New Courses: From Concept to Development

Where do ideas for new courses come from?

As you would expect , there is not just one path for ideas or concepts to become Performance Learning Systems courses. New ideas come from college-partners, participant and facilitator suggestions, and educational trends.

College-partners

Sometimes college-partners request courses be developed for a specific degree program. This was the case for “Building Online Collaborative Environments,” “Blended and Synchronous Learning Design,” “Using Online Resources to Bring Primary Resources to the Classroom,” “Instructional Design for Online Educators,” “Action Research for the Classroom,” and “Action Research for the E-Learning Environment.” Requests by a college-partner actually benefit all partners because once the course is developed, all partner institutions have the opportunity to credit the course.

Participants

In all online courses, participants are surveyed twice, first through a Midpoint Survey and second through the final Course Evaluation. A question asked in the Midpoint Survey is “are there additional courses you would like to see PLS offer?” An example of participant requested courses is “Teaching the English Language Learner.” In addition to participant requests for the course, several college-partners also requested an ELL course. More examples of participant or facilitator requested courses are the math and science courses currently offered or under construction.

Educational Trends

In addition to requests, the Online Task Force (Dr. Kathy Schmied, Michele Gill and Pam Vreeland) look at trends in the field of education. What are the hot topics? What are our competitors offering? What topics and articles are PLS’ researchers highlighting? These ideas are generated into a possible course offering list. Ideas for new courses are sent to college-partners to see if there is a market for such courses. A couple of examples of courses developed based on this scenario include “Simulations and Gaming Technologies for the Classroom,” “Educating the Net-Generation,” and “Cultural Competence: A Transformative Journey.”

What else is considered?

Just because a course idea seems like a viable one does not necessarily mean the course goes into production. College-partner interest, instructional designer availability, and identification of a Subject Matter Expert are prime considerations for whether or not a course goes into the development process.

What courses are under construction or consideration?

Courses targeting the arts, literacy, reading, and math are under development or consideration.

Have an idea for a potential course?

Please email or add a comment with your ideas!