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Thus far, designing this class has been the most challenging of my career. It was created as a pilot to test if having high schoolers take classes hosted on the WVROCKS portal for both college and high school credit would work. Each class would have a high school teacher and a college instructor. The high school teacher would provide face-to-face instruction and the college instructor would grade the students’ work.

This wasn’t the most challenging to design because of the people involved but because of all the factors involved. For me, it was all about finding balance. The students that take classes on WVROCKS are all nontraditional undergraduate students taking 100% online classes but these students are high school students in a blended environment. The support staff are trained to provide support to the way we design the 100% online classes. Thus, I had to design it in a way that made sense to a blended learner but not confuse the support staff who would be helping the students.

Similarly, a committee of around ten individuals were responsible for making sure the contents of the course met quality standards. The committee was made up of state leadership, high school teachers, and college instructors. This is the most subject-matter experts I have ever worked with on one project. I was not alone in deciding between the ideas everyone had. State leadership helped but I did have to balance incorporating these ideas in my design of a cohesive plan. The committee gave me what they wanted in the course but it was up to me to design the best way to present it.

You can click the image above to see screenshots of my final design and more explanations of my choices.