Role, Scope and Authority
The Course Development process relies on collaboration between the SME and the LXD, who acts in a Project Manager role to assign tasks, maintain deadlines, and ensure institutional standards. The SME contributes content knowledge, relevant professional activities or tasks, standard terminology and nomenclature, and the canonical or foundational resources (journal articles, books, etc.) of the field. The LXD and SME conceptualize the design and delivery of the course to enhance, promote, and facilitate student engagement with the content and set timelines. The LXD leads the SME through the design process with a particular focus on content delivery and design. Unity has final say on design choices because the course and its content are ultimately Unity Property.
When designing course content, LXDs want to allow for a SME’s creativity and flexibility to infuse real world relevance to the activities. At the same time, the LXD must consider the feasibility of completing such tasks in an online, asynchronous environment. One useful method is for the SME and LXD to collaboratively draft a discussion to demonstrate the required format, and then the SME can work to develop subsequent discussions with their expertise and the desired format. A similar process also works for developing assignments, which require detailed, student-facing directions.
Team Roles and Responsibilities
Course development is a highly collaborative process. The Learning Experience Design Team is responsible for the design, development, management and support of all online programs in cooperation with the following roles:
Academic Dean (D)
The Academic Dean is responsible for the ongoing development and implementation of a specific program and the academic experience of the program’s students. Related to course development, the Academic Dean is responsible for the following activities:
Hiring and supervising faculty and subject-matter experts
Establishing the program level learning outcomes
Leading the decisions on the content of the curriculum
Aligning curriculum with Accreditation standards
Approving multiple course milestones
Designing new degree programs
Learning Experience Designer (LXD)
The Learning Experience Designer is responsible for project management and collaboration with Deans, Subject Matter Experts, faculty, fellow LXDs, LTSSs, and other IAPs to maintain, update, refresh, redesign and build online learning experiences for a variety of courses while also supporting online instructors as they teach a course. The LXD brings considerable pedagogical experience and expertise.
They work directly with Subject Matter Experts in envisioning new courses and proposing substantial revisions to existing courses to maximize student engagement and learning, to facilitate excellent online teaching, and to advance the institution’s goal of providing world-class online education.
The LXD develops or captures the information needed to create the course deliverables and provides feedback on how to shape content into a pedagogically sound course. This work includes:
Working with Subject Matter Experts to ensure content is expressed clearly to maximize student learning based on standards defined by instructional design models.
Articulating measurable outcomes and objectives determined by Subject Matter Experts and Deans
Collaborating with Subject Matter Experts on the creation of engaging and outcome-aligned real-world accessible activities and assessments. LXDs may propose an assignment or discussion format to best showcase content and to best assess student learning.
Building and supporting courses within the Learning Management System
Learning Technology Support Specialist (LTSS)
The Learning Technology Support Specialist is responsible for the media in the course. This primarily consists of editing the SME-created videos, but can also extend to designing or formatting slides as well as exploring technology solutions for the course.
Ultimately, course design is the responsibility of the learning experience designer, and they can make the final call on the different course elements, such as an assignment deliverable, discussion post wording, or rubric format.
Subject Matter Expert (SME)
The Subject Matter Expert guides course development by providing expertise and experience in a content area to develop original content. They collaborate with the Dean, LXD, and LTSS to ensure the course covers key topics, concepts, and knowledge as it relates to the field and to students. The SME’s work includes:
Providing vision for the course in order to develop course-level outcomes that map to program-level outcomes
Choosing course materials and related content that is relevant to the field and is directly related to the course outcomes
Creating content that develops a learner’s skills and knowledge of the field of study
Aligning assignments, discussion, and the Course Project with real world experiences and relevant professional tasks or products
Ensuring quality assurance of course content and delivery
Working in concert with the LXD team members to execute the creation of the course components