Quieting the Perfectionist: Course Refreshes for Us Mortals

My courses go live in a little less than 30 days, and I am staring at a blank course map worksheet. No, this course isn’t new. I have taught it every spring semester since 2015. Every time this course was taught, it was taught a completely different way. Yep, you read that right. I have completely redesigned it from the ground up every single time because I felt like it just wasn’t good enough.

As an instructional designer, my experience tells me that the course is pretty good by most online course quality standards. It is built with the student learning goals at the heart of it and driving the interactions and assessments. The student engagement opportunities are varied and meaningful. My students consistently give fantastic feedback about their experiences in the courses. If I were the instructional designer assigned to myself, I would probably laugh that someone wants to tear it all down and start again. 

You’re obviously reading this because that voice in your head is telling you to tear that course apart and start over. Right now, you’re probably calculating how many nights you’re going to have to stay up to get it done. Well, don’t. There are some straightforward steps you can take to refresh your course and still gift yourself a small break before the semester starts.

Some things just didn’t work.

It has happened to the best of us. You launch your course, and some things just don’t work right. Maybe your students didn’t turn in the work you expected. Or perhaps that new tech you tried out just didn’t work out for you. Or perhaps that article you picked out or book you wanted just isn’t as impactful as you had hoped. Maybe your institution is discontinuing an essential technology for your course.

When this happens, make a small list of the changes you need to make for the course to be successful. I suggest no more than three to five very specific, actionable items on that list. This way, you will have enough time to concentrate on making good changes for the right reasons. Once your list is in place, prioritize it from most impactful to least. What is most important to get done for the experience of your students? Complete them in order of priority a little at a time.

Another way to generate your list is to make it as you are teaching the course. I like to keep a Google Doc full of notes reflecting on each week of my class. What went well, what didn’t go well, and what ideas I have for future iterations. I can also review the notes (when the course doesn’t change drastically) to see trends and patterns. Is week 3 always a slog, or was it just because I was sick that it felt that way?

I get bored teaching the same course over and over.

What some people view as a giant bonus, some of us view as a very definite downside. I see all of the shiny new technology out there and the new course designs coming through my office, and I want to try it all too. I am also very fortunate that I get to attend some amazing conferences on higher ed course design that inspire me to improve and experiment continually. Will I have the same success with virtual field trips? Can I bring in experts every week as they did? What if I just remake all of my lectures as VoiceThreads to encourage student input? 

If you are a member of this camp, you are among friends here. Instead of completely redesigning your course to move from a traditional lecture and quiz to an experiment in student-driven inquiry using an emerging tech you saw at OLC, consider making your changes in increments. Choose one fundamental change you want to make and make it in just a few of the modules. Then, after the semester is over, you can either make the change throughout the rest of the course or remove the upgrade.

For example, I’m interested in using “student pathways” in my new gaming course by using Google Drive to create the different pathways and experiences for the students through a series of folders with unique content pertaining to the topics in each. Since I’m not sure how my students will react to this kind of challenge in a course, I’m only going to use the pathways every other week instead of every week. This means I only have to redesign three modules instead of seven. This lets me have a chance to gather student feedback in the “off weeks” and redesign as I need to. Or, if everything crashes and burns, I have an opportunity to go in and take the pathway out completely. 

I want to make improvements to the student experience.

Maybe your students are complaining about your course. Perhaps they aren’t complaining, but you know parts are barely tolerable or troublesome for some reason. Or maybe you inherited a class that you’re not especially excited about. Not a problem at all. Don’t hit that delete key.

In situations like this, the first thing you will want to do is identify the problem. Are your students complaining because it is hard work or because they aren’t prepared for what you are asking them to do? Are you offering enough opportunities for student-to-student, student-to-content, and student-to-faculty interaction? Have you chosen the appropriate technology for your course goals and your student ability levels?

Finding solutions to these problems are often very challenging because we only have half of the picture. If the answer to your problem is stumping you, consider reaching back out to your instructional designer and describing what you have found. If you don’t have access to an instructional designer, reach out to your teaching and learning center, and ask for a consultation. Campus-based resources like these see a vast number of confusing situations and may have some creative ways for you to solve your problem without a huge time sink.

Whatever your challenge may be, there are very few that require you to start completely over from a blank slate. Save yourself the stress and pressure of delivering a brand new course every semester and reflect on the challenges of your current design. Often, even making just a few small changes can drastically improve both your experience and the experience of your students.