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  • General

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    • And so, ‘tis the season!

      The firelogs are crackling, the chill has fallen upon us and the marshmallows are poised and ready for the toasting! And to commemorate the start of the festive winter season, we decided to bestow you all with the best gift there is - the gift of knowledge! Course design knowledge, to be precise.

      Starting today and up until the 16th of December, our e-Learning experts at Catalyst EU will be sharing 12 top tips to refresh your course design. How to keep your content organised and up to date, fostering collaborative learning, helping your students to stay engaged and on-track, and much, much more!

      Each day we will reveal the next step on how to enhance your course, so make sure to check back every day, and please do share your work - the more the merrier! And if you have any questions please reach out using the #12DaysOfCatalyst hashtag on Twitter or LinkedIn; we’ll be more than happy to help you with your course design needs.

  • Day 3

    • (Re)Structure your course online

    • You've now made sure that your site is technically up to date and you've considered the feedback previous users have given you. But what actions need to come out of that feedback?

      Many of us are restrained in our changes to course content from year to year, due to curriculum constraints, external qualification bodies, or validation processes. But, whether within those constraints, or being able to change some of those alongside an annual course review, ensuring that your course or programme continues to meet those requirements and your learners' needs is an important step - I'm sure we can all remember the acetate overheads in lectures we've attended as students ourselves, sometimes dated ten years back if not more!


      Things to check:
      • If we're resetting the curriculum, what are our learning aims and objectives?
      • Can we reconsider the assessments being used?
      • Can we make use of Constructive Alignment to support any course redesign?
      • Are there new tools available from an upgraded Moodle/Totara version, or even new plugins?
      • Is there a paradigm shift to be considered, like Face to face -> Hybrid -> Online or vice versa?


      Image source: Radboud Universiteit


      Using Feedback

      With curriculum and technical changes considered, we need to look at any actions noted from any user feedback within the existing curriculum.

      • Does content need to be clarified?
      • Have you amended dates on assignment submissions or events in the learning calendar?
      • Was any particular content heavily used, or alternatively lightly/not used - does it add anything to the course materials?
      • Are newer resources available, whether is image or video links within the content or in the reading lists?

      Much of this is obvious to course leaders in corporate training, FE or HE when materials are reviewed for face to face delivery. Online or blended delivery is no different in the need to ensure the content is refreshed and updated.


      Proofing/Piloting

      Whether it's a brand new course, or reworking an existing one, consider having someone else pilot or at least proof read through the course.

      This should ideally be someone with sufficient domain knowledge to identify any issues with the content, but possibly not a direct colleague who may not spot issues with assumptions of knowledge and terminology, as they may have exactly the same assumptions. In a University, a good idea is to set up a 'proof exchange' with staff in a related but separate course or field within the same school or department.



      Suggested by Richard Oelmann, Head of Business Development