EDCT 5674 - Create Engaging Online Learning That Works

Course Description

This course provides a modern theoretical framework for thinking about the possibilities for online learning, and also helps you develop a full toolkit for creating custom online classes that really engage your students, make sure they learn for mastery, get diverse voices “in the room,” and work with your teaching style, curriculum benchmarks, and subject matter. It provides strategies to meet learners where they are, create formative assessments, invite participation from every student, support project-based work and collaboration, assess and engage through gameification, and find the right style of digital teaching for your goals, teaching style, and curriculum. You’ll finish class having built a plan and framework for your online course in a supported workshop environment. This is a supported, self-paced course with group chats and collaborations.

Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction to Learning Design

Week 2: Get to Know Your Learners: Storytelling, Modes of Participation, Formative Assessment

Week 3: Build It: Create Your Course Goals and Format

Week 4: Engagement: Getting Every Voice in the Room

Week 5: Inviting Creativity and Mastery

Week 6: Launch: Making, Doing, and Collaborating Online

Week 7: Working with At-Risk or Disengaged Learners

Week 8: Prototyping, Failure, and Rapid Reiteration

Week 9: Feedback and Reflection

Week 10: Final Projects due

Week 11: Evaluation

Learner Outcomes

By the end of the course participants will have:

Gained an overview of modern approaches to online learning that meet important educational goals, such as fulfilling the diverse needs of each student, teaching for master, project-based and collaborative learning, cultural sensitivity and more.
Reviewed contemporary research and theory on digital learning and analyze theory in order to formulate one’s own learned approach to the challenges and possibilities of learning in an online environment.
Learned to apply strategies to existing curriculum, formats, technology to create engaging useful learning for students
Created a usable product or process for use in curriculum, classrooms, and/or schools