Overview: Online Course Delivery Factors
In a face-to-face course, all instruction takes place in the classroom. The learning management system (LMS, e.g., Moodle/LATTE) may be used to house supplemental course materials and perhaps to facilitate assignment submission and grading, but no instruction takes place through the LMS. In a completely online course, all instruction takes place online via the LMS. There is no face-to-face component, nor is there a residency requirement.
A hybrid course uses various delivery methods to best meet course and session outcomes. The blend may consist of any combination of face-to-face classroom instruction, asynchronous discussion forums, and synchronous sessions. Note that classroom-based courses that use the LMS as a supplemental tool (e.g., for optional discussion posts between class meetings; assignment submissions; housing of multi-media resources, etc.) are not considered hybrid, as instruction takes place in the physical classroom and not in the LMS.
Within the online and hybrid delivery methods, there are several factors to consider, each of which ultimately impacts the student experience, the levels of faculty and student support required, the types of technical support required, and ultimately overall course quality.
Synchronous courses have regular live class meetings conducted via a web conferencing tool such as Adobe Connect or Blackboard Collaborate.
Asynchronous courses are delivered entirely online via the LMS, with no set days or times for faculty/student interaction.
Courses may have a combination of synchronous and asynchronous elements, which each contributing to some degree to the learning outcomes.
Considerations:
Purely asynchronous courses require that students possess strong time management skills. For this reason, the majority of asynchronous-only courses are at the graduate level, with synchronous courses found more commonly at the undergraduate level.
The higher the degree of synchronicity, the stronger the need for faculty and student support in the web conferencing tool.
Programs/courses with students in multiple time zones must carefully define synchronous requirements in marketing materials.
Programs/courses that market an asynchronous-only approach may still incorporate synchronous elements, provided that all synchronous sessions can be recorded and shared within the LMS.
Faculty-developed course content may consist of all videos (recorded lectures or other produced
videos), all text, or a combination of media types.
Considerations:
Posting recorded lectures may be useful to face-to-face or hybrid courses, but lengthy recorded lectures used for purely online courses are not recommended. The best practice is to keep recordings in the 2 to 10 minute range.
The stronger the need for production-quality video content, the higher the course development and maintenance costs. The technical requirements imposed on the target audience should also be
Content that consists of written lectures should incorporate best practices for text-based online course content development.
Instructional designers can assist faculty in determining and creating appropriate content types to realize different course outcomes.
The LMS can house any number of asynchronous discussion forums for use by faculty and
students throughout the course. These forums may be used for social interactions only, for
graded discussions and collaboration, or some combination.
Considerations:
The recommended best practice for online (and hybrid) courses is for the LMS to house a mix of social and graded discussion forums.
In the LMS, courses should clearly delineate the purpose of each discussion forum:
o Social, for conversations not related to course material, important to lessen the sense of isolation that online students may feel
o Private, for one-on-one conversations between the student and the faculty member o Group, for discussions among assigned groups of students
o Questions, for general course questions or those related to a particular course assignment o Announcements, for faculty broadcast notes
o Graded, for regular, required individual responses to discussion questions posed by the instructor followed by replies to the responses of others
Discussion expectations and oral/written participation requirements should be defined in the syllabus and covered in the course/program orientation. Ground-rules for proper posts and netiquette guidelines should be included, along with material on citing sources appropriately.
Self-assessments are non-graded (typically objective) questions provided throughout the course to reinforce student understanding. Faculty-graded assessments consist of assignments that will vary based on subject matter and course outcomes. They can include exams, papers, research projects, programs,
presentations, case study analysis, etc. Peer assessments involve the sharing of individually-created work products with some or all of the class for the purpose of peer review.
Considerations:
All faculty-graded assessments should align with defined course objectives and outcomes.
Regular self-assessments are recommended, particularly for purely online courses. They highlight potential areas of confusion for the student, allowing for follow-on dialogue between the student and faculty member.
Peer assessments (graded and non-graded) can enhance student learning by providing multiple viewpoints on student work products in addition to the instructor’s perspectives.
The recommended best practice for online (and hybrid) courses is to include a combination of self- and faculty-graded assessments, with opportunities for peer assessments available depending on the course subject matter.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) generally include self-assessments consisting of objective-based questions which are graded automatically via the delivery platform. Some MOOC models incorporate automated assignment of peer groups for the purpose of peer assessments.
