27 Additional Annotations

• Consistent layout and design are employed throughout, making content, instructional materials, tools, and media easy to locate from anywhere in the course. 

• Design elements are used repetitively, increasing predictability and intuitiveness. 

• Course pages have links, files, and icons that are labeled with easy-to-understand, self-describing, and meaningful names; for example, the text “Quality Matters website” is the hyperlink rather than www.qualitymatters.org. Additionally, any icons used as links also have HTML tags or an accompanying text link. 

• All links within the course, external and internal, are working properly; there are no broken links. 

• The course design enables learners to easily locate where they are within the course and to easily return to the home page from any location. 

• Tables are used to organize data and have appropriate table headers. Data cells are associated with their appropriate headers, enabling learners to navigate and understand the data. 

• The hierarchy of material in a page or document is clearly indicated through heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.). A table of contents can be included that allows learners to move easily throughout documents.

Course design elements maximize usability by facilitating readability and minimizing distractions. For this Specific Review Standard to be met, course content is clearly organized and presented so that learners can easily read and interpret it. In addition, the course makes a commitment to make all materials accessible for diverse learners. 

Examples of Layout Strategies that Facilitate Readability and Minimize Distraction:

• Content is formatted to serve specific instructional purposes. For example, format and text color are used purposely to communicate key points, group like items, and emphasize relevant relationships. Color alone is not used to convey meaning. 

• White space or negative space is used around content to help increase comprehension and reduce eye fatigue that occurs with large blocks of text or use of many images. 

• Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 provide additional recommendations to ensure overall web content is accessible that include considerations of:

  • Principle 1: Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.

  • Principle 2: Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable.

  • Principle 3: Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.

  • Principle 4: Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

Examples of Text Strategies That Facilitate Readability and Minimize Distraction:

• Font style and size are selected to maximize on-screen legibility; simpler fonts are chosen over more ornate fonts, and the number of font families is limited to one or two.

• Color coding, e.g., text or highlighting, is used to serve specific instructional purposes. Color alone is not used to convey meaning.