Designing Virtual Toolboxes to Guide Educators in Creating Online Learning

Lea Blecher, Lara Riefle, Tomi Kauppinen

Abstract: Online learning has gained an increasingly important role at universities, schools, and companies, which was boosted by the pandemic to yet another level. Given that online teaching requires different skills compared to traditional teaching, educators face challenges when creating online learning. Research is looking at these challenges from various perspectives to provide guidance. However, the guidance provided is often not interactive or engaging, and thus does not motivate to explore possibilities in online learning more widely. This paper explores how to design virtual toolboxes to engage and guide educators when creating online learning. Conducting a design science research project, we propose theory-grounded design principles and instantiate them in an interactive toolbox. Our artifact is evaluated with educators from seven European universities to iteratively improve the design foundation. We contribute valuable design knowledge that enables researchers and practitioners to develop tools in the field of online learning. In addition, we propose a novel toolbox that supports educators when creating online courses.