Course Development Guide

• Step One: Getting Ready to Go Online
• Step Two: Learning ANGEL
• Step Three: Setting up a New ANGEL Course
• Step Four: Setting Up a WWW Course Homepage (Optional)
• Step Five: Your ANGEL Course Content
• Step Six: Style and Design Guidelines for SCC ANGEL Courses
• Step Seven: Making Your Course Available
• Step Eight: Course Population (Student Login IDs and Passwords)
• Step Nine: Ongoing Course Development and Troubleshooting

Step One: Getting Ready to Go Online

Contact the Distance Learning Department in order to let us know that you are interested in developing an online or media enhanced course, or in adding an ANGEL component (such as ANGEL e-mail, chat rooms, or bulletin boards) to one or more of your on campus courses.

You should also familiarize yourself with the "Principles of Good Practice" published electronically by the Southern Regional Electronic Campus (SREC) and developed by the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB). All online courses at SCC should follow these guidelines.

The SCC Distance Learning Advisory committee has also developed the following documents to be used by departments and course designers to assist in the development of new online courses. These documents have been created in cooperation with several of our faculty members with experience developing and conducting courses online and in conjunction with SACS guidelines for online course development and delivery. Both documents are available in PDF format:

• DL Course Development Peer Review Form

The Distance Learning Department is located in L-110. You can also reach our staff by email or by phone.

• Wilma Hodges, Manager of Distance Learning Services: hodgesw@scc-fl.edu, 407.708.2296
• Joni Lytle, Instructional Technology Specialist: lytlej@scc-fl.edu, 407.708.2578
• Lillie Gibson, Distance Learning Support Specialist: gibsonl@scc-fl.edu, 407.708.2424
• Manuela Cook-Wylie, Distance Learning Assistant: wyliem@scc-fl.edu, 407.708.4722 ext. 3166

Step Two: Learning ANGEL

We recommend that you sign up for a ANGEL Training Workshop in order to get familiar with the software. All faculty using ANGEL should first complete the ANGEL workshop and receive a certificate of completion before they run classes in ANGEL.

• The training workshops will be announced periodically on via e-mail and Web board.
• You may also check with the DL staff for classes, times and locations, or check the DL Workshop Schedule page on the DL Web site for updates.

Step Three: Setting up a New ANGEL Course

Please Note: The DL Office must create a training site, developer ID and password for you before you can access ANGEL for training purposes. (If you have signed up for an ANGEL workshop, a training account will be created for you automatically to be used during the workshop session/s.)

• Request a new development course via our online ANGEL Request forms.

Step Four: Setting Up a WWW Course Home Page (Optional)

If you would like to create a separate homepage which is accessible through the Web outside of the ANGEL environment, you can request an individual faculty subweb on the SCC server.

• We recommend that you do not request a subweb unless you have a large amount of information that you want to make available on the Web.
• If you just have one online course and you want your syllabus, contact information, course description, etc. on the Web outside of the password-protected ANGEL environment, these pages can be posted on your departmental Web site.
• If you decide that you do need a separate subweb, you must complete a CTS Request form to have one created for you. You can pick up these forms at the Computing and Telecommunication Systems (CTS) desk or the mailroom.
• If you aren't sure whether or not you need a subweb, contact the DL Office for more information.
• All course homepages must conform to good online design criteria. Please refer to the SCC Web Page Design Guidelines for help on creating effective pages.

Step Five: Your ANGEL Course Content

Once you have established an ANGEL training or development site, you can begin to experiment with the course design features that are included in ANGEL. You may customize your course to fit your needs and the needs of your students. The content is completely up to you.

