Online Course Site Design
Online course sites should be intuitively designed so even a student new to college can easily navigate the course and understand expectations.
Tips for course site design:
- Organize content into weekly or biweekly modules.
- Create a short introduction to each module with a checklist of tasks to be accomplished.
- Incorporate a variety of content for students to consume, such as news articles, case studies, multimedia, and interactive learning objects.
- Provide clear guidance for completing activities.
- Provide models of exemplary student work.
- Main ideas should be easy to skim. Chunk content and organize text under headings.
- Use the SUNY Online Course Quality Review Rubric to assess your course design.
Backward Design
Backward design requires educators to set clear, measurable learning targets, and design the lesson with the ultimate goal of assessing those objectives. Don't start with a topic to cover. Start with an end goal and work your way backward from there.
Backward design steps:
- Identify what your goal is. What should students know and be able to do by the end of the unit.
- Create an assessment to measure your learning goal.
- Plan lessons that will prepare students to successfully complete the assessment.
Read more about Backward Design
Vanderbilt University: Understanding by Design
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning UDL) is a framework of guidelines meant to help educators proactively design their content in a manner that minimizes learning barriers.
MVCC Biology Professor, Dr. Melissa Barlett, provides quick UDL ideas for the classroom