Online Learning Standard
Meeting the Online Learning Standard
The Online Learning Standard sets out the minimum expectations for learning provision for all courses at City of Glasgow College. Students expect and value the use of multi-mode learning that Canvas can offer, but can be confused by the variability in usability, availability and quality of online materials.
The Online Learning Standard has been developed to provide a framework for staff and students. It supports blended campus delivery and wholly online courses. The Standard also provides staff the opportunity to demonstrate the digital learning, teaching and assessment skills and practice described in the Professional Standards for Lecturers in Scotland’s Colleges.
1. | Structure
Structure your courses clearly to help students navigate quickly, understand the sequence of activities, access information and easily understand the layout of unfamiliar courses.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
1.1 | Add a short welcome message to the Home page to introduce the unit
Every course has a Home page where typically learners will find a brief overview of the unit and links to other useful information.
1.2 | Present activities and resources in a meaningful, clearly structured way, and sequenced by theme/topic
Typically, each Canvas Module represents a topic, which may cover one or more weeks of study.
Use clear names for each Module.
Within the Module, use a Page to create an overview that introduce the topic or set of resources/activities to be undertaken in each lesson.
Bring together common elements, use Text Headers to provide common sub-headings across Modules to help students navigate.
Add Prerequisites if you want to control the pace of learning and prevent students looking ahead.
Use heading styles within Pages to maintain consistency across Modules and help students see where they are.
Keep the heading and subheading styles in a logical order e.g., Heading 3 should be used as a sub-heading below Heading 2, etc.
Within the course, use a variety of learning content to keep students engaged.
Sections can be used to assign interactive materials to separate groups of students, where required.
1.3 | Use Gradebook to monitor student progress and attainment
Guide students as to which task to complete next. This may include appropriate use of conditional release, so tasks are hidden until prerequisite tasks are completed, or until a certain date.
2. | Orientation
Help learners orientate themselves, especially outlining how they are expected to learn and engage and how they may contact key staff members to get help when they need it.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
2.1 | Include the Unit syllabus and Intended Learning Outcomes in the Canvas Course
Explain participation requirements:
Outline how students are expected to use Canvas in an introductory statement.
Identify the compulsory and optional activities.
Explicitly signpost all online and offline activities and how they interrelate.
Provide an indicator of effort (such as timings or page counts) for all compulsory tasks.
Explain how students are expected to use City of Glasgow College and external eLearning tools.
Link to instructions for any eLearning tools that students are expected to use.
Explain what digital devices and software students are expected to provide for themselves or how they can access these resources from the College.
Remind students that their interactions on the platform are tracked to support their learning.
2.2 | Display academic staff contact details on the Meet Your Lecturer page; include name, position, email, location, drop-in hours, as appropriate
Ensure students are aware of all services and support available from the Library and Student Services team and the help guides available. Cover this in your induction and ensure links to this support relevant to your course or unit are easy to find.
Provide an overview of the course within a ‘Course Summary’ in the Course Overview page.
2.3 | Ensure students are sent a welcome message before the start of the course/unit that includes:
A short overview of the course, an online welcome video is an excellent way of introducing yourself to the class.
A summary of expectations for online engagement.
How they can gain access to their course.
Explain the introductory activities to be completed and by when (e.g. posting to an introductions forum within the course)
It is good practice to include an online 'ice breaker' activity to help the class 'get to know each other'. This is also a good opportunity to practise using some of the key communication tools that will be used throughout the course.
3. | Communication
Ensure effective and consistent online communication with and between students.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
3.1 | Provide a communication statement
3.2 | Describe how students and staff will communicate for different purposes (e.g. using Canvas Discussions for coursework-related questions, Microsoft Teams, and email for personal matters). Include expected staff response times.
3.2 | Use Canvas Announcements, Discussions, and the Gradebook
Use the Announcements in the Canvas course as a channel for important news such as key dates and events. Student comments on Announcements are allowed by default, but these can be turned off if required.
Make the purpose of every Discussion clear, including how students are expected to engage with it and how often staff will reply to posts (if at all).
Advise staff and students to upload 'suitable' profile pictures or avatars to help personalise the online environment and allow online discussions between collaborators to be more easily followed.
Our Canvas course template includes a general Q&A Discussion for students to pose questions and receive answers in.
Track student participation using Gradebook and send reminders to those who have yet to contribute to activities or submit assessments.
4. | Assessment
Clearly outline assessment requirements and link to tools and information to help avoid plagiarism.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
4.1 | Provide a clear description of the unit assessments
Include a schedule, criteria, and submission details (as a tutor you could have marking scales and rubrics prepared).
Provide scheduled assignment dates in the Canvas calendar.
Students should be provided with clear guidance, e.g. by linking to a help guide so they understand how to submit and how they will receive feedback on their work.
