Course Design Checklist
Los Angeles Pierce College / PierceOnLine
1. MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION
HOME PAGE
Make the course Home Page a place that welcomes students.
Elements of a great Home Page:
Include an introduction / welcome statement
Include course learning objectives and/or SLOs
Include a course banner with a relevant image to visually represent the course
Provide getting started instructions that students can easily navigate
Recommended: Intro or Welcome video
RESOURCES - Learn how to make a customized Home Page
2. CREATE A COURSE THAT'S EASY TO NAVIGATE
COURSE NAVIGATION MENU
Determine which menu items are critical to your course navigation.
Course Navigation uses Modules to deliver course content.
Use modules as a one-stop-shop to deliver and receive all course content
Recommended Course Navigation Menu items (disable nonessential menu items):
Home
Announcements
Syllabus
Modules
Grades
RESOURCES - Learn how to customize the Canvas Course Navigation Menu
3. MAKE IT EASY FOR STUDENTS TO FIND EVERYTHING
LEVERAGING MODULES
Use Modules as a central location for students to access and submit all work.
Assignments, discussions, quizzes, pages, images, files, can all be added to a module
Create Modules that are organized by unit, week, or topic.
Adding Text Headers, Bookends, and developing a Naming Convention for your materials will organize your content and make it easy for students to navigate the course. Select the following links to learn about the key elements to include in your Module.
4. MAKE YOUR CLASS AN ENGAGING SPACE
COURSE CONTENT
Student-Student Engagement
Include learning activities that promote student-student interaction.
Student-student interaction develops a sense of community and engagement
Examples include discussions, peer review, group work and collaborations
Student-Instructor Engagement
Learning activities include student-instructor interaction.
The instructor is actively engaged and provides timely, quality feedback
The instructor regularly communicates with students using Canvas tools (Announcements, Gradebook & Speedgrader, Calendar, Inbox, etc.)
Student-Content Interaction
Learning activities include student-content interaction.
Students are engaged with content that includes a variety of text, media, and images
Students have the opportunity to self-assess and anonymously provide feedback to the instructor via survey
Formative and Summative assessments are regularly provided
5. MAKE YOUR CLASS AN INCLUSIVE SPACE
ACCESSIBILITY
Many elements contribute toward an inclusive, universally designed, and accessible course. Please select the following links to learn more about key accessibility requirements.
Color
Sufficient contrast between text and background makes color easy to read
Color is not used in isolation to convey meaning
Images
Images are accompanied by a text description (Alt text)
Styles
Heading Styles (Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.) are used to format text and are presented in a hierarchal order
Hyperlinks
Meaningful text is used to represent the purpose and destination of hyperlinks
Raw URLs are not present in course materials (i.e. https://www.canvaslms.com)
Media
Video materials are accompanied by accurate closed-captions
Audio materials are accompanied by a transcript
Tables
Tables include a caption that describes the purpose of the table
Tables include a row and/or column Header designation
RESOURCES - Learn how to develop Accessible course materials