Today's undergraduate students often must balance coursework with other personal and professional commitments. While much attention has been placed on effective strategies for helping students manage workload, curriculum optimization has been largely overlooked. In an analysis of a university lower-level online STEM course, a course redesign…

Curriculum mapping can be used to visualize, align, and assess the ability of online degree program graduates to meet stated learning outcomes (Rawle et al., 2017). Though consensus has yet to be established on standardized outcomes for curriculum in some disciplines (e.g., criminal justice), educators remain in charge of preparing current and…

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapidly growing field of online education experienced an even greater surge, sparking increased interest in the particulars of effective digital pedagogy. Effective approaches include useful facilitator guidance, well-structured course design and productive instructor feedback. In addition, there is evidence to…

This literature-based study seeks to identify best practices for adjunct faculty participation in the centralized design of online courses. Literature from 2014-June 2018 relating to faculty participation in course and curriculum design was identified through a search of the ERIC database. Following further examination, nine studies were selected…

A culminating experience is incorporated into most graduate programs. Capstone courses are one methodology for structuring this experience. These courses are designed to integrate student learning throughout their studies, making them a natural point for program and student learning assessment. The development of capstone courses must consider the…

Given the increasing numbers of students who choose to learn online, educators should understand the conditions necessary for student success in this environment. Previous studies have documented that student engagement is essential to student learning, retention, persistence, and satisfaction. In this descriptive qualitative study, we sought to…

While competency-based education is growing, standardized tools for evaluating the unique characteristics of course design in this domain are still under development. This preliminary research study evaluated the effectiveness of a rubric developed for assessing course design of competency-based courses in an undergraduate Information Technology…

The course design and development process (often referred to here as the "production process") at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU-Worldwide) aims to produce turnkey style courses to be taught by a highly-qualified pool of over 800 instructors. Given the high number of online courses and tremendous number of live sections…