Building an Online Course at Mason from Start to Finish: A Step-by-Step Guide and Demonstration

Abstract

The presentation will demonstrate the step-by-step processes laid out in the newly developed website for Distance Education (http://distance.gmu.edu/faculty_services/), using the development, implementation, and evaluation of the online version of PSYC 100 to highlight the various steps in the process. To demonstrate the course development, I will focus on the various considerations and decision points that were encountered, providing real examples of how these issues were addressed. Subsequently, I will cover the actual implementation of the course. In this portion of the presentation, I will walk the audience through various parts of the actual course, using examples from the course website and presenting actual student feedback (positive and negative) on each aspect when available. Lastly, I will review the final phase of online course development, which involves evaluating the effectiveness of the course and its comparability to the ground-based version of the course. In this portion of the presentation, I will present data gathered during the piloting of this course, and demonstrate how those data will be used in the final report for the PSYC 100 course. The presentation will also leave time for questions at the end.