Online courses may have one instructor per course. That individual is responsible for developing course materials, facilitating asynchronous discussions, conducting synchronous sessions, and grading student work products.
In other models, course content may be shared among multiple faculty members who collaborate on course content and site updates but teach his/her own course section, separately facilitating asynchronous discussions, conducting synchronous sessions, and grading student work products.
Scalable models recommended by many online enabler organizations use a “master” faculty model. One faculty member is responsible for course content and outcomes. Multiple instructors teach separate sections of the course, facilitating asynchronous discussions, conducting synchronous sessions, and grading student work products.
Considerations:
Regular and consistent oversight is essential in the master faculty model to ensure that the cloned sub-sections deliver courses of equal quality and deliver the promised course outcomes.
With all approaches, intellectual property terms should be explicitly defined and contractually agreed upon.
Online class sizes can range from groups of 15-20 students to hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands of students (the latter via MOOCs).
Considerations:
The larger the class size, the more challenging it becomes to conduct synchronous sessions effectively.
The larger the class size, the “louder” the asynchronous discussion forums become, increasing the workload for students and the instructor to keep up with all of the conversations.
Many schools/programs utilize the master faculty model with 100-200 students per course who are divided into sub-sections of 15-20 students, each instructed by a lower-level instructor. While more amenable to scaling, having dedicated faculty per course can be a market differentiator for a program. Smaller class sizes result in a more intensive, seminar-style experience.
Class sizes in the thousands, popularized by MOOCs, should be consistent with a university’s vision and mission. If undertaken, they must be carefully planned, designed, produced, and marketed, and be conducted via a proven delivery platform.
While most online courses are credit-bearing, others may be offered for no-credit or they may provide students with a certificate or badge upon successful completion. MOOCs fall into this latter category, though recent trends have seen collaborations among MOOC-delivering institutions and ACE Credit, which may change the underlying MOOC business model.
Pacing refers to the degree to which students can complete the course in isolation and on their own time, or whether they are required to follow a defined pace such as regular class meeting days or a standard online course week with a defined start and end. A mix of pacing options is possible; for example, regular class meetings with a mid-point sizable break period during which a defined set of work must be
completed individually. Considerations:
Completely self-paced courses are open-entry and open-exit. They require no interactions with faculty or classmates, and they generally do not follow any standard academic calendar. Usually completely self-paced courses are non-credit, though as noted above in the context of
MOOCs, the underlying business models are fluid and rapidly evolving.
Modules or mini-courses aimed at orienting the learner to the online environment are often non-credit self-paced courses.
Overall Considerations
A planning worksheet follows which may be used to determine the factors which are the right fit for a particular course or program interested in migrating online. In addition to the considerations per factor noted above, over-arching considerations for choosing a particular set of factors include:
The audience (high school, undergraduate, graduate, international)
The objective(s) in delivering an online course or program (attract more students; meet a curriculum gap; serve students who travel away from campus)
The course/program outcomes (particularly regarding content and timing choices) Budget for course development
Faculty resources for course delivery
Some combinations of factors are more common than others. The Graduate Professional Studies (GPS) approach, depicted in the sample worksheet that follows, is a relatively common approach for part-time online master’s programs for working adults, for example, though it remains relatively unique in its approach to the Faculty, Assessments, and Class Size parameters which are leveraged as market differentiators.
Other factor combinations imply less academic rigor and poorer quality. For example, a completely asynchronous approach containing all video content, self-assessments without graded assessments, and social forums only would equate to a self-paced course with little/no faculty and student interaction. Adding the dimension of accommodating thousands of students, and the model is the MOOC; it remains non-credit (for now) because it is less rigorous in one or more dimensions.
