There are a set of general principles that can be applied to ensure the courses you design are clear, concise, and maximise the potential for learner engagement. This post highlights some key principles and relevant tips which serve as a guide to improving your online courses.
1. Choose an appropriate course format and be consistent
The principle of consistency suggests that usability and learnability improve when similar things are depicted and function in similar ways. Consistency in course layouts helps students focus on the what of learning, rather than how they are learning. Take this one step further and think about a collection of courses which your students interact with: is key information in the same place?
Tips to consider:
- Take the time to assess which course format works best for your content and how your students learn. A linear pathway format works well when content is taught sequentially, whereas a more visual, exploratory format works better when learners navigate different sections in their own preferred order.
- Communication and collaboration between staff proves to be immensely valuable. It facilitates consistency between programme and module courses where layouts, sidebar elements, and course structures are similar in nature, helping learners intuitively navigate through the different elements of their study programme.
- Make use of dedicated information areas for items such as module details, aims, learning outcomes, and assessment schedules. Students appreciate seeing this information populated consistently in the same place across multiple courses, adding a sense of familiarity.
- Maintain a cohesive layout structure (such as headers, descriptions, and activities) to ensure a uniform user experience and smooth course flow, creating a familiar pattern for your learners.
2. Add opportunities for learner interaction and engagement
Opportunities for interaction with the content, as well as with other learners, help make the learning experience learner-centred. Incorporating interactive tasks promotes independent, active learning and helps prevent cognitive overload.
Utilise a variety of activity types, such as discussion forums, knowledge checks, interactive learning objects, chat rooms, and polls. Formative assessment is a great way to increase student motivation and provide awareness of how well they are progressing or understanding the material, so short online quizzes or embedded questions within multimedia resources are excellent options.
Tasks and activities within your course need to be set in a progressive manner to create a learning flow and facilitate immersion. Before creating activities on the fly, consult your learning design approach to ensure they fit well within your overall structure.
3. Keep it simple: less is often more
Online learning spaces should serve as clear landing pages for your course content, resources, and activities. They are not traditional web pages meant to host endless streams of unorganised text, which can easily overwhelm students navigating vast amounts of material.
Tips to consider:
- Avoid duplicating content or information. For example, repeating the title of the module in the welcome header and then again in the description underneath creates needless scrolling. Repeating the same information at different points makes a course tedious to engage with.
- Be intentional and ensure everything in your course has a purpose. If it is something your students only need to be told once, such as a welcome message, it is often better tucked away behind a toggle or click rather than permanently displayed at the top of the page.
- Be intentional with sidebar panels and supplementary widgets. Add only those which are genuinely relevant to your course and content, and remove irrelevant items to reduce clutter and make it easier for students to find what they are looking for.
4. Enrich content with multimedia resources
Graphics and multimedia can transform difficult-to-follow navigational elements into an attractive, intuitive process. Make wise choices to ensure that images or multimedia resources add genuine value to the learner experience rather than getting in the way.
Ensure the size and presentation of images or videos used across the course are consistent. Be mindful that oversized images will make learners scroll unnecessarily, and using too many will make navigation tedious.
5. Ensure your academic content is accessible
Adhering to relevant digital accessibility legislation ensures that learning platforms and resources can be optimally utilised by as many people as possible, including those with impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments, learning disabilities, or hearing loss.
Tips to consider:
- The thoughtful use of multimedia resources helps ensure the diverse needs of all learners are effectively met.
- Include descriptive text or captions for resources that require them, such as images, videos, and audio files.
- Ensure that all uploaded text material can be read with a screen reader; scanned images of books or articles are not always accessible.
- Use formats with legible fonts, high contrast, and clear visual hierarchy for your learning resources.
- Make use of built-in system functionality or checking tools to assess the accessibility of your content and identify areas for improvement.
Is this all?
These are by no means the only considerations when developing online courses, but they provide a strong foundation for producing sound learning experiences. For more advanced courses, time should be spent on the overall learning design, striking a careful balance between quality content, engaging activities, and social learning opportunities.