Get Started with Course Development
Online courses that meet specified course quality standards benefit both students and instructors. Students benefit from the consistency and transparency found in a well-developed online course which leads to student retention, increased engagement and higher success rates. Instructors benefit from a set of clear benchmarks that can guide them in the development, instruction, and revision stages of teaching an online course. These standards offer best practices for quality online instruction.
Whether you're starting from scratch or improving an existing course, we're here to support you every step of the way. Work one-on-one with our experienced instructional design team to create engaging, accessible and effective learning experiences - online, hybrid or in person.
What You Can Expect
Building a course with LEAD is a simple five-step process.
- Initiate: Connect with a LEAD Instructional Designer and meet with them to discuss the timeline, needs and next steps. You'll want to have a draft of your syllabus handy!
- Develop: Here we guide you through planning learner outcomes, assessments and the course layout. This includes the creation of course materials, learning activities and other multimedia.
- Review: Using the MUS Principles of Quality Online Course Design Rubric and Course Checklist, we guide you through reviewing your course materials and prepare to go live!
- Support: You may request support with your instructional design team as needed.
- Reflect: Evaluate the effectiveness of your course using the student outcomes and course feedback or evaluations. Here you'll want to meet with your ID team to further discuss improvements or changes to the course.
For a more detailed information, download the Course Development Process PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Instructional Design is a discipline that draws on theories and practices from Education, Psychology, Communication and Technology. An instructional designer partners with subject matter experts such as faculty members, for both face-to-face and online learning environments, to design the best teaching strategies to achieve target outcomes within your courses.
Contact a LEAD Instructional Designer for a consultation, sign up for one of our or .
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LEAD provides support for any course using technology, especially Canvas, to enhance learning. This includes online, hybrid and in-person courses.
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with an Instructional Designer to get answers to questions about Canvas, or through the UM Solutions Center.
One of the fastest ways to get 24/7 live help with Canvas-specific questions (content/activity settings, course import tool, using Canvas features, etc.) is to leverage the Canvas Live Chat or Phone Hotline. After logging into Canvas, select the HELP button, located on the left-side Global Navigation menu and choose from the support options available.
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To get started using Canvas, complete the self-enrollable, self-paced , which will provide the basics for working in Canvas. Please do this training prior to participating in live trainings, particularly the Canvas Course Building Workshops.
Additional live trainings are posted on , or you can and review our set of Tip Sheets.
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As always, if you use third-party tools outside of the LMS (such as Cengage, Pearson, etc.), make sure they have been previously tested for accessibility, and that you can find those tools in the Canvas environment to avoid delays in adding them.
All third-party tools must be (ATS). Please allow enough time before the start of the semester (at least 4-6 weeks) for testing.
If you are uncertain if a third-party tool has been tested, contact UMOnlineIDs@umontana.edu.
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Yes, the Office of Educational Initiatives and Innovation (EII) has created an Online Course Development Stipend Fund to help incentivize faculty members to design high-quality, for-credit online courses.
Learn more about the Online Course Development Stipend Request process.
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An online course should provide the same instructional hours as an equivalent in-person course. This can be done by recording lecture videos that match what you would present in person, adding engagement activities such as online discussions to replace class and group discussions from an in-person class, and providing short formative assessment activities such as lecture and reading quizzes to determine comprehension of content.
with an instructional designer to learn more.
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Yes, the 猎奇重口 University System (MUS) has outlined five core principles to guide the design and delivery of eLearning courses. These principles cover course design, learning outcomes, assessment, instructional materials, and learner engagement.
Learn more about the MUS Principles of Quality for Online Courses in our best practices section.
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There are some simple steps you can follow to start designing accessible content. The information and tips in this Accessibility Checklist applies to content in Canvas, on a webpage, or in documents that you create and share with others electronically.
Find more information and support on our Improving Digital Accessibility webpage.