Having determined our inital organizing activities we began to look at project goals and objectives. One of the project's primary objectives is "to develop and evaluate a library of sharable content objects for faculty training in 17 instructional areas that are central to effective practices in online course coversion, design, teaching, learner support, and assessment". While 17 specific instructional areas were identified in the grant it was also noted that "as the project unfolds some areas may be deemed less critical, while others may be added."

The project begins, therefore, with a learner analysis.