During the online course development process, you will engage in several different phases of work. Along the way, you will have access to support and training from 2U to help make the process as easy and efficient as possible. Key milestones, work, deliverables, and support are detailed below.

The first step in our course development process is one of discovery. If you are designing a new course, we will ask you to complete a short survey about the course(s) you are developing so that we can prepare to offer the best support. The survey includes critical questions such as asking if you would like any existing course materials from an existing course shell in your school’s current learning management system migrated into your new course shell in the Online Campus, and requesting your shipping address so that we may send you your Studio in a Box video kit.

You have the option of engaging one-on-one support in the early stages of designing your course with one of 2U’s learning designers. This can be a great opportunity to carefully examine and hone your learning objectives, assessments, and instructional strategies, in addition to thinking about how you will deliver your course online. Devoting time to intentional design can make things easier in future phases of course development. Even if you opt out of individualized support, you might find it useful to review some of the resources gathered under the Creating Your Course section of this website.

Once you’ve outlined the design of your course, it’s time to start building out your course shell in the Online Campus and creating content. In this stage of work you will create content, create your assessments, and film videos using your Studio in a Box video equipment kit. Depending on how ambitious you have been with your design, this can take anywhere from about 1-2 hours per week of your course up to 5-6 hours or more. We recommend you get as much done prior to student enrollment in your course as you can, but acknowledge that limited bandwidth may mean that you need to continue developing course materials even after the term has begun.

If your course will have multiple sections, please note that the deadline for edits to your master course before 2U replicates sections is typically 3-4 weeks prior to the first day of classes. Please check with your program director for the exact date. After that date, 2U will create sections of your course in which we will begin to enroll section instructors and students. Once the sections have been created, any change you would like to make to your course will need to be made to each individual section.

Training is available to you throughout the course design and development process. This website hosts a robust set of instructional resources and tutorials on a range of topics. Beyond this, 2U experts in a range of functions are here to support you and answer your questions as they arise. Please feel free to contact us using the embedded support functionality.

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