Considering building an online course? Great! Before you get started, use the following questions as discussion points to see how an online course can fit into your current business model.

Course Content

• What exactly do you want covered in the course, and at what level (basic, intermediate or advanced)?
• How long do the learners have to complete course work (i.e., will the course be timed)?
• What type of evaluation do you prefer for the intermediate tests? Final exam? Will you have a final exam at all?
• If the final exam is an essay, who on staff will be grading them? Would you prefer automatic grading instead? How will your users accept this?

Course Management

• How long will the course last (i.e., open/close dates; how long will students have to complete the courses)?
• What type of course is this? (i.e., for credit, noncredit, toward a degree, toward a certification, for pleasure)?
• How transferable is the course credit (i.e., can the user take the credit to a local university for transfer)?
• Who is the content expert/faculty/trainer?
• What are the expert's credentials? What are the expert's credentials with nontraditional learning?
• How does this course compare with your on-site courses? Do you expect the online courses to divert from your traditional courses?
• How or will learners interact with each other? What types of interaction do they prefer?
• How frequently will you require interaction between learners and faculty/content experts in the online course?
• What are the course requirements (are there prerequisites to taking the course, and if so, how do you record or check for these)?
• What other kinds of distance learning will be involved in the course, if any, to supplement this course (such as, real-time lectures or site visits)?
• How much of the course can or will be completed only through distance learning activities (including online learning)?
• Have other people evaluated earlier versions (such as traditional versions or other versions) of this course? How long ago was the evaluation and what was the outcome?
• Does this course meet your current and future learners' needs (e.g., toward certification, toward degree completion, for personal interest, for skill development)? How do you know this?
• Does the type of interaction or teaching online match with your learners' preferred methods of learning? How do you know this?
• How do you plan on educating or informing your members of these new online course options? Will you have a training plan to introduce them to the platform?
• How are your administrative duties (e.g., registration, payment, scheduling, advising) completed now? How will these be completed with online courses?
• How many different courses do you plan to have online at once (under your ideal administrative management)?
• What specific course reports will you want generated? How often do you want to receive them?
• Who will receive the course reports, and make recommendations for changes to the courses?
• Who will monitor the courses as they progress online and manage the courses as needed?
• Is there an association stylesheet for printed documents that can be adjusted for "look and feel" guidelines online? Who is responsible for this stylesheet?
• Who will be tracking the accounts so that the course participation is active/secure (e.g., establishing a 30-day password lifecycle; assigning student identifications)?

Technical Requirements

• What type(s) of computer hardware/software are your learners required to use at present?
• How will learners be connected with the sources of information (including experts)?
• How are learners expected to participate in the course?
• How can course materials be accessed?
• Who is responsible for bringing together learners and educators?
• Who is the last line of support for help questions in person? On e-mail? On voice-mail? How will this be monitored?