Online Teaching Certificate
About the Certificate
The Online Teaching Certificate is a four-course, non-credit program designed to develop your online teaching skills. Instructor-led, interactive, and in-depth, each course lasts 5-6 weeks and can be taken in any order. You'll earn a digital badge for each course and receive the Online Teaching Certificate upon completing all four courses. This program is open to Rutgers and non-Rutgers faculty, staff, and graduate students for a fee.
Academic Video Production For Online Teaching
Incorporating video within your course content can be powerful and engaging. Videos can stimulate discussions, invite learners to analyze concepts, and emotionally engage the audience. This course is designed to introduce beginners to the basics of producing videos for their online and hybrid courses. Participants will be introduced to common video capture and editing software, lighting and audio tools and techniques, and the process of scripting and storyboarding. Participants will also explore the characteristics of engaging videos, and learn to identify and resolve potential obstacles when producing videos. By the end of the course, participants will create a short video suitable for use in a hybrid or online course. For the video production component of this course, participants are expected to have access to a computer with a web-camera and microphone installed.
Format:
This non-credit course is offered in the Canvas LMS, online over a 6-week period with scheduled assignment due dates. It is asynchronous, but not self-paced.
Available Sections
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Instructors: Behi Abdi, & Ariel Saulog
- Registration closes: May 9th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
Engaging Students In Online Courses
In this five-week course we’ll explore and learn to apply seven crucial principles for engaging online students. Through the use of ongoing story-based case studies, you’ll be introduced to a cast of five fictional students taking an online class. Each of these characters engages and disengages and presents you, as the instructor, an opportunity. Through weekly readings, activities, and a two-week group project we’ll identify challenges and techniques in student engagement. Together we’ll identify the gestures—small and grand—that you can make to better engage your online students.
Format:
This non-credit course is offered in the Canvas LMS, online over a 5-week period with scheduled assignment due dates. It is asynchronous, but not self-paced.
Available Sections
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Instructors: Suparna Sinha & Hanna Kim
- Registration closes: Mar 14th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
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Instructors: Suparna Sinha & Hanna Kim
- Registration closes: June 30th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
Fundamentals of Designing and Teaching Online Courses
When first developing an online or hybrid course, instructors can feel at sea and as though they have little solid knowledge on which to base their choices for course activities and delivery. There is an ongoing body of research on what makes an effective online course, though, and this course is designed to provide a base of such pedagogical knowledge to help instructors accurately judge the impact of their decisions when developing and teaching their own online courses. Holding this course itself online also provides an introduction to common learning management system (LMS) elements. Participants will gain insight into their role as an instructor for an online course and learn best practices for teaching online, and will apply these practices by developing a sample course unit. This course is designed for beginners and the material we will cover is broadly applicable to any course delivered through an LMS.
Format:
This non-credit course is offered in the Canvas LMS, online over a 5-week period with scheduled assignment due dates. It is asynchronous, but not self-paced.
Available Sections
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Instructors: Mary Labrada, Karen Harris
- Registration closes: Jan 17th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
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Instructors: Mary Labrada, Karen Harris
- Registration closes: May 9th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
Universal Design And Accessibility In Online Education
This course introduces some basic concepts related to accessibility in online courses, and the benefits of using "universal design" for course materials. Participants will learn about the wide variety of access challenges, in online courses, and practice creating robust and broadly accessible materials. While the course does not focus on legal issues, it will provide a brief review of some pertinent legislation on access and disability.
Format:
This non-credit course is offered in the Canvas LMS, online over a 5-week period with scheduled assignment due dates. It is asynchronous, but not self-paced.
Available Sections
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Instructors: Natalia Kouraeva, Amina Khan
- Registration closes: June 30th, 2025, or when the session reaches capacity.
- Note: Registration is first-come, first-served. To ensure a consistent experience between our certificate courses, enrollment cannot be exceeded for any reason.
Course Structure and Fees
All courses in the series are offered through Canvas in an asynchronous and but not self-paced format. Each course lasts 5-6 weeks, and includes scheduled assignment due dates that build toward a comprehensive final project. Each weekly module includes:
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Readings and videos
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Practice activities and assignments
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Peer-to-peer discussions
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Course project assignments
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Optional office-hours with the course instructors
Individual feedback on assignment submissions will be provided by UOES instructional design experts and will include detailed guidance to enhance your teaching practice.
Fees
Rutgers faculty, staff & graduate students: $100 per course; $400 total for the certificate.
Non-Rutgers affiliated: $300 per course; $1,200 total for the certificate.