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Session 64: Organizing Your Course

Page history last edited by Linda Zehr 9 years, 11 months ago

 

What CGCC Students are Saying...

 

"Give advice to instructors using Canvas - things they SHOULD do:"

You know what? Most of the advice had nothing to do with the LMS, and everything to do with good teaching and good design. Here are some good tips from the students:
  • Be organized.
  • Be consistent.
  • Keep information for students updated.
  • Keep things available (even past info, for review).
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"Give advice to instructors using Canvas - things they SHOULD NOT do:"

Again, most of the advice had nothing to do with the LMS, and everything to do with good teaching and good design. More tips from the students:
  • This was the most frequent tip, brought up by several students: Don't put all the information on a single page; take the time and effort to organize it!
  • Don't overwhelm students. 
  • Don't make the course (and course navigation) confusing -- keep it clear and simple. 
  • Don't forget about the page halfway through the semester.
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Discussion

Take a few minutes to look through the following courses. What do you see that you like? Why? What do you see that you don't like? Why?

 

Public Canvas Courses

  1. Social Media (Canvas Network Course) - LIKE: icon used on the homepage to assist in navigation.
  2. MOOC MOOC January 2013 (Canvas Network Course, Hybrid Pedagogy) - LIKE: posting student video comments and discussed topic.
  3. Art Appreciation (Canvas Network Course, Open Course Library) - LIKE: journaling about what students saw on art field trips in lieu of discussion boards.  DOWNSIDE: overwhelming at first, took a few minutes to process what you are looking at.
  4. History of Ancient Civilization (Canvas Network Course, Saylor.org) - LIKE: layout, few tabs, assignments not listed modules instead.  Simple layout of course, not too many buttons.
  5. Game Design Concepts (Canvas Network Course) - LIKE: good getting started.  Simple layout of course, not too many buttons.  DOWNSIDE: Expected more design on a game design course.
  6. Introduction to Openness in Education (Canvas Network Course, Lumen Learning) - LIKE: good getting started.  Simple layout of course, not too many buttons.  DOWNSIDE: liven up course with images to break up text and white space.
  7. International Health Systems (Canvas Network Course, University of Central Florida) - LIKE: Modules organized with dates.
  8. English Composition I (Canvas Network Course, Lumen Learning) - DOWNSIDE: didnt keep template intact, concluded modules moved to the bottom and current at the top.
  9. Algebra+ (Canvas Network Course, Peninsula College) - DOWNSIDE: No dates, lots of items in modules, lots of scrolling.  Videos are good, but too many in this course.
  10. U.S. History 2 (Canvas Network Course, Seattle Central Community College) - DOWNSIDE: image and white space use, scrolling.

 

Visit these courses for a look at QM-approved exemplar courses from PC faculty:

 


Organizing Your Course...

There is no single "correct" way to organize your course.  As an example, here is a Microeconomics module on the topic of Consumer Theory that compares how Mary and Linda have organized the same content for their students in two very different ways: Module Comparison

 

ORGANIZE YOUR COURSE ON PAPER

It's a worthwhile time investment to map out (on paper) the way that you want to structure your course; this will help you decide what components you want to use in Canvas to get your course organized.

MOVING TO CANVAS - paper planning v2.pdf

 

MODULES vs PAGES

When considering how you will organize your course content, you may want to view some of the advantages and limitations to using Modules and Content pages.  Click here to view document.

 

ATTRACTIVE COURSE PAGES WORKSHOP

Today's session is about getting organized, but if you want to know more about adding media, arranging layout, etc, check out Session 62: Attractive Course Pages

 

COURSE NAVIGATION MENU

Use this Guide from Instructure to learn how to re-order and hide Course Navigation links.

 

 

 


 

Click here to complete evaluation survey.

 

 

What does Domo eat?

Domo eats any of Mary's baked goods,

and he also eats faculty members who don't give their feedback about the Technology Tuesdays series! ;-)

 

Canvas Student Survey Results

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