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The purpose of this exercise is to help you think about the role that multimedia can play in your particular course and to generate ideas for integrating multimedia appropriately. At least a small amount of audio or visual elements helps to keep interest and is even necessary for learning some types of content. However, media is a tool, and like all tools it must be used appropriately to be effective. After a brief tour of a few exemplary courses, we will explore the advantages that multimedia can bring to students’ learning experiences — both original media that you might create yourself and online repositories of content created by others.

Soon you will begin putting your course design to work, building your actual course in Blackboard. In this activity, you can see how other online instructors have set up their course(s). Blackboard company’s Exemplary Course Program uses a rubric similar to the Quality Matters rubric to gauge the quality of online course design, and award winners receive recognition at the company’s annual conference. A sampling of award winning courses is provided below for your research and reflection. If you are interested in entering your course design into the Exemplary Course Program, feel free to do so. You are invited to browse the list, as appropriate.

Activity Directions

As time allows, visit one or more of the following course tours which related to your area of teaching to explore online courses with excellent course design:

• Liberal Arts and Humanities
  • Beginning Japanese – Hands-on assignments, the use of synchronous Lab, speaking quizzes, and application of small language games.
  • American Literature – Predictability navigation (course content is organized into Modules), oral video presentation assignments and peer-review.
• Fine and Applied Arts
  • Commonwealth of the Arts – How-to-take-this-course video, use of “Course Map”, and interactive projects.
  • Fundamentals of Digital Media – Consistency of module display and the use of RSS feeds in student blogs.
• Science and Engineering
  • Dual Credit Idaho Science and Aerospace Scholars – The use of Problem-based Learning and interactive simulations.
  • Intro to Biology – The use of “to-do” modules and the layout of course calendar.
  • Applied Regression Analysis – The use of glossary and use of a student-led forum to improve leadership skills
• Business and Law
  • Wellness Management – The use of small, identifiable icons that distinguish the specific type of contents and activities. Then use of Wiki.
  • Small Business Management – Video case studies, the explicit alignment of assessments and learning outcomes, and use blogs as reflective activities.
• Social Sciences and Education
  • General Psychology – Layout uses logical redundancy across modules therefore students know where to go.
  • Integrated Methods for Teaching Elementary Reading and Writing – An alternate way of structuring content using Blackboard Learning Modules.
  • Globalization & World Politics – The use of forum debates.
  • Intro to Sociology – The use of digital posters and voice threads. Also a sample of UDL.
• Health and Medical Sciences
  • Nursing – Featured the use of forums to discuss cases and probe questions in specific work environments.
  • Developmental Pediatric Occupational Therapy Practice – At-home lab experiment activities and recorded video presentations.
  • Oral Radiology – Explicit policies and requirements page.