How do I get started?
It can be a little intimidating to create an online writing class either from the ground up, from a course you inherited from someone, or to try and convert your face-to-face writing class to an online writing class. Even if you have a lot of support or you've used a lot of digital technology in your normal face-to-face classes, the task of creating an online writing course can still be daunting. Online writing instruction is a completely different modality than face-to-face courses and you have to create your course specifically for the online modality.
There are so many things to think about when designing an online writing course. Some of these things will be second nature and others might be new challenges. The length of courses can have an impact in how you design your writing assignments. Whether it is a 6-week course, a 10-week course, or a 16-week course, the goals for each are the same but the difficult task is trying to achieve those goals in less than half the time of some of the longer courses.
We always suggest mapping out your course before you jump into the learning management system and build it. Mapping can be done by hand, in a spreadsheet, or a regular text document. We suggest a mapping process that takes into account the following:
Additional Resources:
There are so many things to think about when designing an online writing course. Some of these things will be second nature and others might be new challenges. The length of courses can have an impact in how you design your writing assignments. Whether it is a 6-week course, a 10-week course, or a 16-week course, the goals for each are the same but the difficult task is trying to achieve those goals in less than half the time of some of the longer courses.
We always suggest mapping out your course before you jump into the learning management system and build it. Mapping can be done by hand, in a spreadsheet, or a regular text document. We suggest a mapping process that takes into account the following:
- the term length
- the course goals/outcomes
- the number of projects/writing assignments the students need to create
- the skills and knowledge they will need to complete those projects
Additional Resources:
- In addition to considering the items above, we also highly recommend you read Blythe's (2001) piece, Designing Online Courses: User-Centered Practices which was ahead of it's time in thinking about the lack of training instructors get in how to design online writing courses.
- We also encourage you to check out our article on the PARS Online Course Development Cycle (see below).
Continuous Delivery: A PARS Online Course Development Cycle (2022)
This article explores applying User-Experience (UX) research and a software development approach called Continuous Delivery (CD) to the process of designing, developing, and maintaining online courses. We will illustrate how readers can use our PARS (personal, accessible, responsive, strategic) framework, UX best practices, and CD to create more accessible content for the users of their online courses.
