Step Two: Develop and Build

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The development and build of a course sees the material planned in the design stage take form in an online environment. HuskyCT Next Generation is the course enterprise system UConn uses for delivering its online content. Depending on a faculty member’s interest and technology skills, they and the eCampus team can work together to achieve the following steps.

Decide on a Course Structure for the HuskyCT Section

Once your course components are developed and aligned, you will need to determine how they will be organized in HuskyCT. eCampus provides a blueprint that ensures QM, ADA/ accessibility compliance, and common web standards are met.

The image below shows a typical course home page for a UConn online course supported by eCampus. eCampus staff assist professors with the creation of banner images, course layout, and a variety of other course architecture blueprints and plans designed to promote ease of use by students and faculty alike. eCampus standards also address issues of accessibility and ADA compliance in online courses. Contact eCampus to discover how we can assist you in this area.

Gather and Develop Instructional Materials.

Much of the material you will use for your course will come from face-to-face courses you have taught. Some of this material will need to be digitized, recreated, and/or substituted to meet web, copyright, and accessibility guidelines. The instructional design team along with University Libraries will also assist in finding, digitizing, or even creating new materials specifically for the online learning environment. Annotated PowerPoint slides and course notes are just two examples of instructional materials possible in your online course.

Create Activities, Assessments, Assignments, Discussions & Blogs

Once you have learning objectives to guide you and a course plan in place, you will need to build out all the elements of the course in Blackboard. In addition to building the discussions, activities, assessments, etc., grading criteria and rubrics will need to be created and placed in the course and settings will need to be applied to make the elements available to students and liked to the grade book. In limited amounts, Video Content can be very effective.

Complete Syllabus

The syllabus will have the typical elements of a face-to-face course but also need to include elements specific to the online environment. Examples include technology requirements, minimum technical skills, proctoring information, preferred contact method for office hours and communication at a distance, etiquette expectations, links to on campus resources like the Library, UITS, and Digital Learning Center.

During this phase, a faculty member will:

Work with eCampus staff to determine the best overall structure for the course
Guide instructional design team’s development and build process
Gather materials and ensure they meet Federal ADA and Copyright requirements
Review and become familiar with how to run the online course
Build components when appropriate
Provide information for syllabus

During this phase, an instructional designer will:

Provide project management support
Familiarize the faculty with eCampus’ HuskyCT blueprint
Implement the plan outline in the design and development documents, time lines, curriculum alignment guides, and course development frameworks
Review content and materials for alignment with Quality Matters and web design principles
Build the course in HuskyCT
Provide customized build and development support for unique faculty and situational needs

During this phase, Quality Matters has standards that specifically apply to the following:

Course Overview and Introduction (1.1-1.8)
Instructional Materials (4.1-4.6)
Learner Interaction and Engagement (5.1-5.4)
Course Technology (6.1-6.5)
Learner Support (7.1-7.4)
Accessibility (8.1-8.4)

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