Required and Recommended Reading Lists are available here.

Program Overview and Curriculum
Teaching in the Virtual Classroom is the equivalent of 20 graduate units. It is designed to seamlessly transfer to the doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Change and can become a concentration area in the EdD. It consists of two main course areas delivered in 2 semesters as follows. These are sample dates from the summer term.

Sample dates from the summer term. September start dates available soon.

Semester 1: Effective Online Teaching and Evaluation

EDU 501: Basic Principles of Online Teaching* (4 units)
Course Dates: May 19 - June 27, 2008

This course is designed as a foundation course in the Teaching in the Virtual Classroom Certificate Program. It focuses on developing a shared vocabulary of technical language and discusses the pedagogical concerns in delivery of quality online education. In addition, focus will be on the theories that scaffold the practice of online teaching, such as constructivist learning, transformative learning, and online learning communities.

• Theories
• Building learning communities
• Basic facilitation skills
• Basic evaluation skills

EDU 502: Strategies for Online Facilitation and Evaluation* (3 units)
Course Dates: June 30 - August 1, 2008

The focus in this course will be creating online courses that lead to desired learning outcomes by effectively blending course content with appropriate use of technological tools. Strategies for facilitation, including syllabus development, promoting active participation online, incorporating activities that create and maintain learner engagement, and effective assessment of student work will be explored.

• Strategies for facilitation (guidelines and expectations, questioning techniques, working with different age groups, etc.)
• Engagement and collaboration
• Strategies for evaluation (authentic evaluation, alignment, etc.)

EDU 503: Applied Project in Effective Online Teaching and Evaluation* (3 units)
Course Dates: August 4 - August 29, 2008

In this course, you will be asked to apply the knowledge gained through EDU 501 and EDU 502 through the creation and delivery of a lesson for an online or hybrid course. Through this process, participants will demonstrate effective facilitation and assessment skills.

• Application of concepts from first two courses
• Demonstration of competency with facilitation and evaluation

Semester 2: Effective Design of Online Courses and Programs

EDU 504: Principles of Course and Curriculum Design for Online Learning* (4 units)
Course Dates: September 8 - October 17, 2008

This course explores theories of instructional design, learning theory, and learning styles and their impact on the development of online courses. Other issues and concerns, such as intellectual property rights will also be reviewed.

• Theories of online instructional design
• Course development overview
• Appropriate use of technology
• Curriculum and program development (issues, faculty development, student support, etc.)

EDU 505: Strategies of Effective Course and Curriculum Design* (3 units)
Course Dates: October 20 - November 21, 2008

This course extends the discussion of instructional design for online courses by applying theories and ideas to an existing course or a course in development. Exploration of means by which learner critical thinking and reflective skills can be developed will be explored.

• Specific strategies for course design
• Designing for constructivist and transformative learning
• Building critical thinking skills
• Promoting student empowerment

EDU 506: Applied Project in Effective Design of Online Courses and Programs* (3 units)
Course Dates: November 24 - December 19, 2008

This final course of the certificate program acts as a capstone experience. It allows participants to bring together the learning from all previous courses in the form of a course syllabus for an online or hybrid course. In addition, participants engage in self-evaluation to determine what gaps may still exist in their knowledge of virtual teaching and learning and will create a plan to move forward in their learning and development in this area.

• Application of concepts from first two courses
• Demonstration of competency with course and program design

Courses will be delivered using the Fielding asynchronous platform. Synchronous sessions may be included at the participants' convenience.

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