Topic outline

  • General

    Digital Delivery
    Welcome! In this course, we'll learn the fundamental skills necessary for building engaging, effective online classes. The course is divided into three major components.

    First, we'll cover the essentials for structuring a class. We'll set up course goals, identify standards, design assessments, and learn how to find and develop engaging activities for online learning. Second, we'll learn the technological skills for building an online class using Moodle, which is in essence your digital classroom. This component of the course is hands-on, so you'll actually be building elements of a course as you go. Third, we'll learn some of the considerations and differences when designing and teaching online courses. We'll work on all three of these components simultaneously.

    By the end of the course you should feel confident that you can design and build an online course. We'd like to add that you'll be confident that you can teach an online class, but there is no substitute for experience in that regard, so in that sense our third goal is that you feel relatively comfortable with the idea of teaching an online course.

    Getting started is easy! Just scroll down to the box below this one and start working. Before you do that, however, please watch the Course Introduction video to get a better idea of how the course will work.

    Please feel free to get in touch with me at any time with questions, ideas, or concerns. One good way to do that is to use the messaging system built into Moodle. To learn how to do that, you can watch the "How to Contact Your Instructor" video below this box.

    Good luck! Happy building!

    • Topic 1

      Part I: Goals
      General
      Before we get started in the course, there are a two things to be aware of in terms of course structure. Please read the Course Structure page to get a better idea of how things are set up. After that, please watch the video Working with Multiple Moodles Simultaneously to learn how to work efficiently with several Moodle courses at once.
      • Now that you've had a chance to get better acquainted with the course structure, let's take a moment to put a personal touch on this course. Basically, we ask all students who take this course to write a brief self-introduction. If you're taking this course in a group, it'll help you see who your classmates are. If you're taking this course individually, it'll help you to get an idea of others who have taken the class. Go to the Introductions Forum to write your self-introduction.
      • Concepts
        We're accelerating into a digital age the consequences of which none of us can predict. Things change fast now, and we can only expect them to change faster in the future. But is this better? Are we really better off with all this technology? The following Louis C.K. interview is one take on the issue. To start off our first Concepts discussion, please watch the following video. After you're done with the video, go to the discussion forum and reply to the question posted there. Have fun!
      • Design
        When teachers first design online courses, the natural tendency is start with the first unit. You think of a title, you upload some content, you build a quiz, then you move on to the second unit. You keep going until you get to the end of the course. While this by chance may end up with a solid course, there is another, generally considered more effective, way to design engaging courses. The model is based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe. It's called Understanding by Design.

        The details of the model are beyond the scope of this course, but the essence of the model is critical for designing effective courses. And the first place Understanding by Design starts with are the goals of the course. Work through the following activity to learn about building useful course goals.
      • Building
        Online courses have to be stored and delivered over the Internet, and there are several ways to do this. The most common way is to use Course Management Software such as Moodle or Blackboard that allows you to store content, interact with students, and assess performance. Northern Star Online uses Moodle as its Course Management Software. One of the major goals of this course is to get comfortable with using Moodle to build online courses, so for our first Building session, we'll get familiar with how Moodle works.

        To do this, please go to the Moodle Overview course and work through the content. It will take you about an hour to an hour and a half to do this, so you may want to do this over a couple of sessions. Please take your time and try to absorb as much of the content as you can. When you feel comfortable with the content, come back to this session and take the short Moodle Overvew quiz, which will test your understanding of the Moodle Overview content. Don't worry, you can take the quiz as many times as you want, and we'll keep the highest score.
      • Well done! When you've finished all the activities in this topic box, you can move on to the next!
    • This topic

      Topic 2

      Part II: Standards
      General
      Let's drive on! In this section, we'll fine tune our goals by measuring them against standards, start doing stuff with Moodle, and reflect on the digital divide. So much to do!

