As part of our commitment to provide opportunities for faculty to engage in innovative and forward-thinking pedagogy, the Department of Digital Learning provides support for faculty interested in developing online or blended courses. Our collaborative team-based approach brings together a faculty member, an instructional designer (ID), and various media experts to design courses that promote an interactive, engaging, learner-centered experience for our students.

In alignment with Marquette’s mission to provide inclusive and equitable learning experiences for our students, our IDs work with faculty to ensure that courses meet federal regulations for accessible technology. Furthermore, universal design principles are an integral part of the design process. Our ID team follows Marquette University’s faculty-driven and learner-centered instructional design model, which emphasizes revision and reflection during all stages of the design process to ensure high-quality courses.

Course Development Process

Once a course has been approved, and prior to beginning the course development process, faculty must:

1. Participate in the Course Design Orientation, and
2. Review and sign Marquette University’s Intellectual Property Agreement and Statement of Work for Online Course Development. 

Typically, an online course takes five (5) months to develop. Course development proceeds on an annual calendar and is not interrupted by academic breaks. Over this period, faculty meet with their instructional designer and other members of the Design Team, typically on a weekly basis.

There are five milestones (or stages) during the course development process:

1. Kickoff Meeting
2. Design and Development
3. Course Build-Out 
4. Quality Assurance and Faculty Approval
5. Course Launch

Instructional designers and faculty developing online courses discuss the development schedule at the beginning of the course development process to ensure that the five milestones are completed within the agreed upon period. It is vital that development milestones are met to allow for sufficient time to develop learning activities and assessments, identify instructional materials, create/curate media, and build the course in the Learning Management System (LMS).

Course Support and Review

The course production cycle includes three focused checkpoints where the instructional designer and the faculty meet to review the course. In addition to these checkpoints, the course instructional designer is assigned to assist the faculty for the first ‘live’ run of the course.  The three focused reviews are:

1. Early Course Feedback: Mid-Course Evaluation 
   A mid-course survey is built in the course during the course development stage. During the first ‘live’ run of the course, the instructional designer follows-up with the instructor to review student feedback and identify any immediate changes that can be implemented to improve students’ experience.
2. After First-Course Offering Review
   After a course is taught for the first time, the instructional designer meets with the instructor to review the course and make adjustments as needed. Both faculty and designer take into consideration student performance, student feedback, and any new directions that the faculty member believes would better assist students.
3. Course Redesign
   To maintain course relevance and accuracy, every course is reviewed no more than 3 years from the original design date. During the course redesign process, faculty and instructional designers review every component of the course by following the five milestones of the development process.

For questions, please contact John Blandino, Manager of Learning Technologies