Owens BYOC F2F Session 1

2. Online Course Policies

3. Communicating ObjectivesCreated by eOwens Kate Michaelson, Instructional Designer

4. Recent Developments! Two eLearning proposals for faculty development have been selected for Perkins Grant funding! This means opportunities for you… Internal QM Reviews: Have a trained QM Peer Reviewer give you feedback on your course concerning the 17 essential QM Standards. Courses that meet review standards and faculty developers will receive recognition! Online Faculty Mentoring: Become a mentor to a new online instructor! Qualifications: Experience online instructor and completion of APPQMR.

5. Goals Identify your student audience and their needs. Begin writing your course policies and instructions to students. Write or revise course objectives to be measurable and from a student’s perspective.

6. Agenda Topic 1—Navigation Review: How to create a Start Here Button Discuss: Welcome Letter & Start Here button elements Practice: Create Start Here button; post a Welcome message/letter Topic 2—Online Course Policies Review: Finding, posting, and/or linking policy statements Discuss: What are some fair policies/requirements? Practice: Create an activity to foster student interaction with course content/policies. Topic 3—Communicating Objectives Review: Bloom and course versus unit-level objectives Discuss: What does it mean to be “measurable” and “from the student’s perspective”? Application: Where/how should objectives be posted/ communicated?

7. Navigation: Start Here! What are some common first-week questions? What do students need to get started? Instructions on where to go first Course overview & components Grading information Important policies

8. Shiny New Tool: JING What is Jing? Free downloadable tool from TechSmith (makers of Camtasia) Allows you to: Record your voice & screen for up to 5 minutes Capture and label still screenshots Copy, save, or upload and link results Download at: http://www.jingproject.com/download/

9. Hands On… Get into groups of 2 or 3. What types of instructions will you use to let students know where to start? Brainstorm with your group what should go under your “Start Here” area. Create a “Start Here” (or similar) button/area in your course. Add placeholders (items, folders) for elements you will need to include.

10. Online Course Policies What are some policies of unique importance to online courses? Attendance/participation Submitting work Format (Word, RTF) and means (email?) Tech issues Netiquette & communications Note: When appropriate, make use of links so that students can access additional info.

11. Hands On… Now for the hard part…getting students to process all of this important information! Brainstorm with your group ideas for getting students to read and engage with course policies. What kind of activity could you use to make sure students interact with policies? How would this activity work in Blackboard? Share your ideas with other groups (time permitting).

12. Communicating Objectives Objectives should be: Stated at the course& module/unit level Measurable activities Look at Bloom’s list of action verbs & sample activities for help. Written from the student’s perspective Using terms a student will understand and avoiding unnecessary jargon

13. Discuss… Where & how should objectives be posted and communicated? Some options: Chart or table—visually displays course objectives and how they are broken down into unit/module objectives As headers—At beginning of each module/unit with the module overview Other options?

14. To do… Revisit Discussion 4 on Course Structure. Post to Discussion 5 for feedback on Course Policies. Evaluate your objectives Module/unit level? Are they measurable? Go home and enjoy your evening! 