Getting Started

The Academic Technology Center is dedicated to supporting faculty with the design, development and implementation of quality online courses at UWF.  Many organizations promote research and best practices for online courses including Quality Matters and Sloan Consortium. 

Planning Checklist

• Develop your course syllabus:
  • Identify course goals and objectives
  • Identify topics to be addressed to reach course goals and objectives
  • Standard syllabus requirements
• Identify possible activities/assignments to reach targeted topic/lesson objectives:
  •  course design matrix - this document is useful as a planning worksheet to help align your learning objectives to topic/lesson activities and assessments.
• Plan how you will organize the overall learning process:
  • distance learning course structure - this document is useful as guidelines for developing a consistent framework for your online course.
• Learn to use the Learning Management System (LMS) - Desire2Learn (D2L). Students know it as eLearning.
• Request an eLearning account.
• Find resources for you and your students for getting started in eLearning. 
  • They are available in several places:
    • the eLearning login page.
    • eLearning for Faculty
    • eLearning for Students
• See training tutorials and print instructions for tools you will use to develop your course in eLearning.
• Attend live trainings and workshops offered face-to-face and online by ATC to gain proficiency with eLearning and other technologies used to teach online.
• Familiarize yourself with the characteristics of online learners and the online environment.