Creating a World-Class Online Course: Lessons From Our Two-Year Journey

• In Event: Explorations of Online Leadership Learning

Short Description

Two years ago, we set out on to create a world-class online followership course for professionals. We expected the project to take three months. It actually took two years. Why did it take that long? What could we have done better and differently? What would we do now?

Detailed Abstract

In 2014, our team had been facilitating followership and creativity workshops for professionals for well over a decade. There were two routes to reaching more people with the many ideas and material we had been creating, collecting, and curating: either we could expand in-person offerings, or leverage the global reach of on-line learning. Tempering the decision to go online was the relative poor results MOOCs and other online formats have had in learning outcomes and completion percentages. We decided, therefore, to create something more than the typical Lynda.com talking-head style of course and, instead, developed an online, socially engaging, expert-facilitated learning experience.

In this case study, topics covered include:
• The different components of an online platform
• Criteria for choosing the right online platform
• Pedagogical considerations
• Stylistic considerations
• Other resources needed, e.g., quizzes, activities, videos, documents, and other course elements
• One successful approach to creating learner engagement
• Where to spend money and where to save money (and time)
• Successes and failures – other lessons from the trenches

Participants

• Marc Hurwitz, University of Waterloo

• Samantha Hurwitz, FliPskills & FliP U