Why Course Design Matters: A Student-Focused Approach to Faculty Training

Concurrent Session 5

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Demonstrating course design in the LMS from a student viewpoint helps faculty to create courses using best practices. By surveying students, instructional designers can use data to help faculty create courses that are navigable, complete, and well-structured. This presentation will demonstrate a course design training strategy to help onboard faculty.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Bethany Schultz, Northwest Nazarene University

Dr. Bethany Schultz serves as the Director of the Center for Instructional Design and Technology at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. She is an experienced grant administrator and educator in blended and online learning in Higher Education and K-12 settings. She has helped build an online general education experience for students at NNU through the development of NNU Online. Previously at NNU, she served as a project manager for a grant-funded center for innovation called the Doceō Center. Overall, Bethany has secured and been a post-award grant administrator of $15 million of projects and initiatives to spur innovation in higher ed and K-12 education through the effective use of technology.

Extended Abstract

Why Course Design Matters: A Student-Focused Approach to New Faculty Training demonstrates course design in the learning management system from the student viewpoint. Instructional design offices want faculty to adopt best practices in course design but struggle with gaining buy-in and adoption. Understanding the student experience is essential for faculty to understand why quality course design is critical to the learning environment regardless of modality. Evaluating student evaluation, survey, and interview data prepares instructional designers to focus on essential course design elements that matter most to the student experience within the LMS. Tired of the click-by-click LMS training in new faculty orientation, the presenter uses a change management strategy and student data to create an experiential training session. 

In this conference session, the presenter provides context and demonstrates a course design training strategy used in new faculty training. The faculty orientation session is most applicable to face-to-face, blended, and online faculty, but participants can modify this strategy for K-12 and corporate training settings. Conference participants engage in the session by navigating a poorly designed course within the LMS from the lens of the student role. Session participants find crucial course information that all students need to be academically successful and self-regulated learners. While highlighting bad practices, an open discussion of best practices emerges.

By the end of this experiential learning session, participants will know course design best practices from the student perspective and come away with a new strategy to orient faculty to essential course design principles. Participants will gain access to all the materials used by the presenter to replicate this same activity at their institution. Participants also gain access to data collection instruments to inform the new faculty orientation experience.