• You may choose to create your course by using existing classroom lecture notes, handouts, PowerPoint presentations, quizzes, etc. as a starting point.
• You might also want to investigate licensing pre-developed course content packages. Several publishers now have pre-developed course content that has been optimized for use with ANGEL and other online learning applications.
• Contact the DL staff for assistance in searching for existing textbooks and course e-packs.
• Course companion Web sites and CD-ROMs, which are available for many textbooks, also can be effectively integrated into a ANGEL course.
• If you have questions about locating such materials for use in your online courses, please contact the DL Office and we will research the subject for you and put you in touch with the appropriate contact personnel.
• Remember that planning ahead is essential! There are time and cost factors in online course licensing and development which must be considered in preparing any new class for student use.

Step Six: Style and Design Guidelines for SCC ANGEL Courses

While course content is the instructor's responsibility, we do ask that you abide by the following guidelines when it comes to the style and look of your ANGEL site.

SCC ANGEL Color Templates

There are several ANGEL color templates to choose from in the system. If you would like us to apply one of these templates to your course as the default color scheme, please contact the DL Office.

If you would like assistance with custom templates, custom icons, color choices or graphics creation, please contact the DL Department. We will be happy to develop and/or supply graphics for you.

Campuswide Publication Standards

SCC seeks to present a professional and unified image to the student population, and campuswide publication standards have been developed in keeping with this goal. Please keep in mind that an online course is an SCC publication, and that your course also represents the College to a global audience. As such, online courses are subject to the same kinds of conventions as any text book, journal, or company publication. Before developing your online course material, you should refer to the SCC Web Design Guidelines for help in creating effective pages. You should also refer to copyright information sources, such as the UT Crash Course in Copyright, or The Library of Congress: Copyright Office for help with copyright issues.

The DL office is the clearinghouse for all online courses at SCC. The DL staff will periodically review each ANGEL course site to evaluate its functionality and to ensure that the college-wide standards are being met. At that time, design changes may be suggested if needed.

Developer Ids and Passwords

• Your ANGEL designer ID and password are issued to you when you attend an ANGEL training workshop or enroll in a class or group using ANGEL.

Graphics

• A customized background, navigation, and text color scheme is provided for you in each new course that is created. (As mentioned above, you may change these settings to an alternate SCC design.)
• If you would like additional icons, banners, backgrounds, etc. please contact the DL office.

Icons

• ANGEL provides you with a default selection of icons.
• You may modify these icons if you want to, but please use good design principles and avoid using overly large or "busy" images.
• If you need help locating custom icons, please contact the DL department and we can create icons for you that are keeping with your chosen style and/or subject matter.

HTML Content Pages

Please assure that all HTML content pages adhere to good web design standards. (See the SCC Web Design Guidelines for more information.)

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Step Seven: Making Your Course Available

Once your course content is fully developed and ready to run during a given term, let the DL office know by filling out ANGEL Production Site Request.

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Step Eight: Course Population (Student Login IDs and Passwords)

ANGEL Course Population refers to the uploading of student data in order to create student accounts within a ANGEL course. Each student account is accessed using a unique login id and password.

The DL office will update the ANGEL global database with student information on a daily basis throughout add-drop. All ANGEL courses will be auto-populated with student enrollment information at the beginning of the term. However, faculty are responsible for disabling student accounts for any dropped, no-show, or withdrawn students within their courses.

• Instructors will not be able to modify student passwords. If a student has difficulty with his or her password, please refer the student to the DL office.

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Step Nine: On-going Course Development and Troubleshooting

We are here to help. Please contact the DL office with any questions, problems, suggestions, or concerns that you might have regarding online learning at SCC.

• For example, if you are considering adding PowerPoint presentations to your ANGEL course, there are several ways to do this, and we can help you decide which method works best for your needs.
• Likewise, there are several ways to make files available for students to download from ANGEL, and we can show you the variations so that you can decide which way works best in your case.
• We can also help with troubleshooting if you run into user problems.
• Furthermore, keep in mind that the DL office is not limited to ANGEL support, and that we are also available to assist you with all other distance learning media and delivery options.

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Did you know?

SCC has many degrees and certificates that you can complete through distance learning courses.