Design Strategies for Developing an Engaging Online Course in

International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology

(IJEDICT), 2021, Vol. 17, Issue 3, pp. 198-206

Design Strategies for Developing an Engaging Online Course in Higher

Education

Gaspard Mucundanyi

New Mexico State University, United States

ABSTRACT

Online education is growing, but retaining students is still a challenge. However, student

engagement is one of the factors contributing to student retention in online education. Online

instructors and instructional designers should value student engagement in online courses. The

first two weeks of an online course are critical; students start to familiarize themselves with the

courses and connect with instructors, classmates, and content. It is also essential to consider these

first two weeks as a deciding factor for students to take or drop online courses. Therefore, the

online course design needs to be perfect from the beginning. Through the lenses of Technological,

Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK), this article discusses five strategies of designing

an engaging online course, such as clear and consistent design, developing a detailed syllabus,

creating a learning community, instructor presence, and prioritizing free educational materials.

Online instructors and instructional designers may explore these strategies to improve student

engagement in online courses.

Keywords: Online education; distance education; student engagement; designing online course;

higher education

INTRODUCTION

Instructors need to know what to teach, how to teach, and what tools to use. Technology is

becoming a valuable tool in education that educators can no longer set aside. Technology allows

teachers to center learning on students (Dukuzumuremyi & Siklander, 2018; Wiburg, Parra,

Mucundanyi, Latorre, & Torres, 2017) and motivates students to provide input and feedback on

learning (Morales, Trujillo, Mucundanyi, & Castillo, 2019; Dukuzumuremyi, 2014). Technology also

creates an opportunity for students to innovate, collaborate, and share (Parra, Raynor, Osanloo, &

Guillaume, 2019; Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2016). Students use technology to engage in learning and

create knowledge through discovery and hands-on activities (Wiburg, Parra, Mucundanyi, Torres,

& Latorre, 2017; Lee & Hannafin, 2016). Students depend fully on technology in distance education

as a part of instructions.

Online courses offer the flexibility of taking courses anywhere without geographical constraints,

and the number of online students is increasing every year (Horvath et al., 2019; Seaman, Allen, &

Seaman, 2018). Higher education institutions are equally crucial in using online courses to attract

many students and increase enrollment (Goodman, Melkers, & Pallais, 2019). However, online

education faces a lower retention rate (Glazier, 2016; Bawa, 2016). The lack of physical interaction

in online education contributes to a lower retention rate. Online students who feel isolated do not

engage in learning (Gillett-Swan, 2017) and have a high probability of not completing a course.

Student engagement is one of the factors that can improve student retention and learning

experiences (Czerkawski & Lyman, 2016; Glazier, 2016). Higher education institutions that focus

on student engagement in online education improve retention and graduation rates. One of an

online instructor's primary goals should be to engage, retain, and assist students in completing

courses.

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ENGAGEMENT IN AN ONLINE COURSE

Online students engage in learning when interacting with their classmates, content, and instructors

(Martin & Bolliger, 2018; Gupta & Pandey, 2018; Angelino, Williams, & Natvig, 2007). The

relationship between students and instructors allows students to develop “self-confidence, self-

efficacy, and self-esteem” (Peacock & Cowan, 2019, p. 78). Online education provides a unique

experience as the learning process takes place in a virtual environment. According to Khan, Egbue,

Palkie, and Madden (2017), “unlike face-to-face courses, online courses present a unique

challenge as the only social presence between the faculty and the student is via the Internet” (p.

107). Students also need to interact with their classmates to learn from one another (Berry, 2017;

Sun & Chen, 2016). In addition to social interaction, students depend on instructors' guidance to

navigate and familiarize themselves with online courses (Gray & DiLoreto, 2016; Kyei-Blankson,

Ntuli, & Donnelly, 2016).

