Excerpt from Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Online Course in 5 Steps or Less! by online teaching consultant Amanda Dills:

If you are converting a face to face course to an online one on the fly due to the coronavirus- especially if you are totally new to online teaching - the most important thing to do is to give up any preconceived notions you might have about what an online course SHOULD look like. Whatever image of a “typical online course” you have in your mind is probably incomplete or outdated, anyway, and - more importantly - these are not “typical” times. Your main focus now should be on being proactive and empathetic with your students, taking care of you and your family, and creating what I’m calling a “Minimum Viable Product” (or MVP) online course.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be fancy or use any specific kind of tech tool. It doesn’t have to have a discussion board or Zoom video chat. It just has to allow you and your students to communicate and allow learning to continue in some way. Period.

To that end, I’ve put together a process you can use to create the foundation of your online course in [6]-steps or less. I say, “or less” because the important thing in this method is the order of steps, not that you get to the end. You could conceivably complete [Steps 1 & 2 ]ONLY and give your students a viable course experience. I say “foundation,” because once you have these steps in place, you may want to go back in and “fancy” up your course, or add more technology. That’s ok, too. Like I said, the order is the important thing - making sure you master each step before moving on to the next one.

Navigating this Canvas Space

We at the CTL find the article quoted above to be a useful framework for two things:

setting realistic expectations for the task before us
providing a practical map for how to get to learning.

We like that it takes the principles of Backward Design and translates them into our current situation. You can read it in full on the next step of this module, and you'll see it quoted throughout. If you read just one article this week, we recommend this one.

We've organized our training offerings and this Canvas space according to the steps outlined in the article. That said, you'll notice that we numbered them a little differently; what Dills calls a "Prerequisite" will serve as our Step 1, and we'll be offering training, resources, and coaching around it.

What You Need to Do

We'd like faculty to thoughtfully consider and come up with a plan for at least Step 1 and Step 2 of the online course design process. We also need to pay attention to how to translate our usual Non-Negotiables, such as accessibility concerns and the definition of a credit-hour, into a remote context.

We'd also like you to explore the exercises and resources in Steps 3-6, in that order. These will be published in this space over the next few days. You will likely find that at least a few things are applicable to your courses. Read the introductory article for each step in full, then browse through the rest to see what you think might work. Don't force a square peg into a round hole: pick only the techniques and tools you think are relevant and realistic to your context.

Extending Grace

Beyond that, try to extend some grace both to yourself and your students. None of us, nor our students asked for this: for a global pandemic, for online learning, for a major change in daily life. This will be new for many of us, and for many of our students. We were asked to make a major change midway through a semester. As we deal with these factors, we can try to focus our efforts on prioritizing what is truly essential to our courses while also acknowledging the humanity of all parties involved.

We'll also be modeling some of these principles in our materials within this Canvas space. You're not going to find highly-polished content here, unless it's something we had already created or pulled in from elsewhere. We won't be heavily editing our media, we'll only use video when we think it's necessary, and most of our content will be asynchronous, meaning that you can access it when and where you are able to. We will, however, make sure our materials focus on delivering the content we think is most important and are fully accessible to faculty with various resources and needs.

With all this in mind, each module will end with a moment of levity. These aren't required viewing, but hopefully they will bring you a bit of a smile.

Coming Up in This Module...

The full text of the article excerpted above, around which our trainings will be structured
Another perspective on doing our best in challenging times and staying out of our own way when changing course abruptly
Non-Negotiables we need to consider in our planning
Various trainings and resources from the CTL and others
Considerations for expectations of your students
Closing Reflection
Moment of Levity