If Benoît has one term (~4 months) to work on this project before it goes live in the following semester then I would estimate that he would need 2-3 months (~8-12 weeks) to develop the online version of his Business Writing course. The fourth month (~4 weeks) could be set aside for pilot testing his site. Here’s the work breakdown (with each week consisting of 5 hours):
Benoît’s Business Writing development timeframe:
Week 1: Decide on which software to use- WebCT/Vista or Moodle by taking into consideration aspects of the SECTIONS framework by Bates and Poole (2003), talking with his colleagues in the English department for advice, discussing the pros/cons with the IT department, and comparing the features online using resources such as Edutools.
Weeks 2 & 3: Design the page layouts (i.e. homepage, course content, calendar, chat, assessments, discussions, etc).
Weeks 4 & 5: Develop the content for the online modules using his previous experience with WebCT (disseminating lecture notes and readings for his face-to-face Business Writing course).
Week 6: Implement the design layout and upload modules on the LMS.
Week 7: Obtain appropriate approvals for online course (departmental, university) as necessary.
Weeks 8-12: Pilot test online course with select group of students, colleagues, etc. using questionnaires, focus group, etc. Also, I’d allocate this time for troubleshooting and improving the online course before it goes live in week 16.
Weeks 13-15: Additional time for implementing changes from the testing, resolving any glitches and finalizing online course.
Week 16: Go live.
Weeks 17 and beyond: Continue to monitor and fix any problems as they may arise throughout the course.
As a note, I initially allocated 1 week for designing the page layouts since the case study noted that Benoît was very comfortable in the design mode of WebCT and has some personal experience in web design. However, I changed it to 2 weeks so he would have equal time in the design phase as he does in the development of his online course modules. The final 3-4 months are left to conduct testing and implement any changes in order to minimize any errors once the course goes live.
As well, I was thinking even though he may not formally have IT support if he were to choose Moodle, perhaps he can forge a relationship with his IT department so that he could obtain assistance with a designated IT representative. In my own experience as webmaster of our library websites, we were able to obtain an IT rep to be our designated tech support. It is an invaluable timesaver (as we don’t have to go through the general IT support desk and wait in queue) and it helps that our IT rep is already familiar with our websites as well as the software we use.
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