Instructional Design FAQ

MSU Denver’s CTLD Instructional Design Group works in a collaborative process with instructors, who are fully in charge of the course development process. The instructor gets the support of dedicated instructional experts who help them think carefully and systematically about the most effective ways to design, develop, and deliver instructional materials.

Instructors receive support with using the learning management system, creating instruction and assessment materials, developing multimedia in a full media production studio (which includes green screen, sound booths, and more), adopting and/or creating Open Educational Resources (OERs), and conducting continuous improvement reviews of their courses using national and institutional standards.

Instructors can learn more about our CTLD team members’ backgrounds and areas of expertise by visiting our Staff Bio page.

The ID Group has two course development cycles per year. The fall cycle begins in August, and the spring cycle begins in January. The Online, Teaching, Learning, and Access Committee (OTLAC) determines which courses (and thus, which instructors) are included in each cycle. OTLAC reviews institutional priorities for course development and schedules courses within our two course development cycles.

If you are interested in participating in the development cycle, you can find more information on the MSU Denver Online Learning Developing Courses & Programs SharePoint.

Please contact Program Manager Haley Murphy for additional information.

Instructors participating in the course development cycle have a wide range of services they can take advantage of, including alignment and content support, OER sourcing and implementation, instructional media support, assessment design, and accessibility remediation. More information about services provided by the CTLD can be accessed at our Services page.

Instructors can learn more about preparing for an upcoming cycle by visiting our Course Development page. All instructors engaging in a development cycle will attend a kickoff meeting with their assigned instructional designer and will complete an orientation training prior to starting.

QM stands for Quality Matters, a nationally-recognized set of standards for online course design. The CTLD references the QM Rubric and Standards to guide online course development.

The Peer Review of Online Course Excellence Subcommittee (PROCES) developed online course standards to assist instructors with online course development and continuous improvement. Information about the PROCES standards are available on the Online Learning page.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials that support teaching, learning, and research. These include textbooks, interactive learning materials, quizzes, images, media, software, lab manuals, games, online lectures, and more. These resources are free to use, share, and download, and they are also often free to edit and adapt. See our OER page for more information.

You (the instructor) always have the final say. It is your course! The instructional designer and media specialist only provide recommendations, ideas, and support. We strongly value academic freedom and seek to partner with instructors.

Anyone can benefit from going through the cycle, and every course development project is customized to suit the needs of the course and instructor. Even the most experienced instructor sometimes wants to integrate new tools, create fresh media and graphics, replace old materials with more timely and relevant ones, or address sticky pain points in their course. And most instructors don’t have a lot of extra time to do these things by themselves!

Both! Some courses are built from scratch, whereas others are adapted from an existing version of the course.

Yes! The course is yours. You can share it with your department or other instructors if you choose. Refer to your contract for more details.

Most instructors need to spend about five hours per week on the course. Depending on your goals and the current state of the course, you may need to spend more or less time.

Your instructional designer will work with you to prioritize development tasks and work with your schedule. However, if you know you will have very limited availability and won’t be able to spend at least a few hours per week on the course, then it is unlikely your course project will be successful. If you will not be able to commit to the development process, please let us know as soon as possible so we can remove you from the cycle and potentially give your spot to another instructor.

Yes! If your course passes the accessibility, MSU Denver, and Quality Matters reviews, you are eligible to receive a stipend. Refer to your contract for details.

We strive to make all courses fully accessible. Your instructional designer will work with you to use strategies such as assignment alternatives to try to make your course accessible. If it is truly not possible to make your course accessible without fundamentally changing the requirements of the course, we will work with you to document that claim. It is important to note that if it is possible to make your course accessible and you decide against it, you will not be eligible to receive a development stipend.

We are able to help you develop an in-person course. If you’re interested in developing a graduate course, reach out to Alex McDaniel to discuss the possibility.

CTLD uses email, Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, and Canvas. To get started, you will need to be able to correspond via email and join a Microsoft Teams meeting. Your instructional designer and the Instructional Design Support (IDS) staff can help you learn to use other digital tools and platforms if needed.

Instructors will have scheduled access to the studio and sound booth when they are working with the CTLD in a course development cycle. They will be accompanied by a CTLD Instructional Media Developer.

All minimum software requirements are accessible by all MSUD instructors and staff. Although our Media Team primarily uses the Adobe Suite, they provide all post-production for any project agreed upon within the cycle.

Before recording, the assigned Instructional Media Developer will send an email to the instructor that includes studio etiquette and what to bring. The best way for instructor/staff to prepare is to be familiar with the subject matter to be recorded.

Here are some tips:

• Be yourself
• Lighting basics: light your face, not your screen
• Audio basics: quiet room, microphone, no background noise
• Camera basics: Try to be in the center of the frame (if there is no slide or presentation behind/beside you), and do not have anything behind you that could be distracting.

No. However, CTLD’s Ready website provides a resource center for getting courses online and continuously improving those same courses. The Ready site offers a number of both new and expanded desktop and mobile tutorials on a variety of instructional methods and tools, focusing on the Canvas Learning Management System.

CTLD also offers Instructional Design Support Hours to help with transitioning courses to an online format or with questions about specific tools, such as Microsoft Teams or Canvas. Instructors can access Instructional Design Support Hours (M-F, 10am – 3pm) on the Ready page.

The CTLD provides a wide selection of step-by-step written and video walkthroughs in the Self-Help Tutorials and Resources section of the Ready website. These tutorials cover nearly any tool/feature you’d like to use in Canvas.

Please visit the Self Help Tutorials and Resources section on the Ready page.

You can visit us during our Instructional Design Support Hours (M-F, 10am-3pm) on the Ready page. Someone will take down your information, and one of our instructional designers or media developers will reach out to you via MS Teams. Alternatively, you can call 303-615-0800 or email [email protected] to submit a support ticket.

You can view a list of supported tools here.

Canvas is the university’s system for storing and communicating grades to students as it is FERPA compliant and keeps student data secure. Final grades will not be pulled from Canvas; instructors are still responsible for submitting these in Banner.

We have multiple tutorials on creating and setting up virtual course meetings in MS Teams on the Ready page.

As well as infographic tutorial.