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[george_joeckel]

In order to help instructors create effective syllabi for online courses, the Online Syllabus Template Tool was developed. It is a PDF file that opens in the free Adobe Reader program. It models best practices for the organization and presentation of:

• Course Objectives
• Course Activities
• Course Policies
• Course Schedule

...and more. It links to a syllabus template that instructors can download and modify to suit their needs.

Here's the file: https://it.usu.edu/fact/files/uploads/OSTT2.pdf.

[octoprof]

Welcome to the forum, George. That's an interesting first post...

[george_joeckel]

Hi octoprof,

Thanks!

I am in the middle of redesigning this tool, so I am hoping that any instructors that would like to share their feedback will.

I am also interested in helping other institutions modify the tool to meet their needs.

George
http://georgejoeckel.blogspot.com/

[octoprof]

Hi octoprof,

Thanks!

I am in the middle of redesigning this tool, so I am hoping that any instructors that would like to share their feedback will.

I am also interested in helping other institutions modify the tool to meet their needs.

George
http://georgejoeckel.blogspot.com/

That sounds like a commercial endeavor...?

[george_joeckel]

Well, if you are asking me if I would ever like to see my efforts rewarding financially, then sure.

But that is not my motivation right now. My motivation now is to provide a tool that will benefit online learners. They deserve to have better syllabi than they are receiving right now. Some inefficient syllabi come from instructors with little experience teaching online classes. Others come from instructors that have not had formal pedagogical training. And yes, some come from instructors that are lazy.

As an Instructional Designer, to say to instructors, "Your syllabus should have this and this, etc." is one thing. But if I am actually providing a tool that facilitates creating better syllabi, then that is another.

There won't be any money to be made on something like this until higher education institutions create, distribute and enforce standards for their syllabi related to accessibility, learning outcomes, instructor/learner communication strategies, etc. Unfortunately, I don't predict that happening anytime soon.

[new_bus_prof]

Just because a course is online does not mean it will not have teams. Therefore, the syllabus might want to think about how to incorporate individual activities from team activities and how these are conveyed in the syllabus.

Information for Chat rooms and Discussion would also be beneficial, since some courses are synchronous.

[george_joeckel]

We have just released an updated version of the Online Syllabus Template Tool. This new version uses a template created in the free software OpenOffice Writer, available at http://www.openoffice.org/.

The new version of the OSTT can be downloaded from Utah State University's "Faculty Resources" at http://fact.usu.edu/htm/faculty-resources.

[neutralname]

Hi GJ

Your Course Activities section mentions Presentations, along with Readings, Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions and Exams.  But this leaves it unclear who is expected to do the activities: presumably the student does the reading, takes the quizzes, does the assignments and engages in discussion.  It seems that the activity part regarding presentations is to watch or listen to them.  I was wondering (1) whether that's disingenuous, if students are not actually doing presentations themselves, because a first glance makes it sound like Presenting is a student activity (2) how students might be involved in doing presentations.

I started a thread on this myself here
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,76609.0.html
that 43 people looked at so far, and not one offered a comment on.  So I suspect there's no easy answer to getting students to do presentations in an online course.

[george_joeckel]

Hi neutralname,

I can see your point, and how the use of the term activities can be confusing. The design of the Online Syllabus Template Tool is based on the OAR model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAR_model which defines two types of activities: acquisition and application. Acquisition activities are opportunities for students to gain knowledge and skills. Application activities are opportunities for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills. In this case the presentations are acquisition activities, and it would be helpful to make that distinction more apparent.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

George

[voxprincipalis]

Hi octoprof,

Thanks!

I am in the middle of redesigning this tool, so I am hoping that any instructors that would like to share their feedback will.

I am also interested in helping other institutions modify the tool to meet their needs.

George
<link removed>

Hi George,

As other member-moderators have alluded to, you're violating the rules of the fora by promoting your personal project (especially one that you hope to make money from someday) via links in your post. That's against the rules of the fora, as this is not a place to shill one's wares for free (even if they are not currently making you any money). I am sure that the Chronicle would be pleased to take your money to purchase advertising space, however.

I will be asking the mods to remove the links in your posts. You are allowed to have a link in your profile page (this will show up as a little globe under your moniker; you can look at mine as an example), but not to link to your extracurricular projects in your signature or in the body of your post.

VP