How To Adapt Classroom Based Fashion Courses to Online Courses

One of the questions we often get asked by lecturers and teachers that deliver classroom-based courses is how to adapt their classroom courses for online delivery.
This is such an important topic now.

So in this post, you'll learn about eleven practical things you can do to make that transformation.

Before we get started, we're assuming you already have content that you are allowed to use either because you are the legal owner of the material or permission from the copyright owner. Then you'll be free to make the transformations.

11 Tips to Transform Your Online Fashion Courses

1. Manage expectations upfront by creating a welcome message or video. The aim of this is for students to get to know you. It helps students get started with your online course by explaining the course's context, how it will run and sets the tone of your expectations. As teachers, we would do this at the first meeting of a classroom course, so the reason and rationale are the same.
2. Students can't come up to you at the end of a class and ask questions, so ensure they know how to connect with you. Provide email and contact information, your availability online, and feedback and response times. Be clear and upfront, and don't promise anything that you can't honour. This way, they'll know what to expect from you.
3. Share your explicit instructions and guidelines for successful participation. Every course creator will have a different approach, so it's best to let your students know what you are looking for. This should include how to accomplish course objectives and to mention policies and expectations for online behaviour in discussion forums that you are providing alongside the course content.
4. You must build a personal rapport with your students both in the discussion forums and the content. Do this by keeping your content informal and your presentation style relaxed and personal. You will build more of a connection this way and avoid coming across as lecturing or dictatorial.
5. Encourage active learning by adapting activities from your classroom for the online environment.
6. Develop cooperation and interaction among students. Please encourage them to ask each other questions as much as they do you. They can learn from each other, so encouraging peer to peer interaction is beneficial.
7. Provide frequent recaps on what you have covered in lessons and modules. Build-in opportunities for students to give you feedback on what they have covered and how you have presented it.
8. Create clear expectations of the time students will need to dedicate to the course to complete it. Ask them to consider where and when they will study the content so they can be better prepared. Tell them how much time any activity you have set them will take to complete.
9. Make sure that whatever course-hosting platform you are using, students can find what they need. The syllabus, calendar of any deadlines, assignment information and instructions, links to helpful resources and downloads must be accessible.
10. I'd recommend “chunking” down your classroom content. Break the lectures and content into material for online delivery. In other words, you make sure videos or audio files are between 5 – 7 minutes long. Research by Philip Guo, assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, found 6 minutes was the best video length for optimum student engagement. Here's a summary of his findings.
    
11. Also, consider adapting your course for the needs of people requiring accessibility options. Here's a quick guide with tips on how to do this.

So I hope that these tips help you get started to transform your classroom-based fashion courses to online fashion courses easier.

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Cheryl Gregory is the Founder of The Fashion Student Hub, a marketplace for selling online fashion courses. We Teach Fashion teaching fashion subject experts how to create and promote their own online courses, generate revenue and serve the growing need for online education in the fashion sector.