Online Educator Training - Level I Certificate (Basic Competency) - Meeting #1 with Patty Evans-Wallin

Sep 30, 2026

Online Educator Training Level I Certificate material introduces the core design and communication practices for effective online courses. It covers how to structure course content into weeks or modules, maintain clear organization and navigation, diversify delivery methods to sustain engagement, and foster learner community. It also explains learning formats (asynchronous vs. synchronous), distinguishes distance education from correspondence education, and addresses maintaining regular and effective contact, including guidance aligned to California Title V.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Introductions

Topics for Today

A Quick Glance at an Online Course

Designing an Effective Online Course

Use universally designed materials

Textbooks and Online Courses

Traditional Textbooks

Integrated Publisher Textbooks

Open Educational Resources

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Learning

Asynchronous learning (time-delayed)

Synchronous learning (real time)

Distance Education vs. Correspondence Education

Maintaining Regular & Effective Contact in Online Classes

Online Educator Training: Level I Certificate (Basic Competency) Meeting \#1 with Patty Evans-Wallin Introductions A little bit about me: • Full-time faculty member in the math department since 1990 • Taught online math courses since 2003 • Coordinator for the Mathematics Online Education Team • Teach the first two weeks of Saddleback College’s Online Educator Certificate Program • Lead Reviewer for Saddleback College’s Peer Online Course Review Program • Completed a fully online doctorate in Higher Education Leadership in 2018 Even with this experience, I still feel like a newbie sometimes! Topics for Today Today’s topics will introduce you to: • Design of Effective Online Courses • Regular and Effective Contact • Importing the Summer 2020 Template • Updating the Home Page • Creating a Welcome Announcement • Creating and Uploading a Syllabus for an Online Course A Quick Glance at an Online Course The following is the student orientation video for: Patty Evans-Wallin’s Math 253 course It will give you an idea of how courses may be organized in Canvas. If you are feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry! You will not need to create your online courses from scratch. Our own Saddleback College faculty member, Jennifer Pakula, has created a template that you can import into your Canvas courses, which we will learn to do later. To get a feel for the template and how you will modify it for your individual courses, please watch the informal video Jennifer created to explain it to fellow facilitators of this class: Shell Created for Summer 2020 Faculty Designing an Effective Online Course | Divide your course content into weeks, units, or modules:
By providing structured components into your course, your students will better be able to stay on track and complete assignments on time. | | --- | | Use clear, consistent organization and navigation:
You want the flow of your class to be intuitive for students, so they can spend their time learning the material instead of trying to figure out how to navigate the course. | | Use variety in content delivery to keep students engaged:
A course that is all reading and writing can get dull real fast. When possible, embed videos, interactive tutorials, images, and so on. | | Focus your content:
Avoid excess content that may detract from your learning objectives. Break up long videos and PowerPoints into smaller more focused sections. | | Foster community:
As much as possible, establish a sense of community in your online classroom by creating opportunities for you to interact with your students and for students to interact with each other. | Use universally designed materials: Keep in mind students with varying learning styles and disabilities, such as the visually and hearing impaired, when designing course content. Textbooks and Online Courses Traditional Textbooks: • Hardcopy Text: Some online instructors still require hardcopy textbooks to accompany their online courses. • eText: Oftentimes, textbooks may be available in an online format through services such as VitalSource. Integrated Publisher Textbooks: • Publishers such as Pearson's MyLab & Mastering and McGraw-Hill Connect allow you to‘pair’ your with Canvas so that students can connect to the publisher site from Canvas without having to create a separate login account. • To learn more about publisher pairing with Canvas, please click How to Connect Your Canvas Course with Various Publisher Tools. Open Educational Resources: • Free to students. • Some OERs can be integrated with Canvas. • Please click What are Open Educational Resources to learn more about them. Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Learning Asynchronous learning (time-delayed) • e-mail • threaded discussion • assignment activities to be completed individually • file attachments • newsgroups and bulletin boards Synchronous learning (real time) • audio and video conferenci

FAQs

What does the training cover for designing effective online courses?

It covers structuring content into weeks, units, or modules; using clear, consistent organization and navigation; varying content delivery to keep students engaged; focusing content on learning objectives; and fostering community in the online classroom.

How does asynchronous learning differ from synchronous learning?

Asynchronous learning is time-delayed, using tools like email, threaded discussions, assignments completed individually, file attachments, and bulletin boards. Synchronous learning happens in real time through audio/video conferencing, shared whiteboards, live chat, and collaborative viewing of multimedia presentations.

What is regular and effective contact, and why is it required?

Regular and effective contact is a requirement referenced by California Title V. The material emphasizes maintaining substantive interactions between students and instructors and provides tips to implement trackable contact in online courses.

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn Holloway