Abstract

One of the predominant themes in higher education discussions these days concerns the role of online education in course and program delivery. With the involvement of Stanford, Harvard, MIT and other distinguished institutions in so-called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), an increasing number of academics and professional journals have turned their attention to how colleges and universities might leverage Web-based platforms, social networking tools, et al., to produce effective and less costly learning experiences. Clearly, online courses can provide a means of broad knowledge dissemination while achieving economies of scale. But how does one ensure the quality of the educational outcome? To that end, this article will focus on essential elements of online course construction, including: course design, content development and packaging, synchronous and asynchronous student/teacher and student/student interaction, and student assessment. In making these recommendations, I will draw upon eight years of online course delivery to undergraduate, graduate, and non-traditional populations.