Course designers at work: A critical case study of optimization in online course design

Keywords

Online course design, Higher education, Optimization, Case study research

Abstract

In this paper, I report a critical case study of optimization in online course design within the context of higher education. Through ethnographic work conducted at a university in the United States, I studied an office of online course design, investigating how the office (comprising course designers, administrators, other staff, and the faculty they worked with) enacted optimization as a practical concern. The analysis revealed that optimization was not only the result of interactions between various actors, but also the influence of multiple artifacts that mediated the transformation of educational ideas into concrete learning resources, presumed to be calibrated for a specific purpose. However, since optimization was not a singular construct, course designers regularly found that optimizing along one dimension (perhaps to comply with a policy) caused damage in another (such as providing an engaging learning experience). Furthermore, the practices of course design tended to deemphasize matters purely associated with the quality of learning, while trending towards forms of optimization related to organizational efficiency: streamlining, standardization, reliance on quantified measurements, and developing mechanisms of interchangeability. I conclude by discussing how these findings complicate our understanding of course optimization as well as of course design itself, and what implications this understanding holds for the field.

Original Publication Citation

McDonald, J. K. (2025). Course designers at work: A critical case study of optimization in online course design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 73(5), 3315-3339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-025-10525-7

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2025-10

Publisher

Springer Nature Link

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Instructional Psychology and Technology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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