Best Practices and Expectations for a Collaborative Course Development

Instructional Designers and faculty developers partner to create FSW's online courses, with a common goal of delivering an engaging and outstanding learning experience for FSW students. At the start of an approved new course development or update, an Instructional Design partner will contact the Faculty Developer to begin the process and introduce the course development blueprint and timeline form. The timeline establishes milestones for content delivery and progress updates, while the course blueprint clearly delineates the responsibilities, deliverables, and expected actions for each development partner. To ensure timely progress and an efficient course development experience, we offer a few tips and guidelines.

What can faculty expect from the Instructional Designer?

• The Instructional Designer will schedule an initial meeting, progress updates, and oversee the development to ensure timely completion and thorough review before the course is delivered in the intended semester.
• Recommend resources and tools that add variety and enhance student engagement

• Advise about potential impacts on the course development, such as:

  • Identifying assessments, activities, and content that do not align with a learning objective
  • Identifying changes to learning content that may impact the course objectives and assessments

What can Instructional Designers expect from the Faculty Developers?

• Deliver course information and learning content in accordance with the Course Blueprint and associated timeline
• Develop the Course Overview, Student Welcome, and Module Overviews
• Provide feedback that helps develop the subject matter
• Contribute to the continual update and improvement of the course content
• Maintain Master Courses as needed
• See CNA Article 8.1.1 sections C & D

Instructional Design Levels of Service: Consultant, Collaborator, Concierge

Level 1: Consultant

For faculty seeking guidance and recommendations. Our Consultant service provides you with expert advice on instructional design best practices, course structure, and content development. The FSW Online template will be provided. You will receive feedback and suggestions to enhance your course on request, but you will be responsible for designing and developing content (creating the module structure, creating assignments, etc.) and ensuring the course meets QM essential standards, including the accessibility standards (closed captioning, alt text for images, PDF remediation). Once you complete the course development, it will be submitted for an internal review in its current state. Required and recommended revisions will be completed by the faculty developer.

Level 2: Collaborator

For faculty looking for a partnership. Our Collaborator service involves working together with an instructional designer to co-create and refine your course. In this service model, you will collaborate to create a course development schedule, providing the instructional designer with critical course resources (preliminary course map, textbook access, OER materials, courseware integration, etc.) up front, and establish required regular standing meetings for content development and shared course development responsibilities. An instructional designer will assist you in the creation of a variety of instructional materials, learning activities, and assessments and will help to ensure alignment with course and module learning objectives, and meet QM standards.

Level 3: Concierge

For faculty desiring comprehensive support. Our Concierge service offers end-to-end instructional design assistance. This level of service provides the most hands-on support. A structured schedule of deliverables will be established, such as a completed course map upfront. Faculty members are responsible for providing the course content (assignments, learning activities, assessments, etc.) and the instructional designer then creates and organizes the course content in Canvas and incorporates design elements, ensuring your course meets high standards of quality and engagement.

Online Course Development