How do you go about designing a course for Avalon Center? What kind of work is expected of college students? How much? And how do you set it up online?
First a note on terms
Avalon Center uses the term "course" for individual courses of study in each department. Sometimes these are called "modules" outside of American Academia. In either case the individual courses should be distinguished from "programs" which are comprised of a series of courses and are the requirements for receiving a diploma from the Center. At ACDS the term "modules" refers to the parts that make up a course. Modules are five units long, equivalent to five weeks of instruction in a face-to-face classroom setting. A series of courses makes up a study program.
Moodling
Avalon presently employs the Moodle course management software. Once you have been officially taken on by the Center as a member of the faculty, you will be given "creator" status on Moodle which will allow you to create your courses directly online. The Moodle system is very flexible with many different kinds of resources, assignments, and evaluations. You can go to Moodle through the "Online Classrooms" link from the main Avalon Center home page. There you will see a student introductory course for Moodle (MOO 101) that can give you a first taste of how it works. Once you are given creator status on Moodle, you will see a faculty-only section of courses including MOO 201, the Faculty Moodle Tour.
When setting up a course module on Moodle, you will create a "course" consisting of five units. Most one-quarter courses, equivalent to a traditional college course under a quarter system, consist of two modules. Each module includes five units, each of which is in turn roughly equivalent to one week of instruction. Students may take each unit and each module in their own time so that each time a course module is offered, some students may complete the work week-by-week and some may take longer (up to one year is permitted) to complete the work for any given module.
One of the practical effects of this system is that teachers must keep after their students to remind them if they have not finished the course. Send an e-mail note to your students at the end of the quarter and on a monthly basis after that to check in with them and encourage them to complete their course work.
This said, you should guard against letting the course take up too much of your time. Your students are paying you to guide them and give them feedback on their written work. You must answer questions promptly, but you do not need to put in long hours above and beyond the call of duty. Ultimately, how much time you devote to a course is a decision you will have to make yourself but as a guideline the Center suggests that you devote 5-6 hours a week to each of your courses including time to read and comment on written work.
The time normally devoted to lecturing only has to be done once in an online classroom. You will present your lectures as documents, web pages, or audio lectures. Even video lectures are possible on Moodle. But in general the lecture and discussion format traditional in college courses is not well-suited to online learning. Instead, you may wish to build your course around reading assignments, papers, projects, exercises, and providing written feedback on this type of work.
In Moodle, to set up an asynchronous course module that is not tied to specific dates, you will select the "topics" mode and arrange the work in five units (topics).
Books and Topics
One good first step in designing a course is to find a book you especially like, one that can serve as required reading and a centerpiece for the course. Often more than one book is needed, depending on the subject matter. It is good to give students a chance to compare different authors on the same subject, especially at levels above the 100-level. College courses expect students to do a good deal of reading. You should supplement the required reading with a lecture that helps the student identify what you think are the important facts or themes in the reading of each unit. That doesn't mean that your lectures should necessarily "cover" all the material in the books. The best approach is to emphasize what you consider to be most important, and to make sure the students know they are responsible for asking questions on any other material they do not understand. Nobody wants to read a lecture that just repeats what they read in the book. (I suspect some teachers do this because "lecturing" originally just meant reading. As there was, in the Middle Ages, only one copy of the book for a course, the lecturer stood up and read it to the students, who copied it down or took notes.)
In some cases you may want to dispense with a textbook altogether, preferring to draw on many sources and your own experience in lectures. In such a case, you may want to consider your course content and divide it into logical units. What do you want the course to cover? What will students expect to have covered? How much depth can you go into in five units or ten?
Alternatively, courses can be structured entirely around interaction between teacher and students and a series of practical exercises. This is especially appropriate for courses in the arts, including the divinatory and magical arts. If no reading is required, it is always helpful to include a list of recommended reading. Because our courses are wholly or partially integrated with the Internet it is also completely appropriate to use only reading assignments that are online. Online sources should be carefully screened for accuracy and decorum. Online sources have the great advantage of being free.
If you are not using books or other readings assigned for each week, consider how to divide your course into five topics for each module.
