To begin the process, you will:

Familiarize yourself with the online learning environment by reading the literature.

• Online courses at UWF are delivered through the Desire2Learn (D2L), Learning Management System (LMS), also referred to as eLearning.
  • You will find resources for you and your students at https://elearning.uwf.edu/.
  • Attend trainings and workshops offered face-to-face and online by ATC and ITS to gain proficiency with eLearning and other technologies used to teach online.

Consider these questions about pedagogy

• What is the difference between students in a traditional and an online course? How should issues be addressed?
• What are things that need to be done differently in the online environment?
• What instructional strategies did you use for your traditional course?
  • What assignments/projects were included in your course content?
  • What assessments were used to measure learning objectives?
  • Were they effective?
• How will you employ these strategies and engage your students online?
  • How will you facilitate collaborative learning online?
  • How will your assignments and activities encourage participation and communication among students?
  • How will you provide timely instructor feedback to students?
• Where have students experienced difficulty in your course in the past?
• What are your goals for your class? How can these goals be achieved in the online environment?
• What are some appropriate uses of technology that will enhance learning in your online course?
  

Identify your course goals/objectives and learning outcomes

• When determining the goals of instruction, ask yourself what it is the student should be able to do upon completion of your course.
• See Bloom's Taxonomy of Critical Thinking and Writing Effective Learning Objectives/Outcomes (pdf)

One result of the planning phase should be your course syllabus, which includes but is not limited to the following information:

• course description
• course goals
• a list of topics to be covered
• measurable learning outcomes
• student activity/assignment/assessment plan and evaluation criteria
• required course materials
• tentative course schedule

Your course syllabus serves as the perfect planning document to begin the design of your course, as well as the blueprint for developing your course. Follow the links below to a sample course syllabus and a blank course syllabus that you can use as a template.

• Sample Course Syllabus (HTML Format) Sample Course Syllabus (RTF Format)
• Syllabus Template (HTML Format) Syllabus Template (RTF Format)

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