This document discusses best practices for designing online student courses. It recommends including course information, content organized into manageable lessons using consistent formats and fonts, interactive instructional tools, opportunities for interaction/collaboration, and varied forms of assessment and feedback. It also discusses designing orientations to be mobile-friendly, encourage social connections, and serve as an on-demand training resource. Orientations should balance rich content with a fast pace, equip students for online learning, and allow practice of skills introduced in tutorials. Feedback is requested to be sent to the provided email.

1. Best Practices in Student Master Shell Design and Next Steps with Orientation Barbara Thoeming, Jack Hawkins, Douglas Renfro and Scott Bane

2. What are the necessary components? Course and navigation information Content / Lessons in consistent format Interaction tools / Collaboration Feedback Assessment

3. Course Information This section should contain the syllabus, policies, procedures, and navigation information. The Course Information area should remain consistent throughout the system so students know where to go to get this information in any course.

4. Course Information

5. Content and Lessons Separate content into manageable pieces Content Folders to group/chunk information and lessons Are tools incorporated into the lessons to make content more interactive? Fonts and colors should be consistent Don’t overload the screen! Keep it clean. Images are important in helping students visualize concepts.

6. Content and Lessons

7. Content and Lessons

8. Instructional Methods and Tools Online Cooperative learning and collaboration - Projects, multimedia presentations, wikis, blogs web conferencing, discussion boards Modeling - Video clips that show a process in action or being taught, powerpoint presentations Discussions - Discussion board, blogs, emails, chat, web conferencing as well as journals for reflective interaction with instructor Hot Spot quizzes, self tests, and drills to help with remembering information Lectures - podcasts, web conferencing, narrated Powerpoint Simulations - animations, video Tutorials

9. Interaction and Collaboration Interaction with content Interaction with peers Interaction with the instructor and/or tutor Collaboration can take place in a Collaborate room, through chat, discussion boards, etc. but is an important component of k12 learning

10. Feedback Students need to know where they stand on their work. Provide clear, concise feedback using the comment area of the assessment. Emails and/or phone calls can be used to discuss assignments when necessary. Track student progress each week to determine if a student is working appropriately or not. If not, communicate concerns and intervene. Online students need to be monitored closely to help them reach success in an online environment. Respond to student emails, calls, etc within 24 hours. If communication is received on a weekend or holiday, it should be returned on the first business day you return. Use a virtual classroom, such as Collaborate, to provide more direct interaction and feedback with students.

11. Assessment Assessments should be varied just as they are in the brick and mortar classroom. essays hot spot quizzes blogs journals projects discussions casestudies research short answer tests as well as multiple choice answer tests collaborative assignments portfolios

12. Dashboard Everything that has been covered to this point is firmly researched based. In Metro Nashville we have recently been adding an additional component. This is the heads up page for each course that the students are enrolled. The teacher has some flexibility in determining what information will be displayed on this page.

13. Orientation Talking Points Focus on size and course length Focus on design and ease of use Work toward an orientation that can provide the best of these three: Mobile: can pieces be viewed and accessed from any device? Social: is there an student-to-student bonding and learning element? On Demand: is it a go-to resource for ongoing training and help?

14. Size and Course Length Searching for the balance of rich, effective content and a fast enough pace to keep it from being drudgery We like 1 hour to 90 minutes at most for core concepts

15. Essential Content Our primary purpose is to equip students to have the best experience possible and limit the challenges of the new medium. Navigation best practices Create the proper expectation Encourage practice Provide a show-then-do format to working with course tools

17. ScreenFlow – Mac Camtasia – PC

18. After watching a video tutorial on how to post to discussion forums, they go immediately to a forum in the course and practice what they watched.

19. Design and Ease of Use

20. Search for a fit to the audience Seems obvious but we’ve developed our third design based on student feedback For most students this is their first impression ever of the online classroom Design starts as graphical elements but quickly moves into more architectural substance

21. Packaging is everything NA TOC IAJF KNAS AK FC

22. Packaging is everything NATO CIA JFK NASA KFC

23. Mobile Social On Demand

24. Mobile Angel has a “syndicated content” folder we like to use Makes content pages sharable through RSS Allows simple podcast configuration for audio files Think of the orientation as a way to add overall value to the students’ online learning experience Just link to other useful and engaging apps as you become aware of them Bb Mobile Learn App is excellent for discussions and checking progress

25. Social Provide a venue for students to just “talk” A get to know you group can have a dramatic impact on future engagement Increase their feel that there are “real people” behind the computers Provide opportunities for students to teach and learn from other students Cascading permissions allow you to make students creators of orientation content

26. On Demand You’ll never get every bit of training needed in 1 hour Encourage frequent re-use of the Orientation by making it a storehouse for all your training material Personal repositories allow easy sharing of great material If students are subscribed to a content folder, it’s easy to see when new things arrive Course mail could work just as well

27. Please provide feedback for this session by emailingBbWorldFeedback@blackboard.com. The title of this session is: Best Practices in Student Master Shell Design and Next Steps with Orientation