Creating Effective Online and Blended Courses

Creating Effective Online and Blended Courses was produced by the Open Learning Initiative This link opens in a new tab at Stanford University with contributions from the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning This link opens in a new tab at Stanford University. These resources were partially funded by O.P.E.N., the Open Professionals Education Network This link opens in a new tab, which is sponsored by the Gates Foundation to support Department of Labor (DoL) Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College & Career Training (TAACCCT) grantees.

These resources, designed for a general audience of instructors at 2-and 4-year higher education institutions, will help such instructors develop online courses or incorporate online learning approaches in their on-campus classes. A separate, Stanford-focused version will be released by winter of 2016. In our initial release, six of the eight modules will be available. The remaining two (in grey) will be released as they are built.

1. Introduction: How do I navigate these modules? What can I expect to get out of it? How are online courses different from on-campus courses?
2. Course Organization: How can I structure my partially or fully online course?
3. Learning Objectives: How do I formulate clear learning outcomes for my students?
4. Assessment: How do I foster and measure student learning outcomes?
5. Activities: What activities (such as guided discussions, reflection exercises, simulations, and games) can I use to support learning?
6. Content Presentation: How can I most effectively use videos, HTML, and other media to present course content?
7. Social Presence & Motivation: How do I build genuine community to keep students motivated?
8. Iterative Design: How can I use platform data to improve my course over time?