The document provides guidance on designing online instructional courses. It emphasizes considering students' needs first and structuring the course for clear communication and assessment. Key aspects of course design discussed include having a clean and logical layout, consistent design features, and clearly written instructions. The document also recommends using Bloom's Taxonomy to inform students what they will study and be assessed on, and to guide the instructor's teaching and assessment strategies. A variety of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools should be carefully planned and chosen based on the task. Formative and summative assessments should be varied and user-friendly, and can also be used to improve the course design. The backward design process of first identifying objectives and assessment strategies

1. Topic 3 – Online Instructional
Course Design
Tom & Ignacio

2. Before you begin…
• Make sure you think about the students
needs first….what do they need to learn
and how do you want them to learn?
• We then need to consider the course
structure, communication and
assessment norms and formats.
• Now we’re ready to design our course.

3. Course Structure
• Must be student friendly, easy to use and
understand. This means a clear, clean
logical layout to the course platform.
• Design features should be consistent, no
sudden changes once the course has
started.
• Task instructions must be clearly written
so as to be understood with need for
further clarification.

4. Bloom’s Taxonomy
It informs the students:
• what they should study
• how they will be assessed
It guides the instructor:
• in assessment strategies
• in teaching strategies
It tells the instructor
• if teaching strategies worked
• if assessment strategies worked
Use it to design and deliver your course!

5. Course Communication
• Successful communication between the
tutor and participants doesn’t happen
accidentally..it must be carefully planned.
• A range of communication types and tools
should be used, both synchronous and
asynchronous.
• Whichever the case, the choice of format
and tool should fit with the demands of the
task it serves in the course.

6. Types of Communication
• Synchronous • Asynchronous
• Text chat • Platform messaging
• Voice chat • Email
• Videoconference • Forums
• Telephone (in an • Collaborative web
emergency) tools (e.g Wallwisher)

7. Types of Task
Forum discussions Great for getting participants to give
opinions and develop topic
Group wikis Encourages investigation and group
learning (peer to peer)
Jigsaw (group) tasks Gets participants to take
responsibilities for achieving goals
Webinars A good form of input and
consolidation.
Quizzes Measure learning well if applied at
strategic moments
Guided reading activities Make sure the texts aren’t too long or
boring to read.
Videos and audios + Enlivens course content beyond
comprehension simple text
Reflective journals Allow a crucial space for thinking
about what they learn.

8. Assessment
• We can assess to see what students know
(summative) or we can assess to
encourage students to learn more
(formative)
• In either case assessment should be user-
friendly and the format of assessment
should be varied too (individual, group and
peer).

9. Assessment
• Assessment can be used to improve the design
of the course through the use of surveys and
questions gauging user opinions.
• If used judiciously, assessment can enhance
learning and engender motivation to keep going.
• Feedback should always be constructive!
• There’s an argument that says assessment
should be designed first, before course content.
This is called the Backward Design Process.

10. Backward Design
From: http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/col/id/bloom.php
Backward design proposes that we design instruction in this order:
• Identify and state the objectives
• Decide on assessment strategy
• Design teaching/learning strategies
• Initiate instruction/learning
• Assess
• Compare student outcomes against expected learning outcomes
(objectives)
• Determine if there is a gap between student outcomes and expected
outcomes

11. Happy Christmas!