Building Better Online Courses

When Carl Hager logged into Zoom to teach his remote Weather and the Atmosphere lecture, more than 300 faces appeared alongside a torrent of chat messages. 

As microphones crackled and students talked over one another, the teaching assistant professor realized this was not the kind of online learning experience he wanted to create.

Soon after, he began researching how to create a better online experience for himself and his students—discovering Winter Session in 2023. 

For over nine years, CU Boulder’s Winter Session has offered students the opportunity to advance their degrees through a variety of asynchronous online courses offered during a three-week term between the fall and spring semesters. 

The slate of Winter Session courses include upper-division core and elective courses or “topics” courses that incorporate elements of student-to-student engagement and experiential learning activities.

To Hager, Winter Session is also a unique chance for students to take courses they may not be able to in the fall and spring semesters.

“The availability of in-person courses is not always efficient. It can be hard for students only taking in-person classes because the class they need might be full or it's not offered when they need it,” said Hager. “It's very rewarding to know that you're helping someone that might be in a pickle by offering the course they need [online].” 

Winter Session instructors Adrian Shin (left) and Carl Hager (right).

For associate professor Adrian Shin, the benefit of Winter Session comes from its convenient timing, falling during a quiet time of year for himself and his students. 

“I would say that my asynchronous courses tend to have higher grades, not because it’s easier, but because students have more freedom. They can actually focus on the courses. During the [fall or spring] semester, they might have other obligations that distract them,” said Shin. 

Winter Session courses are taught by faculty from across the university who work with instructional designers (IDs) from the Learning Design Group at Continuing Education. As the faculty begin to design their courses, IDs serve as their primary support contact, helping them adapt their in-person, remote and hybrid courses into fully online, accelerated courses.

Before adapting a course, however, faculty and IDs carefully determine the primary learning objectives. Once the outcomes are clear, specific and measurable, they work with their ID to align the course content and learning activities with those outcomes.

Then the building begins. Faculty design their online courses alongside their IDs in Canvas, CU Boulder’s learning management system. While they have freedom to approach their courses in their own way, IDs encourage faculty to generate streamlined content and provide engaging activities to maximize student learning. 

“Donna Hall [a senior instructional designer] always told me not to lecture for more than 15 to 20 minutes per video. So that forced me to be very succinct and to the point,” said Hager. “You have to trust the process and trust the instructional designers. At first, it was very hard to build a course that way, because everything I'd done in my 20-plus years of teaching has been my way, but Donna was constantly saying, ‘no, no, that's not how students’ brains work’ and that was huge to me.”

Like Hager, when Shin was paired with instructional designer Diana Montealegre Beltran, he had to rethink his own pedagogy when developing his International Political Economy course.

“I made a couple of mistakes when I first designed an online course without the help of an instructional designer,” said Shin. “Teaching online is not about teaching students everything and covering every topic. Our job is to give students signposts for each learning objective.” 

In addition to steering him toward more intentional lecturing, Montealegre Beltran also illuminated the capabilities of Canvas. 

“A lot of the things I learned from Diana were actually about Canvas and how to make it more intuitive for students, so that was really helpful. She was so well-versed in Canvas functionality that I could actually focus on the learning objectives,” said Shin. “Canvas is the most important aspect of asynchronous course design because we [instructors] need to express what’s required in a very clear manner—it helps everything stay super organized.”

However, a faculty member’s work is not complete even when a course is built in Canvas. 

As with in-person courses, it is up to faculty members to establish meaningful touchpoints with their students through principles known as regular and substantive interaction.

Regular interactions are initiated by an instructor and include things like sending pre-set emails or messages at milestones throughout the course. Substantive interactions can include providing feedback on assignments, responding to one-off student messages or actively facilitating group discussions. In addition to keeping students connected to their instructor, these interactions also encourage students to engage with one another and build a sense of community in the online classroom. 

Utilizing a combination of Slack and discussion posts, Hager ensures students remain connected to both him and their peers throughout the accelerated semester.

“Slack is the only thing I use now, because email is so oversaturated for everybody right now. If a student reaches out to me and asks for an extension, I can very clearly see if it’s a trend or a one-time ask,” said Hager. “The second touchpoint of mine is discussion. Students have to make a video about themselves and they are required to reply to two of their classmates.”

The approach is a far cry from the crowded Zoom sessions that first pushed Hager to rethink online teaching. Through intentional course design and regular communication, he has found new ways to keep students connected and engaged.

Finally, after months of preparation and three intensive weeks of teaching, Winter Session comes to a close almost as quickly as it begins, leaving Hager and Shin to prepare for the spring semester. 

When asked what advice they would offer instructors considering offering a course during Winter Session, both pointed to the same lesson: be willing to take the time to rethink your assumptions.

“Instructional designers know the nuts and bolts of Canvas, but they also know the pedagogy when it comes to asynchronous learning,” said Shin.  

Hager echoed the sentiment. 

“Trust the Learning Design Group and leave your own pedagogical models behind as you enter into this new world.”

For Hager, that willingness to adapt transformed his approach to online teaching. What began as frustration evolved into a new understanding of how students learn online—one he continues to bring into every Winter Session course.

Interested in teaching a Winter Session course? Learn more about developing a course. Proposals for new Winter Session courses are due July 6.