Designing Online Classes
The purpose of this course was to teach us how to develop a curriculum for an online course. This course helped us to develop our courses by taking us step by step through the design process. Some parts of the online course design we learned was deciding what course content material would be used, what learning activities would be developed for the course, how the learning activities would be used to interact with students, how would the student interact with each other and how the instructor would interact with the students. We also decided what assessments would be used throughout the course and how they would be graded. The first thing in the course that needed to be done was deciding what type of course I wanted to design. The course I decided to create is entitled "Service with a Smile; A Student Worker's Guide to Good Customer Service." Part of the process of coming up with the course was posting my ideas to the discussion board to receive feedback from other students.
Discussion _ Project Topic
As I have explained in the past, I am an Office Manager in the Office of Admission at Governors State University. Part of my job responsibilities are to supervise and train new student workers. I have been in this position for 5 of my 8 years at GSU and I have seen a lot of student workers come and go. Part of the reason for this is because the students eventually graduate. This made me think about developing an easier way to train new student workers since I typically have to train new employees every 6 months to a year.
One thought I had was for me to create a student worker manual that would allow me to give all of the basic information to the student and that they would have near them to refer to. I know I still would like to accomplish this, but I am thinking since I need to develop an online class this will be the perfect opportunity for me to develop something that I will be able to use in the future.
Since GSU is now admitting first year students some of the student workers I have had does not have any previous job experience. This means they need to know the basics of customer service and how to handle an irate customer. They also need to know about the multiple programs that GSU has to offer and the requirements and deadline dates to enroll in these programs.
The challenges I am worried about facing with this design plan is coming up with a way to implement the tools I use on the job. Such as our Colleague and Singularity system. Because these require licenses to access, I am not sure if I will be able to carry out this design without it
Another design idea I have is to develop an online class which helps a prospective student with the application process. I think I would like to focus on the graduate application process which I think is something a person should be thinking about during their undergraduate program. I have noticed that so many students have no idea how to even start the process or research different programs. Some of the things a prospective graduate student would need to consider are:
Service with a Smile; A Student Worker's Guide to Good Customer Service
The purpose of my course is to teach potential student workers the importance of good customer service and how to develop good customer service skills. The reason I thought of this course is because in my current position I have trained many student workers who lack basic customer service skills. I have always strived to provide quality customer service in my role as an Office Manager. Student workers have a low retention rate, since students graduate and seek out other positions to gain experience. This online course is an excellent way to train student workers to develop these skills.
Next, we needed to come up with a course overview. The overview of the course included the course goals/objectives, the lesson outline, who the likely learners would be, how the material would be delivered, and whether the class would be hybrid or fully online. These were important decisions that needed be made in order to have a successful design.
Course Overview
Course Title: Service with a Smile; A Student Worker’s Guide to Good Customer Service
Course Goals/Objectives: What do you want the learner to be able to do at the end of the course? (Note: You do not have to have 10 course goals/objectives. If you have more than 10, go back and review your list and see how you might express an objective/goal that would incorporate 2 or more of the items on your list). Post your objectives by completing the following question stem:
Upon completing the course, students will be able to
Lesson Outline:
Identify the focus for each of the lessons in your course. If you are using a text as a primary content for your course, indicate the text chapter(s) that will be addressed in the lesson. The maximum number of lessons should not exceed the number of weeks in your term. If your course will have more 12 lessons (weeks), add them to the list below.
The book I will be incorporating in my course is “Lessons from the Mouse” by Dennis Snow
Lesson 1: Course Introduction
Lesson 2: “Never Let Backstage Come Onstage”
Lesson 3: “What time is the 3 o’clock parade is not a stupid question”
Lesson 4: “Never Ever Say, “That’s Not My Job” – Don’t Even Think It!”
Lesson 5: “Pay Attention to the Details – Everything Speaks”
Lesson 6: “Have Fun with the Job No Matter How Miserable You Feel”
Lesson 7: “Don’t Be a Customer Service Robot”
Lesson 8: “Little Wows Add Up”
Lesson 9: “Everyone Has a Customer
Lesson 10: “Figure Out What Ticks Off Your Customers – And Do Something About It”
Lesson 11: “Take Responsibility for Your Own Career”
Last Lesson (Final Week of the Course): Closure
Describe the learning setting (K-12, Community College, Graduate School, Corporate Training, etc.)
Community College or a Four Year University
Describe the (likely) learners
This course is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in developing customer service related skills to gain employment in a customer service environment.
How will this course be delivered? (e.g. Local course management system such as Blackboard or WebCT; External course management system such as eCollege; School/department/instructor web page, etc. Note: If you do not have access to a Course Management System that you want to use, a course shell will be provided for you in WebCT)
This course will be delivered on a local course management system such as WebCT.
