12 Days of Course Design

(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.