General Principles for Course Development

Study guides and online courses have characteristics of both textbooks and workbooks which adds a tutorial element and sets the stage for a relationship between the student and the instructor. To foster student learning, these principles are useful to keep in mind:

• Be Direct
  It is suggested that when you write, speak directly to a single student, using a conversational tone where appropriate (as in study notes and assignment directions).  Refer to the reader as “you” and to yourself as “I,” just as you would in a letter to a friend.  Your classroom lecture style may be best suited for the Discussion section of the study guide.
• Define Terms
  You may want to provide a glossary, either in each unit or in a separate appendix for technical terms or colloquialisms.
• Break Up Text
  To keep students’ attention and draw them through the text, you may want to break up long discussions by using short paragraphs and subheads. 
• Put the Student in Control
  To satisfy various learning styles, making assigned material available in a variety of formats and media is suggested.  Providing students with several types of problems to work from in written assignments or self-tests, will also benefit individual learning styles.

Pre-Development Considerations

The study guide and online course contain goals, objectives, a discussion of important points, required reading, practice or self-help exercises and written assignments. When developing a Flexible Learning course, remember that to encourage the student to begin promptly, it is recommended that he/she be able to complete the first assignment in two to four hours. After the first lesson, a planned time investment on the part of the student should be at least five to eight hours for each lesson.  In estimating lesson length, consider the reading assignment, study guide discussion, and written assignment. Standard course format calls for recommended study requirements to be listed in the introduction to the study guide/online course or in the lessons.

• Course Evaluations
  Comprehensive course evaluations assist with improving courses, instruction, and services.  The student is sent a standard course evaluation form requesting appraisal of several areas—instructional materials, teaching, examinations, and overall satisfaction. For WebCT courses, the evaluations are contained within the course shell.
• Textbook Selection
  It is not necessary to use the same text that is being used on campus; however, a comparable text is necessary.  Some texts are more adaptable to open enrollment than others.  The selection of a text is at the instructor’s discretion.  However, it is important to coordinate this with our bookstore manager.  She will contact the publisher to find out if a newer edition is available or being released in the near future.  Notify us as soon as you select a text and provide us with the title, publisher, and ISBN number.  As the shelf life of text books becomes shorter and shorter, we need to make sure we have the most up-to-date version available or that we can still obtain the older books. We encourage the use of materials that are out of copyright or copyleft (open access). Please contact our office for assistance in locating these types of materials.
  Out-of-print books can force the closure of a course until a revision can be made.  To avoid obsolescence, select texts that will be in print for several years whenever possible (a standard text or one published within the past year or two). 
• Examinations & Course Projects
  For essay questions, state your expectation explicitly.  Let students know how wide their answers can range as well as any specific areas they must cover.  Provide an estimate of the answer’s length or how long to spend on it in relation to other parts of the exam.  In your answer key, give the idea response, or list key words or phrases which the student should include in order to receive a passing grade. If you combine a variety of question formats on an exam, for instance, multiple-choice, true-false, identification, and short-answer, you may lower the anxiety of students who have trouble with one particular kind of problem.
  Just as in a classroom-based course, you may require a major project or research paper as an alternative or adjunct to an examination.  Community-based experiences and fieldwork can also be assigned (usually with a written report).

Submitting Course Materials

• Course Materials
  Please email all course files to the course production staff, Joyce Adams, Darral Brown, or Isabel Silver. In the email, please include all files, including any graphics you created on your computer, as well as the name and phone number of the person who created the files. Remember to retain your copy.
• Exams & Answer Keys
  Submit a copy of your exam and the corresponding answer key to Flexible Learning for editing along with your study guide or online course files.  Inclusion of the exam(s) and answer key(s) are mandatory and are a prerequisite to the release of payment to any instructor.
• Graphics
  We can include a wide variety of graphics in study guides and online courses.  If you want to use extensive graphics, check with Course Production when planning your course for information on the form in which graphics should be submitted and what impact this might have on the production schedule. Copyright rules apply equally to graphics.
• Style Manuals and Dictionaries
  We follow either the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., or The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed., with a few differences.  Our preferred dictionary is Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. American Heritage Dictionary is also on our shelves. If there are conventions in your discipline that you want to follow (for example in bibliographies), let the editor know at the start of work on your manuscript.  Whichever format you choose, please follow it consistently while preparing your files.

Course Revisions

Course revision may be dictated by various factors, including:

1. Textbook revision or unavailability.
2. Dated materials, which may necessitate the redevelopment of the course and/or selection of different textbooks and other materials.
3. Redesign in response to student feedback.

Submitting Revisions
If changes in the study guide are not extensive, or if portions of the existing study guide can be salvaged (including graphics and the like), submit a copy of the existing guide with changes, insertions, and other directions clearly marked to the production office along with a printout and disk of the new and revised copy.  This will save time and effort for both author and editor. The editorial, production, and course release processes for revised study guides are the same as for new ones.

Copyright and Permissions

Incorporating the work of others is often essential to the production of useful, attractive study guides and online courses.  Frequently, borrowed material is protected under copyright law. Changes in copyright law, and the general complexity of that law, can make it difficult to sort out what is and what is not protected by copyright. If you're planning on using outside materials in your course and you aren't sure about the copyright, please contact us and we can advise you on finding and selecting materials, and also obtaining permission from the copyright holder. We can also help you develop your own materials like audio recordings and images.

Please notify Flexible Learning early in the study guide preparation process what permissions need to be secured.  We will work with the author to insure that the use of materials is cost effective.  The author will receive assistance on securing the needed permissions. The final editing process does not begin until all permissions have been secured.  Early attention to these issues allows for effective and efficient service to the author.

Also, our Flexible Learning staff is available to help you negotiate copyright and academic use by helping to find copyleft (open access) materials and providing assistance in placing materials under copyright on Library Ereserves. Please contact us for more information.