October 11, 2017
The way material was presented in an online course affects the way students will interact with the course. There are two major organizational issues for an online class: the way material is presented to the class, and the way expectations are presented to the students. The latter will mostly be related to the syllabus, the former is related to the way material in displayed in the course itself.
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Displaying Material in the Course
CarmenCanvas offers many ways for instructors to present material to students. You can share links directly, upload documents, or make pages where you can embed videos and links. Almost all classes will organize these into modules. Perhaps the most important page is the “Home Page,” the page students see when they first enter the course. This page can help communicate your expectations and aid the navigation of the rest of the course.
There are five options for setting up your Home Page.
- Course Activity Stream shows activity in the course like announcements and the creation of assignments.
- Pages Front Page. This allows you to make a Page your Home Page. You can embed videos or images and easily link material from other parts of the course.
- Course Modules. This option takes students directly to the modules page.
- Assignment List. This option takes students directly to the assignments page.
- Syllabus. This option takes students directly to the syllabus page. The syllabus page is generated automatically using the due dates for assignments and other material you have added to the course calendar. You also have the option of adding material at the top of the page.
Of these options, only two give the instructor a way to control what is being presented to the students and a space to communicate directly: Pages Front Page and Syllabus. These options give the instructor a place to update their class and to add links and other materials they may find helpful. In my classes, for example, the home page links to material about me, my syllabus, and the help pages for their assignments. I even provided direct links to each module so that they did not have to scroll down the modules page.
Students will not want to devote much of their time to learning how to navigate your class. Providing material directly on the home page is a good way to guide them.
A larger organizational issue is accessibility. Online courses allow instructors to use many kinds of powerful technology which allows students of all capabilities to learn. In order to best plan for accessibility, look into the Universal Design and Accessibility page at ODEE.
Making a Syllabus
Making a syllabus for an online course is a little more complicated than making one for a face to face class. Online courses need to be planned out more thoroughly because there is no structured time in which the students and instructor can all meet together. There is no guarantee that students will read announcements or discussion threads. Student activity will be highest at the start of the course, so setting all expectations at the beginning will make everything easier for the instructor and the students.
For more specific tips on how to present materials to students and ideas on the type of materials available, check out this webpage: http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/planning_syllabus
Share your questions and experiences in the comments!