Ten Best Practices For Designing An Online Course

We have worked in positions in higher education that required us to lead, design, and teach online courses that emphasized on curriculum and instructional design best practices. In our roles, we interacted with experienced and inexperienced faculty members to develop courses. We witnessed the challenges faculty members faced when designing and delivering online courses. The purpose of this article is to place emphasis on ten best practices for designing an online course to support faculty members who teach online. We highlighted the design process by underlining the importance of: (i) course overview: description and rationale, (ii) designing measurable learning goals and outcomes, (iii) designing inclusive course content, (iv) designing inclusive instruction, (v) engaging the learner, (vi), designing class section outline and course schedule, (vii) making online course accessible, (viii) designing assessment and rubrics for instruction, (ix) technology interface, and (x) learning management system. Keywords: online course, online teaching, educational technology, higher education, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8444-8619