Online Short-Course

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“DESIGNING YOUR COURSES FOR GREATER STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

AND BETTER STUDENT LEARNING”

The purpose of this webpage is to provide information that will help you decide whether you want to enroll in this online course about designing courses for significant learning.

This webpage contains comments on the following topics:

• Information about This Program of Study

I.    Value of what you will learn

II.   Specific characteristics of “Integrated Course Design”

III.  Program Activities

IV.  Procedures for Learning How to Design “Online & Hybrid” Courses

• Start Dates
• 2 Certificates Issued
• Costs
  
• Instructions for Enrolling

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PROGRAM OF STUDY

Here is some information about this particular set of materials for meeting that need. This will include ideas, first, on the value of understanding instructional design and then the characteristics of this particular set of ideas on instructional design.

I.  The Value of Learning How to Design Learning Experiences for Others

Whenever students take a course, they always have an experience – of some kind.  Sometimes that experience results in their learning something that truly makes a difference in their lives.  At other times, unfortunately, it is just “information in & information out”; they take the tests, get their grade, and go on with their lives – more or less unaffected by the course experience.

All teachers who care about their students, want their students to have a valuable, significant learning experience.  This means they must find answers to two central questions:

1. What kind of learning would constitute “significant learning”, for their students and their subject matter?
2. How can they get that kind of learning to happen, more often and intentionally, rather than less often and accidentally?

This short course, on Integrated Course Design, will help professors find and create answers to both these questions.

If a teacher can design their courses properly and then teach them properly, it will lead to greater student engagement and better student learning.

II. The Specific Characteristics of INTEGRATED COURSE DESIGN

The basic principles of Integrated Course Design are illustrated by the following diagram:

In essence this model goes like this:

• You start the design process by gathering information about the “Situational Factors”, e.g., class size, students’ initial knowledge or feelings about the course, etc.
• You use this information (the vertical arrows) to make the three big decisions in the course:
  • What do you want students to learn? (= Your Learning Goals)
  • What will they need to do, to learn that? (= the Teaching & Learning Activities)
  • What will they need to do, for you and them to know whether they have achieved the learning goals? (= the Feedback & Assessment Activities)
• How will you integrate the Learning Goals, Teaching & Learning Activities, and the Feedback and Assessment Activities?

Integrated Course Design is a LEARNING-CENTERED approach to instructional design.  This means the process begins by asking what you want students to learn; then you identify learning activities and assessment activities that will support that kind of learning.

III. Program Activities

If you decide to take this course, here is what you will be doing.

The whole course has 14 units, each dealing with particular aspects of Integrated Course Design. Each unit builds on what has come before it and prepares you for what comes next. Here is the sequence of units:

• Unit 1 – Three Basic Perspectives on Designing Courses
• Unit 2 – Your Dreams for Student Learning?
• Unit 3 – Getting Started: The Big Purpose of Your Course and the Structure of the Content
• Unit 4 – Situational Factors
• Unit 5 – Learning Goals
• Unit 6 – Feedback and Assessment Activities
• Unit 7 – Learning Activities
• Unit 8 – Integrating Your Course, Part I: Tools for Functional & Chronological Integration
  
• Unit 9 -  Integrating Your Course, Part II: Teaching Strategies, Culminating Project,  String of Activities
  
• Unit 10 – Creating the Grading System
• Unit 11 – Identifying Possible Problems
• Unit 12 – Communicating Your Design to Students
• Unit 13 – Evaluating Your Teaching
• Unit 14 – Continuing to Learn about Teaching & Learning

IV.  Procedures for Learning How to Design “Online & Hybrid” Courses

People who want to design an online or hybrid course will enroll in this same course.  However, 7 of the units have separate content that relate specifically to designing courses in an online or hybrid environment.  These units are:

• 4: “Situational Factors
• 7: “Learning Activities”
• 8: “Integration, Part I”
• 9: “Integration, Part II”
• 11: “Possible Problems”
• 12: “Communicating Your Design to Students”
• 13: “Evaluating Your Teaching”

People who go through this alternative version will receive feedback on these 7 units, from a Feedback Facilitator who is an expert in online instruction. 

Also, participants in this track are eligible for the same 2 Certificates as others.

What will you have when you finish this program of study? When you finish this set of 14 units, you will have two “take-away’s”:

1. one course completely designed, and
2. an understanding of the principles of good course design that will enable you to design any course in the future for significant learning.

Resources: We have incorporated several kinds of resources to help you learn about Integrated Course Design.

1. Book: You will receive an electronic copy of Fink’s book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences.
2. Web-based material: This website will provide you with both text and short video clips that explain and elaborate upon various concepts.
3. Dialogue with other learners: Even though this course has been constructed so that you can start and finish whenever you want, you will still be able to dialogue with other people who are taking the course at the same time.
4. Exercises: Each of the units has exercises for you to do, that will help you develop the skills you need, to design courses for significant learning.
5. Production: As you work through the units, you will be asked to identify a particular course that you want to design or re-design. Then you will design this course, step by step, as you work through the units.
6. Yourself: You are also an important resource for this program of study. From time to time, you will also be asked to think about your beliefs and aspirations as a teacher. Keep a record of these; they are important to your growth and development as a teacher.

