These are things that ALL courses should have in their Moodle course, regardless of the modality.
Welcome features
Welcome Announcement
Welcome video
Resource (video, text, or during one-to-ones) that provides a brief tour of the course space (Moodle) to help students understand what it is and how you view/lay it out
Updating all dates/due dates. Places to check include:
Syllabus
Due Dates listed in Moodle (such as assignments)
Documents linked within Moodle (such as guidelines)
Moodle Weekly Sections include dates
Links all work. This includes
Placeholder spaces where generic content needs to be replaced with your content (e.g. the syllabus or one-on-one meeting requests)
Any materials that you link out to that sit outside the course
Any links within documents that you include links (e.g. syllabus or in description areas).
Create back up documents for links (e.g. print to PDF) that may be unstable or pop up behind a paywall (e.g. articles to the NY Times, Washington Post, etc–many instructors use these sites, so students may run out of their “free” articles).
Content has a self-evident flow and clearly explained
Section headers are clear and materials provided in them are relevant
Each week has an Agenda that highlights all the expectations of the week
Clearly identify the destination of a link so that users know where they will be taken if they click.
Content includes relevant information to guide students in approaching the material:
Clear title and where relevant author
Videos/audio include time-duration
Textual readings include estimated reading time.1
Files that students download have a consistent and clear naming convention (e.g. “Author Last Name - Document Title.pdf”)
No superfluous materials
Non-essential or supplemental materials are clearly identified.*
Accessible materials**
Alternative text is provided for all images and graphics. (Learn about Alt-Text here)
Text transcripts are provided for all audio.
Captions are provided for all videos.
Audio and video are clear. If significant distortions occur (sound inconsistent; excessive flashing on the screen), provide a content warning
In documents, use text formatting styles provided. (Learn about accessible documents and text formatting styles here)
Tables are kept small. Large tables are broken into multiple smaller tables.
All external content linked to from within the course should also be accessible.
Gradebook is set up
Assignments and activities are in the gradebook
When using categories, making sure they are present and properly weighted
Graded items are listed in chronological order from top to bottom (within categories). E.g. Week 1 Discussion is above Week 2 Discussion which is above Week 3 Discussion.
* Offering the time-duration of videos and podcasts in the title area of the link is great; it helps students plan better or know before having to click if they have time. Equally valuable is offering a rough-page count or an estimated amount of time reading. I’m a fan of copy/pasting text into this resource to calculate the Estimated Amount of Time: https://niram.org/read/. Sometimes, faculty are (rightfully) hesitant to identify a particular amount of time given different people’s reading speeds. You can frame this as “I would like you to spend no more than X minutes on this reading, if you feel like you’re not able to get through it or take anything from it, please reach out to me and we can discuss some possible strategies.”.
** We recognize that not all material incorporated into a course may be initially accessible. In cases where the material can’t feasibly be made accessible, a comparable alternative should be provided. If you need some help and guidance, please reach out to Lance Eaton (lance.eaton@collegeunbound.edu).