Detailed Course Development Process

What is Course Production?

A semester-long collaborative partnership with the faculty member serving as a subject matter expert (SME) and the instructional designer (ID) as the online learning expert and project manager. Spring and Fall Cohorts are 16 weeks of development and summer is 13.

The goal of the process is a complete, student-ready online or blended course guided by the School of Professional Studies’ Students First Framework.

What is student-ready? It means that by the end of the process, the course has all activities, assessments, materials, instructions complete and present in Canvas. Additionally, the course will have an updated syllabus and gradebook setup.

Who is Course Production?

A dedicated team of instructional designers and media experts. We design over 60 courses a year, with a focus on increasing student engagement and success. We facilitate a smooth transition into online course development for faculty. If you have always wanted to build a quality course for a rich, engaging student experience, we’re here to make that a reality.

The Process

  • Intake Meeting (30 minutes)
    • A meeting with you, Department Chair, and Course Production leadership to discuss project goals and processes before we begin development.
  • Faculty Onboarding (3 Hours)
    • Orientation to the course production process and introduction to your assigned instructional designer.
  • ID Consultations (1 Hour, 8-16 times depending on availability)
    • Regular meetings with your instructional designer throughout the process to keep the project on track.
  • Course Objectives (3 Hours)
    • Finalize course objectives and draft module objectives.
  • Course Activities (3 Hours)
    • Develop a plan for the course assessments, activities, and timeline.
  • Course Materials (2 Hours)
    • Identify required media and materials.
  • Course Content Development (10 Hours)
    • Write/provide original materials and activities (prompts, case studies, instructions, tests, quizzes, rubrics and grading criteria).
  • Media Production (0-10+ Hours, dependent on course needs)
    • Identify media for course and contribute content necessary for media production.
  • Course Build (0 Hours)
    • The instructional designer builds the course with all required activities, assignments, and support materials while ensuring accessibility.
  • Course Polish (0 Hours)
    • The instructional designer does a final check of the course to ensure everything is present.
  • Course Revisions (4 Hours)
    • Review the checklist suggestions and make final changes with the instructional designer.

What to Expect from the Process

Subject Matter Expert

  • Commit to a minimum of 2-3 hours of work each week, including a weekly 1 hour synchronous meeting with an instructional designer (ID)
  • Provide content and review material
  • Collaborate with ID on course plan/goals/objectives, assessments, activities, materials, and assessments as well as ideation of course plan/topic progression/scheduling

Instructional Designer

  • Host consultations on online best practices, activity ideas, technology implementation
  • Media brainstorming, assistance, and creation; this may involve the media team
  • Build a great looking course for the SME
  • Review the course using Student Ready Checklist standards