Learning from designing online courses
The process of creating online courses was an enlightening learning experience for Dr Peta Callaghan (School of Psychology). Starting in 2019, Dr Callaghan worked closely with the Online Programs team and Pearson colleagues to design courses for the fully online Graduate Diploma in Psychology.
‘Although the timelines were challenging, I learnt a lot about designing engaging online sequences and activities with the support of the Online programs team’, says Dr Callaghan.
As coordinator of the online courses Foundations of Psychology and Social Psychology, Dr Callaghan revised course content to enable active learning in the online environment and is now Program Coordinator for the online Graduate Diploma.
‘We created a learning sequence with bite-sized content in various formats so that students would be engaged and actively learning’, says Dr Callaghan. ‘The videos and podcasts recorded in the studio take the courses to a new level, especially the interviews with academics sharing their area of study’. The learning sequences also include regular opportunities for students to check their progress towards the learning outcomes.
Dr Callaghan has observed that students engage meaningfully in the course discussion boards even though they are not assessed. ‘The discussion boards present scenarios connected to particular content and the students can both reflect on the content and relate to it in a personal way’ Dr Callaghan explains. ‘This has built a learning community among students located across Australia who have gone on a journey together. I could see that sense of connection when our first cohort graduated’.
The learning design approaches that Dr Callaghan used in the online courses have provided inspiration for her courses that blend on-campus interaction with online learning. ‘MyUni is no longer mere storage space’ she says. ‘To make the online portion of the course more user-friendly, I apply a learning sequence approach so all of the course information and content is available in a clear, logical way’.
Although it takes a while for students to become familiar with a more self-directed approach, it is paying off in terms of efficiency. ‘Instead of long emails explaining what students who have missed a tutorial need to do, I can direct them to a page on MyUni and they have access to everything’. Dr Callaghan believes that following their experiences during the pandemic, students will expect increased flexibility in courses and more information and content available online. ‘We can also create more opportunities for students to engage online, for example by using the interactive H5P tool'.’
Some of the guides that supported Dr Callaghan in her online course design are now being made available to educators who would like to enhance the online portion of their blended courses.
The following resources are on the Learning and Teaching website:
- Guide for Content Writing
- Guide for Discussion Boards
- Guide for Learning Videos
- Guide for Page Design
- Online Course Assessment Tool
The University of Adelaide partnership with Pearson for the delivery of fully online postgraduate programs has provided unique opportunities for educators, like Dr Callaghan to build capabilities in online course design through a customised development program.
The Online programs team have developed principles and guidance for online learning informed by the Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards (TELAS), Quality Matters (QM) and the TEQSA Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF).
Story by Melanie Brown - Manager, Curriculum Design and Academic Development