Creating an Online Class

I just got out of a day-long meeting with my fellow Business/Technology teachers and we shared a lot of what we are doing to help our students. One of the things that came up was creating what I call "Mini Courses" or short class or units that go over a specific subject. I have been creating these over the last year to help supplement my curriculum and provide more content to those students who don't have the time or space in their current schedule to take my classes.

1. Going over the Goals and Objectives

The way I start working on a Mini-Course is by what I do for every lesson or unit I create a list of the the Goals and Objectives. This is not a complete list at first, but a place to start. I wouldn't have started if I didn't have some place I was going with this so I just start listing those.

2. Go to Youtube and Wikipedia to learn the basics

Next, while I may know something about the topic I want to create, I probably don't know everything so I go on Youtube and start searching for videos related to the topic. The good ones I save into a Playlist, in case I want to share them with the students. I also go on Wikipedia to research the topic and learn some of the vocabulary. Most words or concepts that may not be common knowledge, usually have links to other Wikipedia articles so that I can put together a pretty comprehensive list. I usually save all of these into a Google Doc so that I can use them later in the class.

3. Break the topic down into "Bite Sized Chunks"

As I was going through the Youtube videos and Wikipedia I was coming up with ways to chop the topic up into different assignments or "chunks" of knowledge. This way I can build an assignment around a skills or specific topic so that students can work on a skill or concept. It is usually at this point that I start putting together the outline for the class in my Personal Resources in Schoology. I'm not putting any detail in yet, I'm just laying out what the class structure may look like and starting to think about I plan to assess the student's work.

4. Making the "Speed Bumps"

Now I should have a good idea of what the basic concepts that I want the students to know are and I can start filling in more detail in the Goals & Objectives section. I can also start putting together the videos that I want to use with some assessment questions to make sure the students have: 1) Watched the video and 2) Have a basic understanding of the concept. These are not designed as a summative assessment, but are more formative. The goal is to make sure the student is somewhat prepared to continue without my direct observation. They basically need to watch the video and "pass" the quiz before they can move on to the more interesting projects and assignments. I encourage them to take notes (Cornell Notes of course!) so that they don't waste time retaking the quiz over and over again. This also helps with the retention of knowledge.

5. Building the skills

After they have passed the quiz or quizzes, they can then move on to the assignments, which, in my classes, are designed to learn the basics of some skill. These are usually accompanied with a demonstration video, either from something I've found on Youtube or one I've made myself. The tools I use to make my own videos are Screencast-O-Matic and Windows Movie Maker. These assignments almost always have an accompanying rubric so that the student can see what area they have excelled in and which one they may need more work. I usually keep the criteria simple: Requirements for the Assignment,  Quality of Work, and Understanding of Skill. Again, if they can complete their assignment with a passing grade they can move on, if not they can review their rubric and also any comments that I may leave.

6. Bringing it together at the End

Finally once they have demonstrated enough of the skills or understanding of the concepts that I feel they need to, they work on a Final Project that typically involves real-world problem solving. This is the summative assessment that I grade and I assign more points and may add more specific criteria to the rubric. As with all assignments and quizzes, the student can re-do any of their work to get the best grade possible.

So that's it. It does take some time: I estimate it takes about 40 hours to create a really good 4 to 6-week course so take your time and make some great content!