OER Resource: High Quality Online Courses
OER Resource for Faculty
The following is an overview of High Quality Online Courses: How to Improve Course Design & Delivery for your Post-Secondary Learners by the University of Waterloo, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, and Conestoga College. Rather than reproduce the content in this guide, you’re encouraged to explore this resource and apply any techniques you may find helpful in designing your own online courses.
If you would like to discuss any of the strategies in these resources, please reach out to your eLearning Curriculum Coordinator.
This resource contains the following sections:
Resource Overview
The goal of this course is to enable you to apply principles of quality design to your online course, whether you’re creating a new online course, revising an existing online or remote course, or facilitating your first-ever online course. Your own goals in taking this course will determine the outcomes you take away, but successful completion of the entire course will enable you to
- recognize and implement key features of quality in learner-centred online course design;
- develop a set of learning outcomes for your online course that are explicit, measurable, and align with your content, activities, and assessments;
- create a varied assessment scheme that scaffolds and supports the learning outcomes of the course and promotes academic integrity;
- incorporate principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into your course design for the benefit of all learners;
- apply principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility into your course design to ensure a more equitable learning experience;
- structure and present your online content in ways that facilitate student learning and foster a sense of community;
- employ effective facilitation strategies when delivering your online course; and
- create a plan for revising your course at the end of the course offering.
Course Overview
This course consists of four modules. The modules are organized according to the typical stages of development of an online course. These modules can be completed sequentially or as stand-alone modules, allowing you to begin at whatever development stage/module aligns best with your goals. Each module includes strategies, design templates, practical examples, and applied activities that help you actively build/revise/facilitate your own online course as you progress through the content. If you are looking for guidance on completing course design, development, or delivery tasks for your own course, the right column in the visual below provides a list of the activities associated with each module. If you’d like to preview these activities, click on the “i” icon to navigate directly to the activity you’d like to complete for your course.
References
This section was reproduced from the following:
“About this course – Start here!” in High Quality Online Courses Copyright © by the University of Waterloo; Queen’s University; University of Toronto; and Conestoga College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