Time Needed

• We estimate that participants will need approximately 35 hours to finish the whole short-course.
  • This means they need to spend 2 to 4 hours each week on this course, depending on how well they can read and write in English.
• The course will be paced to finish in about 10 weeks, i.e., about 2.5 months.
  
• However, people may finish faster if they are able.

General Operation of the Course

Start Dates: At the present time, we plan to start new sections of this course on the following dates:

• September 1, 2011  (Approximate Completion Date:  Nov. 30)
  
• Mid-January, 2012     (Approximate Completion Date:  Mid-April)
  
• August 1, 2012        (Approximate Completion Date:  Oct. 30)

Section Size: People who enroll will be put into a cohort with a total of 5 to 8 participants. This group will go through the course together, reading each others’ work and getting feedback from the other participants.

Feedback Facilitator: Each group will also be led by a Feedback Facilitator, i.e., a person with expert knowledge of Integrated Course Design. This person will keep the group moving through the course and give their own feedback on each person’s work.

2 CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

You can earn two Certificates in association with this course.

• Certificate of Completion: When you complete the whole course (14 content units), you will be issued a Certificate of Completion by the University of Oklahoma, to acknowledge your achievement.
• Certificate of Performance: After you complete the course and IF you want to, you can submit your course design to Dr. Dee Fink for review. If it meets the Standards of Excellence for Integrated Course Design, you will also be issued a “Certificate of Performance.” This Certificate indicates that you not only know about course design but that you can also “do it.”
  • There is a fee of US$30 to apply for this Certificate.  This covers the cost of paying a qualified person to review your course design materials.
  • Click here to view the “Guidelines & Template” for applying for the Certificate of Performance.
  • You can view these Standards of Excellence by clicking on these links:
    • Standards of Excellence for face-to-face courses
    • Standards of Excellence for online or hybrid courses
• Publication on Website:  When you have finished the course, you also have the option of having your course design published on a website as an example of good course design.
• For instructions on how to do this, go to the “Designing Better Learning Experiences” website:  www.designlearning.org , and click on the “Examples of Design” tab.

COST

The tuition for this online course will vary, depending on where the participant comes from.

Different prices have been set to reflect variations in the average income of college teachers in different regions of the world.

4 Levels of Fees: Cost of Course: (in US$)

I. Advanced Economies:   $595 per person

= US, Canada, W. Europe, Japan, British Commonwealth countries, oil-rich Middle East countries

II. Emerging Economies:   $300 per person

= Latin America, E. Europe, SE Asia, non-oil-rich Middle East/North Africa

III. High Population-Density Regions:   $150 per person

= S. Asia, China

IV. Sub-Saharan Africa:   $75 per person

INSTITUTIONAL DISCOUNT: If a single college or university enrolls 10 or more people for the same start date, everyone enrolling from that institution at that time will receive a ~15% discount.  That means, for example, if 10 people from a university in the US enrolls at the same time, the tuition would be reduced by $95, to $500 per person.

INCOMPLETE/RE-ENROLLMENT:  If you are not able to complete the course during the time allowed, you can re-enroll within one year at half the cost you originally paid.

 

IF – after reading this Introduction, you decide you would like to enroll in this online course, here is what you need to do:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENROLLING

Procedures:

We need 3 pieces of information to get you registered for this course:

1. Your FULL name (first name, middle name, last name)
   
2. Your birthdate  (month, day, year)
   
3. Your email address

You can include this information with your payment (see below), or you can email it to Dee Fink: dfink40@gmail.com

After we have this information and your payment, we will send you (a) the instructions and (b) the ID number you will need to log into the course.

METHODS OF PAYMENT:

You have three ways that you can pay for this course, and the procedures for each of these are shown below:

1. PayPal (see below)
2. Pay with a credit card by calling Dee Fink & Associates: 405-364-6464 (in the US)
3. Pay with a check or Purchase Order (P/O) by mailing it to Dee Fink & Associates.

As indicated above (and below), there are 4 levels of tuition, depending on where you are from. We have set these prices to reflect the different levels of salaries for teachers in different parts of the world.

NOTE: If you would like to enroll more than one student using the PayPal payment method below, only enter one Date of Birth into the Date of Birth field, and email a list of students with their dates of birth to dfink40@gmail.com. You can change the quantity of enrollments purchased after you click the “Buy Now” button.

	Advanced Economies US, Canada, W. Europe, Japan, British Commonwealth countries, oil-rich Middle East countries	Emerging Economies Latin America, E. Europe, SE Asia, non-oil-rich Middle East/North Africa	High Population-Density Regions S. Asia [Pakistan, India, Bangladesh], China	Sub-Saharan Africa
	USD $595.00 / Participant	USD $300.00 / Participant	USD $150.00 / Participant	USD $75.00 / Participant
(No Registration Required – Secure Site)	Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)	Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)	Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)	Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)
	Have this form ready and call Dee Fink and Associates at 405-364-6464. Payment by phone can be made via Visa, MasterCard, or Discover..
	Fill out this form and send it with the appropriate amount of payment. The check or purchase order should be made payable to “Dee Fink & Associates” and mailed to: