Migrating course content from the traditional classroom delivery mode to the nontraditional (or, online) delivery mode often takes more effort than many faculty members or administrators realize. Online courses frequently take about three times longer to create than it does for a traditional course; updating existing courses for the online environment have also been reported to take about three times longer to update than for updates to the traditional classroom.

If you are thinking about moving a traditional class to the online delivery platform, and this is your first time to do so, you have to ask some questions first.

Following is an inventory you can use prior to moving the traditional class content to the online classroom. (Note -- this article does not address the technological readiness of your institution, but the course content only. Faculty members and administrators should work very closely with an institutions' technical team to ensure that the technology and support exist to manage and work with online course content, students, and online classrooms in general.)

Do you have a course that you want to move online?

This may seem to be an obvious question, but you'd be surprised at the encouragement of some administrators to get a class online...but who really have no idea what they want to move online first...or why it should be online.

Why do you want to move it online?

It should come as no surprise that not every class is appropriate for the online classroom...but how would you know that if you haven't offered an online class before? Related questions to consider include:

• Have you conducted a needs assessment to determine what classes are good candidates for the online classroom?
• Are these classes in response to student inquiries, institutional inquiries, or all of the above?
• Does offering the course online best serve your faculty, your students, your bottom line, or all of the above?
• Do you already have nontraditional courses (such as old-fashioned correspondence courses, or voice mail hybrid courses) in place? Have you considered using those courses first for the online offerings?
• How skilled are your faculty and student body with online learning platforms? How much training will they BOTH need, and how much time are you willing to allocate for their training?

If you have a course selected for the online migration, how old is the course?

When was the last time it was reviewed or updated? Do you have someone on your staff assigned to updating the course content...not the transfer yet, but ensuring the content is current?

Is the course you have selected in all-digital format?

This may seem like another obvious question, but do check to see if all of the information that will be provided with this course exists in a digital format, especially if the ENTIRE course you offer is supposed to be ENTIRELY online!

These questions are meant to serve as starting points for you to use in growing and developing your own online program. After considering these questions, discuss the options with your fellow faculty members or administration, so that you can plan a logical course deployment program for the online classroom.