Trial and Error: Our Iterative Approach to Developing Online Courses
Brief Abstract
A small team of learning designers and one media specialist facilitated 20 course builds in two years to launch two graduate engineering programs online. Participants will learn how our trial and error approach to course development continues to evolve as we begin with a third graduate engineering program.
Presenters



Extended Abstract
What’s the best way to develop a new online course? There are as many answers to that question as there are online courses. Our small design team partnered with the College of Engineering at our research one institution to launch two graduate programs online, consisting of 10 courses each, 20 courses total. Over the duration of two years, our approach to working with faculty to develop courses has changed significantly as we adjusted to working with faculty of all skill levels and experiences in online teaching. Because of the vast differences between 20 faculty members and short development timelines, we learned to be agile and create and change processes frequently. We also found a need to create many tools and templates in order to keep development on track and collect data.
This process continues to evolve as we begin our partnership with a third program in the College of Engineering and another 10 online courses. Through the fall 2019 semester, we will be trying a new sprint course development approach, modeled after another successful course development approach on our campus, and will be able to share the results of this approach at OLC Innovate 2020 in the spring.
In our Discovery Session presentation, attendees will learn about the phases of our approach and will walk away with the strategies and tools that we have kept throughout our process. We’ll discuss our process for consulting with faculty, scaling our design team’s support, frequently trying new strategies, and researching different approaches to course development. We look forward to questions from our colleagues about the development of these courses, and examining what might work best in different environments. Join us to learn about our approach to iteration and bring your questions about course development and the process of change.