Instructional Design Resources
The Teaching and Learning Center collaborates with instructors to improve instructional design of online courses. We cover a broad range of topics, including but not limited to the following:
- Creating multimedia assets like video lectures
- Student engagement
- Assessments and rubrics
- Strong course communication and organization
- Accessibility and equity
- Overall course improvement
Be sure to check out our professional development opportunities, such as our exciting instructional design course, ED 283 Effective Online Instruction in Community Colleges.
Below, please find some resources that will help you design an effective online course. Handouts include self-evaluations, so you can measure the effectiveness of your current course designs.
- Planning and Designing your Online Course
- Existing Resources Worksheet
- Faculty Checklist for Evaluating Course Materials - Google Docs
- Online Course Self-Evaluation - (Excel format)
Additionally, please find resources for improving course accessibility below.
Professional Development & Support
The TLC hosts many professional development opportunities. Check out our calendar for upcoming events. We cover a broad range of topics, including but not limited to the following:
- Instructional technologies
- Creating multimedia assets like video lectures
- Student engagement
- Outcomes, assessments
- Rubrics
- Designing syllabi
- Strong course communication and organization
- Accessibility and equity
- Overall course improvement
We also support a robust toolkit of instructional technologies for enriching online classes. Please email us at [email protected] if you need help or have questions.
ED 283 Effective Online Instruction in Community Colleges
The TLC facilitates an instructional design course, free for RCC employees. The course description is below. Please inquire about possible payment for successfully completing this online experience.
This course covers synchronous and asynchronous online course design, management, and best practices for community college instructors. Topics include backward design, content creation, assessment, student engagement strategies, communication with students, accessibility, and equity. By the end of the term students will create one complete lesson ready for online delivery.
The library has compiled some of the books we used when designing ED 283. Feel free to check them out at your leisure: Teaching & Learning eBooks.
Training Opportunities
On top of our professional development sessions, we run a variety of trainings on topics related to outcomes assessment, instructional design, and instructional technologies. Trainings will be listed on our calendar, but you can schedule us for more custom trainings as well.
We do offer some completely online and self-paced trainings for building online courses and improving accessibility. RCC faculty can find out more on our Faculty Support site.
The Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series
The Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS) is a pilot, no-cost, LMS-agnostic training initiative to help augment (not replace) your on-campus faculty training efforts. Harnessing our community of Blackboard users, BITS will share the top strategies and pedagogy for both increasing educator efficiency and improving learning outcomes.
This new pilot program will consist of four, 30-minute “snack-sized” faculty training webinars that will be taught by faculty from higher ed institutions and supported by Blackboard experts. The best practices presented are generalized to apply to whatever LMS you have available at your institution.