Supporting Students
An inclusive learning environment is established when all students are supported in adapting to the structure, schedule, expectations, and technologies used in the course. Supporting students requires thorough communication about how the course is set up, what they have to do, how the course is run administratively, and what resources and services are available to help them succeed.
Recommendation 2.2: Organization & Navigation
Organize the course, Canvas site, and other online components so they are easy for students to read, view, and navigate.
Background Information
What is this?
Creating a structured plan for how your course will be laid out can save time and provide clarity.
Why is this important?
Course content and materials are only effective if students can follow along. Thoughtfully organizing your course in an intuitive, usable, and navigable way helps to minimize the mental energy students expend finding what they need to be successful, thereby allowing students to focus on the learning activities themselves.
How to implement
Within Canvas, Modules and Pages can group a given topic’s materials, activities, and assessments. The UWSP Course Template provides ideas on how to clearly structure a Canvas course.
Synopsis from Self-Review
There are multiple levels at which you can conceptualize the organization of a course. Scaffolding is a strategy where concepts build on one another and culminate in students achieving the defined learning outcomes of the course. Chunking is a strategy that can be used as well, which involves cutting down information into more manageable pieces to further understanding. Almost as important as breaking information down effectively is ensuring the right information comes in a logical order. Courses with the appropriate content presented first, second, third, etc., will help students understand and achieve the ultimate course goals. In addition to organization, instructors should consider usability. Font sizes should be large enough to be easily viewed, and pages should not be overcrowded with content. Videos should be under 15 minutes in length and of good resolution and sound quality, and images should have good resolution and contrast.
How to Put into Practice
All courses greatly benefit from a clearly defined structure and high usability. In online courses, where students often face additional challenges and distractions, intentional organization is even more crucial.
Effective ways to organize a course
Scaffolding:
Each new topic builds on the one that came before it. This way, the material becomes increasingly complex and challenging as the course goes on, and students build skills at each stage that they will use in the next. Use formative activities and assessment early on, building up to eventual summative assessment.
Chunking:
Break up long segments of content and establish a module-, unit-, or week-based framework for the various instructional topics and components. For example, when organizing course materials in Canvas, create separate modules for topics, and separate items for each discrete assignment or task; when lecturing, adopt the ’10 and 2′ rubric of presenting information for 10 minutes before asking learners to take an action for 2 minutes.
Consistency:
When progressing through the different topics and outcomes in the course, incorporate repetitive elements and activities, such as discussions. Students will know what is expected of them and how and where to complete assigned activities.
Transitions:
Include an introduction to each new piece of content or module, as well as summary statements after each piece of content or module.
Routines:
When designing your course, consider both the rhythm in which you will present content and the rhythm in which you will provide feedback and interact with students. For example, you may require initial discussion posts to be due every Wednesday, and responses to be due every Sunday. You may have a rhythm of providing feedback to students on their work on Thursdays and Mondays.
Organizing in Canvas
As you are developing the Canvas course, modules and items can remain unpublished until they are finalized. Among its most prominent features are Modules and Pages.
- Canvas Modules allow instructors to organize content to help direct the flow of the course. Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or a different logical organizational structure. What are Modules?
- Canvas provides the option to add requirements to a Module item that students need to complete to move to another section or activity, such as “Mark as Done,” which provides a green checkmark when students complete a required Page or Assignment.
- Canvas Pages explain content and expectations to your students and combine different media and links together with that text. Using consistent formatting and headings on your Pages can make your course easier for students to navigate: What are Pages?
- To jumpstart your Canvas course planning, download the UWSP Course Template that CITL has created. Contact CITL for more support with Canvas course design.