by Dr. Josh Byrd
Editor's note: Dr. Byrd was asked to write about his experience developing a fully online course for the first time and give advice to future faculty course developers.
My name is Josh Byrd, and I’m the director of bands and an assistant professor at West Georgia. I conduct the Wind Ensemble each semester and teach a number of music education courses at UWG, one of which is music technology (MUSC 5230).
Why did I go online?
Our department went fully online with our Master in Music Education degree a few years back, and we had been talking about the possibility of me teaching a summer elective class for quite some time. We decided that an advanced music tech class (Technology in Music Education, MUSC 5230) was the best fit, and this was the first summer (Session III) that I’ taught the class. I knew that it would take a lot of work to prepare, so I got in touch with UWG|Online to start two separate elements: course design and Quality Matters.
My expectations were wide open as I had never taught online. I knew that there were many positives and negatives, but I had no personal experience to give me any bias either way. I did, however, start Quality Matters pretty early on in the school year. These three classes (I went all the way through the Peer Reviewer Course) did much more than just help out in terms of what to look for in an online course. These classes provided me many of the frustrations that students experience with online learning, hopefully showing me what to avoid with the class I’m currently teaching.
What would I take away from the entire development experience?
Starting early was the best decision I could have ever made. I was constantly updating a list of “things to add” to MUSC 5230 before it even existed. I was able to talk to my colleagues teaching online to see what their opinions might be. I was also able to start working with UWG’s Online Learning staff, particularly Jessica Loiacono, early enough to send them ideas and start creating the course mentally. She was incredibly helpful in person, but it was her remote assistance that I appreciated as the first day of class approached. Online Learning provided me with a “sandbox” class to tweak and edit. Jessica was able to view my course, fix embedding errors, and suggest adding/removing modules or course elements. She used her experience to help me see the class through the eyes of the student.
What advice would I give myself four months ago when I started developing the online class?
Probably “creating an online demo video through QuickTime isn’t time consuming, but adding captions through YouTube takes forever.” I am very happy that students can at least listen to me teach as I take them through a "screen cast” of my computer, but the captions really take an incredible amount of time.
What advice do I have for another faculty member just getting started?
First, take the QM (Quality Matters) series if you’ve never taken an online class. There are certain elements that will drive you crazy. One that floored me as the lack of response/slow responses from my instructors. A two-week class, one that they advertised as time-sensitive and fast paced, frustrated me terribly as they would either ignore my emails or wait until days after I submitted an assignment before sending out blanket suggestions to the class as to how to complete said task. Next (and I know I’m repeating myself), start early, especially if you are teaching within a short time frame. You can’t give the students 10 percent of the class and create as you go. Some students will expect to plow through in quick bursts; if you’re not fully prepared, it will be a bad experience for the both of you, I think. Lastly, contact Online Learning as soon as possible and start working with their templates. It was comforting to know that as long as I stuck to their plan/format, I was creating an effective setup for my class. All in all, UWG|Online was great, QM was frustrating, and I’m glad to finally be teaching what’s taken several months to prepare!
Josh Byrd is the director of bands and assistant professor in the College of Arts and Humanities.