      Before we dig in to the heavier content, let's go back and spend a little time getting to know each other a bit better. For this assignment, go back to the Introductions Forum, read some of the latest self-introductions, and give feedback to two different people. You may want to ask a few questions, share some similar interests, or just generally praise your colleagues. Whatever works, but keep it friendly and positive.
      Concepts
      One of the key considerations when designing a learning experience of any kind is the target audience. What is our target audience? What are their interests? How can we connect with them and make the content relevant? What language and tone are appropriate? Do they learn differently from us? It's always worth taking a bit of time to reflect on these considerations when building online courses. In this concept assignment, we'll take a look at a thought-provoking article on the subject. When you're ready, begin the assignment below.
      • Design
        Time for standards! Of all the elements of course design, this is probably the least liked element. However, keeping standards in mind when building a course does help even experienced teachers. By aligning your course with standards, you'll have a more marketable and legitimate course, and done efficiently, this step should only take an hour or so of your time. With that in mind, when you're ready to dig into standards, click on the "Aligning With Standards" web resource below.
      • Building
        Enough with the standards! I want to make stuff. Let's get started on our journey of learning how to do stuff with Moodle by working through the first section of the Nuts & Bolts course. To do so, do the following activitity.
      • Good work! If you've reached this point in the course, you've begun to dig into developing skills with Moodle, you've established goals for your course and made an initial alignment with standards for them, you've begun some online discussions, and explored some technology related issues. Time to move on to Unit 3: Content is King! Keep up the great work!

    • Topic 3

      Part III: Content is King

      General
      One of the key elements to meaningful communication in an online class is to structure discussions into segments that continue to build. For this general exercise, please go back to the Everything is Amazing discussion and the Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants discussion. Add one comment to someone else's post that develops the conversation further. You can ask a question related to a post, add an insight, or share more information. Also, check to see if someone has commented on one of your posts. If so, reply if appropriate.
      Concepts
      One of the greatest challenges to developing an online course is finding good sources of content. It's simply not feasible in most situations for a teacher to create enough custom content to create a semester long online course. To be effective course developers as teachers, we've got to develop skill at finding good educational content on the web. To explore this concept in more detail, work through the following web resource on Content in Online Courses.
      • Design
        Now that we've got the framework of the course built with goals and standards, it's time to move into some fun stuff for a break: finding content! This will be an introduction to some of the content that is available on the internet, and you'll have a chance to explore some of the available resources. When you're ready, start the assignment Content Exploration.

        Have fun!
      • Building
        Time to keep building our Moodle Building Skills! In this section we'll explore the fundamentals of formatting text in Moodle. When you're ready, use the following web resource to work through this section.
      • Great work! Once you've finished this section, you're well on your way to having the skills to build a solid online course. Three of ten units done. Seven more to go. Move on to the next section when you feel comfortable with this section's content.

    • Topic 4

      Let's Get Engaged

      General
      Welcome to the fourth section in the course! This section will focus on student engagement in an online class. We'll also continue developing skills in Moodle. Before we delve into that, however, let's continue our exploration on how you can make an online learning environment a more personally engaging space. In this section, we'll look at Moodle profiles. When you're ready, click on the following resource to learn more.
      • Concepts

        The internet has led to magnificent and profound changes in how people interact with the world. In Section Two of this course we examined differences between digital immigrants and digital natives. In this section, we'll take a look at some thinking on how this might impact what we do as teachers. To get started, click on the resource "Where's the Mouse?"
      • Design
        In the concepts section we took a theoretical look at student engagement, but theory is a far stone's throw from the classroom. In this Design section, let's take a look at one way to increase student engagement in an online classroom. Project Based Learning is a promising educational initiative that is designed to engage students in meaningful experiences connected to the real world. We'll explore this avenue in this Design segment. To get started, click on the Project Based Learning resource below.
        (will update on Monday, Tuesday of next week)
      • Building
        Time to build! In this section, we'll learn about the power of topic boxes to organize course content. When you're ready to begin, click on the assignment below to get started. Have fun!