Develop initial content
Overview
Now that you've created an orientation module, it's time to dive into instructional content! At this stage, there's a lot to consider, from course organization to learning support.
The goal of course development isn't the development itself (nor is it simply about creating and writing content). When you develop a course, you are creating a learning intervention. You're creating an experience. The goal is to design the experience so that students are provided maximum opportunities to actively learn and achieve the course goals.
If you are creating a self-paced (or asynchronous) course, you'll need to think through organization, structure, sequence, cognitive load, engagement, and other variables along the way. By addressing all of these components, you will have created a quality course that not only meets the learning needs of your students, but provides a more personalized and student-centered experience.
The resources in this module will help you provide a clear, organized, and meaningful learning pathway. You can also reach out to an instructional designer.
- Clearly state learning objectives within each module.
- Provide clear instructions and deadlines for all activities and assignments. Make grading criteria for each assignment transparent and available to students. (Strategies include: rubrics, checklists, and/or sample assignments.)
- Inform students (with proper lead time) when a timed response is required.
- Chunk content and lectures into manageable segments.
- Present module headings and topic links in a logical sequence and ensure they are descriptive and appropriate.
Start with Stating the Objectives
Why is this important?
At this point in the development of your course, you should have a completed course planning worksheet that details all of your course's learning objectives and distributes them and their associated instructional content throughout the course. Now, we need to make sure this distribution is communicated to your students.
Remember back to Write Measurable Goals and Objectives, Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to Vary Objectives, and Align Assessments to Objectives. In those topics, we discussed the important of writing measurable learning objectives of varying cognitive complexity that aligns with assignments. The thread running through all of those topics was that it helps students manage and track their learning progress towards mastery of the courses learning objectives.
Stating your learning objectives associated with each module is important because it:
- signals what students will need to extract from the instructional materials (what they need to know);
- demonstrates the importance of the instructional material (why they need to know);
- informs them how they will be assessed (what they will have to do with what they know); and
- reveals how their learning is scaffolded from less cognitive complexity to greater cognitive complexity (what their learning prepares them for).
Provide Clear Instructions and Deadlines
Why is this important?
Providing clear instructions and deadlines is important as it removes an artificial barrier for your students success. This is especially important when teaching online where written or recorded instructions must stand on their on in their depth and specificity. Without clear instructions, students may shut down believing that they lack the ability to comprehend, or students will be unable to adequately demonstrate what they have learned.
Overcoming vague instructions is not a learning experience; rather, vague instructions prevent your students from demonstrating their mastery of the course's objectives.
Provide Clear Instructions: Quick Tips
There are several tools within Canvas to help your students clearly see instructions and deadlines.
- Assign begin, due, and end dates for all quizzes, assignments, and tests.
- These dates will automatically populate in your course calendar, and they will appear on your students' course homepage.
- Use instructional materials (e.g. recorded lectures, slide decks, etc.) to explain assessment requirements and their connection to the course content and learning objectives.
- Align assessments with the course's instructional material and objectives.
- Explain the directions in different modalities, such as text, video, or gaphics.
- Insert assessments into the module it corresponds with and include a description
- More Resources
Chunk Content into Manageable Segments
Why is this important?
To understand why chunking instructional content is important, we must explain the concept of cognitive load theory. At it's most basic, cognitive load theory (CLT) describes how cognitive performance and internal motivation are inversely related to the capacity of our working memory. That is, as more information is stored in our working memory, the efficacy for transcribing that information into our long-term memory decreases due to a decrease in cognitive performance and internal motivation to learn.
In an online asynchronous learning environment, it is essential to consider how the organization and availability of your instructional materials will impact your students attainment of the course's learning objectives. In a traditional face-to-face learning environment, you and your students are physically present, and you can rely on a multitude of student inputs to understand your students cognitive load. For online learning, we need to proactively consider how a variety of learners will react to the organization and availability of instructional materials.
The video below will discuss cognitive load theory, why instructors and instructional designers ought to consider it, and how it can be deployed in your courses.
Chunking: Quick Tips
Chunking, then, refers to our application of CLT. With your learners cognitive load in mind. Use the strategies below to effectively chunk your instructional materials throughout your course.
- Use a detailed course planning sheet.
- Leverage various delivery modalities for content delivery.
- Blend readings, videos, video and/or audio recordings of lectures, etc.
Ensure Content is Logically Sequenced
Why is this important?
The key here is make sure the "red-thread" of your course is present and visible to your students. This is accomplished through careful utilization of the course planning sheet; careful consideration of the courses learning objectives as well as how they are scaffolded; and a detailed plan for chunking content into manageable learning sessions for your students.
This attention to the logic of the course's structural elements is necessary to ensure your students are able to see and understand why the material and objectives are important as well as how they all work together to accomplish the overarching course goals.
Once these elements are logically sequenced, it is necessary to sign-post them to ensure the visibility of each element and the importance placed on its positioning within the course.
Content Sequencing: Quick Tips
To make the logical structure visible of your course visible to students consider the following:
- Use the Rich Text Editor within Canvas
- Create instructional materials using headings and subheadings to denote importance and organize content.
- Structure instructional materials of similar types consistently to make sure students can efficiently interact with them.
- Use modules to consistently organize instructional materials consistently across your course allowing the courses structure to communicate importance and interconnectedness.
- Use the course planning sheet for outlining the structure of modules and submodules.