ALA Course Development

ALA Course Types

Harvard Chan Advanced Learning Academy offers two main program types—Fundamentals and Full Courses—each with a defined structure. As part of the initial proposal, you will be asked to provide an agenda aligned with one of these formats.

Fundamentals Courses

Fundamentals Courses are fully online, asynchronous, and typically 6–8 hours in duration. These courses grant a Certificate of Fundamentals and align with a 1.25 credit course. 

These courses are made up of 8 modules and should take learners 20-28 hours to complete. Each module should take learners approximately 3 hours to complete. Modules include 1 hour of recorded content made up of 6-10 segments, which include 6-10 minutes of recorded content each. Each segment will also be preceded and followed by additional non-recorded content, which should take learners approximately 20 minutes (or twice the time of the recorded content) to complete. 

For each module, you will need to provide the following in the course proposal form:

• Module Title
• Segment Title: Topic to be discussed in 10-minute increments
• Segment Activity: Reinforcement activities for each segment (e.g. self-study activity, self-study mini lesson for reinforcement, quiz, assignment, group discussion with cohort, capstone, etc
• Instructor Name (if known)
• Special Requirements: Platforms, Software

Completion Courses

Completion Courses, sometimes called “Full Courses”, are typically 18–20 hours in duration and are usually delivered online with a live component, either fully live or as a blend of asynchronous content and live sessions. In rare cases, they will be held on campus. These courses grant a Certificate of Completion, and align with a 2.5 credit course. 

Each day will begin with a 15 minute Welcome & Opening remarks, and conclude with a 15 minute Evaluation and Course wrap-up. Between those components, there will be four (4) 90-minute sessions. For each, you will need to provide the following in the course proposal form:

• Special Requirements: Platforms, software, accessibility needs
• Session Title
• Session Type: Lecture, hands-on lab, breakout groups, panel
• Instructor Name(s) (If known)

Next Steps

Once you have determined which course type—Fundamentals or Completion—will best suit your course idea, we invite you to submit your initial concept proposal using the digital form below, and a member of the ALA team will follow-up with you afterwards.