The 5Ds Model for Planning and Teaching Online Courses: Stage One – Defining the Online Course Essentials

Overview

Teaching an online course just like other kinds of teaching requires planning that includes setting clear goals and objectives for the instruction and developing a comprehensive plan to reach it. With this plan, online instructors ought to address the following four fundamental planning questions: Where we are now (current status of the targeted students and the need for the course)? Where are we going (the course overall goal and learning outcomes)? How are we going to get there (the instructional strategy and instructional delivery system)? and what will we do if we did not make it (course evaluation and revision as needed)? Before online instructors start posting instructional materials on the web, they need to know what to post, where to post it, and how it should be posted. As described in the previous chapter, online learning is a process of interrelated components that work together to achieve pre-planned learning outcomes.

Figure 1.

5Ds model define stage

Learning Objectives

Upon completion the learning module of the 1^st stage of the 5Ds model, Define, you will be able to achieve the following learning objectives:

• 1.1

  Define the online course

• 1.2

  Define the targeted learners of the online course

• 1.3

  Define the need for the online course

• 1.4

  Define the online course content

  • 1.5.

    Define the online course prerequisites

    • 1.6

      Define the online course overall goal

    • 1.7

      Define the online course learning objectives

    • 1.8

      Define the online learning environment and support system

Knowing the targeted learners and learning context can make a difference in the learning outcomes of an online course. If you do not know your online students’ characteristics and their ability to learn online, you may run the risk of planning an online course for a different class.