Help I’m Overwhelmed with Courses! How do I keep courses up to date?

Concurrent Session 7
Streamed Session

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Brief Abstract

How do you keep up with course quality and revisions after the initial development? Learn how a team of instructional designers developed and implemented an asynchronous Redesign Cohort to assist and educate instructors on how to redesign their course so that students continue to get a high quality learning environment.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Cathy Russell, University of Arizona & Lone Star College

Cathy Russell has over 10 years experience working in higher education. Upon receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and her Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Texas A&M University, she began her career. She started as an Instructional Designer for Blinn College, Lonestar College, and Pima Community College before arriving at the University of Arizona. She has worked with multiple Learning Management Systems, including WebCT, Angel, Blackboard, and D2L. Cathy is also in her 9th year of teaching online as an Adjunct for Lonestar College. Being an online student and online instructor has provided Cathy with invaluable perspective to aid in course design. She is interested in researching methods in online course design that will create higher rates of student success and is passionate about making online courses that enhance learning and are interactive.

Co-presenter: Janet Smith, University of Arizona

Janet Smith serves as an Instructional Designer leading quality assurance initiatives at the University of Arizona with the Office of Digital Learning. She manages a multitiered and collaborative quality assurance process to ensure that courses developed for UA Online are designed for student success and engagement. Janet works with partners across campus to integrate best practices around course design, copyright, UDL, and accessibility into the instructional design process and leads the Quality Matters program for the university. She received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Arizona, her master's degree in Educational Leadership in Higher Education from Northern Arizona University, and a graduate certificate in Educational Technology from Northern Arizona University. In her free time, Janet enjoys spending time with her family and friends, cooking, and practicing and teaching yoga.

Extended Abstract

From the beginning, UA Online has built in quality assurance initiatives to the course development cycle. But let’s be honest,not everything gets accomplished the first time and course design is a continual process that only gets better each time it is done. This is where redesigns come in!  Redesigns give an opportunity for instructional designers and faculty to work together after the course has been taught and incorporate student feedback and quality assurance standards to drive the changes.  

 

One of the things heard repeatedly from faculty is that they want to hear about what other faculty are doing. In the cohort, faculty from across disciplines can move from isolation to collaboration as they connect, work together, and provide feedback to their peers. The cohort runs for 7 weeks and faculty update their course as they go. Topics include:

 

Week 1: Looking Backwards and Forwards

Week 2: Refine Your Objectives and Alignment

Week 3: Vary Modes of Interaction

Week 4: Instructional Technology to Support Interaction

Week 5: Building with Instructional Technology

Week 6: Peer Review

Week 7: Final Design

 

Join us to learn and discuss how we designed and facilitated the cohort, our successes, failures, and next steps.