Four Design Phases

An instructional designer, media specialist, and librarian work collaboratively with instructors through the design phases, providing support and guidance along the way. We refer to this collaboration of colleagues as a "design team." We estimate that both the instructor and instructional designer will need to put in 80-100 hours during the term to develop the online course. Depending on a project's scope, the design team collectively determines which steps in the design phases are needed. Please review the design phases below.

Design Phases: (1) Analysis; (2) Big Picture Design; (3) Content Development; and (4) Review & Revision

Phase 1: Analysis

Course Design Guide

The design team should first familiarize themselves with the design process, standards, and tools outlined in the Course Design Guide prior to participating in the Design Cycle. This will help orient the team and prepare them for the course development Kick-off Meeting.

Needs Assessment

The instructor should reflect on the course learning goals, technical requirements or limitations, and activities/assignments that will help students achieve the learning goals. Course and program evaluation data can help inform these areas. This information should be shared with the design team during the Kick-off Meeting and will help define the project scope.

Kick-off Meeting

The design team attends a 1-hour course development kick-off meeting facilitated by the instructional designer to discuss areas that need development or redesign. Based on this information, the instructional designer helps set the project scope, design process, design schedule, project expectations, and communication mode & frequency among team members.

Phase 2: Big Picture Design

Syllabus

We'll begin by creating or revising the syllabus (if needed), which includes the course learning outcomes, assessments, and grading rubrics. Beginning with the syllabus helps focus development on student learning and understanding. A syllabus template that follows UW course syllabus expectations will be provided as a resource.

Course Outline

Next, the instructor will be asked to create a course outline that includes module topics, objectives, resources, learning activities, and assignments. This provides the design team with a structured framework for the course. A simple course outline template will be provided.

Alignment

Within the course outline, we'll map module objectives to course learning outcomes and to resources, activities, and assignments. This practice helps ensure that activities, assessments, and learning goals are all well linked.

Instructional Materials

The librarian within the design team can provide guidance and support with course resources if desired (e.g., Open Education Resources (OERs), research or information literacy guide(s), recorded workshops/tutorials, etc.).

We'll also determine if videos will be created and discuss procedures for planning, recording, and editing.

Phase 3: Content Development

Content & Design

The instructor first develops content for Module 1, and the instructional designer builds it in the Development (DEV) Shell. The design team reviews Module 1 and agrees on a design that will be applied to all modules in the course. The instructor then develops content for the remaining modules, and the instructional designer builds the content in the DEV Shell.

Course Workload Estimator

As content is developed, the instructional designer completes a Course Workload Estimator to track the amount of direct instruction and out-of-class work to ensure the course meets credit-hour/workload expectations. (See Standard 1: Course Organization & Navigation for information about the Course Workload Estimator.)

Phase 4: Review & Revision

Design Team Review

Upon completion of the DEV Shell, the design team reviews it for any errors and/or typos and makes any needed edits. The instructional designer also finalizes the Course Workload Estimator.

Quality Assurance (QA) Review

The instructional designer initiates a QA Review Request. Two trained reviewers then conduct a review of the DEV Shell alongside the Course Design Standards (see Module 2 for information about the Design Standards). The QA results are shared with the design team within two weeks. If the course does not meet all of the standards, the design team will have an opportunity to revise the course and resubmit a 2nd QA Review Request. Once the course meets all of the standards, payment will be released to the instructor for their work, and the instructional designer will copy the DEV Shell into a Master Shell for the instructor to maintain.

Readings and Resources List

While the QA Reviewers are conducting the review, the instructor is encouraged to build their course "Readings and Resources" list, found in the left-hand navigation menu of the DEV Shell. Designing a readings and resources list helps to provide students easy access to course readings across a variety of platforms, including UW Libraries eBooks, books, journal articles, streaming media, as well as outside resources like websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more. This works to promote accessibility and affordability for students within the course. Here are some resources to help you get started:

Note:

The Design Phases are inspired by Backward Design and the ADDIE instructional design framework. For more information about these frameworks, consider these resources:

Backward Design. The logic of backward design suggests a planning sequence for curriculum in three stages: 1) learning objectives; 2) assessments; and 3) learning activities.
ADDIE. This instructional design model is an acronym for the five stages of its development process: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.