Creighton University

To ensure Creighton Unversity online courses incorporate commonly accepted best practices, the following processes have been established. BlueLine, the University's learning management system, is used for all online courses and the online portion of hybrid courses.  Additional information about the tools available in BlueLine as well as other instructional technologies available may be found under the Faculty Resources menu to the left.

Process for New Online Course Development 

1.  Contact your Dean to complete the necessary paperwork for the Online Course Review Team (OCRT).

2.  An instructional designer assigned to work with you on developing your online course will contact you via email to set up an initial meeting. 

3.  In this initial meeting the instructor and the designer will have a conversation to inform the designer about the course.  In general, the designer will need: 

• Learning objectives for the course 
• A copy of the course syllabus 
• How student learning is currently assessed, or a vision for how it could be assessed 
• Learning experiences in which  the students currently engage or ideas for learning experiences 
• Information about the audience for the course (how many students, entry-level or post-professional students, general location of students, etc.) 
• To observe a face-to-face class session if the course is currently taught on-ground. 
• Instructor's ideas and concerns about creating the course for the online environment 
• Instructional materials already created by the instructor.

4.  The designer collaborates with the instructor to develop a prototype of a partial course using the Academic Affairs Online Course Design Rubric [link] as a guide.

5.  The designer and instructor review the prototype and identify changes needed.

6.  The designer makes necessary changes in the course structure.

7.  The designer and instructor engage the graphic artist/multimedia specialists and copyright librarian as needed.

8.  The instructor and designer review edited course prototype course and finalize the course design structure. 

9.  Work is completed on the course using the agreed upon design structure and learning materials provided by the instructor.

10. The instructor works with the designer to become proficient in using the technologies employed within the course.

11. The instructor and designer review the course and make changes as needed.

12. The instructor contacts the OCRT chair to arrange for a time to meet with the committee to review the course.

13. The course is reviewed by the OCRT. 

14.  OCRT either approves the course or provides the instructor with changes identifeid by the OCRT. 

15.  In the event changes are needed the instructor works with the chair of the OCRT to gain final approval for the course.

Editing Existing Online Courses

Editing of existing online courses is accomplished by the course's instructor(s).  If an existing course needs to be redesigned the instructor contacts an instructional designer and the process and timeline for new course development is followed.

While the process for online course development is nearly the same all classes on campus, the timeline to develop them differs for University College summer classes than from classes for the Graduate school. University College online classes are traditionally offered during the summer session and need to be reviewed prior to student registration.  As such development begins in the fall semester to meet a deadline of February 1st for submission to be reviewed.

University College Summer Session Online Courses

September

The instructor, as the content expert, collaborates with the instructional designer to develop a strategy to develop online course content and sound online instructional practices

Items Discussed

• Begin to schedule a course development timeline 
• Consider potential student demographic 
• Develop course objectives 
• Look into potential learning activities 
• Consider various online assessment strategies 
• Begin narrowing the course technical specifications (and this will mean  hardware/software/Internet connectivity as well as student skills) 
• Look at building off the existing course syllabus 
• Look at building off the existing course content 
• Examine different potential course structures (Organizing content by Day, Week or Topic)

Items Produced

• Course Development timeline 
• Course Objectives 
• Assessment Strategy 
• Create a course site for development

October

First online lesson is completed. Course structure, Objectives and Assessment plan established. Student work flow is clear and easily communicated.

Items Discussed

• Develop a student to instructor interaction plan 
• Develop a student to student interaction plan
• Look into potential course materials and content
• Daily and Weekly student "work flow" 

Items Produced

• Course outline and Structure 
• Develop a daily and weekly Student "work flow" 
• List course content that needs to be produced (Audio recordings, etc.)
• Design student to instructor interaction plan
• First learning module completed

November

Course content development continues adhering to the established course structure and initial module design.

Items Discussed

Discuss the integration of external sites and sources. (You Tube, reference web sites, etc.)

Items Produced

• Following the student to instructor interaction plan, integrate interactive elements into course design (Discussion Forums, etc.) 
• Multimedia elements are produced (Audio podcasts, etc.) 
• External sites and resources are collected

December

Development continues. Considering finals and the vacation scheduling, December is limited to continued development.

January

Incorporate required technical information - conduct final edits

Items Discussed

Outstanding issues with design or content

Items Produced

• Mapping back to the course objectives, Course Assessments are built
• All technical requirements are posted for the students in the course
• Course Syllabus is posted along with faculty introduction 
• A student introduction forum is built

February 1

Submit for OCRT review. Review and address the suggested changes submitted by OCRT into the existing course design.

March

Complete course development. Begin training on specific functionality in BlueLine as needed.

The timeline for online classes through the graduate school is driven by the start date of the class.  A simplified relative timeline is below.

4 months prior to course start date (or sooner): 

• Paperwork for Online Course Review Team (OCRT) is completed
• Engage in faculty development activities through the Office for Academic Excellence to prepare to teach online 
• Initial contact and meeting between course instructor and instructional designer to set course development timeline and schedule

3 months prior to course start date:

• Development of the first online lesson is completed and a course structure is established

2 months prior to course start date:

• Course build is completed 
• Instructor works with instructional designer to become proficient with technologies used in the course 
• Course reviewed by OCRT

1-4  weeks prior to start date:

• Instructor and designer complete final edits required by the OCRT

Academic: Debra Sturges, Head of Access Services in the Reinert-Alumni Library provides copyright support for the academic side of campus.

• Debra Sturges
  402-280-4756
  dsturges@creighton.edu

Medical: Ms. Judy Bergjord from the Health Sciences Library provides copyright support for the medical side of campus for online courses by assisting faculty seeking copyright permissions or with general copyright questions.

• Ms. Judy Bergjord
  402-280-5199
  bergjord@creighton.edu