A fee-for-service partnership offered tremendous flexibility. That was important because we saw many opportunities for strengthening UW’s online operations on an accelerated schedule. To do so, we divided our support into five work streams that we could complete simultaneously.

Workstream 1. Course design and development

Our learning designers collaborated with UW’s faculty directly to help elevate the quality of coursework. We tailored our support for varying skill levels — and limited impacts to busy schedules — by offering multiple formats for transforming on-ground courses for online learning:

Guided course development
We identified course requirements during weekly meetings with faculty. From there, our learning designers and the faculty followed a collaborative process to complete the content work. This format was ideal for faculty members seeking outside teammates who could lead most of the course development, bringing their vision to life in the LMS.
1:1 course development workshops
When faculty selected this option, we worked with them in real-time. These workshops let us collaborate closely, developing courses in a compressed timeframe.
Course framework development
UW faculty members teamed up with our learning designers to plan online courses. Then we used those plans to create course templates in the LMS for faculty members to populate with content on their schedules. This format worked well for busy faculty members who could navigate the LMS independently but wanted assistance thinking through the big picture of their design and the alignment of their content.

“It would have been basically impossible to complete this work at that scale without a partnership,” Dr. Cook said. “It’s been absolutely enlightening, as now we know where the issues are and can continue developing our online courses and resources.”

Workstream 2. Faculty development

This workstream prepared UW’s professors to develop and teach online courses independently. We offered a series of faculty development courses to instill an array of essential skills for online instruction:

Online course design
During this introductory course, faculty learned to apply best practices and offer uniform coursework across the university.
Planning online programs
Spanning two courses, we taught UW’s program directors and department chairs to structure student-centric online programs. We also customized asynchronous/synchronous materials to help close their specific knowledge gaps.
Instructional design platform
This course helped professors learn to use tools that integrate with UW’s LMS. With this knowledge, they could design higher quality, more accessible courses in less time.
Interactive coursework
We led training on tools for using interactive elements to create immersive learning experiences — no technical background required.

“We wanted to embrace the interactive nature of deploying a class online,” Dr. Cook said. “Wiley’s learning designers pointed our faculty to tools for creating interactive assignments and a richer, more interactive environment for online learners.”

Workstream 3. Program analyses

UW wanted to get a sense of strengths and weaknesses within their online sociology and criminal justice programs. They also strived to offer a consistent learning experience in these programs. So, we analyzed courses and found opportunities to enhance them by:

Using consistent layouts and standard modules to add cohesion across both programs, reducing student’s cognitive load when switching between courses
Setting weekly learning objectives to structure the courses further and establish expectations for learners
Diversifying assessments and instructional materials to give students a more engaging online education
Making accessibility adjustments that removed barriers for students with learning disabilities

“There was a broad recognition that we needed cohesion in these programs,” said Dr. Eric Wodahl, Department Chair for UW’s Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology. “I don’t think we would have gotten to that level without Wiley.”

Workstream 4. ECTL quality audits

ECTL gave prompt support to faculty after the pandemic began. This support included workshops on best practices for online learning and course assessments. But with the overwhelming workload stemming from the pandemic, giving feedback about each faculty member’s course design would require assistance.

Instant Insights /

Elevating Course Quality After a Fast Pivot to Online Learning

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