Develop Course Content 

How To

Regardless of your course's modality (face-to-face, online, or hybrid), these best practices in course design can help create an intuitive and easy-to-navigate learning environment for students.

Help orient students on the syllabus page

In addition to attaching or linking the syllabus and course schedule to the syllabus page, help them get started in your course by providing a short overview video or a few steps on how to begin.

Chunk content into weeks/modules at top navigation level

To make navigation clear for students, organize your Brightspace course to match the organization of your course schedule and take a few moments to explain to students how your course is organized.  If you have topics that encompass two more weeks, organizing by topic might work better than by weeks.

Add everything that students need for that week/module within the module itself. This includes links to readings, discussion activities, assignments, quizzes, etc. This way, students can get everything they need for that week/module in once place.

Avoid the use of sub-modules

Submodules can make navigating in Brightspace cumbersome, particularly when students use the arrows to navigate from page to page. If you have content or information in submodules, consider using Brightspace document templates (web pages) to organize it into accordions or tabs, or use a numbering system (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2).

Begin each module with an introduction and learning objectives

At the start of each week/module, provide students with some information about what they'll be learning and doing. Providing this level of transparency to students can help motivate them and give them a way to check-in with themselves to help keep their learning on track.

Design with accessibility and usability principles

Keep accessibility in mind to help everyone have a better learning experience! See the page on Accessibility to learn more.

Provide instructions/context with each item in the course

Help guide students by providing instructions or context with each item you put in the course. For example, if you're uploading or linking to an article, point out specific things in the article for students to pay attention to. This not only helps create instructor presence but increases meaning and relevance.​​​​​​