1st Edition
Creating Your Signature Online Course Design, Tone, and Narrative in Digitized Instruction
Creating Your Signature Online Course guides educators through the development of engaging, efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and narrative-rich online learning spaces.
Despite the availability of numerous visual and textual communication tools and user-friendly learning management systems, instructors and support staff need concrete strategies for designing digital and online higher education courses that emphasize the appeal and relevance of the subject, reflect the instructor’s presence, and inspire students. Grounded in research and theory from psychology, instructional design, user and learner experience design, graphic arts, and storytelling, this book accessibly and practically showcases how teachers can leverage effective multimedia resources alongside their own expertise to meet students’ needs. These fresh insights into instructional goals, learner identity, tonal qualities, narrative aesthetics, student feedback, and more reveal how charismatic virtual course designs can empower learners and tap into their mindsets and literacies.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction and Models of Practice
Chapter 2. Inquire
Chapter 3. Understand Your Learners
Chapter 4. Envision the Course Tone
Chapter 5. Define the Narrative
Chapter 6. Make It Visual
Chapter 7. Get the Reviews and Listen
Index
Biography
Kimberly A. Hall is Senior Instructional Designer at Tufts University, USA. She has over 20 years of experience in online learning, educational technology, and faculty development across universities, nonprofits, and independent consultancy.
"Creating Your Signature Online Course is an indispensable guide for instructional designers and online instructors alike. Just when I thought we couldn’t offer more nuance regarding development of quality online courses, author Kimberly Hall expertly distills complex concepts into clear, actionable steps that transforms eLearning and online course design into an engaging experience. With practical tips and proven strategies, this book empowers instructors to create high-quality, student-centered courses in the ever-evolving online environment."
—Robert Gibson, Dean, ITAS and Director, Instructional Design, Wichita State University and Wichita State University Tech, USA"Kimberly Hall makes a compelling case that online learning is at its best when designers emphasize the human side of the work. By combining years of experience with accessible interpretations of research, Hall identifies concrete ways to center both the faculty vision and the student experience in digital learning in higher education."
—William Wisser, PhD, Sr. Director, Teaching and Learning Lab, Lecturer in Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA"Drawing on the fields of design and learning science, Kimberly Hall convincingly argues that successful courses engage students emotionally. Teachers and designers will find concrete examples, tools, and techniques for bringing out the uniqueness, excitement, and passion in a course and conveying them through verbal, visual, and organizational design choices."
—Jennifer Spohrer, PhD, Director of Educational and Scholarly Technology, Bryn Mawr College, USA"Instructors and course designers will find Kimberly Hall’s book to be well-researched, engaging, and practical; a nuanced, sophisticated guide to online course design. Building on fundamental principles of organization, layout, structure, usability, and assessment, Hall emphasizes human, interpersonal, and empathic design elements, including accessibility, diversity and inclusion, storytelling, and collaboration."
—Todd S. Gernes, Associate Professor of History, Stonehill College, USA"Creating Your Signature Online Course provides useful overviews of popular design models with strategies that support the development of learner-focused, flexible online courses. Detailed examples from well-designed courses providing inspiration serve to promote reflection on strategies for strong course design."
—Sherri Place, Director of Instructional Design and Content Strategy, Wharton Online in the Aresty Institute of Executive Education, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA"To any instructional designer able to partner in-depth with an instructor and interested in revealing the 'narrative' inherent in all courses, Kimberly’s book, rooted in the human elements of course design, offers meaningful advice for designing an online course that can engage learners effectively."
—Daniel Jamous, PhD, Chief Academic Technology Officer, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, USA"Creating Your Online Signature Course is a great book for a faculty member or an instructional designer. It covers all the things you don’t always think about but that can make the greatest differences in your course."
—Courtney S. Plotts, PhD, National Chair of the Council For At-Risk Student Education and Professional Standards, and author of Learning and Online Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officers
