How to Convert a Face-to-Face Class to Online/Remote Learning (Instructional Designer and Teacher Guide)

Well, I was never expecting to write this kind of blog post, but here we are. The year is 2020 and COVID-19 just threw a wrench into the plans of most universities. I saw from my president that MIT faculty have two weeks to transform their face-to-face classes into online classes. Two weeks is obviously not enough time to fully master effective learning practices in the online setting. Most instructional designers (ID) who do this for a living have years of practical experience or several degrees in education, instructional technology, or instructional design. However, this is a crisis our country is facing and I feel compelled to share with you some of the ID basics to make the online learning experience come alive. 

Below is my guide for an instructor who has never thought about turning their course into an online version or for an instructional designer who is trying to simplify and coach a faculty member through this design and building process. Please note that I did indeed say “simplify” as in if you are an instructional designer and you feel that I missed out on major points or learning opportunities, know that I didn’t forget about them. I’m imagining what I would do if an emergency came up and I was given a strict deadline to make my face-to-face course the same quality in the online environment.

Before I go any further, I would highly recommend to research what resources (online guides, tutorials, contractors, etc.) your institution has provided to help you with this process. There are many resources out there already such as here, here, and here. The steps below are also assuming that the face-to-face course has several presentations and lectures that the faculty member typically delivers each week. What I have encountered the most since being an ID is that faculty have their presentations memorized, but don’t know how to transition these into a meaningful online experience. So, let’s get started.

Make an Outline

You can’t proceed forward until you know the big picture. Having an outline in writing is key to ensure all of the necessary elements are there for learning to take place. Usually, an instructional designer starts with identifying the desired results of the course aka the course outcomes. I’m going to assume that the class we are looking to transform already exists and a syllabus in some fashion has been created. Even if it’s not the best syllabus in the world, it’s the best place to start.

Create a file in Word and title it, “Course Outline.” From here, the template of your outline should be:

• Name of the course

• Course description

• Course outcomes

• Class schedule with titled weeks

• Learning resources / required materials

The course description and course outcomes are your desired results. Whether students are enrolled into the online version or face-to-face version, they should be able to achieve the same goals. This outline will also provide you with a critical component: the class schedule. From this schedule, you’ll be able to see where and when the outcomes are achieved. This type of organization will also let you see if an activity needs to be altered to accommodate for the online version or if there is too much information delivered in one week that needs to be separated out over a long period of time.

Think of the Long-Term Goal

How will you know if students have achieved the desired results? In the classroom, it’s easy to notice how a student is performing. Behind a laptop screen, it’s a little bit different. Overall, we assess students based on their performance on a type of assignment (midterm, final, essay, project, etc.). Describe what the long-term goal is for the students. Are they working on small milestones to deliver a final presentation? Are they researching and practicing now to be able to write a 10-page paper? Think of this goal as being the purpose for the course and providing students with information on how they will achieve the course outcomes. For instance, if I have an 8-week course and students are going to be submitting a final project at the end, I would include small portions of the project to be embedded throughout different weeks in the course. If the final project was due by Week 8, I would include parts of the final during weeks 2, 4, and 6 to provide enough time to give them feedback on how they are performing. When they submit the final project in Week 8, they would have enough time to review and implement the feedback to submit a more robust project.

Map Out the Weeks

For online courses, you’ll notice in whatever learning management system (LMS) you are using there is a folder to house content. This is typically referred to as a module. When the LMS refers to Module 1, it means Week 1. After you have titled the weeks relating to the content, you can break down each week into smaller sections for what the students will be experiencing. This is called a map. There are a million ways to do this, but since we are just doing the basics, let’s open up an Excel sheet. The point of the sheet is to have a visual on all of the different moving parts inside of your course. Online courses typically comprise of readings, videos, practice exercises, discussions, essays, and projects. You can see how I would set up the sheet here:

Example of a map template.

