Course Development

Part VI: Suggestions for Online Modules and Courses

1. Importance of engaging the learner
   Create active learning activities using:
   • Discussion board – Threaded discussions allow students to post comments to a discussion topic, react to other students comments, share ideas, and even attach files for others to share. Online discussions are asynchronous so that students can enter and leave the discussion at whatever time they choose.
     Additional resources:
     Guidelines for Discussion Forum Assignments, created by UNC's Center for Instructional Technology
     Using Blackboard's Discussion Board, from help.unc.edu.
   • Chat – is a synchronous communication tool which supports real-time interaction among students and/or faculty. Blackboard supports chat options which are text-based, allows sharing a whiteboard or browser, and permits archiving of the communication.
     Additional resources:
     CITES Tutorial on using the Blackboard chat tool
     Blackboard: Chat Tools, from help.unc.edu.
2. Ideas for activities
   • Virtual Games for Real Learning: Fast, Cheap, Effective -- Marie Jasinski and Sivasailam Thiagarajan, PhD
3. Sample module layouts
   • Overview
   • Class objectives: as opposed to Course objectives
   • Reading Assignment
   • Terms: with definitions and examples when needed
   • Content (text, powerpoints, diagrams, audio or video clips, links to websites, etc)
   • Assignments/Exercises

Part VII: E-Reserves >>