Goals:

Familiarity with a variety of online course environments and tools and knowledge of the comparative advantages and disadvantages of each.
Finding the resources necessary for planning your own courses and choosing those that suit your course goals and objectives.
Learning some techniques for facilitating discussion.
Familiarity with testing and assessment tools for online courses.
Understanding the need to adapt your particular teaching style to the online environment.
Awareness of design issues that affect delivery of content.
Awareness of special considerations in creating the syllabus for an online course.
Production of a working draft of a complete online course plan.

Required:
You must have Internet access with browser. Netscape 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or above is recommended.

What you should know:
Many of you are taking this course after completing one or more of the earlier courses in the program. It is assumed that you now know how to use most of those functions in your browser, how to download, upload, copy and paste, use a search engine, use email and send attachments, are aware of netiquette issues, etc. If you are still uncertain about some of these things you might want to visit my Introduction to Online Technologies web-site at http://www.onlinelearning.net/instructors/SusanKo/1000072270/ to follow some of the readings and visit sites recommended in its first two weeks' listings.

Readings: All readings are accessed online via the Web and are listed by week in the "Course Schedule, Activities and Assignments by Week."

OPTIONAL text for this course is:
Khan, Web-based Instruction
See the postings in the main conference area for info on buying this book.

Grading, Assignments and Tests:
There are 100 possible points in the course. Participation is worth 30 points--10 of these are granted for regular (posting in discussion forum at least once a week) participation and up to 20 additional points are granted for participation that enhances, stimulates discussion or contributes to the course, whether in the form of comments or questions.

There will four assignments worth 20, 15, 15 and 20 points respectively. See each listed in the schedule below. Students should email assignments one and four to me by internal email through Embanet (Susan Ko) or from your outside provider by emailing Susan_Ko@embanet.com

Procedures:
The first day of this course, Nov. 11th, Wednesday, is considered the first day of week one, Tuesday is the last day of the week. Students should begin each week by checking the folder for that week's topics in the Embanet conference area. Since the course discussions are asynchronous, students may also go back and post comments and questions in previous weeks' folders (and still get credit for participation). So you should also check previous weeks' folders for new discussion as well--new messages will be flagged. A copy of this syllabus will be available in an Embanet folder.

We will also be using Embanet to conduct occasional chat sessions. These are synchronous (real-time) discussions and are not required. I will try to schedule several of these, and hope that each of you will be able to attend at least one, depending on your schedule.
Topics for the chats will be announced and are usually coordinated with those topics scheduled for that particular week.

Course Schedule, Activities and Assignments by Week:
Follow this link to your working syllabus for the class.

Contact me by email

Contact us at OnlineLearning.net for more information about online courses