Top 10 Elements of a Signature Course

1. Partnership with Distance Learning • Instructional Designers and Faculty Liaisons can help!!

• Online Course Checklist – best practices and standards for courses…definitely helps with course design

• Don’t let your students miss out on a learning experience just because you’re not sure how to make a face-to-face assignment work online

• Did I say Instructional Designers and Faculty Liaisons can help?!

2. Sharing & Continuous Improvement

• Fostering a culture of continuous improvement – sharing ideas, what worked well and what didn’t

• 70% of our instructors are adjunct

• Top-Notch Courses – take everyone’s best ideas to make the best possible course

• Reduces prep-time and stress

• One lead in-charge of course maintenance

• Treat it like it’s a live, dynamic course (it’s not built once and left alone – we have to revisit it each term to ensure it’s relevant and effective)

3. Competencies Covered • Ensure all course competencies are met across all sections

• Map competencies to graded activities

• Have control over the basic content that needs to be included, regardless of the instructor

Competency Example

4. Assessment Made Easy!

• No additional work will be required – this brings smiles •

• We know competencies are mapped and being met -- we’ll simply pull artifacts when the time comes

Assessment Commission

5. Consistency

• Ensure students have a similar experience and similar opportunities for learning

• Students know what to expect and where to get information; they don’t have to spend time getting acquainted with every course

• Consistency in a course and across courses

• Syllabus, grading scale, schedule use

• Layout and folder structure, naming conventions

• Due dates, use of rubrics for grading

• Discussion requirements, etc.

6. Personalization

• Instructors can still personalize the course and add their expertise

• Short lecture videos, announcements with tips/reminders

• Articles, videos, other resources

• Slight modification of discussion prompt

• Extra credit assignment based on current events, etc.

Still teaching, not just facilitating!

7. Student-Centered Learning & Variety

• Recognizing different learning styles and creating the best learning opportunity for all

• Make sure there is a variety of materials and activities online like we have face-to-face (e.g., visual, audio, critical thinking, interaction) • Student-to-Content Interaction

• Student-to-Student Interaction

• Student-to-Instructor Interaction

• Online students should feel like they’re part of a group and be comfortable asking for help

8. Benefits Other Courses • Can take course improvements made for the online class

back to the face-to-face classroom to enhance learning opportunities and experiences

• Instructors teaching the signature course are likely to apply the same teaching methods to their other courses

• Easy to use the Signature shells and modify them for web-enhanced and web-blended classes

9. Faculty Development

• Improves instructor experience, both full-time and adjuncts

• Great for instructors who don’t have as much experience teaching (online, or in general)

• It elevates their delivery and teaching

• Easy to push out great ideas/strategies district-wide in a quick timeframe

10. Additional Things to Consider

• Use the Online Course Checklist when designing/modifying

• Use engagement placeholders (e.g., [insert instructor welcome video here], link in Course Content to Collaborate chat room)

• Get instructor input – ask instructors if they want to be on the development team, solicit ideas and feedback, have a strong & passionate team leader (limit editing access)

• Guest speakers - share Collaborate room link/recording with other instructors/sections

• Use the date management tool each term

• Make necessary changes to the Signature shell throughout the term to ensure it’s ready for the next term

• Evaluation > Retention Center – tool to keep track of at-risk students

Resources • Instructional Designer and Faculty Liaison Contact Info

https://www.dmacc.edu/online/pages/fcontact.aspx

• Instructional Designer Campus Visit Schedule https://www.dmacc.edu/online/Pages/IDCampusVisits.aspx

• ES4076 Policy Online Course Oversight

• ES4077 Policy Online Course Development Procedure • Online Course Development Procedures

https://www.dmacc.edu/online/pages/fcourseproc.aspx

• Online Course Checklist https://bbmedia.dmacc.edu/bbTraining/Shared%20Documents/OnlineCourseChecklist.pdf

• Digital & Web Based Content Accessibility Resources - has the policy (ES4085) and guidelines https://dc.dmacc.edu/access/Pages/default.aspx

• Blackboard Tutorials • Online Instructional Resources course > Course Content > Lesson Folders from Blackboard

Training

• Blackboard Course Management menu: Help > Blackboard Help for Instructors

• SMARTHINKING student tutoring https://www.dmacc.edu/smarthinking