Structuring Your Course
Now that you have considered ways of balancing asynchronous and synchronous you will need to consider what the structure of your course will look like. Each course will be different based on:
- The course level, first year, second year, graduate-level
- The discipline and course context
- Student considerations, i.e. where are the students located, what is their level of internet access
- Faculty, unit decisions about online learning
- Your instructional preferences and approaches
Potential Course Structures
Below we have included a couple of examples of what an online course structure might look like
Example A: First or Second-year introductory course
Each week students would be responsible for:
- Watching asynchronous instructional material, which would include a mix of short lectures (max 15 minutes each) and videos (total = 90 minutes)
- Completing an online activity using the week’s material (total = 45 minutes)
- Attending synchronous discussion section. Students should complete the readings and asynchronous work in advance of this discussion (total = 45 minutes)
- Preparation and reading (total = 2 hours)
- Preparing for assessments: avg 1-2 hours/week divided over term
- Total time per week: 6-7 hours/week
Example B: Senior lecture/discussion course
Each week students would be responsible for:
- Watching asynchronous instructional material: 4x15 minutes
- Attending synchronous discussion class: 60-75 minutes
- Completing asynchronous discussion/peer feedback/group collaboration: 30-45 mins
- Preparation and reading: 3 hours
- Preparing assessed assignments: avg 2 hours/week divided over term
Total time: ~8 hours/week
Course Structure examples, Adapted from Guiding Principles for Fall 2020 Course Adaptations by The University of British Columbia used under a CC-BY-4.0 License Links to an external site.