Table 1
Search Patterns in Higher Education Digital Course Development.
| HE SEARCHES | OPERATOR | DIGITAL COURSE RELATED SEARCH TERMS |
|---|---|---|
| (“Higher education”) | AND | “Online coursework’ OR ‘online course design’ OR ‘online course development’) |
| “Online learning’ OR ‘course design’ OR ‘online course development’) AND (‘higher education’) | ||
| AND “Online coursework’ OR ‘online course design’ OR ‘online course development’) |
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram detailing the steps in the identification and screening of sources.
Table 2
Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria.
| INCLUSION CRITERIA | EXCLUSION CRITERIA |
|---|---|
| Publication time (2014–2024) | Out of date (2014–2024) |
| Published in English | Not in English |
| Journals | Other types of publication |
| Higher education | K12-Adult Education |
| Non review studies | Review papers |
| Online course design is the main variable of the study | Online course design is not the main variable of the study |
Table 3
Characteristics of included studies.
| CODE | AUTHOR & YEAR | COUNTRY | SUBJECT | LMS PLATFORM | DURATION | LEVEL STUDENT | NO STUDENTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | (Al-Naabı et al., 2021) | Oman | Critical Thinking Skills | Moodle | 5 weeks | Foundation | 18 |
| P2 | (Durak & Ataizi, 2016) | Turkey | Programming Languages | e-front | Summer School | not provide | not specified |
| P3 | (El-Bishouty et al., 2019) | Saudi Arabia | Using Computers in Education | Moodle | Not specified | Undergraduate | 25 |
| P4 | (Gaston & Lynch, 2019) | USA | Nursing | Moodle | 6 semesters | Undergraduate | 494 |
| P5 | (Gazza, 2015) | USA | health policy | Not specified | 7.5 weeks | Undergraduate | 66 |
| P6 | (Kas-Osoka et al., 2018) | USA | Health and Wellness | University’s Local LMS | a semester-long | Undergraduate | 1,090 |
| P7 | (Jo et al., 2020) | USA | Active Learning in Geography (GEO5340) | Canvas | 5 Weeks | Graduate | 9 |
| P8 | (King & Nininger, 2019) | USA | RN-BSN Completion Program | Canvas | Semester | Undergraduate | 357 |
| P9 | (Kuo & Fitzpatrick, 2022) | USA | First-Year English Composition (FYC) | Not specified | Semester | Undergraduate | not specified |
| P10 | (Tan & Kou, 2014) | USA | Web 2.0 tools. | Course wikis | not specified | In-service educators. | 16 |
| P11 | (Leslie, 2021) | USA | ADR410: Facilitation Fundamentals | Blackboard | 4 weeks | Undergraduate | 20 |
| P12 | (Luburićet al., 2021) | Serbia | Software Specification and Modeling (SSaM) and Introduction to Software Engineering (ISE) | Not explicitly named | Semester long | Undergraduate | 290 |
| P13 | (Maia et al., 2021) | Brazil | Therapeutic Play Competence for Pediatric Nurses | Not specified | Not specified | Professional development | 52 |
| P14 | (N. Martin et al., 2018) | Australia | Elite Sport Performance: Psychological Perspectives | MOOC | 4 months | Open to all levels | 1007 |
| P15 | (Cunningham et al., 2024) | Ireland | Vocational agricultural | Not specified | Semester-long | Undergraduate | 108 |
| P16 | (Liu & Shao, 2024) | China | Piano Education | Custom mobile applications: | One and a half years | Undergraduate | 104 |
| P17 | (Pingo et al., 2024) | Australia | Pharmacy Course | Blackboard | One year | Graduate | not specified |
| P18 | (Mincey, 2015) | USA | Introduction to Public Health | Blackboard | 5 weeks | Undergraduate | 23 |
| P19 | (Desmet et al., 2023) | China | Emotion-Driven Design (EDD) | Zoom | 5 days | graduate | 269 |
| P20 | (Loftus et al., 2014) | USA | pharmacology. | e-pack | Not explicitly stated | Undergraduate | 508 |
