How to design and facilitate an online course

To ensure that the course runs smoothly and help all participants to complete their task, we suggest some practical solutions. The exercises are based both on individual and group work. Very often individual work is an introduction to a group discussion or group work on an assignment.

• Individual work: the whole course was designed to be completed within about 50 hours of study. This amounts to approximately 4 hours a week. However, as individual work pace varies, the actual time required might differ from the estimates.
  It is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the course schedule and requirements on how to pass each module. This way it is easier to plan your work, taking into account external factors such as vacations and holidays or personal commitments, as well as to leave a margin of time for unpredictable circumstances. You may consider using the built-in Moodle calendar (or another online tool, such as Google Calendar) to control and plan deadlines. Although your study time is decided solely by you, planning your participation in the course will allow for better cooperation within the course and will ensure the completion of assignments.
• Group work: you can benefit from the activity of other course participants, learn from them as well as with them. This happens through exchanging views on the discussion forum, commenting on each other’s posts, citing others and posting links. In the case of group work, the success of the assignment depends on the level of activity of each individual participant, so it is important to communicate frequently with others and to engage in group work. Intensive communication and working to deadlines are crucial in this form of work.

You should reserve four hours a week and log in at least three times a week to fully benefit from the course. Try to log in twice a day; for example, once in the morning, to post and add content, and once in the evening, to read and comment on the activities of other participants.