Texas Tech University

Instructional Design

The Worldwide eLearning Instructional Design (ID) Team is dedicated to supporting quality standards in course production. As specialists in best practices for online and blended course design and development, our ID Team can provide support in content organization, communication tools, ADA compliance, lecture capture technologies, and much more. See below for details on the many ways we can assist you with your course production. To ensure that one of our team members is available, please make an appointment by calling (806) 742-7227 or sending an email

The ID team also provides training and support for the use of student response polling solution ("clickers").

Course Design Elements

Assessment

The Worldwide eLearning Instructional Design (ID) Team offers informal consultations to help you select the best type of assessments for your online course and to create your assessments for online delivery.

We provide two tools for using Tests in Blackboard: Respondus Quiz Tool is a software tool that we can teach you to use to create and manage exams and the Respondus LockDown Browser can be used to deter cheating by locking down the online testing environment and preventing printing, copying, accessing a Website, or e-mail.

Online Lectures

Worldwide eLearning's Instruction Design Team can assist faculty and instructors in using and understanding the following software applications to create lecture/presentation materials for delivery in an online course.

Promoting Student Interaction

Actively engaging your students in the learning experience is critical to their success in an online course. This resource offers ideas on how to incorporate meaningful interaction in a welcoming online learning environment.

Virtual Meetings

The Instructional Design Team offers consultations on how to incorporate virtual meetings into your online course. We also demonstrate Blackboard Collaborate. 

Wikis and Blogs

Wikis and Blogs help to facilitate a learner-centered environment while encouraging communication and collaboration between students. These resources further explain the purpose of wikis and blogs and will help guide you in the use of these tools. From pedagogy to technical assistance on how to start, maintain, and implement them into your instruction, the ID staff is here to help you use wikis and blogs effectively.

Tools

Blackboard Collaborate

Using Collaborate to incorporate synchronous interaction in your online course can help to create a sense of human connection while fostering a positive online learning community for students.

Online Accessibility Lab

When teaching online, all course content must be accessible to those students with disabilities. The purpose of the Online Accessibility Lab is to assist faculty members and instructors in making their electronic course materials comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) including: captioning, audio descriptions, accessibility evaluation and creating accessible content.

Mediasite

A great way to deliver and/or supplement classroom content is to offer students access to recorded lectures. Mediasite, available in various locations around the campus including the TLPDC's Mediasite & Video Recording Studio, can help you capture lectures and presentations for hybrid or online courses.

Software

Adobe Presenter

Adobe Presenter offers multiple ways to record lectures. Presenter is a free download for the Texas Tech Community.

Resources

ADA Compliance

Worldwide eLearning is committed to ensuring accessibility in online courses, and the ID team offers educational sessions and consultations on ADA compliance.

Copyright

Understanding and complying with copyright laws can be challenging, especially in an online environment. The ID Team supports copyright in online courses by recommending the correct use of media and documents posted online. One great example is the posting of journal articles. Many articles are readily available via Texas Tech's subscription to educational databases such as ERIC (EBSCO), JSTOR, ProQuest, and WorldCat. Let us help you locate a legal and accessible (ADA compliant) version of your journal articles to share in your online course.

Quality Standards

To assist faculty and instructors with their online course design and development, the Instructional Design Team has created the Online Course Design Rubric which outlines best practices and standards for quality online courses. We recommend using this rubric to design and/or evaluate your course as it will help you to identify the elements necessary for a quality online course.

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