Educational Technology Services

Teaching Online FAQ

  • A fully developed 2 or 3 credit-hour online course designed with the assistance of the UTD eLearning instructional designers takes two full semesters to develop. Instructors will spend most of their time during the first semester on developing materials. (See estimated development time breakdown below.) Courses may be scheduled or developed in one of three course development cycles. These cycles typically kick off a few weeks after the first day of classes each semester.

    Activity Number of materials Estimated Time for each Total time
    Syllabus 1 4 hours 4 hours
    Development of learning objectives 30 10 min 5 hours
    Textbook selection 1 1 hour 1 hour
    20-minute lecture 18 4 hours 72 hours
    20-minute preproduced video 3 1 hour 3 hours
    Assignment 3 4 hours 12 hours
    Test 2 4 hours 8 hours
    Self quiz 10 30 min 5 hours
    Development of discussion board questions 10 5 min 1 hour
    Review materials 68 - 13 hours
    Upload materials 68 - 5 hours
    Total 128.5 hours
  • For courses that are developed with the assistance of instructional designers, the UTD eLearning Team will take care of the technology. All you have to do is to provide the content and assessments.

  • If you need assistance, please contact elearning@utdallas.edu.

  • Faculty developing online content can record lecture videos many ways. Lecture videos can be recorded using the UTD eLearning production studio located in the Jindal School of Management. Faculty can also record the lectures on their own. It is strongly recommended that the recordings be done in a quiet location with no background noise (i.e. phones ringing, dogs barking, etc.). UTD has a site license for the screen video capture software Camtasia, which is very useful in recording, editing, and producing lecture content. (View list of resources available for faculty use.) Please contact elearning@utdallas.edu if you have any questions, need assistance, or would like more information.

  • For lecture recordings at the eLearning studio, the eLearning Team has Student Workers available who are trained on all technical aspects of recording, editing and reviewing your lectures. With the Student Worker focusing on the equipment operation and monitoring of the recording process, you will be free to concentrate on the delivery of content. When the course gets offered, we strongly recommend having your own TA assisting you in teaching the online course.

  • Contact elearning@utdallas.edu. It is recommended that you give as much advance notice as possible because the studio is scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

  • You can conduct a virtual class session via webconferencing. UTD provided two free webconferencing tools to all faculty - Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate. Please check the Resources for Instructors page or email elearning@utdallas.edu for more information. By connecting a microphone to the computer, your students can hear you speak while simultaneously viewing what you share on the virtual whiteboard or what is on your computer desktop (i.e. PowerPoint, web pages and computer programs). Students may ask questions and interact with each other as well.

  • You will have to determine a testing window and make reservation with the UTD Testing Center using online exam reservation form. For paper exam, you will submit your exam electronically as an MS Word or PDF file. Please see the Faculty Resources and Guidelines on the Testing Center home page. Remote students will take the exams at a pre-approved testing facility (coordinated with the UTD Testing Center). Hard copies of the exams will be returned to you for grading. (View distance learning exam proctoring information for student.) There is also a virtual proctoring option available for online courses to use. Please see the Honorlock page for more information.