MANAGING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY ONLINE COURSES FOR AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

The team-based approach is commonly used in online course development to form a cost-effective managerial and development team that guides best practices for course development workflow. This practice manages timelines, coordinates solutions, and oversees budgets, all of which are particularly challenging for an international collaboration between large research-intensive institutions due to cultural differences and teaching and learning practices. In 2013, University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Forestry signed an agreement with Beijing Forestry University and the Asian Pacific Forestry Network with the main objective to design, develop and deliver six online courses covering diverse topics such as sustainable forest policy, international dialogues in global forestry issues and forest restoration all to be completed within a timeframe of one and half years. The six course collaborative effort involved universities from five countries, Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Canada. This paper discusses how UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), which has been producing online courses in collaboration with UBC Faculties since the mid-2000s, used a team-based approach with its expertise in project management and course design, development and delivery skills to offer a high level of support and guidance in creating quality online courses for this project. The development central support team for the six courses consists of one project coordinator, one instructional designer, one web designer, one graphic artist, and one media expert. In addition, the team interacted with 6 leading course authors or subject matter experts, 11 course co-authors, and several media support assistants and professionals from the participatory universities in the Asian-Pacific region. In addition, this paper gives an overview of the development process including: 1) workflow analysis, 2) exploration, design, and development stages of course production; 3) workshop learning, 4) strategies for pedagogical and technology support for a pilot module and entire course development, 5) strategies for timeline management, and 6) reporting results of quality assurance (QA) review using an in-house evidence-based course quality assurance checklist. Currently, the first phase of development for five out the six courses was completed to be delivered in October, 2015. The results of putting the six courses through the CTLT's Course QA Checklist showed the course designs were of the high quality. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the use of course templates, pilot modules and participation in the workshop were very helpful in orientating subject matter experts to the team-based development process and implementing best practices for online course design. Based on these successes, the Asian-Pacific-Forestry Network has entered into discussions with UBC to help develop a series of new online courses to create a Master of Sustainable Forest Program centered on the five courses already developed.