Online Course Design Course . . . of course

Mar 06, 2012

joe smith
By joe smith

Hi Folks,

I've used Articulate for a few years now to publish some courses I made in PPT, but when I see some of the examples of others courses that people design it depresses me to look at mine.  I'm getting ready to develop a new course and would like to take things to the next level as far as design goes.

Does anyone know of any online courses offered by a school or college that would be ideal for someone who wants to learn how to design better e-learning courses? 

If you know of any, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could pass along the name of the school and the specific course you have in mind.

Have a good one!

10 Replies
Melanie Sobie
12 years ago03/07/12 at 7:10 am (UTC)

Hi Steven,

I know exactly what you mean when you say you look at examples of other's courses and feel depressed when you look at your own. I have that same feeling quite a bit!  I've only been doing this for just under a year and I keep telling myself it will get better as I continue to learn more and grow.

Currently, I'm considering one or two of ASTD's online educational programs. There are a variety of courses, depending on what you are looking for. Some are in-person trainings, and some are done completely online. 

http://www.astd.org/content/education/certificatePrograms/

Melanie

joe smith
12 years ago03/07/12 at 8:46 am (UTC)

Normal 0 false false false oNotPromoteQF /> EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

HiMelanie,

Thanks somuch for the suggestion.  I’ll be sure tocheck it out.  I’m sure it wouldn’t takemuch to become a better designer . . .I’ve just never put much time intoit.  I always work more at writing thecontent as a subject matter expert and the design/layout has been more of asecondary concern.  I want to develop somenew courses over the next couple of years and decided I want to step up my gamea bit, so that’s why I’m looking for some good courses on design.

Thanks again. . I really appreciate it!

Steven

Natalia Mueller
12 years ago03/07/12 at 11:09 am (UTC)

Hi Steven,

I am not knocking courses or formal training of any kind. But if you're looking for something that I you can do on your own time, I frequently recommend  David Anderson's Building Better Courses series. I have gotten to the point where every time I find myself talking to someone who wants to get up to speed on course design, this is where I tell them to start. For one, it's free. It also includes source files to work with so as you're learning about various design elements you can get hands on practice. 

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro
12 years ago03/08/12 at 8:42 am (UTC)

Hi Steven,

Not sure if some design books would be something you're interested in (I know you asked about courses). I'd made a note for myself that in a couple  of Jeanette Brooks posts she'd mentioned these books:

  • E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate Studio ’09. It’s written by Tanya Coomes, Diane Elkins, and Desirée Ward of Alcorn Ward & Partners, Inc.
  • The Non-Designer’s Web Book written by Robin Williams and John Tollett. Although this is about Web design, the overview looks like it could be helpful to get creative juices going.

Tom Kuhlman a while back mentioned Essential Articulate Studio 2009 by Shank, Patti.

joe smith
12 years ago03/08/12 at 9:40 am (UTC)

Hi Rebecca,

Thanks for the added suggestions.  I just downloaded the book by Robin Williams to my Kindle and will begin reading it tonight.  I'll probably hold off on the books specific to Articulate for now as I'm considering moving away from Articulate because I hate publishing to Flash.  I'm more interested in HTML5 at this point so we can deliver across platforms that don't support Flash.

Thanks so much and have a great day!

Steven

Lance G.
12 years ago03/08/12 at 1:46 pm (UTC)

Holly MacDonald said:

Steven, you might be overwhelmed with suggestions, but this just popped up in my twitter stream and I remembered you were looking for some ideas: http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-totally-free-lessons-in-graphic-design-theory/


Thanks for posting this... I was just about to ask a similar question, and this looks very helpful...

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