Course Design Basics

Designing a course is a lot like building a house. You need a plan, a solid foundation, walls, windows, and many other layers. So, before you start designing a course, whether it is a face-to-face, a hybrid, fully online, or a blended course, you need to decide on your blueprint; your course road map. The road map is essentially a structured sequence of learning content and training activities. Your course road map should be focused on student-centered learning, clear articulation of the course goals, and effective material delivery for an overall great learning experience.

Course Road Map

Here are some tips on how to get started with creating your course road map.

Purpose of Your Course

Ask the following questions: What is the final course goal? What are the course SLOs? What is the most important for students to learn?

Less is More

Keep it simple! What is the easiest way for students to achieve the course's goals?

Consistency is the Key

This is a foundational piece of course design and there are four elements to design consistency: naming conventions, layout and content order, assignment scheduling, and a visual design aspect (accessible font, colors, images, icons, etc.).

Streamlined Navigation

Do students always have a clear idea of how to find material? Are the assignments in the same place every week? Where to seek instructor help? Overall, is the stuff easy to find?

Focus on Student Experience

Are you creating a great student experience? What are the expectations? How will you meet those as an instructor?

Accessibility for All

Good course design removes barriers to learning and provides access to all students.

Elements of Good Design

Let's look at some basic elements of a good course design. Click on each title to expand with content, click again to close.

Layout

Simple, clean, and uncluttered
Navigation - clear and consistent from page to page
Content - organized and chunked to allow easy scanning and overview

Design Assets

Inviting and welcoming
Encourage and aid learning
Considerations:
- Accessibility: alt tags, file names, color contrast
Sizing:
- Banners: 800-1200 x 200-300 pixels
- Buttons: 200-300 x 150-300 pixels
- Course card: 262 x 247 pixels

Home Page

Gateway to your course
Students’ first impression:
- Inviting and welcoming
- Effective visual elements
- Easy navigation
- Clear instructions aligned with action

Content Pages

Clean and organized presentation
Utilize proper tools in Rich Content Editor (RCE)
Page Chunking to facilitate online reading
Left-aligned content (recommended for ADA compliance)
Follow Copyright Law:
- Content and media licensing
- Attributions
Page elements: heading hierarchy, space, color, images, graphics, tables, descriptive links

Assessments

Authenticity, validity, and variety
Establish frequency
Design effective grading rubrics and provide personalized feedback
Use variety: formative and summative
- Formative - measures level of student learning (Examples: non-graded quizzes, discussions, peer reviews, etc.)
- Summative - provides an opportunity for practice (Examples: mid-term exam, final project, a paper, portfolio, etc.)
Structure:
- Overview/Prompt
- Detailed instructions
- Examples and/or Sample Submissions
- Resources
- Tech Support
- Grading Information

Modules

Unit-level chunking goes hand-in-hand with clear navigation
Visibly distinct units
Increased organization
Better course flow
Text Headers (Avoid using All Caps)- used to create sections within modules
Indented items to create visual categories
Naming Convention
Accessibility
Structure:
- Overview
- Content
- Assessments: discussions, collaborations, then quizzes/exams or papers
- Additional Resources (optional)
- Summary

References:

Canvas Accessibility Catalog.CCCOnlineEd.Created by @ONE, Online Education Initiative (OEI) and California Community Colleges Accessibility Center (CCCAC) licensed by CC BY 4.0

Design, Consistency, and Access.Vanderbilt University Course Development Resources.Published by Johnson, S.M., & McDaniel, R. in 2020

Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher. Edutopia.Published by John McCarthy on September 9, 2015