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Best Design for Asynchronous Courses

TBaggenstos

Greetings!

I’m looking for guidance on the best way to structure a set of asynchronous courses in Canvas, and I’d appreciate any advice or examples from those who have done something similar.

My institution is developing a multi-level program that students are required to complete before graduation. Bachelor's students would need to complete all 8 levels but associate's students only 4, and so on. (For context, this is a sort of vocational preparation program in which students learn proper resume writing, interviewing skills, as well as soft skills.) However, the program differs from a traditional course model in a few key ways:

Students should be able to self-enroll in each level
They can start at any time (no fixed cohort start dates)
They should have flexible pacing (no strict due dates required)
Some students may complete multiple levels in the same term, while others may spread them out over a longer period
The courses are pass/fail only
Ideally, completion would generate some form of clear completion indicator (e.g., certificate or similar)

Any thoughts or tips?

Thank you so much,

Tim

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TabithaFuquay

Take a look at

TabithaFuquay

Take a look at Articulate. You can design the lessons/modules fairly easily and set the parameters within the lesson to track completion. I've had great success turning our program to OER with Articulate and designing it to work around what I needed it for.

KD063

@TBaggenstos if you would be willing to share what this course looks like, I'd love to see your approach — we're considering options for covering similar content.

TBaggenstos

I'm not familiar with Articulate. I'll take a look! I assume it operates entirely outside of Canvas?

TBaggenstos

Are you asking about the logistics of setting up the course or about the course content?

KD063

I'd be curious about logistics and general structuring, just to think about adapting our own content for something like this.

Dianna

Hello @TBaggenstos

You could do this with badging. I believe Canvas has the option of adding badging through an additional program - you would want to discuss this with your CSM. You might be able to find a free option, but I couldn't speak to their quality.

In the Canvas Commons, take a look at the course Growing with Canvas. This is set up to run asynchronously, has prerequisites and requirements in modules, and at the completion of the course, students get a badge that serves as their credential.

We are a Google for Education school, so I have done something similar with a Google Form then used mail merge to automatically generate and email a completion certificate.

Will you be at InstructureCon? I am actually presenting a session there where I demonstrate how we have set up a staff PD course that runs asynchronously. It does have a bit more management then you're looking for, but it would give you ideas.

I'm happy to discuss further or answer any questions you might have! Good luck!

Dianna

TBaggenstos

I'll make a note to let you know if we find a helpful workflow.

TBaggenstos

Hello @Dianna,

This is helpful information! Utilizing some form of badging could be a helpful way to go.

There is one additional factor that I neglected to mention in my original post. Although these are zero credit courses, our Academics department would still like them to appear on student transcripts as a passing grade. The SIS we use is Populi, but they don't have a good way to set up an asynchronous course with flexible pacing. That's why I'm thinking of hosting these courses entirely on Canvas and just manually entering a "pass" status in our SIS, despite the extra administrative work that creates. I realize this is an issue we may have to work out with Populi, but I figured I'd mention it in case you had any insight.

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