Angie Wassenmiller, R.N., BSN

It is common practice to have students fill out course evaluations at the end of a course, with the primary goal being to determine the effectiveness of the instructor…. but what about the effectiveness of the course design? In an online course, the organization and layout has an enormous effect on student perceptions of that course, as well as the instructor’s ability to deliver the content in an effective manner. Ensuring that your course design is meeting the needs of your students can be extremely helpful in improving your course delivery.

I recently worked with an instructor to build a 5-week online course. Since it was the first time he had taught this course online, we had to put a lot of thought into how to present the content, foster interaction, assess participation, etc. Our goal was to lay a foundation for a solid course that, in future offerings, we could continue to build upon. Very often, novice online instructors try to do too much in their first course. Instead of attempting to throw in every bell and whistle possible, I recommend starting out with some basics. Once those are mastered, you can keep adding something new each time the course is offered. For this course, we decided that the following would serve as our foundation:

• A “Course Information” module that would prepare students as much as possible for what to expect and how to navigate through the course;
• User-friendly organization, including a course content area broken into learning modules, utilization of the course calendar, and weekly updates from the instructor using the announcement tool;
• A strong library integration, including resources recommended by the reference librarian, as well as Films on Demand videos;
• An interactive discussion board that would serve as the “participation” component for the course, and would be assessed using a Blackboard grading form (aka rubric);
• A dedicated “Tech Support” discussion board topic to ensure efficient handling of tech questions.

So, the question becomes, did this work? Is the foundation solid enough that we can now work on adding another element to improve this online course? In order to answer this question, we asked this small class of 9 students to participate in a very brief survey, with the following results (n=6):

• 100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the course was well organized.
• 83.3% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the “Course Information” module provided them with what they needed to know in order to comfortably progress through the course.
• 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the support materials were helpful.
• 100% agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the technical assistance they received.
• 100% agreed or strongly agreed that Blackboard was easy to use.
• 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the discussion board rubric was clear and understandable.

Given these responses, we feel comfortable adding another component (possibly optional synchronous meetings or narrated PowerPoint lectures) to improve the course. We also offered an opportunity for students to comment on their responses, and to answer questions regarding strengths of the course, as well as recommended improvements. Unfortunately, we did not receive any clarification as to why the “Course Information” module did not receive 100% satisfaction, so that is something we will have to evaluate further on our own.

If you would like assistance with surveying your students regarding course design, please contact Angie Wassenmiller (angela.wassenmiller@cune.edu).