This job aid is an overview of best practices for creating online courses for BuckeyeLearn.
Should You Create an Online Course?
Before you create an online course, you first need to determine if the content is appropriate for BuckeyeLearn and if an online course is the most appropriate learning object.
Is the content appropriate for BuckeyeLearn?
Should the content be an online course or should it be a different type of learning object?
Adult Learning Principles
All training in BuckeyeLearn, including online courses, must be built in accordance with adult learning principles.
Helpful Note:
Adult learning principles describe how adults learn, as opposed to how children or college students learn.
In general, adults are self-directed and goal-oriented when they take training. Training should be relevant and applicable to their immediate needs and situations. Training should respect the learner and take their experience and knowledge into account.
Instructional designers and professional training developers use these principles to develop training that engages and educates the training’s specific audience of adult learners. If your area does not have instructional designers or professional training developers on staff, consider hiring a third-party vendor to create any needed online courses. If your area does not have the budget to hire a third-party vendor, consider using another learning object type, such as a material that links to a PDF, Word document, or webpage.
Third-Party Vendors
If your area has a third-party vendor create training for you or if your area purchases pre-made training, you are required to thoroughly test the training and the training must be approved by the Operations Committee and the ADA Coordinator’s Office. For more information about the testing and approval process, review the Third-Party Vendor Training job aid.
Authoring Tools
Online courses may only be created using approved authoring tools, currently Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, and Lectora. If your area wants to use a different authoring tool, contact the BuckeyeLearn Support team to discuss testing and approval.
Review the SCORM Requirements job aid for information about publishing to SCORM.
Web Accessibility
Critical Note:
All training in BuckeyeLearn must be accessible to learners with disabilities, and you, not the BuckeyeLearn Support team, are responsible for ensuring that accessibility.
No authoring tool automatically produces online courses that are accessible; they must be made accessible through the choices of the person creating the course. Your training should be tested to be sure it is accessible.
Some authoring tools create training that is more accessible than others. If you select an authoring tool that does not produce fully accessible training, you must get an exception from the ADA Coordinator’s office to use that authoring tool. The exception will include requirements for how you will use the tool to produce the most-accessible training, and how you will provide a fully-accessible version to learners who require one.
For more information about making your training accessible, review the Accessibility job aid.
Mobile-Friendly
While most learners complete training in BuckeyeLearn on a computer, a growing population of learners use a mobile device, such as an iPad, to view and complete training.
While only training that is available to the majority of learners in BuckeyeLearn is required to be mobile-friendly, it is highly suggested that all training take mobile usage into consideration.
For more information about creating mobile-friendly content, review the Mobile-Friendly Online Courses Requirements and Best Practices job aid.
Copyright Law
Much of the informaton availble on the internes is copyrighted. If you plan on using images, music, or video from another online resource, you must adhere to copyright law.
Visit Ohio State's Copyright Services for more information about how to navigate copyright issues.
Testing
Before training is loaded and made available in the BuckeyeLearn Live environment, it must be tested in the Pilot environment.
Critical Note:
Testing must never be done in the Live environment.
For more information about testing online courses, review the Testing Training job aid.