By Mayra Collins, Assistant Director of Digital Learning Experience Design
Effective online teaching starts with the student experience. As you design or refresh an online course, focus on what students need to succeed: clear expectations, meaningful interaction, accessible course materials, and opportunities to practice and demonstrate their learning.
Effective online learning takes more than placing content online. These five practices offer a starting point for creating an engaging, accessible, and student-centered online learning experience.
1. Start with the Student Experience
Walk through your course from a student’s perspective: Is it clear where to begin, what to do, when work is due, and where to find help?
Use consistent navigation, clear instructions, and a predictable module structure so students can focus on learning rather than searching for information.
2. Align Learning Objectives, Activities, and Assessments
For each learning objective, identify how students will practice and apply the skill and how they will demonstrate achievement.
Make those connections visible in activity and assessment instructions so students understand what they are learning, why the work matters, and how it prepares them to succeed. Give every activity and assessment a clear instructional purpose.
Use the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric as an additional resource when reviewing the design and alignment of your online course.
3. Create Meaningful Interaction and Student Engagement
Help students connect with you, one another, and the course content through purposeful interaction. Use discussions and collaboration that ask students to apply ideas.
Communicate regularly and provide feedback students can use in their next steps. Make your instructor presence visible so students know how to reach you and stay connected to the learning community.
4. Design for Accessibility from the Start
Plan from the beginning for students to access course materials, navigate the course, and participate in learning.
Use clear headings, descriptive links, captions, and accessible documents to reduce barriers. Invite students’ perspectives and offer meaningful ways to contribute to the learning community. Explore the Six Essentials of Digital Accessibility for practical considerations to incorporate into your course, and consult the Digital Accessibility FAQs for additional guidance.
5. Use Technology and AI with Purpose
Choose technology based on what you want students to learn or do. Explore UT San Antonio’s available digital teaching tools to identify options that meet a learning need and support their teaching goals. Whether using a learning management system (LMS), multimedia, interactive tools, or generative AI, ask: What will this help students learn or do better?
Before assigning a tool, consider accessibility and privacy and explain how students will use it. For generative AI, clearly state when and how its use is permitted, how students should acknowledge its use, and what work they must complete independently to uphold academic integrity. Use the Suggested Syllabus Statements to help communicate expectations, and explore UT San Antonio’s Teaching, Learning and Artificial Intelligence resources for additional institutional guidance related to AI and teaching.
Continue Learning During National Distance Learning Week:
Each year, the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) hosts National Distance Learning Week (NDLW), offering free virtual programming focused on digital and distance learning. The annual event provides an opportunity to explore emerging trends, best practices, and new ideas that can inform online teaching and course design. Explore National Distance Learning Week
Put Online Course Design into Practice
Before adding an activity, resource, or technology, ask: How will this improve the student’s learning experience?
Start small. Choose one practice from this article to apply to an upcoming module. Ask students what helps them learn and where they encounter barriers, then use their feedback to guide your next improvement. If you’d like additional guidance, schedule a consultation with a teaching and learning expert who can help you identify strategies that support your course goals and students’ needs.
Faculty who have partnered with Academic Innovation have put these approaches into practice when designing and improving their courses.
“Academic Innovation was instrumental in helping me redesign the online structure and delivery of my BME 6403 course by improving the course orientation materials, reorganizing learning modules to better align objectives with instructional activities and assessments, and incorporating more opportunities for student engagement. These changes provide students with a clearer roadmap for success, help them understand how assignments connect to course objectives and real-world biomedical engineering applications, and create a more organized, interactive, and meaningful learning experience.”
Don Petersen
Professor of Practice
Medical Device Commercialization (Online Graduate Certificate) Certificate Program
Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Thoughtful online course design keeps the student experience at the center.
Resources for Online Teaching and Course Design
For more, review these additional resources:
Support
For support, email [email protected], call 210-458-4520 or schedule a consultation with our TLDT experts.