The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) offers a semester-long program with support from Instructional Designers and Media Producers to reimagine your course as a fully online teaching and learning experience. We are also available if you need to refresh an existing online course. For instance, you may only need to update specific areas, such as course assessments or activities. Please note that to create a new online course you must have approval from your school’s Dean to develop and run the course. After you receive approval the CTE will partner with you. 

Partnering with Instructional Designers (IDs) can help you:

• Apply research-based instructional design theories and practices to effectively adapt and integrate course materials and activities in an online environment.
• Integrate new technologies into teaching and learning in meaningful and sustainable ways.
• Approach course design from a learner’s perspective.
• Identify the best online format for your course material to amplify your voice online, help students meet learning objectives, and provide meaningful learning experiences.
• Meet GW’s standards for online courses, including the Quality Matters rubric, copyright rules, and accessibility requirements.

Partnering with Media Producers (MPs) helps you:

• Support course learning objectives across all types of media, including graphics, animations, podcasts, and videos.
• Establish an online instructor presence that represents your personality and expertise.
• Use engaging forms of media to creatively express your thoughts and ideas. 
• Effectively communicate concepts to your students, and meet GW standards for online courses.

What a Semester-long Partnership with the CTE Looks Like

Snapshot of a “Typical” Week

What you can expect when partnering with the CTE during online course development:

• Weekly meetings to track progress, make design decisions, and develop course components, including learning objectives, media approach and design, and learning activities and assessments
• Ongoing collaboration between meetings through email and/or shared documents, allowing us to review materials, provide feedback, and continue moving the work forward.

For more information about course design principles and the online course development processes, please see Course Design. 

Maintaining Your Online Course

For help maintaining your online course while or after you teach, refer to these tips. The CTE also offers maintenance support. Contact us for more information about this.