Our iDocs department works with the UW MBA Consortium and the UWEC College of Business online programs. Below are best practices and reminders. If the reminder is for one particular program, that is noted; otherwise, reminders are for both programs.
- Part of online education is making continuous improvements to the courses. To honor this, we copy courses from term to term instead of keeping a “parent” version of the course. If we did that, we would miss any corrections made to the course during the term.
Please follow these guidelines:- Immediate improvements:
- Please correct any typos, mistakes in directions, or incorrect quizzes in course content.
- Let your ID know if there are other errors in the course.
- If there are more than one section running at the same time, inform the ID of changes.
- Bigger changes:
- Update the list of course update ideas to discuss with your ID (and co-instructors, if applicable) at the end of the term. Some can be made between terms, and some must wait for a contracted revision. The list of course updates can be found in an unpublished module at the bottom of your course.
- Use only announcements, submission comments, and discussions to share your personalized remarks, coaching, and observations since this course may be taught by someone else in the future. For ideas on how to leverage your social presence, check out the tips here: Instructor Presence blog posts.
- For MBA Courses The syllabus contains the approved course description and course learning outcomes. Please do not make any changes or additions to these sections of the syllabus. If you would want to expand the course description, please do so in your welcome announcement.
- Immediate improvements:
- Flexibility: Many students take asynchronous online classes because they value or require flexibility to complete the courses.
- For more guidelines on providing flexibility for students in the MBA program, see Consortium Excused Absence & Late Work Policy Guidance
- For more information on providing flexibility for students in the UWEC COB, see Excused Absence and Late Work Policy for COB Online Courses
- Do not publish anything marked in the course by the instructional designers as “Keep Hidden,” “For Instructors Only,” “For <a specific term> Only,” or “Do Not Publish.”
CODE OF CONDUCT AGREEMENT
All students are required to complete a Code of Conduct Agreement before they can access any of the course content. Once a student selects “Agree” in the quiz to all questions, the content will be released. Please do NOT delete this information from the course.
DOCUMENTS TO REVIEW
These are helpful documents to review before teaching this course:
- Guidelines for Teaching an Existing Course: a list of recommendations for teaching a course developed by someone else.
- MBA Grading Policy: grade scales for each of the campuses involved in the Consortium. You must adhere to each campus’ grade scale. For example, students from UW-Oshkosh are graded according to that campus’ grade scale.
- All online courses are required by the Department of Education to meet standards for Regular and Substantial Interaction.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
- Canvas Guides: This is a great first stop to answer questions about Canvas tools.
- iDocs Blog: Use the “Canvas” tag to browse topics or try searching for key terms.
- Canvas Community: Join the Canvas Community to ask and answer questions and connect with colleagues around the world.