Reading Assignments
Once you have brainstormed a bit and considered the options, you should make a table with five rows and two columns. Number the first column 1-5, then use the second column to sketch in the parts of your course. In course modules offered face-to-face, the eleventh week of each quarter is set aside as Exams Week and will not include any formal instruction. The twelfth week of the quarter is a break. In exams week you will give your final exam and/or collect final papers. So, if you want to use a book or books, you will need to divide up the chapters to fill ten weeks for a full course with two modules. If your subject matter requires more units than ten, you may wish to consider developing the course as a three-module course. Alternatively, if you can cover your topic in five units, you can develop your course as a single module.
After you have sketched in the chapters or reading assignments, sit back and ask yourself if you are demanding a reasonable amount of reading. Students should expect to spend 3 hours per unit in class discussions (carried on through classroom forums or chat sessions). They should also expect to spend 3-9 hours per unit reading and writing for each course. You don't want to set unreasonable amounts of reading, but at the same time you want to challenge your students. One chapter per week from each of the required books is probably the most you can expect students to read, especially if they are studying part time. Students in the master's and doctoral programs might be given heavier reading assignments. In graduate schools reading a book a week or half a dozen long articles is not uncommon, though it is up to you to decide if you want your students to read carefully or skim longer assignments of this kind.
Writing Assignments
Next, consider writing assignments. A college course at the undergraduate level typically requires less writing than one at the master's or doctoral level. However, at ACDS we wish to make our courses writing intensive, giving our bards, ovates, and druids strong grounding in written communication. Ironically, operating on the Internet, we are deprived of that rich oral culture of the ancient druids and must put our lore in written form. If your students have the technology, it is certainly possible for you to require the submission of audio or video reports.
So, how much is the right amount? This will vary according to the tastes of the instructor and the subject matter. Some instructors like to assign weekly journaling or short essays responding to the material read. Some prefer assigning more specific projects or exercises.
Projects might involve research or they might involve the application of ideas introduced in reading and lectures, such as practicing meditation techniques, guided meditations, the making of a talisman, the brewing of a potion or tincture, and so forth. It is important to balance writing and practical work -- that is practice in doing, as well as writing about one's experiences or musings. It has been documented that most students learn a subject better by doing an activity as opposed to simply reading or listening to a lecturer.
For a five unit module, one major research paper of 4-5000 words is reasonable, or two or more shorter papers, and/or journal entries, aiming at 4-5000 words total for each module. This is only a guideline. The online medium makes it much easier for instructors to review and offer substantial credit for the classroom discussions -- some thing that is much harder to do in a face-to-face oral classroom. It is up to you how much forum discussion you wish to require, bearing in mind that the "conversation" will be asynchronous.
Other Creative Assignments
Besides the traditional written papers and essays, ACDS also wishes to encourage faculty to include creative and artistic assignments. Students all have different learning styles and while some are more verbal, others are more talented in creating pictures, sculptures, diagrams, poetry, songs, or dramatic enactments. We want to encourage development of both sides of the brain. Be creative in your course to allow for and encourage the use of the right brain, the non-verbal creative part of the mind. In American education, doing art projects and that sort of thing is sometimes considered only suitable for young children. However, research and experience have shown that adults also benefit from creative "play." We should strive to break down the culturally imposed dichotomy between "work" and "play" and realize that all kinds of activities can lead to insight and understanding. We want our instructors to make the extra effort required to accept and evaluate non-verbal assignments.
Magical and Meditative Practices
Magic, meditation, and contemplative assignments are also encouraged at Avalon. Some departments may employ them more often than others; however, in all subjects understanding can be increased and greater levels of engagement encouraged by allowing students to address the material with the imagination and not only the rational, verbal mind. The central role of visionary experience, dreams, and meditation in druidry makes it completely appropriate for instructors to assign contemplative work. Magical work, per se, is most appropriate in the departments of Magical Arts, Healing, and in some advanced philosophy courses. Alternatively, faculty are free to exclude such practices from their assignments if they do not feel comfortable with them. In all cases, practical assignments should be explained with caution and students urged to only attempt practical work if it feels right to them. Often it is best left ungraded or a grade assigned only to a written report of the student's experience, in which the report is judged purely on expository and imaginative criteria, not on whether the student achieved "success" of some sort in the magical or contemplative exercise.