Students interact first with the content in navigating the course interfaces through Learning

Management Systems. The more students are engaged in navigating online courses, the more

they visit the courses to explore opportunities to connect and interact with instructors and other

students. The engagement between students and content is regarded as the most critical

interaction in online course design even though “student-content interactions have been relatively

under-researched, particularly in comparison to instructor-student and student-student interactions”

(Ertmer, Sadaf, & Ertmer, 2011, p. 174). Online instructors and instructional designers are using

different strategies to overcome student engagement challenges and create a comfortable learning

environment in online courses (Martin & Bolliger, 2018; Sanga, 2017; Budhai & Williams, 2016;

Woodley, Mucundanyi, & Lockard, 2017).

Angelino et al. (2007) examined online students' engagement and emphasized that a learner-

centered approach, learning community, and access to online services are critical to student

engagement. These findings support the idea that students who are part of learning become active

learners. Students come from different cultural backgrounds and take online courses with prior

learning experiences. According to Heitner and Jennings (2016), “faculty who teach online who

understand and value culturally responsive pedagogy and have the knowledge and skills to

implement best practices in meeting the needs of diverse learners will enhance both teaching and

learning” (p. 54). Valuing diversity in online courses creates an opportunity for the students to know

each other, connect, share, and collaborate (Woodley, Hernandez, Parra, & Negash, 2017; Morong

& DesBiens, 2016). Choosing textbooks that meet the course goals and speak to student lived

experiences is the key to student engagement (Woodley et al., 2017). Therefore, diversity should

be fundamental to online teaching and learning.

Budhai and Williams (2016) recommended online instructors to know the students' needs, apply

differentiated instruction, and provide appropriate technology to support teaching and learning.

According to Sanga (2017), “it becomes critical to carefully select pedagogies that work well in

applicable contexts and then employing selected, relevant technologies to advance such

pedagogies” (p. 21). Students learn in different ways, and online courses should include various

course materials and application to real-world scenarios (Martin & Bolliger, 2018). Hence, the

Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has relevance for

instructors and instructional designers in the design of and teaching in online courses.

TPACK AND ONLINE EDUCATION

The TPACK framework emphasizes the intersection of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content

Knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Benson & Ward, 2013). TPACK is the center of a Venn

Diagram model with three circles representing Technological Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge,

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and Content Knowledge (Anderson, Barham, & Northcote, 2013; Kraglund-Gauthier & Moseley,

2019). According to Stover and Veres (2013), “most faculty gain their Content Knowledge (CK)

from their research and writing, their Pedagogy Knowledge (PK) from workshops conducted from

their teaching and learning centers and their Technology Knowledge (TK) from workshops

conducted by their IT departments” (p. 98). In addition to individual knowledge represented in the

circles of the Venn Diagram, the educators who use TPACK take a step further in combining two

knowledge, such as Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), Pedagogical Content

Knowledge (PCK), and Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), before they fully integrate three

knowledge (TPACK).

Online education happens in the technological environment of virtual learning and the TPACK

framework can guide online course design. Researchers interested in using TPACK in online

education highlighted that the course design is a focal point in engaging students (Anderson,

Barham, & Northcote, 2013; Kraglund-Gauthier & Moseley, 2019). However, engaging students in

online education is still challenging. Czerkawski and Lyman (2016) argue that “research on student

engagement is yielding increasingly complex questions and issues, the need for research exploring

engagement in the context of online learning is greater than ever” (p. 538). Online instructors and

instructional designers are consistently searching and sharing strategies to design courses with a

high level of engagement.

Through the lenses of TPACK, the author of this article used his experiences as an instructional

designer and online instructor to share five strategies for designing online courses that engage

students. Since 2015, the author has taught online courses at undergraduate and graduate levels

and designed online undergraduate, master, and doctoral courses. The author also completed a

doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration on Educational Learning

Technologies and a Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning. Finally, the author’s

dissertation focused on examining the factors of engaging college students in online learning.

FIVE DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING ONLINE STUDENTS

The first two weeks are vital to online students as there might be students who are not committed

to online courses. It is an excellent practice to keep in mind that an engaging online course

transforms the learning experience of new, undecided, and experienced students. The following

strategies could guide instructors and instructional designers in designing online courses that

engage students.

