Online Course Design Tools

I worked with a colleague for about 5 hours yesterday on the design and edits for an online Oncology Nurse Navigator course which will begin at the end of January. My colleague is teaching the course.  I assist her by providing technical support for students, covering instruction  in her absence, and providing course design assistance.  We expect an enrollment of 15 students, all who are experienced registered nurses and work in cancer care settings.

We discussed strategies to assist students to be successful in the course without any face-to-face meetings.  The last time we taught the course we did have a couple face-to-face meetings.  We recognize that it may not be possible for the students to meet face-to-face because of their work schedules or because they live at a distance (several applicants are from out-of-state).  Below are some of the topics that we discussed that might be helpful to other instructors.

Strategies for Designing and Editing an Online Course

• Use OpenOffice to create the learning content as html documents.  Rationale:  OpenOffice has the "look and feel" of Microsoft Word, but it generates much cleaner html code that is easily edited in Blackboard and other learning management systems.  Graphics can be copied/pasted into an OpenOffice document and the software will automatically save the graphic in an html compatible format with a name similar to that of the document.
• Develop a file structure naming process that uses numbers.  If the learning mangement system alphabetizes files, like Blackboard, the structured naming system makes it a snap to add the files to a learning module.  The file naming process that I use is noted below, although I abbreviate the words to Intro, Assign, and Assess.
• 1_Introduction
• 1a_Objectives_Assignments
• 1b_Assessment
• 2_Introduction
• 2a_Objectives_Assignments
• 2b_Assessment
• Use WebDav to synchronize files.  Create a link to the online course in My Network Places and synchronize files from the course folder on the computer with the files in the online course.  I always have a mirror image of my course files offline.

Strategies for Working with Students Online

• Include an orientation module to the learning management system as the first learning module.
• Use information from a Computer Survey (see the previous blog) to identify students who may need additional assistance with technology issues.
• Provide online orientation and other instructor support with webinar software.  (Note: Our university does not have webinar software available, so we discussed using DimDim).
• Show students how to use PowerPoint with narration for class presentations (Another blog).

Other topics that we discussed and practiced using included a computer video camera to provide the personal touch to online instruction.  We also dicussed the use of Microsoft OneNote software for screen captures and other notes.  The comparable software solution that is free is Evernote (https://www.evernote.com/) (Yet, another blog).