Design Template Project

The Iowa Community College Online Consortium has had a course design template developed for use
in all online classes. The purpose of a design template is to provide a consistent, professional look for
all ICCOC classes while maintaining individual academic freedom.

What is a design template? It is a pre-formatted portion of a content item that an instructor uses
to hold/display their individualized course content.

Why implement a course template?

The template will reduce the time it takes instructors to format content items when building or
rebuilding a course.
The templates provide a consistent, professional look to online courses
eCollege data indicates student retention improves when course templates are used.
Design templates are mentioned as a key contributor to the success of other quality online
educational programs.

The course template will be used for all new eCourses developed from July 1, 2005 forward.
All courses developed or that entered development before July 1, 2005 will convert to the new
template.
The ICCOC Oversight Committee set a goal to have all eCourses converted to the new course
template by August 15, 2006.
Conversion includes: Course Syllabus & Content Items
Instructors who convert their course before July 1, 2006 will receive a $50 gift certificate.*
When conversion is complete, instructors must communicate with their faculty mentor-trainer.
And submit request for gift certificate. Mentor-trainers will review the course and confirm
completion and sign request for gift certificate.
Upon confirmation of completion and documentation (before July 1, 2006) faculty mentortrainers
will present instructors with a gift certificate. Note: Instructors teaching multiple
sections of the same course are eligible for only one gift per course title, not one gift per
section.
Restricted eCourses do qualify for this incentive.
Hybrid and eCompanion courses are not included in this program.

* Instructors will have a choice of gift certificates from the following: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble,
Borders, Best Buy, eCollege (for advanced training).
Please communicate with your faculty mentor/trainer for assistance in implementing this template into your existing course. They have instructions and two different approaches for redesigning courses.