The Coulter Faculty Commons partners with faculty in designing, developing, and teaching their online courses.

Our Online Course Design Ecosystem consists of three areas of focus:

  • Designing the online course (OCDI)
  • Developing the components and putting in the LMS (OCDev)
  • Facilitating/teaching the online course (TOWI)

Participation in these institutes comes with a stipend and must be approved by your department head and dean. Please complete the application below and it will be routed to them.

Online Course Design Institute (ODCI) – a 12 week, fully online workshop (2-5 hours/week) for faculty that will guide you through a structured course design process for the online learning environment. Offered each summer from mid-May to mid-August. The focus is a course that will be offered the next spring, summer, or fall. No online experience required. Can be taken alone or with the other workshops, but it is highly recommended taking the OCDev which provides support for the development of the course components.

By the end of the 12-week summer institute (OCDI), participants will:

  • Apply evidence-based instructional design principles to fully design an online course
  • Practice online communication skills
  • Compare and contrast online and in-person learning environments
  • Experience being an online learner
  • Create a plan to develop the components of the online course

Online Course Development (OCDev) – a semester-long workshop that partners instructors with CFC instructional designers and LMS experts to develop all course components: content, media, interactives, and assessments, and load them into the LMS.  As a final step, the course will be reviewed by the instructor and CFC expert for quality and functionality.  No online experience required. OCDI is a pre-requisite for this workshop.

By the end of the 12-week fall institute (OCDEV), participants will:

  • Following the backward-design plan, develop content, learning activities, and assessments for the online learning environment
  • Assemble in the LMS
  • Engage in a preliminary quality course review

Teaching Online With Impact (TOWI)

Beginning two weeks before the semester starts, experienced online faculty will partner with new online faculty in the best practices of teaching online. No online teaching experience required and can be beneficial for experienced online instructors. Can be taken alone or with the other workshops.

During this workshop, participants will:

  • Create a facilitation plan, including tips and tricks to stay organized and manage their time effectively
  • Create social presence as the instructor/facilitator
  • Use best practices to engage online learners
  • Perform formative assessments
  • Reflect on teaching experience

Use this application to apply for one or more of these workshops. 

Graphic linked to Application Form