Once factors are assessed, if a repeatable model is required for the construction and delivery of multiple online courses, consider an investment in an online learning infrastructure that contains:
Standards for the course syllabus, for the course site, for course development and delivery (synchronous and/or asynchronous)
Customizations to the LMS to meet course delivery requirements
Training/orientation materials on the pedagogy and on the tool(s) for faculty and students
Online student services, from program advising to registration, admissions, technical support with the LMS and other tools as applicable, and orientation to online learning
Website resources on online learning, including learning style self-assessments, technical requirements, and simulations
Planning Worksheet Template: Online Course Delivery Factors
[Also available as a Qualtrics survey, https://brandeis.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8iv5pCoS0vahZZj] Delivery Method Completely face-to-face 50/50 hybrid Completely online o o o o o o o Timing Completely synchronous 50/50 mix of synchronous & asynchronous Completely asynchronous o o o o o o o Content N/A; Lectures
delivered synchronously All video lectures 50/50 mix of video and text lectures All text-based lectures o o o o o o o Asynchronous Discussions Optional, for social purposes Mix of graded and non-graded posts Graded o o o o o o o
Assessments Self Peer Graded Mix of self and peer assessments Mix of self and graded Mix of peer and graded Mix of all assessment types o o o o o o o
Faculty One master-faculty, multiple instructors Two or more faculty collaborators One primary faculty member o o o o o o o
Class Size Thousands 100-200 per
course, 15-20 per sub-section
15-20 per course
o o o o o o o
Credit Non-credit Certificate or
badge
Credit-bearing
o o o o o o o
Pacing Self-paced Mix of pacing
options
Structured pace
Graduate Professional Studies Course Delivery Factors Delivery Method Completely face-to-face 50/50 hybrid Completely online o o o o o o
Timing Completely synchronous 50/50 mix of synchronous & asynchronous Completely asynchronous o o o o o
oContent N/A; Lectures delivered synchronously All video lectures 50/50 mix of video and text lectures All text-based lectures o o o o o
o Asynchronous Discussions Optional, for social purposes Mix of graded and non-graded posts Graded o o o
o o oAssessments Self Peer Graded Mix of self and peer assessments Mix of self and graded Mix of peer and graded Mix of all assessment types o o o o o o
Faculty One master-faculty, multiple instructors Two or more faculty collaborators One primary faculty member o o o o o
oClass Size Thousands 100-200 per
course, 15-20 per sub-section
15-20 per course
o o o o o o
Credit Non-credit Certificate or
badge
Credit-bearing
o o o o o o
Pacing Self-paced Mix of pacing
options
Structured pace
o o o o o o
Seven master’s programs completely online
Courses available completely asynchronously, with optional synchronous sessions
Primarily text-based lectures with supplemental recordings
Heavy use of threaded discussions, of a variety of types
Mix of self-, peer-, and graded assessments, aligned with course outcomes
Proposed Summer School Online Course Delivery Factors Delivery Method Completely face-to-face 50/50 hybrid Completely online o o o o o o
Timing Completely synchronous 50/50 mix of synchronous & asynchronous Completely asynchronous
Content N/A; Lecturesdelivered synchronously All video lectures 50/50 mix of video and text lectures All text-based lectures
o o o o o o Asynchronous Discussions Optional, for social purposes Mix of graded and non-graded posts Graded o o o
o o oAssessments Self Peer Graded Mix of self and peer assessments Mix of self and graded Mix of peer and graded Mix of all assessment types o o o o o o
Faculty One master-faculty, multiple instructors Two or more faculty collaborators One primary faculty member o o o o o o
Class Size Thousands 100-200 per
course, 15-20 per sub-section
15-20 per course
o o o o o o
Credit Non-credit Certificate or
badge
Credit-bearing
o o o o o o
Pacing Self-paced Mix of pacing
options
Structured pace
Proposed 2U Course Delivery Factors Delivery Method Completely face-to-face 50/50 hybrid Completely online o o o o o o
Timing Completely synchronous 50/50 mix of synchronous & asynchronous Completely asynchronous
o o o o o o Content N/A; Lecturesdelivered synchronously All video lectures 50/50 mix of video and text lectures All text-based lectures o o
o o o o Asynchronous Discussions Optional, for social purposes Mix of graded and non-graded posts Graded
o o o o o oAssessments Self Peer Graded Mix of self and peer assessments Mix of self and graded Mix of peer and graded Mix of all assessment types o o
o o o oFaculty One master-faculty, multiple instructors Two or more faculty collaborators One primary faculty member
o o o o o oClass Size Thousands 100-200 per
course, 15-20 per sub-section
15-20 per course
o o o
o o oCredit Non-credit Certificate or
badge
Credit-bearing
o o o o o o
Pacing Self-paced Mix of pacing
options
Structured pace
