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Welcome to Module 4! This module focuses on the final stages of the online course life cycle, namely facilitation and improvement. While designing a high-quality online course is crucial to a great experience for you and your learners, what you do when teaching your course during term and how you improve it after that can be just as impactful as good design.
In the first three modules, we focused on the Nine Events of Instruction framework. For this module, we change gears to focus on the Community of Inquiry framework for online teaching, which we will explain in the coming pages.
In this module, you will be asked to think about the following key questions:
- How can you create a sense of community within an online course?
- How can you support student engagement with course materials and activities during a course offering?
- How will you assess the success of your online course design and plan for changes and improvements?
Credit: University of Waterloo | Image Description (PDF)
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, you should be able to
- identify facilitation strategies that you will use to build your presence and foster an inclusive, supportive environment in your online course;
- create opportunities for learners to engage in meaningful interactions that foster a sense of belonging to a learning community; and
- create a plan for iterative improvement in your online course design and delivery.
Key terms
The following is a list of key terms that you might find useful to review prior to working through the content of this module:
Sections in this module
You can jump to any of the sections in this module by clicking the links below or using the left-side navigation menu.
4.2 Module examples, strategies, and templates
4.3 Introduction to Community of Inquiry framework
4.4 Building teaching presence during term
4.5 Fostering social presence during term
4.6 Assessing and revising your course
4.7 Summary: Facilitating for community
4.8 Resources for further study
Activities in this module
The module activities are designed to help you create materials that you can use while teaching your online course, and for assessing and revising it after term. For ease of use, clicking the provided links will allow you to jump directly to the location of the course where the activity is located.
- Create a welcome announcement A welcome announcement capturing your personality and expertise that you can use in an upcoming course.
- Design a structured synchronous session A detailed plan for a synchronous session for your course.
- Create a plan for assessing and revising A detailed plan for assessing your course.
- Create a checklist A custom document listing online teaching strategies that you plan to use throughout the term.