4.2 | Use Turnitin to check for Similarity
Where applicable, Turnitin should be used to check any online assessment that includes textual content that could be plagiarised.
5. | Resources
Provide well labelled learning resources, using internal and external sources.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
5.1 | Integrating library resources into Canvas
Licensed resources can be found through the library service, view the Library A-Z of digital collections. Use your college username and password to access. You can also search the Library Catalogue to find books, eBooks, open textbooks and open journal articles.
Provide reading list(s), outlining which are compulsory and which are recommended. Your reading list should include references to library material to ensure equity of access for students. Speak to your Library team to get support creating a reading list that can be shared with students via email or links to from Canvas.
5.2 | Embed any additional learning and teaching resources into the course e.g. presentation slides, notes, external links, video content or handouts.
Link to external online resources, e.g. ClickView, YouTube, and MS Stream. Online images and articles should be embedded where possible into the Canvas course and should be appropriately referenced and credited. Use the College Library service, Cite Them Right, this will support you in creating Harvard style referencing for all your content.
Include links to dynamic content (e.g. Twitter feeds) where possible so students can better contextualise their learning and relate it to world events, if appropriate to the course.
Regularly fix or remove broken hyperlinks (URLs) and check that all resources are up to date before releasing these to students.
6. | Cross-platform Compatibility
Provide files in accessible formats to enable students to view them on mobile devices.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
6.1 | Ensure all content can be viewed on mobile devices
Consider file formats, PDF versions are provided wherever possible as they can be accessed on a variety of devices. Word documents are used only for electronically editable documents such as templates, worksheets or cover sheets. Do not use Flash (.swf files) as this format is no longer supported by any browsers.
Minimise file size by reducing resolution where needed and avoiding lengthy videos. The file size and type are displayed alongside the filename, e.g. Science Lab Induction (34MB video).
7. | Accessibility
Provide accessible resources by following a few simple rules for the benefit of all students.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
7.1 | Use College accessible Word and PowerPoint templates
7.2 | Make sure users can recognise and use your service with the senses that are available to them
To meet WCAG 2.1 Principle 1: Perceivable
Provide text alternatives (‘alt text’) for non-text content.
Provide transcripts for audio and video.
Provide captions for video.
Make sure content is structured logically and can be navigated and read by a screen reader, this also helps if stylesheets are disabled.
Use the proper markup for every feature (for example, forms and data tables), so the relationships between content are defined properly.
Not use colour as the only way to explain or distinguish something.
Use text colours that show up clearly against the background colour.
Make sure every feature can be used when text size is increased by 200% and that content reflows to a single column when it’s increased by 400%.
Not use images of text.
Make sure your service is responsive - for example to the user’s device, page orientation and font size they like to use.
Make sure your service works well with assistive technologies, for example important messages are marked up in a way that the screen readers know they’re important.
7.3 | Make sure users can find and use your content, regardless of how they choose to access it, e.g. using a keyboard or voice commands
To meet WCAG 2.1 Principle 2: Operable
Make sure everything works for keyboard-only users.
Let people play, pause and stop any moving content.
Not use blinking or flashing content; or let the user disable animations.
Provide a ‘skip to content’ link.
Use descriptive titles for pages and frames.
Make sure users can move through content in a way that makes sense.
Use descriptive links so users know where a link will take them, or what downloadable linked content is.
Use meaningful headings and labels, making sure that any accessible labels match or closely resemble the label you’re using in the interface.
Make it easy for keyboard users to see the item their keyboard or assistive technology is currently focused on; this is known as ‘active focus’.
Only use things like mouse events or dynamic interactions (like swiping or pinching) when they’re strictly necessary; or let the user disable them and interact with the interface in a different way.
Make it easy for users to disable and change shortcut keys.
7.4 | Make sure people can understand your content and how the service works
To meet WCAG 2.1 Principle 3: Understandable
Use plain English.
Keep sentences short.
Not use words and phrases that people won’t recognise; or provide an explanation if you can’t avoid it.
Explain all abbreviations and acronyms, unless they are well known and in common use (for example UK, EU, VAT).
Make it clear what language the content is written in and indicate if this changes.
Make sure features look consistent and behave in predictable ways.
Make sure all form fields have visible and meaningful labels; and that they’re marked up properly.
Make it easy for people to identify and correct errors in forms.
7.5 | Make sure your content can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents (including reasonably outdated, current and anticipated browsers and assistive technologies)
To meet WCAG 2.1 Principle 4: Robust
Use valid HTML so user agents, including assistive technologies, can accurately interpret and parse content.
Make sure your code lets assistive technologies know what every user interface component is for, what state it’s currently in and if it changes.
