Designing and delivering online education: one size does not fit all

The global online education sector was expected to become mainstream by 2025. However, the COVID-19 global health crisis has accelerated the adoption of online or flexible modes of teaching and learning. The crisis has also created an unprecedented context for teaching and learning, which has had further impact on how online education has been delivered and received. Despite this upheaval, the higher education industry now has an abundance of experience to draw on, including knowledge of what worked well and what needs to improve in the delivery of education online. In this chapter, we draw on the experience of educators developing and delivering Masters level programs in behaviour change during 2020, in two different case studies. The first case study discussed involves the experience of translating an on-campus unit of study originally designed for face to face delivery, into the fully online mode in response to the Australian government's first imposed "lockdown" restrictions. The second case study presented here involves the building of a purposely designed fully online micro-credential. In both cases, we reflect on the key principles and priorities considered in developing and delivering these programs, and we share some of the feedback received from students on their perceptions of how teaching took place. To conclude, we summarise our reflections on good practice in educational design, that apply irrespective of delivery mode.