First Strategy: A Clear and Consistent Design

Online students who struggle to navigate the course do not engage in learning and may drop the

courses. With a high dropout rate in online courses, the course design must be perfect from the

beginning. Students log into online courses to see their classmates, contents, assignments, due

dates, and rubrics of assignments. A clear and consistent design allows students to easily navigate

the course and understand what is expected in the course. The homepage is critical in online

courses as students first see the homepage. Instructors and instructional designers need to make

sure the homepage welcomes students to the course and invites them to explore the course

navigation and understand the course’s expectations. A clear design shows the general objectives

for the course as well as the objectives for units or modules. In addition, a clear design should have

required readings, assignments, and grading rubrics. It is a good practice to send reminders for the

assignment deadlines using the Learning Management System Calendar. Besides, final projects

can be introduced earlier with consistent reminders to check the progress and encourage students

to complete the projects before the deadlines. Moreover, online students need to know the best

ways to communicate with instructors and the instructors' response time in case they have

Design Strategies for Developing an Engaging Online Course 201

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questions. Thus, a clear design saves time for students to ask questions and instructors to address

course navigation issues.

An online instructor should be consistent in course design by applying the same design to all

modules or units. Having the same design across units or modules allows students to familiarize

themselves with the course and know where to find the contents and assignments, how to submit

assignments, and check grades. A consistent design helps students to dedicate more time to

readings, assignments, and course projects. It is essential to provide extra resources to online

students, such as information on digital libraries and Information Communication and Technology

(ICT) support centers, to provide academic and technical assistance. Therefore, a clear and

consistent design creates an opportunity for students to engage in the course content (Sun & Chen,

2016; McClary, 2013).

Second Strategy: Developing a Detailed Syllabus

Online students have other responsibilities besides taking online courses. Time management is

critical to online students. Students adjust their existing schedules to allocate time for online

courses. Therefore, it is a good practice to have a detailed syllabus which includes the course

description and objectives of a course and units or modules, different ways of contacting an

instructor, response time, weekly readings, list of assignments as well as their due dates and

assigned grades or marks, netiquette and plagiarism statements, overall grading scheme for the

course, course technology requirements, required textbooks, and policies for late assignments,

syllabus updates, and incomplete grades.

Students take online courses from different geographical areas around the world. Hence,

instructors need to clarify the time for submitting an assignment. Saying 11:59 pm confuses

students; however, using the due time of an assignment as 11:59 pm Mountain Standard Time

(MST) or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) clarifies students' doubts about the deadline of an

assignment. Moreover, there might be changes in the syllabus and instructors need to ensure that

all students are aware of these changes, including minor changes. Some online students may not

have access to the Internet for days due to different reasons such as traveling, being deployed in

remote areas without access to the Internet, or other personal reasons. Notifying the changes at

least two weeks ahead of updating a syllabus creates a comfortable learning environment for

students to adapt to the changes and feel valued and respected. A syllabus connects students to

content and instructor, and it is also a starting point for the students to communicate with their

classmates. Through understanding the syllabus, students start identifying and planning for

individual and group work.

Third Strategy: Creating a Learning Community

Students learn more when they collaborate, interact, and engage one another and create a learning

community. Online courses mainly rely on discussion boards to engage students. Depending on

the type of assignment, students can access the posts of their classmates before making the

original posts, or instructors can prevent students from accessing any post before making their

original posts. To increase student engagement, instructors can request online students to go back

to their original posts and reflect on the replies to original posts. It is a good approach to recommend

to students that they include required readings of the course to meet the courses' goals and

objectives. Combining course readings and other readings outside of the course in discussion

board posts or assignments motivates and encourages students to apply what they learn into real-

world scenarios. Instructors can also use a whole class as a single group or divide students into

different groups for discussion boards and assignments.

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Besides discussion boards, instructors can use synchronous communications such as live

conferences or virtual sessions for students to know each other and get immediate guidance from

instructors. Due to the time difference between geographical areas, it might be impossible for all

students to attend at the same time. It is a good practice for instructors to record live conferences

or virtual sessions as learning resources for students who missed an opportunity to attend live

meetings. Moreover, these recordings become a reference for students who attended synchronous

class meetings as well. Collaborative tools, such as Google Docs, are also valuable tools for

working in groups. Collaborative tools allow students to work synchronously and asynchronously.