Make sure important status messages or modal dialogs are marked up in a way that informs user of their presence and purpose; and lets them interact with them using their assistive technology.
Let the user return to what they were doing after they’ve interacted with the status message or modal input.
Include links to dynamic content, where you can, e.g. Twitter feeds, so students can better contextualise their learning and relate it to world events (if appropriate to the course).
Adhere to the UK Equality Act and the Public Sector Accessibility Regulations. If a student with a disability requests an accessible format of any resource, this must be provided, within reason.
The CoGC Canvas Accessibility Statement should contain any additional guidance and indicating who to contact (e.g., module leader) to request an alternative format for any resource.
Provide video transcripts or notes (where these already exist) to topic videos made by lecturer or external video systems. Both ClickView and YouTube provide auto transcription, which can then be edited for any inaccuracies.
The LexDis website provides useful guide on how to make digital tools accessible.
8. | Legal
Model good copyright practices. Communicate data protection issues and provide a private space for class interaction, so students have a safe environment to work in.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
8.1 | Observe intellectual property and copyright legislation
The college has the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Further Education (FE) License, this allows you to:
Make copies from digital and print books, magazines, journals and websites.
Share copies with students and staff.
Use copies with digital whiteboards, VLEs and presentation software programs.
Copy up to one article, chapter, one short story or poem or 5% of the total, whichever is greater.
Copy publications from the UK plus 38 international territories.
8.2 | Check copyright permissions online of what can be copied, shared or reused under the CLAFE License
Refer to the Library Copyright Guide for further detail on college subscribed resources covering, sound, images, text and video. Link to useful websites rather than copying text directly into a course.
8.3 | Quote, paraphrase or cite text correctly
To understand how to quote, paraphrase or cite text, consult the Library Referencing Guide for further guidance.
Licensed resources can be found through the library service. View the Library A-Z of digital collections. Use your college username and password to access. You can also search the Library Catalogue to find books, eBooks, open textbooks and open journal articles.
Ensure all students are informed about potential data protection (GDPR) issues, when they are asked to use non-College systems. An alternative internal system must be provided if students refuse to register with an external service.
Ensure student-generated content is stored on a password protected system (e.g. discussion boards, blogs, wikis, videos). Non-password protected sites should only be used if students are aware the material is publicly available, and are satisfied with the implications of this e.g. their full names may appear alongside their work.
Remember to clearly attribute and reference any material that you use that you did not create. Use the College Library service, Cite Them Right, this will support you in creating Harvard style referencing for all your content.
Open Educational Resources (OER). If you are using open resources licensed by Creative Commons (CC), the license should describe how to attribute each resource. Best practise is to follow Title, Author, Source License (TASL). Consider sharing your own resources by applying a Creative Commons license to encourage other educators and practitioners to use your content. View the Library's curated list of OER's.
Students own their work as it is of original creation. However, if they have used copyrighted material within their work under Section 30 Fair Dealing with the purpose of criticism and review, this must be acknowledged/attributed clearly.
To understand how to quote, paraphrase or cite text, students should be referred to the Library Referencing Guide. If the student intends to use their work within a public setting (outside of college systems and organisational boundaries), all copyrighted material must be removed, or permission must be sought to exploit it commercially.
9. | Student Active Participation
Structure learning to ensure students share their learning resources, interact with each other and participate in online activities.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
9.1 | Carry out learning checks and promote learning opportunities
Within Canvas courses, learning checks should be included at the end of a 'lesson' to allow students to check their learning and to build confidence. A formative pass mark can be set before the students can continue.
Synchronous learning opportunities will be clearly scheduled and publicised on the course page e.g. Teams meetings, online workshops, and Canvas chats.
Students can share their learning resources either individually or collaboratively using online tools (such as wikis, and Canvas Discussions). All students must be advised that they should not disclose personal information on open forums.
Students are required to interact with online activities, such as online self-assessments, contributing to discussions and completing interactive scenarios, in order to maintain student motivation and engage them actively in the learning process.
10. | Quality Assurance
Enable staff and students to evaluate online learning provision, so they can help to improve it year on year.
These items are expected for every taught course at City of Glasgow College:
8.3 | Embed opportunities for feedback evaluation
Students can evaluate the course anonymously, including its online elements (e.g. via an end of course questionnaire).
All stakeholders, including tutors, administrators, students and support staff, can contribute to the module/programme evaluation at regular intervals (e.g. yearly, or at major reviews).
Students can submit their module evaluation online via a confidential online platform.
The course evaluation covers all aspects relevant to the use of technology for learning and teaching in the course, including quality of all course components (e.g. activities, resources, administration, and library provision), the remote learning experience (e.g. workload, involvement, restrictions), and the role of lecturers (e.g. engagement, feedback, support).