eLearning Books

	Designing and Developing an Online Course: A Guide for Educators (© 2011) Written by an educator for educators, this ebook covers the practical questions that often arise when designing and developing an online course. Topics in this ebook were collected and assembled from questions asked over my years of working closely with educators. It is designed to help educators create an online course that is usable, accessible, and engaging so students get the most out of an online course. If you have been asked to design and develop an online course and need some help, you've come to the right place. I'll provide tips to help you prepare to work on your course all the way through to the final touches.
	Education for a Digital World 2.0: Innovations in Education (2nd edition, 2011) Co-author and peer editor for a book on e-learning. Lead author for the chapter Emerging Technologies in e-Learning. I also contributed a case study for the chapter Cultivating communities of practice: Analysis of 3 case studies using the 7 principles. The print version of these volumes is © All rights reserved, and the digital version is CC-BY-NC-ND. Any part may be reproduced without permission but with attribution to the authors. For derivative work, contact the editors.
	Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe (1st edition, 2008) Co-author and one of the editors for a book on e-learning. Lead author for Chapter 1 and contributor in other chapters. The book uses the Creative Commons copyright CC-BY-SA.
	Dissertation: Pedagogical and Interface Modifications: What Instructors Change After Teaching Online. (© 2005) This case study was based on a naturalistic inquiry approach to investigate the modifications instructors made to their online courses after gaining experiential knowledge teaching in an online environment. The goal of this research is to assist novice online course developers in making their development process more efficient and effective. Read an excerpt In this excerpt, the impact and use of Web 2.0 in teaching and learning is discussed. This excerpt is from my dissertation Pedagogical and Interface Modifications: What Instructors Change After Teaching Online. The entire document is available as a download from ProQuest. The excerpt is part of a chapter in the book Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe, published by The Commonwealth of Learning (COL).

More eLearning Materials

Ten Activities to Consider Before Developing Your First Online Course
Many educators have asked me what they can do to prepare before they formally begin to develop an online course. This handout provides 10 activities for getting a start in online course development.

Five Essential Emails for Online Students
Communication with online students at the beginning of an online course is critical. Studies have shown that frequent contact in the first few weeks of an online course helps with student retention and course success. These five essential emails can help instructors help their online students succeed.

New Online Course Developer Survey
This survey was created as an intake survey to help faculty self-assess their skills, readiness, and concerns in developing an online course. It is also used for program administrators to assess faculty training needs.

Online Course Rubric
A number of years ago I conducted a pilot with faculty who were developing online courses and asked them to use two popular online course rubrics. Faculty found these two rubrics difficult to use. I wanted a solution that would be easier for faculty and course developers to self-assess courses as well as for course evaluators to assess a course. They found this one page document much easier to use. It is a distillation of the two popular rubrics. This "rubric" (it morphed into more of a checklist) was collaboratively created between myself and a City College of San Francisco instructor. I have modified and updated this document since it was implemented at CCSF.

Making Your Online Course Accessible
Information and resources for those who want to make their online content accessible to all their students regardless of disabilities.

Designing Student Collaborative Projects for Online Courses
This three page article provides tips on how to create online collaborative projects.

Listen to an interview (6 minutes 47 seconds) from a conference (June 2007) where I spoke about online course development and design.

The "How-Tos" of OER Commons is a set of learning modules evolving out of the development of OER Commons, a teaching and learning network for free-to-use educational materials from around the world, created and licensed by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME). Course contributors are Lisa Petrides, Amee Godwin, and Cynthia Jimes, and online learning consultant, Patricia Delich. This is an example of a project I designed, wrote, developed, and implemented. How to cite this work.

More materials are available as well as custom-made materials specifically for eLearning.

To find out how we can create custom elearning solutions for you,
contact Patricia: click to see email address.

About Designing and Developing an Online Course: A Guide for Educators

What a fantastic resource.

I have taken a few classes from Dr. Delich, however there are tasks/concepts that I always forget about. Having 24/7 access to this guide is exactly what I needed. This is my 3rd full year as an online instructor. I am very pleased to be learning additional techniques and tips from this guide which are making me a better instructor.

I highly recommend this guide...it is a MUST HAVE for all online instructors and I think it would be very useful for f2f instructors as well.

Thanks again for all that you do Dr. Delich.

--T. Fairchild, Instructor

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This is a great resource to have! There are always times that our memory falters when it has been a little while since we performed a task, and this is great to have, especially when we are working on our work at crazy hours when it is not acceptable to ask our technicians on call.

- C. Lyons, Instructor

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As someone who has worked with faculty to design and develop online courses I recognize so many steps in this book most authors take for granted that people will understand. This book is practical, detailed, thorough, well written, and very well organized. Dr. Delich has researched, and more importantly, USED the tools and techniques she recommends. Suggested resources to learn more are embedded throughout the text, and are very selective. Attention to accessibility throughout the book is very refreshing -- something that is often left out of similar course design resources. Top rating from me! I will recommend this book to faculty, and individuals involved in a support role, for years to come.

- S. Currie,
Acting Director, Professional Learning

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About Emerging Technologies in e-Learning:

"It’s like a primer on everything an educator needs to know to get started on the right track. Comprehensive enough to build a course around.

Even with my daily dabbling in the field, there was more than enough new info to keep me busy for weeks, exploring.

The tone is a nice mix of personal and professional, suitable for all adult audiences. The content is laid out logically with convenient access to resources."

- R. Ambrosino,
Educational Development Specialist