It is always essential for online instructors to clarify guidelines for working in groups. Finally, online

instructors can involve students in their design by providing formative assessments to improve the

design as students progress in a course with a better understanding of goals, objectives, and

expectations. A learning community emphasizes interactions among students and instructors

(Berry, 2017; Mucundanyi, 2019; Parra, Woodley, & Lucero, 2018).

Fourth Strategy: Instructor Presence

An online instructor's presence in a course is the center of student engagement and an example of

a student-centered approach (Kyei-Blankson et al., 2016; Martin, Wang, & Sadaf, 2018). Online

courses should not be a learning environment where students get a syllabus, complete readings,

and submit assignments without getting consistent guidance from an instructor. An instructor must

introduce the course and guide students on how to navigate the course. Recording an introduction

video with an instructor sharing a computer screen helps students to see and understand the

course navigation and expectations. This introduction video should be published on the first day of

a course.

An instructor should also be present in discussion boards and live conferences to guide and answer

student questions. Timely feedback is vital in online courses and students need to know when they

should hear from an instructor, for example, within 24 hours or 48 hours. Clarifying and respecting

an instructor's time to respond is a sign of the instructor's presence. Online instructors should check

emails regularly and respond to students on time. Online instructors can also use announcements

to address the whole class. Finally, instructors need to grade assignments before students submit

the assignments of the following units or modules. Online instructors should provide detailed

feedback on assignments that help students improve their future work and ensure that they meet

the course requirements.

Fifth Strategy: Prioritizing free educational materials

Students in online courses face challenges of getting required textbooks on time based on the

geographical location and adding the extra cost of textbooks to tuition and fees. However, more

journals, publishers, and authors publish open source materials to make research accessible to the

general public free of cost. Online instructors and instructional designers should first use open

source materials. Open source materials remove the burden for the students to pay for educational

materials and increases the availability of educational resources. As college students may be

involved in research, instructors could encourage students to rely first on free digital libraries not

only limited to Google Scholar. In case there are no free educational resources, instructors can

explore textbooks and select affordable required textbooks that meet the course requirements.

While the books and articles are the most used readings in higher education, it is crucial to consider

that students do not learn in the same way. Required readings may include books, journal articles,

book chapters, video, and audio. Some students like to read while other students enjoy watching

videos, listening to audio recordings, or playing educational games. Online students live in different

geographical areas, and there might be educational resources available to communities that can

be valuable to all students. Therefore, instructors could create an opportunity for students to use

Design Strategies for Developing an Engaging Online Course 203

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local educational resources. Using different types of resources, such as text, audio, video, and

educational games, allows students to interact and engage in the content (Woodley et al., 2017).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Five strategies discussed in this article contribute to the TPACK knowledge in designing and

teaching online courses. The first strategy of clear and consistent design focuses on technology.

The second strategy of developing a detailed syllabus touches on technology, pedagogy, and

content knowledge. The third strategy of creating a learning community helps instructional

designers and instructors use the virtual environment's pedagogy to engage students on the

content. The fourth strategy of instructor presence provides an opportunity for the instructors to

adapt pedagogy students’ deep learning and understanding. Finally, the fifth strategy of prioritizing

free educational materials creates an opportunity for the instructors to use free content and

increase accessibility of the required textbooks in higher education. Equally important, using open

educational resources in online courses reduces the cost of buying textbooks.

Engaging students in online courses is not an easy task but a challenge. However, engagement in

online courses is possible due to the commitment of instructors and instructional designers who

are eager to create comfortable learning experiences for all online students. Engagement in online

courses does not start in the middle of a course; it must be perfect from the beginning. Focusing

on the strategies of engaging online students could improve the design of online courses. The five

strategies in this article are not mandatory but a baseline that instructors and instructional designers

could use in designing and developing engaging online courses. Online instructors and instructional

designers may expand these strategies based on the nature of a course, diversity of students,

infrastructure, and technology availability.

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