Online Short Courses
We provide end-to-end support for St Andrews Online Short Courses – supporting academics and subject matter experts from initial idea through to course delivery and review.
About St Andrews Online Short Courses:
- Our Online Short Courses are non-credit bearing, asynchronous courses, aimed at a variety of professional, upskilling and hobbyist learners
- Leaners experience the course on our Canvas VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), and do not have access to University systems (including the library)
- Courses last 6-8 weeks, and run four times a year – starting in January, April, July and October
- Courses contain 50 learning hours (equivalent to 5 St Andrews Credits)
- During the live period, the academic or subject matter expert spends 1 hour per week providing support to learners, for example answering questions and moderating forums
- Once launched, each course will be part of the Short Course portfolio for 3 years, and then reviewed in collaboration with us to keep, redevelop, or sunset.
Benefits to you and your School:
- Our surplus share model offers income generation for you and your School
- Our Short Courses can be used to highlight your research, provide a pathway to PGT Programmes, or increase the diversity of your learners
- Our Short Courses allow you to deliver your teaching and research to new audiences all around the world
How we support Online Short Courses:
- Our Digital Education Developers will co-design your course with you to make your course engaging for online learners
- Our Digital Education Coordinator supports your course through University governance
- Our Digital Education Coordinator will provide support for learners, manages bookings and liaises with the Marketing team for your course
- The Digital Education team will support you with updates to your course, with small changes being picked up during the course set-up for the next cycle, and medium-larger changes being handled on a needs-specific basis
- You will also work with the Digital Media Production Team to record new media content for your course
- The University Library has produced a guide for identifying freely available and/or open access material to use as part of your course: University of St Andrews Library – Short Course Design Guide
How to get started with St Andrews Online Short Courses:
- Open to members of staff from academic schools and professional service units
- Schedule a call with the Digital Education Coordinator to discuss your ideas and find out more about St Andrews Online short courses
- You’ll then be invited to fill in our Expression of Interest form. You can preview a version of our Expression of Interest form.
Short Course Production Process
The process of designing and creating each Online Short Course involves the following stages, and takes 7 months to complete.
The purpose of this stage is to onboard you into the course development process.
You will meet with your allocated Digital Education Developer (DED), the Digital Education Coordinator and the Digital Media Production Team to get started developing your course. This happens about 7 months before your allocated launch date.
At this stage, we will:
- schedule your short course kick-off meeting
- provide access to your dedicated teams channel
- provide access to your Canvas build course
- review the timeline and stages of development
The purpose of this stage is to develop an outline of the learning content for your module.
During this stage, you will:
- take part in a learning design meeting (60 minutes)
- draft a content outline for your course, including new media to be recorded with the Digital Media Production Team
- discuss your outline with your DED
The purpose of this stage is to develop learning materials, film pre-recorded content, and work with your DED to build your content in Canvas.
During this stage, you will:
- meet regularly with your DED
- create learning materials for your DED to review, feedback on, and build into your Canvas course
- work with the Digital Media Production Team to film your media content
To ensure that courses are on track for their allocated launch date, the Digital Education and Digital Media Production teams meet to review progress of all short courses mid-way through this stage.
The purpose of this stage is to review your finalised short course with your DED and complete Quality Assurance (QA) checks.
At this stage, you will:
- complete the Quality Assurance (QA) checklist to ensure that the course is ready for launch
- work with your DED on any final edits as needed
Your course launches!
During this stage, you will:
- spend an hour a week supporting learners on your course
- if you have designed any tasks that need marking, you will work within the standard 3 week turnaround from the course end date to provide marks to learners
At this stage, your allocated DED finishes their work with you, but the Digital Education team is still on hand to provide any support needed. Learners can also contact our dedicated learner enquiries email to get technical support with their course.
Testimonials from previous collaborations:
Thanks […] everyone for the support, guidance and your time throughout this process
Nick, Course lead, School of International Relations
It’s been a real pleasure working with you throughout the process. […] thanks again for the support and guidance along the way
Diego, Course lead, School of International Relations
Testimonials from learners:
It has been a really interesting course. I greatly appreciated the attention given to the various modules, as well as the preparation of the teachers
Guiseppe, Learner on Studying Terrorism and Political Violence
Overall, the virtual learning environment provided a good experience. I especially appreciated the automatic visual acknowledgment of completed content.
Tosten, Learner on Accredited Mediation Training
It’s a well structured course and I like that it avoids oversimplifying political violence while still making the models practical for analysis
Lynne, Learner on Studying Terrorism and Political Violence