The sheet describes the name of the week (or module), which course outcome is aligned to the week, the section of the week, and then the following parts such as readings, videos, and exercises. You can fill in the Excel boxes with what the students will be learning about. This will also provide a perspective on how to break up the face-to-face content. 

For instance, let’s say my course has a dedicated week to learning about culture and uses Nokia as a case study. Since I already know the lectures I deliver in class, I can start by adding those into the video presentation boxes. From there, I can build around them to deliver a more complete learning experience with readings and activities. It would look like this:

Example of a filled in map.

Why did I layout the information this way? Let’s first start with the reading. The reading is an indication for what is to come next. Think of it as a priming exercise for the brain. By providing this type of background information first, students will be more engaged with the video content because there is already a slight element of applying prior knowledge. By having a reading on one topic and then following this with the same topic in a more expansive video, it’s a nice pairing that will aid in the overall understanding of the content. The videos that I outlined are also roughly five minutes in length a piece. That’s about the total time you can grab someone’s attention until they get distracted, bored, or move on. Shorter videos are fine, but I would recommend to avoid going longer in a single video. You can always space them out by creating other separate videos. 

Next, let’s talk about the practice question. The practice question allows students to do just that: practice. It’s a question that isn’t assigned a point value and will allow them to be creative with their answers. You can create questions based upon the videos and make the students think deeper on those same topics. It’s also common to include the practice questions at the end of the video, directly asking the question to the student watching the video. I have seen verbiage before such as, “What would you do in this situation?” This gives the directive to the student to follow through with the question and creates more of a connection.

Finally, you’ll notice something called a “reflection question.” This is strategically placed at the end of the section. It’s to make the learning meaningful. Students today need tangible skills and the best way for them to retrieve the information on how to apply the skill is through reflection. Have students reflect upon what the learned in the section and then ask them to relate it back to either a job, an activity, or some other past experience. In this case, I asked students to think about cultural change. Every organization, school, club, family, and group has culture, making reflection questions applicable to a wide audience. You know your target audience better than anyone else so think about a potential common experience among the group and connect it to the video content.

My example above is not to confine a teaching style to only practice questions and reflection questions. If the normal classroom activities have group discussions, use the discussion board. If the assignments are usually essays, projects, or other submission-based assignment, the LMS can also handle these. For instance, a graphic design student can submit a PDF file as their homework just like how an MBA student can submit a business proposal to the same area in the LMS. In any case, if you continue to map out your course in the way that I described, you’ll have a clear visual of what students will be experiencing in your online class and you can make sure that all outcomes have been achieved.

Recording Videos

From here, I would record videos using Zoom. It’s my favorite web based recording software I have ever used. Your institution most likely has a designated software to use, so once again, check their resources page. Stanford made a quick Zoom video that’s great to learn the basics. Zoom will let you record lectures and then it’s up to you to make the edits and clips if need be. Given the circumstances and time sensitivity, I don’t think students are expecting perfection, so I wouldn’t be as concerned as I normally would with editing. These videos can be uploaded to either the LMS or to YouTube and then inserted into the platform. From here, it’s about building around the video content using your map!

Accessibility

Do not forget about accessibility! Students have different needs. Remember to include common practices such as transcripts, alt-text, downloads, etc. to accommodate for all students. A great article can be found about these steps here.

Reviewing

Now is the time to review your work! It’s easy to make a small mistake in the LMS and not realize it. View the LMS in the “student view” to see exactly what your students will be seeing. This will allow for accurate reviewing and testing on each page. Some quick things to note are the videos successfully loading/playing, buttons working, articles loading, hyperlinks working, spelling mistakes, etc. What would be beneficial would be to find another faculty member going through the same process and offering to review their work if they can review yours. Having a second set of eyes never hurts!

Following the steps above will lead you in the right direction. There is so much more I could share, and luckily, many instructional designers are currently sharing their tips like crazy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms. Make connections and read more articles. Reach out to your institution and their resources. While the circumstances are difficult, this can be done and I commend you for taking these steps!

 Want to take your instructional design skills to the next level? Check out Instructional Design Institute.