Join an Initiative
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The Office of Online Learning conducts pilots over a three-year period and across three phases: exploration, implementation, and evaluation. Faculty contribute to each phase and ultimately contribute feedback from students and their own classroom experience piloting a given instructional tool or procedure. To participate in a pilot please email us.
The Course Design Essentials provide a starting point for creating an online environment that supports the successful facilitation of your students' learning in online, hybrid, Hyflex, and technology-rich, face-to-face courses. We have provided three means by which you may engage with this content. Visit our SharePoint to get started.
- Course Design Essentials Checklist
Download a copy of the checklist for reference. Review the central ideas. Then work at your own pace to incorporate the Essentials into your course. - Essentials of Online Instruction Self-Check
Login to D2L and self-enroll in this short, asynchronous course detailing how to implement the techniques in the Course Design Essentials Checklist. Work at your own pace to review and reference as often as needed. - Essentials of Online Badge
Complete this self-paced course and receive feedback/suggestions from our Instructional Designers & Technologists as you demonstrate your implementation of the Essentials.
Course Design Intensive draws on well-established practices in backward course design emphasizing the writing and interpretation of meaningful student learning outcomes and mapping these outcomes to meaningful assessments (both formative and summative) and student engagement activities. The one-day intensive will be offered several times throughout the year. Enrollment is limited to ten faculty per intensive so reserve your spot early. Learn more and sign up: CDI sign-up form.
The purpose of this initiative is to help faculty create excellent, fully online courses that are appropriate for large enrollment and in high-demand areas for MSUM students. Audiences beyond current MSUM students may also be considered. Participants will receive customized training and consultation while developing their course content to ensure high quality standards, accessibility to students, and consideration of instructor workload in the course. The project is complete upon teaching the course and presenting to an MSUM audience. Upon completion of the course design, participants will receive 3 EDDs. Following completion of the first course delivery and presentation to an MSUM audience, participants will receive an additional 3 EDDs. Funding is contingent on available resources and applications are competitive.
Participant Expectations
- Identify an online course that is a good candidate for large enrollment. It may have course competencies that use verbs lower level of Bloom’s taxonomy, such as “comprehension” and “application”, for example. Other examples include courses that have high enrollment, ongoing demand, and content and assessments that may be automated while maintaining integrity of learning.
- Consult with an instructional designer to examine large online course strategies, develop a course design plan, and complete a technology & training needs assessment.
- Advance skills in content delivery, learning activities, assessments, and instructor presence for large, online courses.
- Develop and teach the large (80+ students) online course.
- Present learnings to an identified MSUM audience. The audience and method of presentation will be identified by the participant(s) in collaboration with the Director of the Faculty Development Center and the Director of Online Learning.
To Apply
Please consult with your college’s dean and copy them on a proposal email sent to onlinelearning@mnstate.edu with the following headings:
- Course name and number
- Term the course will be developed
- Term the course will be offered as a LOC
- Course cap size as a LOC
NOTE: Preference will be given to high demand areas for online courses, LASC courses, and to either 1) faculty/instructor co-developer teams or 2) single developers willing to share intellectual property with qualified faculty colleagues.
Dragons Level-up with Microsoft 365 is a customized professional growth opportunity to improve collaborative, team-based processes using Microsoft 365.
Through a consultation and peer coaching process, individual teams determine potential areas of growth using 1-2 Microsoft 365 tools. Teams will attend a customized half-day training and set a goal for how the application of these tools will help them solve a practical problem. Each team will be assigned an Online Learning team member to help implement their goal and provide on-demand support as needed until their goal is achieved. To engage with this opportunity for your team to grow together, email onlinelearning@mnstate.edu.