Examinations
Examinations are the next thing to consider. Some instructors like to base their evaluation of a student's work entirely on essays and journals. Others feel that an objective examination helps to encourage students to commit facts to memory. One of the difficulties of online examinations is that they pretty well have to be "open book." So, this has to be taken into account. Exams may include objective questions posed in the form of multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, etc. But in all cases there should be an essay component to the exam in which students are given set questions to answer in essays of approximately 500-1000 words. Some instructors like to give students several essay questions from which to choose.
You may wish to set an examination paper at the end of each module. Or you may wish to grade the first module of a course only on written assignments and set an examination at the end of the final module. You might also wish to have a module-one examination and then a comprehensive examination at the end of the final module. Another option is to give quizzes that are very brief -- often ten questions about the week's reading. This is sometimes a useful way to gauge whether students are keeping up with the reading and understanding it. Quizzes and exams are also motivational tools, giving students incentive to work on remembering the material and a way of reflecting on how well they are retaining it.
Syllabi
When you have sketched out the course outline, you should draft your syllabus. The word "syllabus" comes from a Greek term that originally meant something like "advertisement." Your syllabus should describe your course in clear detail, including the types of assignments and examinations required of students. You should start with your name and contact info. In our particular cyber-campus it is also necessary to specify your Druidic name or message board "handle" so that students can clearly identify you.
An email address is also important. An Avalon Center email address will be created for you so that you can keep your Avalon Center correspondence separate from your personal e-mail and so that the Center will have a log and record of any correspondence sent by students, should a dispute arise.
Another concern of some teachers is keeping their mundane identity separate from their role as a teacher of esoteric subjects. Although we do need your full legal name and information on file with the Center, it is permissible to use a nom de plume in your posts online and in your course materials, if you wish.
After your name and contact information, you should include the following sections in your syllabus:
- brief course description
- required books and materials
- expectations and assignments
- learning objectives
- grading
- lesson outline
- recommended further reading
You can find examples of syllabi and the contents of these sections linked to courses in the Avalon Catalog. The brief course description should essentially be the same as the one you submit for inclusion in the catalog. The section on expectations and assignments should spell out clearly exactly what work you expect your students to do in the course. Nobody wants to be surprised with an extra assignment that wasn't in the syllabus. Learning objectives are a list of the specific things you want your students to learn in the course. Articulating these objectives can be tricky. Think about what you want every student to take away from your course. What facts should they know at the end? What concepts should they be able to discuss intelligently? What skills should they have learned? Try to articulate your major objectives in a few bullet points.
The section on grading should spell out clearly how you are going to assess student work. The Center uses a numerical 4-point scale rather than letter grades. 4 is the top mark. However, instructors may choose to offer their courses in a Pass/No Pass grading option without other grades. Teaching under the P/N option, you merely inform students if their work is acceptable or not without the finer distinctions of the numerical system. In addition to telling your students how you will grade their work, you should indicate clearly how various assignments will be weighted in the course grade. You may, for example, want to count two response papers as each comprising 20% of the course grade, with a final examination making up the remaining 60%. Or, alternatively, you might have six exercises about which the students must submit a report of their work, each report worth 10% of the course grade. The possibilities are endless, but the best system is to keep it simple.
All course syllabi will be kept current on the ACDS website in HTML format so that prospective students can examine them in detail prior to registration. Remember that it must appeal to prospective students as well as be a working document for students who have already enrolled in your course.
Once you have written your syllabus, you will need to learn to use the Moodle course management system to set up your course online. This takes a bit of work and time, so be prepared. Once your course is in Moodle, however, it should require only occasional updates each time you offer the course. Visit the Faculty Moodle Tour on the moodle system and enroll in that "course" to learn how to use the system. The Faculty Moodle Tour is a work in progress and each faculty "student" taking the course is encouraged to contribute additional content and tips. Instructors of online classes at Avalon are required to stay abreast of changes and updates to our Moodle system.
