Course Design Tools

Quick Links to Topics on this Page:

Course Design, Creating Objectives

Taxonomies - Classification of levels of intellectual behavior that included three overlapping domains; the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.
Preparing e-Learning Designers Using Kolb’s Model of Experiential Learning from the Journal of Online Innovation.
Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain This chart will be your cheat sheet when developing learning objectives. It displays the level of learning, objective definition, sample verbs to use when forming objectives, and sample student behaviors.
Building objectives Tutorial based on Bloom's Taxonomy.
Writing Objectives - a guide based on Bloom's Taxonomy.
Objectives Online Resources - Web sites to help with building objectives.
Nine Principles for Excellence in Web-Based Teaching Collection of important ideas and suggestions for teaching excellence in the online world.
Getting Started With Your First Online Course This excerpt from Sloan-C View is a nice capsule with advice for getting off to a good start. This happens by design, not by accident.
Creativity in an Online Course It is important to involve the learner in the process of discovery and make his own interpretation of what is learned. This paper explores ways to stimulate creativity in an online learning environment.
Instructional Design Handbook from Portland University.

Creativity Online - Engaging Creativity in Online Courses discusses brain-based learning, creativity definition, theories, myths and virtues, and provides tips for online educators.
Instructional Resources - Examples of instructional materials on the web from Learning Peaks. The list covers various disciplines and shows strategies and interactions.
Tips and Trick for Teaching Online from the Online Education Department at Dallas Baptist University. This includes tips for designing course content, facilitating and teaching online, developing learning objects, and assessment ideas.
Teaching Tips Index from the University of Hawaii is an extensive list of the practical things that will help you in any teaching environment.
Online Teaching and Learning Resources from the National Education Association
Teaching Tips from the Teaching Resource Center at the University of Virginia. Guides on many topics and also discipline specific advice.
Teaching and Learning Links from the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University.
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learningat Indiana University Northwest.
Teaching and Learning Resources from theTeaching and Learning Center at the University of North Carolina Greensboro
Embedding video links in your course

Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning from George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger, March 2009.
7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education are the powerhouses of educations
Seven Principles of Good Teaching for face-to-face and online classes with examples for each.
Rubric for Online Instruction - What does a quality online course look like? This site provides information and rubrics for six elements on intruction.
21st Century Skills: Tutorials to help teachers learn and use 21st Century skills that students will be expected to be able to use.
8 Steps to 21st Century Learning. Aimed at providing students with skills that corporations will expect them to have.

RubiStar , a site created by 4teachers. It is a free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics. It also has templates by subject.
What Do You Want to Use Technology For? An outline of activities and examples of using technologies to accomplish specific learning goals from the University of Maryland.
icue: NBC News unveiled the free learning platform, This is a pioneering collaborative learning community informed by MIT research that incorporates gaming, discussion and video resources. Core curriculum is U.S. History, Government and Politics and Language Arts.

Student Assessment: Links from a 2-day course on designing effective courses from the University of Calgary.
Assessment Tips from Teaching Tips at University of Hawaii.
Course Assessment Practices in Online Courses from Sloan-C Consortium Journal.