Will the course be fully online? Hybrid? (Note: If Hybrid, you will need to design the units that are delivered online to prepare yourself for the Digital Content course)
This course will be taught fully online.
Discussion _ Project Topic
As I have explained in the past, I am an Office Manager in the Office of Admission at Governors State University. Part of my job responsibilities are to supervise and train new student workers. I have been in this position for 5 of my 8 years at GSU and I have seen a lot of student workers come and go. Part of the reason for this is because the students eventually graduate. This made me think about developing an easier way to train new student workers since I typically have to train new employees every 6 months to a year.
One thought I had was for me to create a student worker manual that would allow me to give all of the basic information to the student and that they would have near them to refer to. I know I still would like to accomplish this, but I am thinking since I need to develop an online class this will be the perfect opportunity for me to develop something that I will be able to use in the future.
Since GSU is now admitting first year students some of the student workers I have had does not have any previous job experience. This means they need to know the basics of customer service and how to handle an irate customer. They also need to know about the multiple programs that GSU has to offer and the requirements and deadline dates to enroll in these programs.
The challenges I am worried about facing with this design plan is coming up with a way to implement the tools I use on the job. Such as our Colleague and Singularity system. Because these require licenses to access, I am not sure if I will be able to carry out this design without it
Another design idea I have is to develop an online class which helps a prospective student with the application process. I think I would like to focus on the graduate application process which I think is something a person should be thinking about during their undergraduate program. I have noticed that so many students have no idea how to even start the process or research different programs. Some of the things a prospective graduate student would need to consider are:
- prerequisite requirements
- deadline dates
- required documents to turn in
- where they need to submit certain documents
- does the program use a centralized application service?
Service with a Smile; A Student Worker's Guide to Good Customer Service
The purpose of my course is to teach potential student workers the importance of good customer service and how to develop good customer service skills. The reason I thought of this course is because in my current position I have trained many student workers who lack basic customer service skills. I have always strived to provide quality customer service in my role as an Office Manager. Student workers have a low retention rate, since students graduate and seek out other positions to gain experience. This online course is an excellent way to train student workers to develop these skills.
Next, we needed to come up with a course overview. The overview of the course included the course goals/objectives, the lesson outline, who the likely learners would be, how the material would be delivered, and whether the class would be hybrid or fully online. These were important decisions that needed be made in order to have a successful design.
Course Overview
Course Title: Service with a Smile; A Student Worker’s Guide to Good Customer Service
Course Goals/Objectives: What do you want the learner to be able to do at the end of the course? (Note: You do not have to have 10 course goals/objectives. If you have more than 10, go back and review your list and see how you might express an objective/goal that would incorporate 2 or more of the items on your list). Post your objectives by completing the following question stem:
Upon completing the course, students will be able to
- Identify a customers need for help and guidance and assist with those needs without being prompted.
- Demonstrate actions that show they care about the customer’s experience with their company.
- Identify excellent internal service
- Evaluate one’s own customer service skills and identify ways in which they can be improved.
- Identify opportunities for success and ways in which these opportunities can be applied in their career.
Lesson Outline:
Identify the focus for each of the lessons in your course. If you are using a text as a primary content for your course, indicate the text chapter(s) that will be addressed in the lesson. The maximum number of lessons should not exceed the number of weeks in your term. If your course will have more 12 lessons (weeks), add them to the list below.
The book I will be incorporating in my course is “Lessons from the Mouse” by Dennis Snow
Lesson 1: Course Introduction
Lesson 2: “Never Let Backstage Come Onstage”
Lesson 3: “What time is the 3 o’clock parade is not a stupid question”
Lesson 4: “Never Ever Say, “That’s Not My Job” – Don’t Even Think It!”
Lesson 5: “Pay Attention to the Details – Everything Speaks”
Lesson 6: “Have Fun with the Job No Matter How Miserable You Feel”
Lesson 7: “Don’t Be a Customer Service Robot”
Lesson 8: “Little Wows Add Up”
Lesson 9: “Everyone Has a Customer
Lesson 10: “Figure Out What Ticks Off Your Customers – And Do Something About It”
Lesson 11: “Take Responsibility for Your Own Career”
Last Lesson (Final Week of the Course): Closure
Describe the learning setting (K-12, Community College, Graduate School, Corporate Training, etc.)
Community College or a Four Year University
Describe the (likely) learners
This course is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in developing customer service related skills to gain employment in a customer service environment.
How will this course be delivered? (e.g. Local course management system such as Blackboard or WebCT; External course management system such as eCollege; School/department/instructor web page, etc. Note: If you do not have access to a Course Management System that you want to use, a course shell will be provided for you in WebCT)
This course will be delivered on a local course management system such as WebCT.
Will the course be fully online? Hybrid? (Note: If Hybrid, you will need to design the units that are delivered online to prepare yourself for the Digital Content course)
This course will be taught fully online.