Where Should I Begin with Design? | Flexible Course Design | Seneca Polytechnic

We recommend that you begin with creating an asynchronous online course to form the “backbone” and foundation of your course. Begin course design by creating a set of topic-based modules within Learn@Seneca. Each module should contain a sequence of activities that leads to desired learning outcomes. Where possible, activities should be grouped in a clear, recognizable rhythm, such as “pre-lesson, live session, post-lesson.”

Within the module, look for activities that lend themselves to live discussion, demonstration, or other such active learning. Build the live session around these. Here is a collaborative document of lesson plan samples and templates.

Create a variety of invitations for online learners to participate, and for classroom learners to add to the Learn@Seneca artifacts (e.g., discussions, reflections, etc.). Write the instructions out very clearly. Here is an example of instructions for an activity from Kevin Kelly (2020):

If you’re in the room, turn to a (socially distant) neighbor and share what you wrote. If you’re on the video conference, I’ll put you in breakout groups of 2 or 3. If you’re watching the recording, press pause and participate in the Think-Pair-Share discussion forum. Then come back and press play. I’ll summarize the ideas of the people who are live.

Last, we always recommend recording appropriate parts of the in-class session (such as mini-lectures, etc.) and add recordings to the Learn@Seneca module.