Course Design and Development
Whether you are looking to design a new course, redesign an existing course, or fine-tune specific elements of your course design, our instructional designers are here to help.
Buffalo State faculty can take advantage of our professional development opportunities for assistance during course design and development. Consultations with an instructional designer are also available for individualized support.
Instructional Design Services
Course Design Consultation
Request a course design consultation to plan, organize, design, or re-design elements of your courses. Common examples include:
- Organizing your course layout (e.g. modules, weeks)
- Incorporate interactive elements into Brightspace webpages
- Designing collaborative, group, or peer activities
- Designing authentic assessments
- Adding video in your course (e.g. screencasts, tutorials/demonstrations, module/unit overviews)
- Designing a new course
- Redesigning, adapting, or re-organizing an existing course for another modality or format (face-to-face, hybrid, online, flipped, etc.)
Prepare for a Course Design Review (OSCQR)
Are you planning to go through the Course Design Review (OSCQR) process? Working with an instructional designer before beginning a Course Design Review can help ensure a smooth and speedy review process. Together, we'll assess your needs as well as the needs of your course and students to determine ways to incorporate instructional design best practices in your specific context. Combining OSCQR standards with the differences of each faculty member creates a unique course design experience for each faculty member.
During your consultation, an instructional designer will provide customized recommendations and strategies as well as individualized support.
Schedule a consultationOnline Course Development Series
About
The Online Course Development series will guide participants through a systematic approach to the design and development of online synchronous, online asynchronous, and hybrid courses. Participants will be equipped to make design decisions that support interaction, student engagement, authentic learning and assessment, and meaningful integration of technology. This series will benefit instructors seeking to design or refresh an online or hybrid course.
Within each module, participants will put design strategies into practice by designing and developing different aspects of their course, receiving feedback from peers and instructional designers. By the end of the series, participants will have designed and developed one complete week or module of an online or hybrid course and will use a selection of standards from the OSCQR rubric to conduct a self-review of the week/module developed. Participants who fulfill all course requirements will earn a certificate of completion.
Outcomes
By earning this certificate, you will be able to:
- Utilize a systematic approach to guide course design and development
- Develop measurable learning objectives that include the audience, behavior, condition, and degree
- Design and develop formative and summative assessments that align with learning objectives
- Design and develop learning activities for online or hybrid learning that align with learning objectives
- Incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL), student choice, and/or authentic assessment into content, assessments, and learning activities
- Develop content, learning activities, and course structure for online/hybrid learning
- Create a plan for regular and substantive interaction (RSI)
- Use selected standards from the Open SUNY Course Quality Review (OSCQR) rubric to conduct a partial self-review of your fully developed week/module
Schedule, Time Commitment, and Format
The Online Course Development series is offered in an online asynchronous format. Participants can expect to spend about 3-5 hours per module, including completing structured activities and individual work on courses (approximately 18-30 hours over 6 modules).
The Online Course Development series is typically offered twice a year - once in the spring/summer and once in the fall. The workshop registration system will list any current offerings of this series. Instructional Design and Distance Learning reserves the right to modify the training schedule and offerings based on campus needs, attendance, and availability of Instructional Design and Distance Learning staff.
Prerequisites
Faculty interested in participating in the Online Course Development series should have experience with educational technology, and basic computer functions, and should have earned the SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Certificate or completed Brightspace training.
If interested in learning about the functionality of educational technology, faculty can schedule an appointment to request training on Brightspace, YuJa Enterprise Video Platform, Turnitin, and Microsoft 365. By contrast, the Online Course Development series addresses broader technology skills, pedagogy, and logistics involved in teaching online and hybrid at Buffalo State.