Central Instructional Design Support Practice: Lessons Learned in International Collaboration on Quality Online Course Development

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Brief Abstract

The session will share the practice and lessons learned in a multi-national multi-university collaboration in quality online course development in higher education. Individuals joining this session will be able to discuss the challenges, approaches, strategies, resources, and recommendations to manage the quality course development in such an endeavor.

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Extended Abstract

The session will share the practice and lessons learned in a multi-national multi-university collaboration in designing and developing quality online courses in higher education. The endeavor involved five universities from Canada, China, Australia, The U.S., and Philippines. It leads to the design and development of a dozen of quality online graduate certificate courses with fundamental content as OER. The vision is to develop a regionally recognized core online curriculum aimed at updating senior students, young faculty, and mid-career professionals with the changing knowledge of the subject matter in a changing world. In such an endeavor, with course authors on board with diverse culture background and teaching experiences, it is really challenging to keep everyone on the same page, have an easy start, meet quality standards, and complete the project within timeline.
 
Managing the quality online course development is a complex process in multi-national multi-university collaboration in higher education. It starts with an innovative idea, but rarely can one academic unit achieve success on their own. Selecting the right collaborators and form effective course development and management team can often be just as important as the idea or vision itself. Where do you find the collaborators and resources that will truly support your efforts? And how do you create opportunities for each course development team to increase their advancement potential through the project?
 
Without careful planning and support at your institution, effective management of quality online course development may not occur in multi-national multi-university collaboration. Knowing what central instructional design support available at your institution is almost as important as the innovative idea itself. Knowing how instructional and learning designer works in supporting such initiatives is critical to your success. By developing relationships with the central support unit or center and with instructional and learning designers at your institution, it allows you to engage in the process of systematic course design to ensure the quality design of your courses. As a result, you will have the ability to implement similar innovative ideas that use the systematic design approach you learned while working with instructional and learning designers. These are skills that need to be developed and knowledge that needs to be acquired. How the team-based approach might look like in such an endeavor? What might be the practical instructional design process or model to follow to ensure quality design and development in such an endeavor? What and how quality benchmarks can be implemented in such an endeavor? All of these questions and more will be discussed in this engaging digital presentation and asynchronous discovery discussion. So come join us for a lively asynchronous discussion to help increase your knowledge on instructional design, international collaboration, and quality online course development.

Level of Participation:

Anyone interested in managing multi-national multi-university collaboration in designing and developing quality online courses in higher education are welcome to join the session.

Session Type:

This virtual discovery session is structured as an asynchronous online conversation for virtual presenter to virtual audience. The presenter will share a 15-minute digital presentation on PlayPosit with discussion prompts. Attendees will view the presentation on-demand and contribute to asynchronous comments and discussion. Interactivity will be personalized based on comments by audience members visiting the asynchronous presentation. We welcome deeper connections and more detailed discussions during and after the conference.

Session Outcomes:

Individuals joining this virtual asynchronous online discovery conversation will be able to:

  • Discuss the challenges in multi-national multi-university collaboration in designing and developing quality online courses in higher education.
  • Observe what central instructional design support can offer in such an endeavor.
  • Discuss strategies to manage the quality course development in such an endeavor.
  • Make recommendations for selecting collaborators for similar new initiatives.
  • Suggest strategies for more effective collaboration for similar new initiatives.
  • Identify central instructional design support resources at one’s own institution.
  • Articulate the necessary considerations for acquiring support from central instructional design support when pursuing similar new initiatives.