A methodological proposal for the Project design of the online course: Pilot application

In order for an online course to be properly carried out it must be properly planned. The goal of this paper is to provide users with a methodology to design, assess and follow up a good quality online course project. The methodology proposes six phases to be followed in order to accomplish the task: Analysis of educational problem; justification and purposes of the project; proposal of project's perspectives; education, operational and financial planning; project's expected results, and project tracking and assessment. The proposed methodology allowed designing and carrying out the online course project called Rubrics for Assessment of Activities of e-Learning which was given at the Distance University of Poland. Even though the course was highly assessed by its participants, their comments imply the necessity of a more careful planning of the pedagogical components of the course. Despite this weakness, the project allowed to obtain answers to the main questions raised by decisions to be made when planning a course: What is intended to be done?, why?, what for?, how?, when?, by whom?, with what resources and funds? It is concluded that the proposed methodology may constitute a reference framework for the universities that wish to plan a high quality online course, both in Poland and in other countries.