| P21 | (Kopteva, 2018) | USA | Introduction to Human Geography | Blackboard | Semester-long | Undergraduate | not specified |
| P22 | (Zemliansky, 2021) | Norway | Faculty development | Canvas | 6 hours | Faculty and instructors | 62 |
| P23 | (Peng, 2021) | China | Online course software | Not specified | Not specified | Not specified | not specified |
| P24 | (Shaw et al., 2015) | Australia | Medical education | Not specified | Not specified | Postgraduate | not specified |
| P25 | (Jia et al., 2023) | China | Instructional Design for Education and Corporate Settings | Moodle | 8 weeks | Graduate | 79 |
| P26 | (Singleton et al., 2019) | USA | Online course development and instructional design | Not specified | Not specified | Not specified | 6 IDs |
| P27 | (Songkram, 2017) | Thailand | Creativity and Innovation | Moodle | Semester-long | Undergraduate | 30 |
| P28 | (Thurston & Yelich Biniecki, 2017) | USA | Graduate certificate program in social justice education | Local LMS | 2 years for program development. | Graduate level | Not Specified |
| P29 | (Tsai et al., 2019) | Taiwan | building information modeling | Coursera | 8 weeks | Undergraduate | Not Specified |
| P30 | (McNeill & Fitch, 2023) | USA | Research in Special Education | Not specified | One session | Undergraduate | 12 |
| P31 | (C.-H. Wang & Lin, 2018) | Taiwan | Online learning and affective tutoring systems. | Interactive Online learning | single academic term | Undergraduate | 106 |
| P32 | (Gülbahar et al., 2022) | Turkey, USA | Instructional Technology | Google classroom | 1 Week | Undergraduate | 81 |
| P33 | (Yamagata-Lynch, Do, et al., 2015) | USA | Instructional technology | Blackboard | 15 weeks | Graduate-level | 17 |
| P34 | (Yamagata-Lynch, Cowan, et al., 2015) | USA | Online program development in higher education | Moodle | Five-year | Graduate level | Not specified |
| P35 | (Song & Kao, 2023) | USA | Chinese Language | Google Suite, | Not specified | Undergraduate | not specified |
| P36 | (Nutwell et al., 2023) | USA | Finite Element Principles (FEP) | Online asynchronous | 10 Weeks | Professional engineers | 45 |
| P37 | (Zhu & Zhang, 2023) | USA | User Experience (UX) Design for Learning | Canvas | 15 Week | Graduate | 9 |
| P38 | (Reilly & Reeves, 2024) | USA | Various | Not Specified | Not specified | Undergraduate | 75 |
| P39 | (Onodipe et al., 2016) | USA | Principles of economics | Not Specified | Not specified | Undergraduate | Not specified |
| P40 | (Ritzhaupt et al., 2020) | USA | Statistics | Canvas | 16 Weeks | Doctoral | 20 |
Figure 2
Distribution of included papers by year.
Figure 3
Distribution of included papers by country.
Table 4
Successful digital course affordances.
| AFFORDANCES OF A SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL COURSE | #(%) (N = 40) | SOURCE NUMBER |
|---|---|---|
| Learner-Centered Design (LCD) | 24 (60%) | 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 |
| Active Learning and Engagement (AL&E) | 25 (62.5%) | 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 |
| Structured Learning Environment (SLE) | 32 (80%) | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40 |
| Collaboration and Community Building (C&CB) | 9 (22.5%) | 7, 13, 15, 17, 25, 27, 28, 33, 37 |
| Authentic Assessments (AA) | 7 (17.5%) | 7, 11, 15, 24, 36, 38, 40 |
| Accessibility and Inclusiveness (A&I) | 4 (10%) | 10, 17, 27, 34 |
Figure 4
Affordances of digital course design in higher education.
Figure 5
Limitations and challenges in digital course design.
Figure 6
Instructional design features for digital course design.