E-learning - Getting started

You are facing the challenge of transforming your courses into e-learning scenarios? We would like to assist you in this process and recommend that you consider the following steps.

Step 1:  Create an OPAL course

Create OPAL courses for the courses you teach. OPAL is the learning management system used and supported at TUD. In our OPAL introduction course, we explain how you can create a course in OPAL. (In this course, you will also get to know the different components available in OPAL). Students have been advised to log in to OPAL as well.

Step 2: Didactic implementation

In the next step, you must take some didactic decisions. But there is no need to worry - if at some point it should turn out that some methods or scenarios do not prove successful, you can adapt or exchange them. This is now a period of trial and error and gathering experience. Quite often, just a few small adjustments will do, you will not have to redesign your teaching completely.

The key question is: How can you succeed in using digital teaching scenarios to approach the teaching and learning goals that are associated with the course? 

The following considerations may help you:

How would you like to impart the knowledge?

The first consideration is: Which of the courses would you like to present in a time-synchronous scenario (i.e. both lecturer and students are gathered online at the same time, e.g. livestream, chat) and which content would you like to make available to your students for asynchronous self-learning (i.e. each student decides when and how to work on the content according to their possibilities). You may provide texts, audio files or videos (e.g. created by you via PowerPoint, tutorials, course recordings, links to external videos) or encourage students to do their own research. It is important that the content is didactically complemented, e.g. by questions about the text, comprehension tasks or questions going beyond the text. We are providing some recommendations on this topic. 

Which methods would you like to use?

As in the courses that students attend on TUD’s premises, you can use a variety of teaching methods in e-learning as well. You must decide whether the tasks are to be performed individually or in groups. During the project E-Teaching.TUD, a variety of digital seminar methods have been compiled.

How and when would you like to support your students in their learning processes?

E-learning scenarios demand a particularly high degree of self-learning competence from students. You, as a lecturer, can assist your students by providing well-planned supervision. It is helpful if you structure the students' learning processes, e.g. through various tasks, questions, etc. Think about when and how you want to communicate with your students. Would you like to offer virtual consultation hours? When and how would you like to give students feedback? You will find advice on the special nature of computer-based communication e.g. in the self-study course E-Teaching Basics.

How can you verify that your students succeed in their learning processes?

You can use various forms of e-assessment (knowledge testing using media) throughout your course. Prior to the course, you may want to check what previous knowledge students have. During the learning process, you can monitor whether you need to make adjustments to your course due to problems of understanding. At the end of the semester/course, you can test the students' learning success. By completing self-test tasks, students can test their own learning processes and adjust them accordingly. The questions can be created via the test suite Onyx (integrated in OPAL). You will find more detailed information on how to create e-assessment tasks in the self-study course eExam. An overview of the possibilities to implement them in OPAL is provided in the Onyx sample course. 

Step 3: Selecting the tool

Select a suitable tool on the basis of your didactic decisions.

We generally recommend that you present the complete teaching and learning organisation in OPAL. OPAL and its components allow you to organise the communication with your students (e.g. via email, forum, messages), to provide content (e.g. via the file folder), to display tasks for the students (e.g. in the wiki or the task component) as well as to test students’ learning processes (e.g. with onyx tests) and to give them feedback.

In addition, you may need further tools for certain scenarios such as the synchronous presentation of courses and the creation of digital teaching and learning content. An overview is available in the tool overview.

Step 4: Communication

Communicate your plans to your students.

It is important that you inform your students about the organisation of the courses, access to the tools used, your expectations, and the deadlines to be met. Make it clear when and how you can be contacted, and that switching to online teaching may involve some uncertainties and technical challenges.

Do you need support and assistance?

We will be delighted to support you in this process - via email, via telephone, and via chat. Please do not hesitate to get in contact.