Blackboard
Tips and Tricks:
Organizing Course Areas: Part 1 - Course
Information
by: Carolyn Matzinger
My
last
article focused on simplifying the course menu by removing unused buttons or
course
links. Click
here to view article. Making
your course more user-friendly shouldn't stop there. Once you have chosen the
main buttons or course areas, it is a good idea to organize the content within
those areas.
Over
the next few articles, I will present various ideas and examples to help you
make good use of the course areas you
choose.
Merge Course Information and Instructor
Information
All information about the instructor and the course can be placed in the same
area. In this example, the Instructor Information, Syllabus, and Course Outline
were all placed into the Course Information page. This reduces the number of
clicks a students has to go through to get all the information they need to
start the course. The image below illustrates the use of a table to organize the
instructor's contact information. That item should be listed first so students
can access the contact information quickly.
Below "Instructor Information," two folders have been added. If you have a
shorter syllabus (no longer than two pages) the text can be added directly as an
item instead of an attachment. Formatting can be tricky, so the use of tables or
HTML may be necessary. Feel free to contact an instructional designer at IDEAL
if you would like to learn how. In this example, students can also download the
syllabus as a Word document.
The last folder in the Course Information area is for the course outline. Most
instructors already provide their students with a time line or chart with
assignment due dates and test dates, along with important course information in
the syllabus. That's a great start, but let's take it one step further. When
teaching in an online environment, it is good practice to give students all
important information up front so they can stay on pace with the suggested
schedule. Students should have a complete list of all activities, assignments,
tests, and discussions layed out for them in a way that is easy to read. In the
example below, all activities have been organized by week and module. The
modules can also be color coded to make them more distinguishable. Again, making
this area look nice may require some extra HTML coding.
Keep checking back for my next article. I will provide examples on how to
organize your course content into easy to read modules.
